Shannon and I spent yesterday house hunting. It was quite a lot of fun actually. We spent a day with our realtor last weekend doing the following:

1. Collecting basic information
2. Whittling down the list of 30 houses that met our price range and initial specs (3+ bedrooms, 2 floors, 1+ bathrooms, and space for an office) to the top 13 houses we liked
3. We then narrowed the list to the top 5-7 we actually thought we’d be happy buying

So this weekend we spent Saturday going through those 5-7 houses. Having done that, we know we don’t really want to see the rest. Out of the 7, there were only 2 we “liked”.

First was one of the homes that we’d marked as our “dream homes”. We’ll call this house “House on Ledge” (click to see listing).

House on Ledge

On the positive side, it had a great property. Lots of trees, nice landscaping, set back from the road. Also, the road (The Ledge) is highly sought-after, which makes resale easier. However, upon driving onto the property, we realized that the look from the road was different than the actual look.

Everything was much more run-down than we’d have thought. We decided to give it a chance anyways. There was no backyard to speak of (which is bad, we wanted a nice yard), the garage needed lots of work, and the roof was tin (noisy during rain) and a lot of the house needed repainted.

Inside, at first glance, wasn’t much better. The main room you can see in the listing is… Well, it just didn’t click with us. It’s one of those features that you’ll either love or hate, I suppose. The basement was nice, but the main room needed work.

However, the kitchen was quite nice. Especially once we moved the eat-in stuff to the dining room, there would be lots of space for a fantastic island or something. Also, there was a pantry (which I love) and space for an office downstairs. No bathroom though, which was too bad.

Upstairs was interesting. 3 bedrooms up, and a bathroom. The two smaller bedrooms were really, really small. Single bed and a small dresser kind of small. We figured we could work with it, but the truth was that this was far from the “dream home” we thought it was. Master bedroom was fantastic. We went to look at the bathroom and… No shower. Modern bathroom / bathtub, but no shower. So, we’d have to do renovations just to move in.

That’s when we realized the house wasn’t for us. In this area, 140K for a house means it should be a really, really nice house. The higher price is likely due to the location (again, The Ledge being highly desirable). But, really not what we wanted. After some humming and hawing we gave up on it.

Fish Pond House

Also, another of our dream houses.

We thought.

Until we saw the property. Y’know that fish pond / alcove / getaway? Yeah, it’s not that. It’s more like a party place. Half a dozen cookout areas. Beer bottles everywhere. Inside also isn’t anywhere near what photos show. I have to give the realtor credit for taking the best pictures possible. House needed crazy work inside, lots of landscaping, storage building torn down… We figured this wasn’t for us almost immediately, and after 5 minutes inside knew for sure.

Strike 2 of 2 for our “dream houses”.

Pleasant St. – the Surprise Fit

The final house to talk about is, well… It’s the house that “fit”. If you look at the listing, it doesn’t really show much of the inside. We’d driven by the house a few times in the past few months, though, so we knew what the outside largely looked like. Great yard, very pretty house. It used to be priced at 114K, which we thought was a bit much for the neighbourhood.

However, it’s 99K now, so we went to look at it.

First things first. The outside would need repainted. But, there was a garden, and the garage was in good shape.

Inside, from the foyer, you could turn left to go to the kitchen, and forward to go to the rest of the house.

The kitchen was nice. We’d probably redo the cabinet doors, but it was nice. Had a pantry (big plus for me). And an eat-in area. Through the kitchen is a yard, and through another door is the laundry room. Laundry room has a built-in ironing board, space for a freezer and a door to the basement (cellar really, as it’s unuseable). Through the laundry room (getting confused yet) was a spare room. We’re not sure what to do with it. It’s only half dry-walled, so we’d need to do that… But, it’s a spare room. Which is always nice. Through that to the shed.

So, from the foyer, turning left, is an entire section of the house (3-5 rooms, depending on how you count it).

We came back to the foyer and entered the main “hall” (hallway, whatever). To the right is the family room (tv room + nice big closet). This is totally separate from any other room in the house, so volume won’t affect anyone else.

Left side of the hall is the “office” / spare room (room for both), which also has a full ensuite (shower stall, no bath). 2 large closets in here.

