I wasn’t going to post about this, just because I wanted to talk myself into feeling casual about the whole thing: We’re ‘looking’ at houses. It’s almost like we’re a bunch of kids with our faces pressed up against the glass at the BMW dealership in Capitol Hill–you know, the one where the cars are on display and there’s no real chance of you ever test driving one? We’ve looked at seven places so far, in several southern neighborhoods. I would spare you the details, but what are blogs for…we’re finding that the more house you get the further south you have to go. The less house (and by that I mean two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a can with no basement or attic or yard), the slightly less further south you go. Want a place for only $270,000? Well, there are several that are nestled right next to I-5–which is so loud you can’t really have a relaxed conversation if you’re standing outside. Want a nice place for $280,000? Check out the southern most border of Seattle city limits and you’ll find lovely houses, provided you don’t mind staring up at the bellies of passing airplanes coming out of Boeing airfield and Seatac airport. Want three bedrooms? Really? How about one medium sized room, a room upstairs with ceilings so low you have to hunch, and an adjoining walk-in closet. And that’s the other major problem: Josh’s height. I’ll lumber up a flight of narrow, steep stairs to reach a lovely refinished attic space, only to realize Josh crooking his neck at an odd angle next to me…the same goes with every single basement we’ve looked at. Think condos or townhomes are cheaper? They’re not…and we’re not interested. Think the north side or Shoreline is less expensive? It’s not…those days are over.
In addition, I’d like to remain a one car family, (the savings, the high cost of gas, yada-yada), but this makes looking for homes in remote areas challenging. We’ve seen places for $265,000 that looked great in photos but then we show up and the entire house is dilapitated, the floor rolls in waves, there’s stale urine in the toilet, or, in one case, HALF of the backyard has been fenced off and SOLD for construction of another house. (Yeah, that’s just what I want: a house in my friggin’ backyard!) How long have we been looking? Five days…five measly little days and I’m already feeling fired up.