First House Hunting Trip

Aaron and I took a very exciting step this afternoon. We went on our first adventure, house hunting. We went to the Greenwood Lakes area of NY (about 45 minutes out from where we live). We saw saw two houses today. NONE of them work for us.

The first house was what I called the house on the hill. It was a really pretty looking house at the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the lake and the surrounding area. The exterior of the house itself was great. The back yard was a mess, but it was to be expected since it hasn't been "lived " in since it was built. The problem is that a few people seem to have broken into the house since it was built. The inside was not entirely finished, the ceilings were low as hell on the second and third floor. And what the seller listed as, "some cosmetic work needed," was a total lie. The place had to be finished in some parts, one of the windows needed to be repaired and just about all the hanging fixtures needed to be replaced entirely or we'd run the risk of knocking ourselves out. Aaron and I are not tall people. We're both around 5'7" tall. Oh yes and did I mention that the entire layout of the place is awkward at best? I mean there were rooms around the entire place that made no sense whatsoever, which made the necessary rooms ridiculously small. I mean, some of the "bedrooms" were the size of what you'd think of as an office. The master bedroom is a joke. Really. All the bathtubs are spa tubs BUT you'd have to have your knees out of the water to get your feet in the water. They were teeny. Oh yes, the hills to get to the house, terrified me. On the way up, the real estate agent questioned if her car would make it up the hills and she has an older Mercedes and knowing the car, I know the thing has power to it. We'd really both have to get 4x4's to be able to get to the house in the event of any weather other than a dry day. If we lived there, I would have to forbid any children from going out to the front. The angle was just that severe.

The second house we looked at is much smaller but the layout was great and made it look a lot more welcoming. It was really nicely done and staged. We really had no problems with the interior despite some cosmetic work (this time it there were just some scratches to door frames and some of the paint needed retouching in corners) the rooms were a good size, the kitchen was a great size and the bathrooms were great and in good condition. Had we actually seen this house in another area, we would really consider it as a contender. The problem, however, was the neighborhood and the land it's on. There essentially is no land to speak of. The house is right on the road, but the road itself is a one lane road that serves as a two way street. The "back yard," is a small covered concrete block and leads to a rock wall that is the back end of the back neighbor's house. The side yard is a small concrete block that is open to the street. What's left as "land," is dirt. No grass covering, just dirt (today it was mud). The other houses on the street right on top of each other. But the house on the left of it has some space in front of it but it's filled with two car carcases an old boat and a few boat engines strewn around (some covered over with what would be plant growth in the summer). The place itself, really nice. The street, the "back yard" and the neighborhood, terrible.

The real estate agent boiled it down to, this is not the area for us. She immediately deduced that we really want a more family friendly area. Getting a better sense of the town, she's right. She then ran down a few questions to get an idea of what we want in a house and neighborhood. She got the idea really quickly. We also showed her a house that we have seen before to giver her an even better idea. She agreed. So now we're going to hold off a bit before we go out again. She said she'd look around to find homes that are more suitable for us and then get back to us with them.

The cool thing is that we're now officially house hunting! Woohoo!