Second look!

Yesterday Jeff and I went back with my parents for a second look at the house we are interested in.

I think all buyers should look at a house at least two times before putting in an offer. You will notice different things the second time around that you missed on your first look. What did we find that we didn’t see the first time? Well, the furnace definitely needs to be replaced. It is very old and not at all efficient. The water heater should be replaced soon, that’s also getting old. And unfortunately, I think they have a carpenter ant problem. We noticed quite a few ants in and around the main bathroom area. Yuck! I really really hate bugs and I am worried about moving in somewhere that has a bug infestation. It gives me the creeps. I did some researching online last night and found out that carpenter ants like moisture and are commonly found in kitchens and bathrooms. Also, they can nest in moist or decayed wood inside buildings. Wood decay may be caused by exposure to leaks, condensation, or poor air circulation. If we can figure out the moisture problem in the bathroom, hopefully we could get rid of the ants. Plus my sister in law’s fiancé is in the pest control business and he can always help us out!

Is this enough to stop us from putting in an offer? Nope! This is the best house we’ve seen in our price range and it has everything we want including a spacious kitchen, separate dining room, 3 bedrooms, finished basement, fenced in yard, etc. And it does have a lot that is newer or recently updated including the windows, driveway, roof, sprinkler system, basement bathroom and more. Since we’ll need a new furnace and water heater we can put in a lower offer. There is no perfect house unless you have a million bucks to spend! Home buying is all about compromise. You have to find out what is most important to you, and ensure the house you are interested in has those features. Jeff and I were hoping to find a home with appliances included but this one only includes the dishwasher. On the bright side though, we can get brand new appliances and pick out exactly what we want! Some places we saw that had appliances included, weren’t much of a deal because you could tell that they were pretty old and wouldn’t work for much longer.

We are planning to put in an offer on this house, contingent on the inspection of course. As I read in Home Buying for Dummies, you should never skip an inspection. Every house whether new or previously owned should have an inspection. Wish us luck as we put in our offer!!

Have we found our first house?

Jeff and I saw a house in Fairview Park this evening. I was excited about it when I saw it online, and couldn’t wait to see it in person! It is a ranch built in 1962.

This house has many updates including a remodeled kitchen, new second full bathroom in the basement, newer windows, carpet, and more! I really liked the location of this house because it was close to a main shopping center BUT still tucked away on a quiet street. The neighborhood seemed really nice. The yard was completely fenced in, and there was a little covered patio area in the back.

I can already picture Jeff and I sitting out in the back yard relaxing! And the yard was a very manageable size, just right for us.

The inside of this house has three bedrooms, 2.5 baths, dining room, eat in kitchen, and finished basement. I think it has everything we want! The only downside I noticed was there is not much for storage (besides in the basement). There is a coat closet when you come in and then a small closet by the bedrooms. I think I am spoiled in our duplex because we have 3 big drawers under the window seat, a bunch of built in shelves and drawers in the bathroom, plus built in bookcases in the living room. There is a place for everything! I am worried about where we will put everything in a house that doesn’t have any “built ins” and only one hall closet. We can always use the other bedroom closets for storage though.

Here are some more pics of the place!

That is one room we would probably have to paint!

That is the basement bathroom. Pretty nice huh?

We are going back soon to take a second look at this house and we’ll bring along our checklist we made up to make sure it does have all that we are looking for. We are really excited about this one and it feels like it could be home!!

Let’s keep looking

After Jeff and I took a second look at the house in my previous post, we decided not to put in an offer and to continue on our house hunt. Sure that house had a lot of what we were looking for, and it was in a good location. But on the down side, it needed a new roof, furnace, windows, and electrical updates. All that would cost quite a bit of money and that place was already priced at the top of our budget. We decided that we want a house with more “behind the scenes” updates such as the roof and furnace, and the decor is not as important. It’s hard to look at rooms with ugly paint and carpet colors along with old out dated fixtures, but we will have to try to look past that, because that is something that would be more fun to update! Does anyone really have fun getting a new roof? Probably not, it’s just a necessary expense. I would rather move into a home and be able to change the look of things when I felt like it and had the money, rather than moving into a home and being required to get a new roof within a year or less!

Besides that, this Rocky River house never felt right to me. It never felt like home. When Jeff and I first looked at it online, I just thought it was ok, I wasn’t super interested in it. When we looked at it in person I basically felt the same. There were things I definitely liked about it, but many more that I didn’t like. I know when we find the right house I will be very excited! I have learned to trust my instincts, and my instincts have told me to keep looking!

A Great House!

Saturday on our fourth day house hunting, Jeff and I looked at five houses. One house in Rocky River really stood out to us. It was a ranch built in 1959.

There is Jeff taking notes! Ok, I know the outside of the house isn’t very impressive and it definitely lacks curb appeal! But I think with a new front door and garage door, it would look a lot better. Plus I think some dark gray paint would give it a more modern look. (can you tell I watch too much HGTV? haha)

This house boasted “fabulous modern decor” in the description and you will certainly see what they mean by that in the next two photos.

Double vanity! Oooh aah!

The kitchen was very spacious and modern plus it includes the stainless steel dishwasher and refrigerator. (the owners are taking their professional oven with them of course!) This was definitely one of my favorite kitchens I have seen so far. Ok besides the color – I would have to change that!

