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house hunting
Dec. 30th, 2008 04:45 pmmarika took me to see three houses in three hours, and though it's totally overwhelming it was also fun and inspiring. houses are such strange creatures. like a shell built to house something not quite me, and i have to figure out how i'll make it work.
#1 white craftsman
the first house is a craftsman with some additions. it's not my favorite part of town -- across from the back side of a boat yard, plus one block away from a big busy road. addition in the back is carpeted and not very pretty, but okay. the kitchen was stranded in the middle of the house and i didn't like that -- like a place where one person can stand comfortably. small bedroom on the main near a huge bathroom, perfect for a child's room. office/library room off the main living room. upstairs, an amazing attic covered in built-in cupboards, closets, large dressers, even a desk that folds down from the wall. huge basement space with a bathroom and a non-code shower, space enough for a huge work room or letterpress room.
#2 green princess house
second house is an odd one, again with the weird additions. hard to see from the front because it has only a tiny strip of a front yard, and everything is fenced in, for the apparently massive dog whose muddy paw prints we saw at chest height on the front door. but otherwise surrounded by a huge yard, including a hot tub (they might not leave it, it's not in the listing), grape vines, berries, raised garden beds. weird small "master" on the main floor, tiled addition in the back, huge back porch. upstairs two good kids' bedrooms, cute desk lookouts on the yard, plus a jack and jill bathroom. lots of weird angles and corners to this house. we would need a giant lawn mower. cramped unfinished basement with just enough space for the water heater and furnace. very cool space for a gardener and a dog, but i don't think it's for us.
#3 oatfield victorian
this is the victorian that i fell in love with yesterday, the one that's a little outside of our price range but is just gorgeous. complete period details inside, since the same family lived in it for over 45 years. it needs a lot of work, including some intensive love to the yard to make it not such a leafpit, a good paint job, new windows, possibly a new electrical system (!!!), other fixes too numerous to list. you can see some of the hideous paint from the pictures. currently it's filled with the dead mrs goss's things, including beds full of teddy bears and assorted room full of catholic icons and things like that, so i didn't photograph all the bedrooms.
but with all its detractions, this is also sort of the house of my dreams. i've always wanted to restore an old house, and this one is livable. the large rambling victorian with history, with quirks and tall ceilings. the house to fill with books. restoring the gardens. large studies upstairs for kirk and i. a room for the letterpress. a house for writing in. roaming cats, a house with mystery. a big dinner party. that kind of house.
just for laughs, here is the partial list of things i wrote down that the victorian needs:
( list of things to fix )
so possibly we would be great fools to buy this house. but maybe we'd also be great fools to pass it up. a historic house that will only increase in value as we work on it. it will be a money pit, a labor of love. but it's a house with a story in its bones. i feel incredibly young when i think about it, though we are probably about the same age as the goss family when they bought it. but also, the house is old and wants love and i don't know if i'm up to the task.
#1 white craftsman
the first house is a craftsman with some additions. it's not my favorite part of town -- across from the back side of a boat yard, plus one block away from a big busy road. addition in the back is carpeted and not very pretty, but okay. the kitchen was stranded in the middle of the house and i didn't like that -- like a place where one person can stand comfortably. small bedroom on the main near a huge bathroom, perfect for a child's room. office/library room off the main living room. upstairs, an amazing attic covered in built-in cupboards, closets, large dressers, even a desk that folds down from the wall. huge basement space with a bathroom and a non-code shower, space enough for a huge work room or letterpress room.
#2 green princess house
second house is an odd one, again with the weird additions. hard to see from the front because it has only a tiny strip of a front yard, and everything is fenced in, for the apparently massive dog whose muddy paw prints we saw at chest height on the front door. but otherwise surrounded by a huge yard, including a hot tub (they might not leave it, it's not in the listing), grape vines, berries, raised garden beds. weird small "master" on the main floor, tiled addition in the back, huge back porch. upstairs two good kids' bedrooms, cute desk lookouts on the yard, plus a jack and jill bathroom. lots of weird angles and corners to this house. we would need a giant lawn mower. cramped unfinished basement with just enough space for the water heater and furnace. very cool space for a gardener and a dog, but i don't think it's for us.
#3 oatfield victorian
this is the victorian that i fell in love with yesterday, the one that's a little outside of our price range but is just gorgeous. complete period details inside, since the same family lived in it for over 45 years. it needs a lot of work, including some intensive love to the yard to make it not such a leafpit, a good paint job, new windows, possibly a new electrical system (!!!), other fixes too numerous to list. you can see some of the hideous paint from the pictures. currently it's filled with the dead mrs goss's things, including beds full of teddy bears and assorted room full of catholic icons and things like that, so i didn't photograph all the bedrooms.
but with all its detractions, this is also sort of the house of my dreams. i've always wanted to restore an old house, and this one is livable. the large rambling victorian with history, with quirks and tall ceilings. the house to fill with books. restoring the gardens. large studies upstairs for kirk and i. a room for the letterpress. a house for writing in. roaming cats, a house with mystery. a big dinner party. that kind of house.
just for laughs, here is the partial list of things i wrote down that the victorian needs:
( list of things to fix )
so possibly we would be great fools to buy this house. but maybe we'd also be great fools to pass it up. a historic house that will only increase in value as we work on it. it will be a money pit, a labor of love. but it's a house with a story in its bones. i feel incredibly young when i think about it, though we are probably about the same age as the goss family when they bought it. but also, the house is old and wants love and i don't know if i'm up to the task.
