Update on #8
We visited #8, the little house on the medium lot, this morning.
The house itself was actually nicer than I expected. Wood floors underneath the linoleum (in who-knows-what sort of shape of course), wood paneling walls (not the plywood-derived stuff used in basements, but actual pieces of wood). Windows all recent double-paned replacements. Original wood doors - including the bathroom door which is slightly shorter than I am. The water heater is a washing-machine-sized box sitting in the kitchen. There is a hookup for a washing machine, but none currently installed - it would take a chunk out of the kitchen.
The big oil heater taking up most of the hall/central room was an interesting feature - ceiling fans running in the four rooms (2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen) to distribute the heat. No AC, clearly. Would probably have to do something about those two things.
The woods in back are OK - rather poison-ivy-filled, rather flat. There are some nice trees in the yard around the house, including a big magnolia (limbed up unfortunately). Jeff was quite charmed by the yard and house.
But. A lot of road noise. A lot. The land slopes down slightly from the road, which is 45mph and apparently quite well-used, especially at rush hour. So your head is at tire height. I suppose judicious plantings and perhaps a fence/wall buried inside a wall of shrubbery might make a dent - but it’s not going to be quiet. The area is not too developed right now, but I’m sure it will be filling up with developments so traffic will only get heavier.
I didn’t notice the noise much from inside the house, and our new house would be further back and presumably well insulated - but we also want to spend time outside in the yard and on porches. Traffic noise at our current house bugs Jeff a lot - and that’s a 25mph speed limit, not that most cars go that slowly but it’s still slower than the 45 would be.
Not looking good for #8. But at least it only had one serious flaw. That seems like an improvement. And we feel good about the general outline of Plan B, land with existing house.
April 13th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Road noise is huge.
But here’s another problem with a road. People die on roads. At least people die on our road on a regular basis. That means that their car drives off and hits something. You don’t want it to hit you or your house.
Plus, all the decorative crosses….not really that uplifting.
April 14th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
We do have a road in front of our current house, you know. :) Fortunately it doesn’t have many fatalities, despite the idiotic and law-breaking behavior exhibited by many of its users.
The country roads around here are definitely decorated with those crosses. Rather not have one in the yard.
April 14th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
That’s a good point. You do live on a main drag. But it’s not as much a rural commuting road as it is almost the end of the road as you enter town, no?
I just think that looking up to watch cars from your property would be the pits.
April 14th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Yeah, watching cars all the time from the front porch kinda is the pits, since we do that already. We’ve pretty well crossed this one off the list for now. Nice idea, keep looking elsewhere.