Day 2:

I'm mystified how someone thinks they can sell a $290,000 home without bothering to wash the dog urine out of the carpet.

I clearly have no interest in any home that is designed with interlocking square boxes. I'd much rather have to custom build every piece of furniture to fit obtuse and acute angles. I'm so happy our friends were able to connect us with an agent that actually has personality (Mom read: visible tattoos and piercings), it saves us from having to explain our prefernces.

There was a clear winner on Day 2. A small culdesac with a planted island in the center. A blue house (that would look good in mold green) tucked behind some trees. A short walkway lit by solar powered landscaping lamps leading up to a lattice work front door.

The front room is open to the back of the house and the pond in the back yard. The room is distinctly triangular, clearly matching the shape of the lot. The kithen is around the corner and more than just triangular, its got nooks and wedges and is seperated from the dining area by a counter top island.

A staircase leads to an assortment of oddly shaped rooms with the master bedroom being the largest. ANd of course the master bedroom is set up perfectly for us to add a screened in porch and french doors that overlook the pond.

Yes! The pure bliss of mentally moving into a home. That is why I'm not the one making the important decisions.

The

Well, I didn't bring my digital camera on day 1 of our househunting adventures, so I'll have to start with day 2. After seeing about 8 houses on the first day, we liked at least half of them and decided to sit down and map out exactly what was important to us in a house. This is our first house so we have a lot to learn. We decided we want location--someplace where we can bike to the beach and the yoga studios and maybe downtown. Floor plan -- something open and bright with big windows. Rooms -- master bedroom of course, kitchen and all the other obvious things, then a place to do yoga or meditate (a tranquil, peaceful room), a study for our computer and tv work, a workspace for me to make jewelry and another workspace for Clayton to do his art and furniture design, a nook to hide the tv in, and reasonable closets/storage for our reams of files, books, etc (all that stuff we should be getting rid of). Not too much backyard but enough that we have one. Screened in porch is pretty much a necessity because of the mosquitos. We're not looking for a traditional floor plan but we want something that will resell well. So, here's what we saw on day 2.

House #1:

Great location. Bikeable, quiet, people our age, all that good stuff.

This would be a great workspace -- hopefully we wouldn't clutter it so much! When we walked in the place smelled bad, not a good sign.

Open living area but the bedrooms in back were so small and dark I didn't even bother taking a picture. This was the cheapest house we've seen and we could probalby make it nice. But it just seemed too small.
Overall score: * * (out of 5)

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House #2:

Another great location but we got lost trying to find it. It's around some windy roads.

Really cute living space with a nice fireplace. Nice and open with a bar right by the back door that leads to the backyard with gorgeous oak trees. I love the exposed beams. The carpet I could do without.

If the rest of the house looked like this we'd be sold. But the bedrooms were tiny and just felt the same as all the apartments we've been renting for the last few years. We're ready for something new and different.
Overall score: *** (out of five)

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House #3:

This is the perfect location, on a cul-de-sac in a secluded neighborhood really close to the beach and yoga. This is the back of the house (I forgot to snap a picture of the front). This one backs up to a pond and we were welcomed by a couple of obese ducks that our cats would love to watch!

We love the living space with the stone fireplace. The carpet is ugly but we're planning to put wood floors down in whatever place we get if we can afford it. (Cats and carpets don't mix, especially our cats). The setup felt very traingular, it was nice not to feel like we were in a square house (I didn't capture that well in the pictures at all).


The kitchen was cute but who chose the wallpaper? That would be the first thing to go.



Why would they leave the garage in this state? House selling 101, hello?
Overall score: ***** (out of five) It was right at the top of our price range, and if cost were less of an issue we would have jumped on it right away under the condition that they clean out the garage or pay someone to do it. Stay tuned for the followup.

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Here we are recovering after all that visual stimulation. We got about 15 mosquito bites each that day, just exploring in the backyards. I don't know what made me think I could go back there without bug spray!

Well, there's no denying it. Jordan is leading this show. Buying a house just seems like a high risk sort of thing to do, like barbequing naked. I don't mind the heat, it's just the thought of over extending and getting burned by a loose end. We're probably better off this way since Jordan is the one who knows how to do math.

Day one is a blur. I do remember a house with this great deep green exterior paint. It was mold green... uh well, pretty sunlight on lush brook mold green. Anyway, the layout of the house probably made very little architectural sense which means that it was very appealing to the eye. My kind of place.

I consider day one to be training day. I had a brilliant showing of completely contradicting every criteria I had going into the house hunt.

• It has to be a two story... at our price range a 1 story is a much better use of space.
• A garage is a waste of space... or a great place to store things, like a car, two bikes, and all of my extraneous lighting and furniture parts.
• A yard is just one more thing to consume my time... it also puts a significant amount of space between me and the neighbors. Down here you can never be too sure who still wears a confederate flag printed on their unmentionables.