#10 Yellow Brick House and #11 Bring Your Own Horse
OK, I’m behind by a whole week! I’ll try to catch up.
After the discouraging land conference call, Jeff went back to Plan B, existing house with renovation possibilities. With the help of an agent who had another piece listed that we decided wasn’t worth seeing, he found two to go look at in person.
#10 is the Yellow Brick House, which has been owned by the same family since they built it in the early 50s. Smallish bedrooms, a new master addition also not huge, big yard with lots of grass to mow (but also some nice big trees), a rather ramshackle outbuilding that appears to have been built in at least four stages. Seemed like a nice neighborhood too. But it’s between two roads, and the bigger one seems like it may get a good bit of cut-through traffic at rush hour. Overall just didn’t bowl us over. And we wouldn’t have a ton of money left for renovations after we bought it.
#11 is on a cul-de-sac, 2 or 3 acres, with a small horse barn in the back yard. It was built in the early 70s and still has the original appliances in the kitchen. Because it has a full finished basement, it’s very big. But it seems to have had some settling issues - cracks in the garage slab, uneven floors, lots of creaking as you walk - and it’s not as nice inside (cheapish carpet, no hardwood underneath). It would need more work, and also would take up most of our budget just to buy it.
After visiting #11 the realtor took us to another place in the neighborhood, even though from the picture it probably wasn’t anything we wanted. And it wasn’t great, really, except for the awesome screened porch. It was built over a two car carport and was just huge. A good idea to keep in mind for future building or remodeling.
We briefly thought that #6 (”Lovely if you don’t require plumbing”) might be back on the table, as Jeff found an engineer who seemed to know a lot about alternative septic systems and has contacts with the septic approval folks in our county, and this guy got the info on those lots and said it wouldn’t be that pricey to get septic in there. But when Jeff called the developer who owned the lots, they’ve already been sold. Ah well.