Househunting
4+ hours.
7 houses viewed. (Plus 1 yesterday.)
Our daughter? Amazing. She happily climbed in and out of her car seat many, many times.
Me? Exhausted. And overwhelmed. And confused. How do you know when you've found your house? How do you know when you're being too picky or when you're not being picky enough? How do you know what you should settle for and what you shouldn't?
We may have seen our house today. I just don't know. I know, AP, it's early and we were just fact-finding. I know. And yet, if we don't get this one will it be the one that got away? The one we'll think about in weeks to come when we're just so over the whole house hunting thing? I know spontaneity and house buying aren't ideal bed partners but I also know the housing market in Winnipeg right now and it doesn't leave a lot of room for long thought processes. Houses are literally gone in days.
Tell me about your house and how you knew and things you might regret and things you're happy about. Give me advice. I might not take it but I will "listen".
And for now I'm going to try and put it out of my mind (right, like thinkers can DO that) and go and tackle about 3 hours of work I brought home.
Maybe I should have a glass of chamomile first. (And maybe later I'll tell you all about the things that made us laugh today. There were some doozies out there.)
7 houses viewed. (Plus 1 yesterday.)
Our daughter? Amazing. She happily climbed in and out of her car seat many, many times.
Me? Exhausted. And overwhelmed. And confused. How do you know when you've found your house? How do you know when you're being too picky or when you're not being picky enough? How do you know what you should settle for and what you shouldn't?
We may have seen our house today. I just don't know. I know, AP, it's early and we were just fact-finding. I know. And yet, if we don't get this one will it be the one that got away? The one we'll think about in weeks to come when we're just so over the whole house hunting thing? I know spontaneity and house buying aren't ideal bed partners but I also know the housing market in Winnipeg right now and it doesn't leave a lot of room for long thought processes. Houses are literally gone in days.
Tell me about your house and how you knew and things you might regret and things you're happy about. Give me advice. I might not take it but I will "listen".
And for now I'm going to try and put it out of my mind (right, like thinkers can DO that) and go and tackle about 3 hours of work I brought home.
Maybe I should have a glass of chamomile first. (And maybe later I'll tell you all about the things that made us laugh today. There were some doozies out there.)
posted by ccap at 6:06 PM
6 Comments:
i think if it had the potential of becoming the "house that got away" you would know when you walked in. something about it would make to too precious to want to leave.
Here are some things I DIDN'T think of when we purchased our house that I definitely WILL think of should we ever move:
1. Whether it gets lots of sunshine during the day (it doesn't)
2. Whether the kitchen is big enough (it isn't)
3. Whether there are enough cupboards (there aren't)
Also, check to see how close your house is to the school you want your kid to go to. Trust me, it's VERY convenient if it's close by...
We looked at houses for months and months. There were a few that I thought, "Maybe..." Two we even made offers on, but weren't accepted. But when I walked into our house, I knew. It was the one. It was the view from the living room windows. It was perfect. That, and we could afford it.
Things that I was so happy about that I wasn't even looking for when we bought our house (but will if we ever buy another one): good water pressure (I hate weak showers!), quiet street, lots of storage. I wish we had put in new windows right when we bought it and lumped it into the loan. Now we can't afford them.
Hopefully there will be a house that comes along that says, "Pick me!" And you'll be able to pick it.
My advice...hmmm...
--Consider how much traffic goes by the house so that you won't worry about Abby going outside to play.
--How energy efficient is the house?
--Does the house have (or the possibility of having) the kind of "flow" that suits your lifestyle? Specifically, the size of the kitchen and dining room.
Okay, enough from me. Good luck and remember that the right house will come along eventually.
You probably know all my answers already. What Whippersnapper says counts for me too.
For me, one of the things that drew me to our house was the mature trees. I think I would have a hard time living somewhere where there were no mature trees. It makes for a little too much shade sometimes, and yes, there's lots of raking, but I still love them.
Here's how I bought my condo in a weekend, CCAP--maybe it will work for you too.
Before I met with the realtor, I made two lists: Five things that the house HAD to have; five things that I hoped it have. I wasn't willing to compromise on the first, but I was on the second. My list included good accessibility to buses, a 'practical' kitchen, a little garden, 3 reasonable bedrooms (for example).
Then I never dealt with more than three houses at a time. She showed me three houses and we put them in order--which one did I like best, second, third. We talked about why I ranked them that way--what did I like, what didn't I. After that, anytime we looked at a house, we reranked them. We never kept more than three on the list.
That made it a lot easier to figure out which one was right.
and seriously, we looked at about 15 condos that weekend, but found the most perfect one. I made an offer, as had 3 others, but I made it first, and I got the house.
good luck to you!!
I had a small list of things I wanted in a house, including number of bedrooms, laundry room upstairs, etc.
Even sitll, it all went so quickly. We jumped without thinking too hard. We didn't have time. And I'm glad I did.
Sometimes I try to think of our next house....what that would look like and I don't see much yet. That makes me think we'll be here for a while.
Two things I would like on our next house: a big wood fire place (we only have gas) and a big room that we can use as a library with a fireplace in it.
Good luck!
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