Saturday, April 28, 2007

Back to the Drawing Board

The house we had a strong inclination for and had almost decided to make an offer on received "a very good offer" yesterday. And we didn't find out about it until this evening (when my husband finally found time to check messages on his phone)... So, it's probably going under contract pretty soon and now we're back to square one.

Again, I'm not extremely upset, just a little bit. It is a townhome (one we had seen on the first day and thought expensive and to which we'd returned last Thursday), so it has no yard whatsoever. And it isn't much bigger than our current twin home. The kitchen is tiny and right in the middle of the living/dining/family room area, thanks to its open floor plan.* It does have a garage (we don't have one), tons of closet space (two walk in closets, one in the master bedroom and another in the second bdr), laundry on the second floor, and this awesome, breathtaking bathroom with a large whirlpool under a window and a skylight. Tiled, nonetheless, similarly to the way that ALL bathrooms are tiled in Brazil (I have to write about bathrooms sometime, I've been putting it off for quite some time now). And the price!! It had been just reduced for the second time. This was one of the major attractions for us since unfortunately we do have to worry about prices and the other homes we liked so far are just too high up in our price range.

Well. I guess I'm OK with it, it just seems like this house hunting process will never end. We were all excited that tomorrow we were going to show this townhome plus two other houses to my parents and my mother-in-law who's here, but now this one is out of the game, and in is the 1 acre of land/ tiny but perfect house one of you inquired about (this one also underwent a second price reduction -- I guess we might have to act quickly). Anyway, we're still going tomorrow. I'll try to write about this issue again soon. Oh, yes, and we're going again (hubby and I) on Monday. Then, if we need to go again, we'll have to take the boys, since my parents are flying to China on Wednesday night... Oh well, o que será será.**

* Open floorplans are nice and all, but I sometimes think that average Americans just don't cook, period, or else kitchens wouldn't be open like that to the rest of the house. We Brazilians cook from scratch a lot and I really don't like to have the whole house smelling like food. That's basically unavoidable in any apartment or home in this country. In Brazil kitchens have doors sometimes.

** I've been inspired by Mami Hen, who blogs at the greatly named blog Bilingual in the Boonies to start throwing in more Portuguese words and expressions in my posts, what about that?

5 comments:

Aliki2006 said...

Oh, I'm sorry about the house but, you know, it sounds like it's for the best.

I TOTALLY agree with you about the open floor plans. I can't tell you how many new homes we look at where everything downstairs practically was one big room! My SIL's house has the living room connected right to the kitchen! I hate having cooking smells spill over into the rest of the house--no matter how yummy the food smells. I also like the idea of a cozy kitchen, sort of closed off from the rest of the house. Our current kitchen is big, but very separate from the other rooms (we have an old house).

Good luck!

Tracy said...

I'm the same way with open plans. Our last house had a relatively open main floor plan, and the noise and smells spill right over into the rest of the house. Although our current kitchen (in an older house) is much smaller than my last kitchen, I like that it's contained. I like silence when I'm cooking, and I can have that!

Too bad about the townhouse. Something better will come up, I'm sure of it!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, too. But I think the perfect house is out there for you! Good luck.

t1 Diabetes said...

Good luck on finding a house, I know it can be hard... God will guide you, just as he guide me...

Are you going to enroll on Agora? I'm def thinking we will, but will depend on my work situation... :hug:

Keiko said...

Esse negócio da cozinha é uma coisa, nao? Fala sério, que ódio!!! Vc refoga uma cebolinha e fica cheirando a refogado o resto da semana!

Sim, mais palavras em português pra fazer companhia pros meus comentários!

bjinho, boa semana!
Keiko