House Update

First of all, congratulations to Dan & Ali for the purchase of their new, beautiful home!  It looks gorgeous, and I can't wait to come see it!  Good luck on the move and everything that goes with it.  Hopefully, we'll be seeing you soon to help move.

As for us, we saw the three houses that we were most interested in.  We eliminated the middle one right away (the one on Hemlock).  That left two, very different houses from which we would choose.

The first we saw was on Marlan Drive (MLS TA8088302).  This house is currently empty, and has been for some time.  We estimated it's been empty for at least 2 months.  We (Mom and I) had already seen the outside and the yard, so we weren't surprised by anything there.  Joe absolutely loved the yard.  It's a wide open, flat 2 acres, with a row of trees on one side.  It has a decent deck, also.  The inside is nice, but it needs a lot of minor work.  It needs new paint, and the carpets are disgusting.  Otherwise, it has a nice floorplan: the side door opens into the laundry room, then there's an eat-in kitchen, (large) family room, and formal living room.  On the other side of the first floor is two bedrooms and a bathroom, and a foyer with stairs.  The stairs lead to a landing/wide hallway with a second bathroom.  To the left is another bedroom, and on the other side is a ginormous bedroom/playroom.  There are window seats already built in to each of the windows.

The third house we saw was beautiful (TA8041324).  Everything in the house was perfect.  The front door opened into a large 2 story foyer and formal living room.  Behind that was a half-bath, kitchen, and family room with fireplace.  There is a screened-in porch and separate patio outside.  Upstairs, there are 3 ok-sized bedrooms and a ginormous master bedroom.  The MBR in above the entire garage!  There are his and hers walk-in closets and a soaking bathtub (which I've always wanted!).  The yard is nicely landscaped, too.  Basically, we could move in tomorrow and not have anything to fix, repair, or change.

We talked over our decision while we were having lunch at Burger King while getting the oil changed in the car (the kids went with Gram after seeing the first house).  It didn't take long to decide.  We both knew which one we wanted.  We called Jim from BK and told him we'd like to put in an offer for the house on Marlan Drive.   Even though it needs some work, it definitely fits us best.  Joe really did not like the other two houses we saw at all.  They are in neighborhoods where your neighbors are right on top of each other.  He doesn't like neighborhoods as it is, and those houses were extremely close together.

Also, the third house, as much as I liked it, was a little too perfect.  I couldn't picture us living there.  But, the main disadvantage is that there wasn't a separate room for Joe to work and for us to have a guest room.  In the house on Marlan Drive, we plan on using the huge upstairs room as a guest room/playroom/Deb's office.  Joe will use the formal living room as his office.  That house also has huge potential.  It's essentially a blank slate where we can do anything.  Plus, the asking price is $40k less.  And it's in a better (elementary) school district.

We heard back from Jim this morning about the house.  They counter offered, as we thought they would, but there may be an issue.  One of the owners is currently in jail/prison (the husband?), and the wife stopped paying the mortgage last August.  So, the bank will probably have to get involved.  Right now, our real estate agent is trying to track down the husband's sister, because she has power of attorney and is able to sign for him (the realtors don't want to go to the prison to get his signature).  We are waiting to see what happens.  Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.  We have to be out on July 4.  I'll keep you posted....