So, turns out the house *was* as good as it looked, maybe better. Well cared for, very little 'wear & tear' evident anywhere. Newer furnace, water heater, it does have central air. The garage is not quite everything I was hoping, as it has a raised 'walk'? along the walls that precludes me from fitting my weight set out there. It's more than large enough for my car & truck, and I'm pretty sure I can find a way to fit both cycles in as well, so it should suffice. I can just put my weights in the basement, which will be fine for all but the overhead barbell press - ceilings are too short, so I'll have to come up with something else. The back yard is pretty cool too, and the deck is composite not wood, so it's sturdy. The fencing will have to be reconsidered, but it's no big deal.
The basement looks really good! No obvious water leaks, and it appears that the walls have been professionally sealed. I'd have to do a little research on how to finish it off, but it should be fairly easy, and that would give me a lot more room. The main floor though, is the really cool thing. The layout is really impressive when you're standing in it! Tons of kitchen space (more than a single guy really needs, but it's much better than my current cramped kitchen. Main floor laundry as well, right off the kitchen next to the garage.
The two drawbacks to the place are 1) the shower is designed for an elderly person. No tub, maybe a 2" step-over, and a seat in the back of the stand-up shower, and 2) old windows that will likely need replacing soon. Now, I don't mind the stand-up shower, because frankly, I'm too big to fit in a typical tub anyway. As for the windows, well, we both felt that they're in good enough condition that replacing them can wait a couple years, and in both this and my last house, I got really good at putting up the shrink-film insulation kits, so no sweat!
It's a unique situation though, because the house was put up for a low price, but with a catch. They're accepting bids until noon tomorrow, highest offer gets it. Price is listed at 98k right now, which is freakin' cheap! It's worth much more than that, and as I've been planning on having to pay more anyway, I ran the numbers and decided to offer 110k. I fully expect to get outbid, as there were already three offers when I talked to my realtor today, and when we got there to see it, there were six other realtor cards on the counter, meaning that there will likely be a ton of offers on it. I'm not counting on getting it, but I can fully justify that price for such a great house, and that bid is 10k less than I was planning on having to spend, so it's financially doable. In fact, if I can get it for that price (and assuming I can get my expected minimum out of my current house) I can have it paid off by Jan 2018.
Once it's paid off, then I could go ahead and replace the windows. Also, I already have plans for the shower too - even though I know it's way expensive, by that time, I should be able to splurge on something like this. Maybe not that fancy, or that color, but I think this style is really cool!
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. The longer I house-hunt, the more patient/more discerning I'm getting. This house is great (we agreed it's the best we've seen so far) but if it takes me another year, so be it; I'll have a lot more down-payment money saved up by then!
(Still, I kinda do hope I get this one!) ;-)
10:07 p.m. - 2016-08-25
My profile
Archives
Notes
Email Me!
Random
others:
loveherwell
dangerspouse
catsoul
alethia
annanotbob2
life-my-way
fairybones
misfitstray
swordfern
warpednormal
elusive-you
lust-
comebacktome
ahopeinhell
silver4
kelsi
stepfordtart