Our House: In The Middle Of.. Some Street, Somewhere..

Yes, we have begun the house hunting phase.. slash the learning about being a home buyer phase. We looked at 3 decent ones last night with our realtor (a friend from church), all of them in a really lovely subdivision (and all circa 1950s). I went into touring them with these thoughts: "I'm so anxious to have more space that works better, to be closer to work, to be rid of the noisy child above us, and just to feel settled in a place that actually feels more like both of ours."

When I saw the first 2, I thought they were really cute for the most part, the updates were nice and the new appliances were good.. but I found myself confused by the room layout of one (I think it would be weird if your bedroom was in a location where others would have to pass through it to get to the kitchen or the back porch). The second one (I thought I had originally liked best based on photos) has only 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and a "half bath" single toilet on a wall on the top floor next to a corner vanity/sink. Like, not inside it's own room or stall. Weird. But altogether it made me feel a little cramped, and the basement was creepy but in decent condish. I was bummed that this one had the cutest style but just didn't accommodate space.

The third one we saw had the most potential. Much more spacious (which initially for us almost seemed too big to me, but after some years and some kids, it wouldn't I guess. I am just kind of against having a huge home to have to clean.. don't really want hugeness). But it was also very updated. The basement was in better condition, but had a mysterious 1930s-looking boiler slash torpedo bay looking thing down there, ha.. but it had a nice carport, and an awesome 2 level back porch plus flat and large backyard. I didn't like how the kitchen had no windows though.. if I am going to be spending any length of time in such a room, I like to be able to see the free world outside.

I walked away from #3 feeling like it was pretty promising.. but once we got home to talk about it, I learned that our house search is going to be a bit more difficult than I thought. Jon mentioned his plans for a room with enough capabilities and space to house his growing array of music and recording gear.. or at least a home that has potential to add-on to accommodate these things.. something that feels like a studio, not a bedroom. A den-like area would work well for that. This home only had smallish bedroom space for that, and if we wanted to finish off the basement for it, he thought the ceiling would be too low.

It's interesting doing these walk-throughs and trying to imagine our stuff and our future more stuff in them. At first I would think "wow this place feels empty with all this space".. but I wouldn't think "let's get more to fill it!" although some items of "more" might be necessary at some point.

I have to say it's disappointing to find a house that mostly works for everything we need, but then there's that one part that just doesn't. Eh, the search continues. We'll plan a drive-around on Saturday again.