Straight through the main hall is both the sunporch (to the left) and the living room (to the right). Living room is massive, with a fireplace, bay windows, built-in cabinetry, bookcases, etc. Really, really nice. It’s really a double living room, though, due to its size.

Overall, the downstairs felt very “sectioned”. Which, surprisingly, we liked. You weren’t walking through one room to get to another, to get to another (besides the kitchen section). It was all nicely designed (to us).

Stairs are from the main hall. At the top, to the left, is a huge bedroom. Massive closet. Boys room #1.

Opposite end of the stairs is a walk-in linen closet, a sitting area, and a huge bedroom. 2 Massive closets. Boys room #2.

Opposite Boys room #1 is a set of french doors. Going through is a hallway. Across from the french doors is the master bedroom. 2 massive closets. Built-in dresser. Door to main bathroom.

There is also a door to the main bathroom from the hallway. Nice, huge, bathroom. Double sinks. 1.5 wide bath. Storage space. Well lit. A bit pink, but a really nice bathroom.

End of the hallway is yet another “extra room”, with stairs down into the laundry room.

So… Upstairs is also fairly sectioned. Boys rooms are totally separate. And a separate area for “parents”. Sure, the main bathroom is in there, so the boys would be in to use the facilities, but it’s really quite nice. Some folk probably wouldn’t like it, but we did.

This house, as you can see, was beginning to grow on us. But, we largely were undecided still.

We decided to go outside and check out property lines and such. Again, still largely undecided. We went into the garage to check it out. It’s nice enough. Well ventilated. Clean. Good flooring / walls / ceiling. Once sound-proofed, it would probably do quite well in the summer as a band practice room (and need more power). And, once insulated, probably year round. Cool.

On to the property lines, and the back one goes back quite aways. Apparently it’s like 2 acres of land or whatnot (we weren’t totally listening, since we were walking the lines. Basically, behind the garage you have a space about 1/4 the size of a soccer field to use. Then in front, you have a space about 1.5 times that size, with trees and such. So, two nice sized yards.

The property line at the side of the house (far side, opposite the driveway) looked like it went right from the side of the house, due to a line of trees (common demarkations here). But, it didn’t. Shannon spotted this odd fence right away. The realtor says “oh, yeah, that’s the side yard”.

This is when we gave each other a look. I mean back yard, front yard and SIDE yard?

We went running, lemme tell you.

The side yard is from the sliding doors out of the kitchen. We’d gone some quickly through the kitchen to the laundry room we’d totally missed it!

What is the side yard? Well, it’s an area the size of most people’s back yards. From the kitchen are the sliding doors. Then a fairly large deck (room for a barbecue and 6-7 chairs). Then, a completely fenced in (with no doors or gates) yard with a play set, swings, the works.

That, right then, was the moment we fell in love. With 2 boys, both toddlers (ish), this was so absolutely perfect, it went beyond perfect. We walked the property again, both of us going through phases of “what about this, oh that’s not a big deal because that over there is perfect”.

After 10 minutes of talking we were hooked.

It took us all day to realize the house was actually totally perfect for us. But, we’ve found our home.

That is, assuming the new gig I’m applying for comes through properly (like it should), and assuming the pre-approved mortgage we’ve received comes through properly (like it should), and assuming the inspection / survey / appraisal go through properly (which we’re hoping for).

But, all things considered, yesterday was a great day.

Now we have to wait, pray, and not get too giddy about it. Or disappointed if someone else snatches it up (though it’s been on the market for the better part of a year).

The only downside is that it is in Milltown (for those from St. Stephen, Pleasant is the road right across from the elementary school, by the big church on the same side of the road as the school). And the house is about 2km down the road.

Milltown isn’t the most desirable area, and it’s a bit far from our friends, but we decided to choose for our family, and also realized it would give our friends a nice place to come visit and to play.

So, that was house hunting. Oh, and about 7 houses we don’t want to think about again (for a variety of reasons).

Oh, by the way, if anyone IS thinking of moving, there is a great house for 160K available. It wasn’t big enough for us (I wanted an office), and it’s a bit above our price range. But, if it isn’t above yours, and you don’t mind the 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 living room, massive kitchen, totally remodeled type of home it could be perfect for you :)