Thursday, April 10, 2008

house choice #1-cute 40's house

I've been house hunting and found 2 good options today which can't be more different. I'm stuck. We've looked at a bunch of solid houses from the 40's. they have great circular floor plans, nice sized rooms, lots of windows and good yards. This one has all that, and hasn't been touched, so we'd have to put in the work. It needs:

-master bed & bath to do-it's an attic now
-remove front fence, as it's creepy and unnecessary
-take down back laurel hedge--huge and ugly.
-replace back hedge with fence from front of house--savings!
-plumb attic for bathroom
-redo kitchen and downstairs bath--both are liveable as they were updated in 70s or so. plus kitchen has new appliances, so that's nice
-remove popcorn ceiling
-tear down walls in basement to make a nice big space-none of walls are structural, I don't think
-plant garden!

this one's 295K and is located in a neighborhood we like, close to freeway for work, quiet street
located at 4829 n 8th. it's about 1500-1600 sf house (when attic is finished). yard is 7695 sf. nice and big. gets sun, but is on the north side of street.

front of house w/huge fence that would come down. behind fence is a nice front lawn that faces south, so it would be sunny all day. along side of house, i could plant veggie garden!


LR w/fireplace


dr to the right of LR


enter kitchen from DR. Kitchen has door to backyard


downstairs bedrooms, decent size & bright



steps to attic

attic with unneeded yellow walls, but maybe some structural beams holding up ceiling!




bathroom-forgot to post pic last night



basement with weird interior walls that can be torn down to make one big space. walls are not structural


yard is ginormous, but with big laurel hedge on back that needs to come down!


3 comments:

Traxis of Evil said...

Good neighborhood...close to Proctor & UPS, which has a lovely campus (be sure to appreciate all the tulips by the signs on Union...planted by yours truly in 1993 for $6.03/hour!).

I posted a note on house #2 a minute ago, but I think I changed my mind...I like this one better.

Go T-Town!

Anonymous said...

This house seems more like "Danomi" style. Plus, if it is in a neighborhood you prefer, I'd throw a lot of weight towards that. Being in a neighborhood you really enjoy can make a big difference. Plus, the other house is really big. Unless you plan on having kids, I think it would be too much house for two people. My ex-wife and I got caught up in the "let's buy a big house because we can afford it" and it ended up being a waste of space and money.

Of course, you could always have an inspection done on both houses to see what condition their in and let that inform your choice. It would be a shame to settle on one house and then find out it has some major structural issues.

skykomie said...

yes, this one is more in the neighborhood we were looking, although we were intrigued by the 60's neighborhood around wilson hs, and living in a totally different style of house for a change. but the bigness is an issue. this house faces south, so the veggies might have to go in the front yard, which isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. it will also have a less sunny yard than I'd like, but yard it quite huge and open