So even though we are happily in our house, I still love looking at houses. And this weekend, a house literally just down the street from us had an open house, so we popped in. Neighborhood House: $405,000, 3 bedrooms, 2.25 bathrooms (1 full, 1 half, 1 three-quarter), 1,860sqft, 8,063 sqft lot, 2 car garage The Good: The house has a nice large, one level, fully fenced back yard. There are some holes in the fence here and there, but those are easily fixed. It has a true two car garage with some extra storage space. The downstairs is finished, but not so finished that you could not do something…

The plan had been to look at open houses on Saturday, and to keep Sunday free for stuff around our house. But a little after 2:00 in the afternoon, we hit a bit of a lull. We had repaired the garage door (one of the springs had broken), and done as much lawn mowing as we could at the time (the battery for the mower was recharging). So I hopped online and glanced to see what houses were open, and were there any I wanted to go take a look at. I found one, and said to C – Hey, mind if I go look at an open house. He…

House 4: $445,000 3 bed / 1.75 bath / 1,560 square feet / 5,508 square foot lot / 1 car carport The Good: Even though this house was only about a block off of highway 99, the neighborhood felt very residential, and I would not have been worried about the kids playing outside. The back yard was dog ready. There was one point of failure (a gap dogs could have gone under) which the current owners had already blocked with a log. The living room area was nice and large, plenty big enough to have people over or to play video games, even using the Kinnect. The kitchen had been…

House 3: $450,000 4 bed / 1.75 bath / 1,900 square feet / 3,720  square foot lot / off street parking The Good: The public space on the main floor is EXACTLY what we are looking for. It is one giant open area with an amazing kitchen, great living room and then “extra” space off to the side currently being used as a dining room, but is really big enough to be used for just about anything. The Bad: And that was it. The biggest issue for us was that there was no way to add covered parking, and we need at least one covered parking spot and could really…

We came really close to talking ourselves into putting in an offer on this house. Or perhaps I should say, we had to talk ourselves out of putting in an offer on this house. I blame the beautiful weather, and the fact that the negatives are pretty much the negatives of our current house, so even though we pretty much hate those things about our current house, we know we can live with them.   House 2: $425,000 3 bed / 1.75 bath / 1,620 square feet / 7,620  square foot lot / 1 car carport The Good: On the same side of the freeway as where I work. The…

With apologies to friends in West Seattle and on the East side, we have decided to narrow our search for a house down to North Seattle. We’re finally at the point where looking is not just academic. We have money in the bank. We have the pre-approval from our mortgage guy. We are good to go. With that in mind, we say four houses on Saturday, one with our real estate agent and three open houses. Every house had some really great things about it, but ultimately, none ended up being a contender for us, though we try awfully hard to talk ourselves into one house. The first thing to…

House 2: $369,000, 4 bed / 2.5 bath / 1,820 square feet / 6,354 square foot lot / off street parking The Good: The price/location combination. The Bad: It would take me too long to list everything wrong here, but lowlights include the mold smell and the very poor job done on all the renovations that has been used to make it into a senior care facility. Worst of all was the obviously rusted tank in the back for the heating oil. The Verdict: No. Just so much no.  

I forgot to do a write up of the houses we saw on 4/25, but a friend who lived near a couple of the listings asked me to do one now, so I will. House 1: $400,000, 3 bed / 1.75 bath / 1,400 square feet / 6,300 square foot lot / 2 car carport The Good: The price/location combination on this house was great. Right in the neighborhoods we want to be in at a price that is less than most other listings. Plus, it was VERY near some friends of ours. The low price meant that we would have plenty of money after the sale to do some…