Now it's important to note that T has opinions. When we were planning our wedding he was there with his opinions. As we've bought things for our house, opinions. So when we bought our house 10 years ago, there is no way on God's green earth that we could have built for surely it would have meant divorce due to these ever present opinions. And, like, an ugly divorce too.
Plus we didn't know how we lived or used space, how many or even if we'd have children, nor what we liked in neighborhoods. But now we know all of those things, so building seems less fraught with a broken marriage.
We've been assigned an agent in New Town and she is great. She and I have been emailing every day for the last few months and I pepper her with questions and she sends me (T is "cc"ed--he's got spreadsheets to handle) listings and details and answers to my questions.
On Saturday we drove over to New Town and left the small fries with my parents. We left at 7:30am full of promise and hope and excitement. We had ten houses plus one development to look at. We had three developments in consideration originally, but T drove through them and took video (the video is like bad surveillance footage from that show "Cheaters") to show me and we eliminated two of the three for their cruddy lots and cookie cutter look.
Anyway, on Saturday we only ended up seeing seven houses plus the development. What is happening as spring approaches is that more houses are going up on the market and if they are even remotely non-creepy, or even nice, then they are going under contract within days of listing. This has happened a few times to us--homes that we want to see being snagglepussed from viewings--but none of them have been ones I've been crushed about so, eh?
What Saturday did give us, though, was the opportunity to see practically the entire spectrum of homes:
- a ginormous house that is a foreclosure
- a ranch in a different town
- a 1920s colonial that needed a lot of work but was right in town but on a busy road
- a 1950s ranch in town that was super wee
- a home in a subdivision with township taxes
- old historical home in a town with not nice schools
- nice newer home in a town with not nice schools
- model home in the development we like
So it was a ton of information and we were able to rule things out--living in town because decent homes cost twice what we want to spend and are barely 1100 square feet. Also, having to worry about not nice schools--really effectively.
The two hour meeting with the sales manager of the development told us a lot (oh my gosh T was a drooling mouthbreather by the end while I was invigorated--if that tells you anything about our personalities). What our next steps are to secure a floor plan and lot we like, timeframe for building, and the exact upgrades we are interested in (see also: many).
What T and I kind of figured out is that our current home is one we wanted to stay in forever, and that is something we'd like to set our sights on in New Town. I'd rather not find something and fear we'd outgrow it if there are other options.
Our plan is to go over one more time next week while the kids are in school and scout out a few more homes in a close-ish town to New Town and also look at a development in that area. After that, we're going to make a decision. T leaves for Europe for a large part of May, I start teaching a lot, and our house will be on the market.
Time to get crack a lackin'!
| Otherwise this will be me with our belongings. |
17 comments:
I both find the prospect of finding a new house fun and daunting. Choices! But also: Choices!
Ahhh!
C has been talking about wanting to move, as our house is too small for us really truly, but I'm scared to death of the finances of it and the moving part and YAHHHH.
CRAZY FUN EXCITING! We've only been in our house 3 years and it's our forever house and we're never outgrowing it and la la la but I LOOK all the time because I LIKE TO LOOK. I would also like to design my own house in a development so please share every itty bitty detail thank you.
Excitement abounds! And some stress, too, I'm sure. I wish you guys the best possible outcome, and if you ever need to vent about house showings, I'm there for ya. ;)
I browse the local MLS for fun (also noseyness), but building sounds SUPER fun.
We built or house 3 years ago and we really love it and plan to stay in it forever. I'd be happy to talk about our experience, how we decided on upgrades, etc if you want.
Man, I haaaaated the house-hunting process. Josh turned out to also be a man with opinions (about EVERYTHING! SILVERWARE, even!) What a pain ;)
So stressful! I hope the right choice will pop right out at you and that everything will fall into place!
House hunting is such a weird mix of Exciting and BURN IT ALL DOWN. Maybe that was just me.)
I can't tell you how many times I would see a listing go up one day, call about it the next and it was already under contract.
But, it will all be better on the other side!
As much as I think I would love to have a house (instead of apartment), the whole process is just SO daunting to me. Lawsy.
xox
I'm officially snort laughing at the snail video and your reference to becoming said person!!!
Like many others, I'm both excited and sympathetic. We just bought our first house a few months ago. So much fun in some ways! But also so much fighting! Matt has Opinions, too. :) We really love our house and I could see living in it for a really long time, maybe even forever (tbh, I would live there forever just to avoid moving, NOMG). We just find ourselves wishing the house was in a different state. :)
Anyway, best of luck!
I just have to say ... our house building experience was awesome. We had a great time choosing everything, and I really don't have any regrets. Except we should have built on another garage, but that's something we will probably do next year. Meh.
Feel free to email me with any specifics. :)
We bought our first house with a builder and it was overall a great experience. We got to take pictures of it at all the stages of construction which came in handy. I was meticulous about photographing all the walls without drywall documenting where all the pipes, major electrical, and HVAC stuff was. We bought the home after someone else had chosen and paid for the upgrades then backed out of the home. So we didn't have a lot of choices, which turned out to be nice. We saw what they chose and liked it. The lot was just dirt though so I don't see why we couldn't have changed something if we absolutely HAD to. There were some expenses that seemed minor but added up quickly at move in. Paint was one, don't let a builder charge you to paint semi gloss or the good stuff, they do a really bad job and do a super thin layer so you'll be doing it yourself the right way anyway, And the blinds. It took 8 weeks to get the shutters in, so we had the temporary paper blinds in for a while just for privacy. The home came with totally bare windows which I thought was weird. The upsides were never before used everything, toilets, cupboards, showers, all fresh. I don't know if I'll be able to go back. Some of the work was a little sub-par. And we had to have them come back a few times for little things- like some outlets not being attached to electricity & stuff. Oh! Speaking of lighting, most of the rooms came with zero lighting. Just a place to put a fixture, like a ceiling fan. So that was a few dark nights when we moved in. It really is a house no one lived in before, and it shows sometime. I do have thoughts on what it is best to pay the builder to put in that will cost more upfront but will be worth it in terms of time/hassle, and what they'll do a crappy job with and you'll wish you'd have just not upgraded and done yourself. The first thing on that list is bathroom faucets. The faucets were supposed to be quite nice, but ended up being fancy junk. All were replaced in the first year with actual quality with lifetime warranties.
Anyway, have so much fun!
All so exciting! I hope the new build works out. It would really be great to have every thing you guys need. :)
Hee, I like that you specified that the divorce would have been ugly. None of that amiable shit!
House shopping is SO hard! The market was like that with both of our house shopping endeavors and it sent my "likes to plan ahead" personality for a tailspin! We once saw a house the day it went on the market, offered over asking that evening and they took another (even higher) bid...day it was listed. Ugh!! I can say that despite wanting to slit my wrists a couple times during each process, I love/d both the houses we ended up in.
Also...that GIF kills me!
Wow. Lots of big thinking.
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