The basement here was very large and partially finished. We would want to add some flooring since it’s just concrete right now. Nature stone maybe? Overall this house had pretty much everything we are looking for. It has 3 bedrooms, 1 and a half bathrooms, a nice dining room and a spacious kitchen, plus a large basement. I really like the bathroom and kitchen updating BUT I wish there were new windows, and I am unsure of the age of the furnace and roof. (which could be big expenses down the road.) I will have to find out more details before I would feel comfortable putting in an offer. But for Rocky River, this is a great price. Rocky River, like Bay Village, has a very highly rated school district. And this location is not too far from work. Jeff gave this house five stars and I gave it four. It comes with a surround sound system – of course Jeff gave it five stars, haha! I feel like it’s one of the best ones we’ve seen, but I am still skeptical that it will be our first home. We are going to look at the house again, so I’ll see how I feel after checking it out once more.

More homes to see!

Tomorrow, Saturday May 9th, will be me and Jeff’s fourth day to look at houses! (Sorry I never posted about day three…) We are going to look at 5 houses – four in Fairview Park and one in Rocky River. Most of the houses definitely seem like good prospects and I am excited to see them all! The houses we saw on day three in Bay Village were good, but right at the top of our price range. I think that area is more expensive since it is right by the lake. Bay Village does have a very good school system, so that is something we will keep in mind as we do plan to have kids in the future.

I have enjoyed house hunting but it is a little stressful. It seems hard to find everything that we want in one house, so we may have to compromise. If we had a bigger budget then I don’t think we would need to compromise! We’ll keep looking though. So far I haven’t had the feeling like any of the houses are “the one”. There are things I liked and did not like about each one. We found a house that we loved pretty much everything about, but the basement was very small and not finished. We are pretty set on a finished basement, so we had to take that house off our list! I am feeling hopeful to see more houses tomorrow, and maybe some we really like!

House hunting – Day 2

Our second day house hunting was Saturday April 25th, a very warm and sunny day. We checked out five homes in North Olmsted that day. The first two we didn’t really like due to their location. North Olmsted is a highly commercial area – tons of shopping, restaurants, etc. We almost didn’t consider it at all but there are some nice houses in our price range there, the tough part is finding houses in the exact part of town we want to be in!

The third house we saw was really awesome.

There were tons of updates done to it and the master bedroom was amazing! I think this house had the best master bedroom set up. Not only was the room really large, it had a full bath attached and a walk in closet! The one downside is this place only had a partial unfinished basement, which we wouldn’t be able to do much with.

The fourth house we also liked.

This house was in a nice development and a good part of North Olmsted. It had an awesome two tier deck in the back! The kitchen was also nice and the dining room was a good size. This home was also waterproofed which is a bonus that we like.

The last house was very well maintained inside and seemed right for us, just a little small.

It had a really sweet bay window in the living room, a private fenced in back yard, and a big finished basement with nature store flooring! The roof I believe was new as well. This one had a lot to offer.

This second day we did see houses that were more of what we were looking for than what we saw on the first day. But I still don’t think we have found our first place yet! It seems like one house can have everything but we don’t like the location. Or another house is in a great location but the basement isn’t finished. I’m not sure if we will find everything we are looking for with the budget we have. But we will try!

House hunt – Day 1

Tuesday was the very first day that Jeff and I went out looking at houses!  We had four in Fairview Park that we were interested in, so we checked them all out after work. (note: some of these pictures were taken from the internet, it was not snowing when we went out!)

1.  Our first stop was this cape cod built in 1945.  It had some nice updates in the kitchen.

Besides the kitchen updating, there was a lot we didn’t like and overall the house seemed a bit too small for us.  On to the next house!

2.  Number 2 was another Cape Cod style built in 1945.

It had the oldest dishwasher I had ever seen!  If someone told me the dishwasher was also from 1945 I think I would believe it.  Check it out.

The pic came out slightly blurry, but you get the idea!  This was the same house that had a PINK sink and a PINK toilet in the bathroom.  So wayyyyy too many updates were needed in this place!  (not to mention all the wallpaper they had yikes!)

3.  Number 3 was another dud.  It was a bungalow built 1947.  We only rated it two stars.

4.  The last house we saw on Tuesday was our favorite!  We really liked all the updates that were done in the kitchen and bathrooms.

The only downside of this one was that the basement was not at all finished and would really only be able to be used for storage.  It was a small space with a pretty low ceiling.  We were hoping to have a finished basement.  We still gave this house four stars because everything else was really nice.

Well the first day house hunting was fun, but we only liked one house out of four.  The next day we go out we’ll be looking at some in North Olmsted which I think we will really like!  The houses are newer and bigger than these Fairview Park ones.  I can’t wait to see them!

Meeting with a realtor!

This Saturday, Jeff and I are meeting with Howard Hanna realtor Glenn Franko. We met Glenn at the first time home buyer’s class that he taught a couple months ago. He seemed very helpful and knowledgeable. We have received many other realtor referrals from people we talk to, but we wanted to go with someone we have already met. I already have a good list of houses that I found online, so hopefully Glenn can start getting us in to see those places. I’m excited!! I feel like we are on the right track and will find a house before we know it!