Another Dissertation Distraction

*updated*
(and another blog post named after someone else's blog -- this was the previous one. I don't read these two blogs, I should add ;-)

So, as if I didn't have enough dissertation distractions in my boys, reading blogs, checking books for upcoming book reviews (watch this space!), now there's the house hunting...

Two days, 18 houses seen, and tons of questions floating around our minds. I think it's going to be extremely hard to make a decision since the houses we're seeing are just so different from one another! My friend Tracy asked for photos... I'm taking tons (295 today, and I didn't even take photos of all houses), but I don't think it's very nice to share lots of them here, so I'll just put up a few. If anyone else is curious, I may post photos online somewhere and I can give you the URL via email.

This is the house we liked on Sunday and which is already under contract. We're absolutely OK with that since even though it was pretty nice inside, there were lots of things to do, like removing a bright green carpet and the carpet in the kitchen, replacing a wood paneled wall, without mentioning the basement that needed to be fully redone. It was a home full of possibilities, but we really couldn't afford to do all the necessary renovations.

Now, some highlights of today's real estate adventures!

Would you buy a 100 year old farm house? It has an old barn in the back and even an ancient outhouse!! I had to open the door and peek inside. It brought reminiscences from a long time ago when I was about 4 or 5 years old and visiting my paternal grandparents. They had no running water in the old house (photo of my grandparents and children in front of their general store here), my grandma cooked on two wood stoves, there was a nice and cool well room and two outhouses in their beautiful lush gardens and orchard. I was impressed at how clean and spotless my grandmother kept the outhouses. She waxed the wooden surface until it shined. They also used old newspapers, but I remember toilet paper when I was there.

Now, modern bathrooms are pretty interesting. Particularly the colors that people paint them nowadays. What's up with all these bright red (or burgundy) half baths? (there were more, but I wasn't taking pictures on Sunday).












Let's see what else is ethical to share here...

Hmmm, what about a full acre of land, with a superbly refinished and decorated (albeit fairly small) house -- professionally landscaped grounds, granite countertops, beautiful cabinets, hardwood and tiled floors, you name it (and with nothing really left to do)?(I had forgotten the next two houses and had to come back to share them with you)

Would you buy a (row)home with this "great" view from the back?
Not just power lines, but a drainage ditch:
Nice, huh?

Oh, and what about an older home (on 0.5 acre) with three sheds? (we can't imagine why so many sheds... two must be just not usable).I'm only including a photo of this shed because I don't know how to make a photo collage yet half the house happens to be this nice shade of blue. Would you buy a house this color? The blue house is actually across the street from the farm house with the barn and outhouse. We thought about buying it just because there were some great plants inside (of an otherwise empty house), particularly six or seven bonsai trees (hubby loves bonsai), but I think the plants are not included, so we changed out minds. :)

And... what about cookie-cutter "McHouses" from the early 1990s? We saw four for sale, basically neighbors, side by side. These cookie-cutter neighborhoods make me gag, but I may as well end up in one since they're comfortable and have lots of closet space (a MUST for our messy family, or, should I say with this family with a messy mama?), are full of light and the floor plans please my extremely picky husband (he should have been an architect, I tell ya!). Or in a town/row home -- we saw several of those too...

As you can see there are many options, most of which are basically at the very end of our price range (yikes!). It's going to be tough and... I'm so curious to find out which one is going to be "the one"!