Looking For A New Home

Zillow.com says there are 6,089 homes for sale in the county we want to live in, but I am having trouble finding one that like. It is probably a good thing our house hasn't sold.  Now that we are wanting to downsize, I just don't want another house that looks like our current one, even if it's smaller.

Found this one awhile back... Both my daughter's LOVED this house....but, it was in the wrong county (high taxes) and the Master Suite was too small.

I guess I am looking for a house that has the feel of our house back in California.

Here's a scanned photo of it. Absolutely LOVED that house even though it was only 1,535 square feet. I don't think I could downsize that much! My master closet was large, though!

I loved gardening even then. I used to grumble when I had to buy 6 bags of mulch! LOL!!! We get 30 yards delivered now!

This is my playhouse when I was a little girl. We brought it with us to North Carolina 10 years ago. I guess my love for a Cape Cod style house was set when I was 5 years old.

See any resemblance???

I showed you this house last month... It definitely fit the bill and was a great price...I'm just not sold on the location. The Master Bath and closet are a little small, too.

This one has been on the market for awhile. It was just recently taken off the market, but will probably be re-listed soon. It is in  a great location and the setting is sooooooo pretty and is not in a neighborhood : )

The lot is over an acre with lots of trees. It has 2 different 2 car garages!!! There is a separate 2 car garage with living quarters above. Oldest daughter would love that. But, (and it's a big but!) the house needs a total design fix! Every room needs paint and new flooring. It is so ugly inside, I am afraid to go see it! Not sure if we are up for it. Plus the house color ... and that stone!!! Yuck. 
It's 2,500 sq feet plus the space above the second 2 car garage. This house doesn't look like it could be that large.

I have already started playing with what could be done to the exterior without spending an arm and a leg.

Definitely would have to paint it a lighter color, too.

Those are my thoughts for today...Do you have a favorite style of house? Do you have a preference for what size the house is? Neighborhood or no neighborhood? New or Old? 
Would love to hear your thoughts!

Pam

House Hunting

Today we are going to see 2 houses that are for sale in the same neighborhood. We drove by these houses this past weekend because photos can be deceiving!

This house had landscaping that even I couldn't find fault with. I might say that they did a better job than I could have! This is my favorite style house ... a cape cod with a big porch. Mr. F and I thought it would be a no brainer to add a couple of dormers on the main section of the house.

The interior of this house is darn near perfect.

Ok, maybe not the kitchen : )  And those of you who follow me know the reason for the smiley face! The wonderful thing about this house is that the listing price is $30,000 less than the maximum that we want to pay - meaning we could still re-do the kitchen and add the dormers and still be under our max price. Remember we are diy-ers!

They had me until I got to this photo. Having only girls, I had to ask Mr. F what this contraption was. Definitely would ask them to remove it! Not sure if you could sell it on Craiglist.

The second house looks much better in person and is on a bigger culdesac lot. The listing price is $50,000 below our maximum price. However, and this is a BIG however...this house reminds me of The Winchester House with it's many, uh, odd additions. A shed comes with the house which is great, but it is just to the left of the garage, just out of the view of the picture.

And this kitchen definitely is in need of a complete tearout because of the layout.

I could definitely do something wonderful with this Master Bedroom, though!

SERIOUSLY! What were they thinking!

Here's the odd addition that truly I have no idea if this can be fixed or made better. There is a sunroom that is very small, but very tall ... the proportion of the sunroom is what I am concerned with, the Victorian design could be changed. So this house is less expensive, has a bigger lot, but needs more work. Not sure if we want to do a lot of work on a house after all of the projects we completed in the last 12 months at our house!

Hope you enjoyed the little house hunting tour and my ramblings!

Have a great Tuesday!!!

Pam