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I've been looking. I have a pre-approval from the bank.
There is a house that I found online. It was calling my name. I've driven past it 3 or 4 times. I got out and walked around it. I had my real estate agent take me in Tuesday night.
It sounds crazy, but with all it's faults, I still love it. It is a much older home. It is a 3 bedroom (one on the first floor, two on the second) with one bathroom. The kitchen is very small - so small that if I wanted to put a table in there, it would have to be a very small table and the frig would then have to go in the next room (the laundry room/mud room). It has old carpet that I am hoping is hiding hardwood floors. It has a two car garage and a very nice chunk of land - my daughter and SIL could come and plant their garden there. I could plant apple trees and berry bushes. We could feed the whole Meta Clan from the land. LOL
The problem is the kitchen. I also have concerns about the roof. There is no doubt that the house will need some work, and I don't mind that. In fact, I need such projects (small ones anyway) to keep my mind busy. But moving a wall to make room for a table or to make a combination livingroom/dining room? I dunno . . .
The other concern is that I am trying so very hard to choose a place while keeping my heart out of it. I am trying to buy smart for the little money I have. If I let my heart get too involved . . . well . . . let's just say I've haven't been very lucky in the heart department lately.
I don't know if I'm asking for thoughts or advice. I just had to get it out.
My first house was like that -- one bedroom down, two up, kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom on the first floor. I loved it.
The roof can be repaired or replaced. If you're serious about the house and put in an offer, you can have a roofing contractor take a look.
The size of the kitchen would probably be my bigger concern, especially if you really do want a table in there. I'm not fond of shoebox kitchens. How big is it? Could you live with no table, or the fridge in the mud room? Is the kitchen functional otherwise?
Do you like the rest of the house enough to cancel out the drawbacks of the kitchen?
Okay, the listing doesn't state the size of the rooms, so I'm going to have to guess at the size of the kitchen. I think it is probably 8' wide by 10' long, if I'm lucky.
The long exterior wall has a stove, cupboards with sink, and an (old!) dishwasher along that wall.
The exterior shorter wall has a window in it. The window is too high for me to see out, but I'm just under 5' tall and would like to get a bigger window put in.
The interior long wall is where they had the frig. Part of the wall has a cut out so there is a view of the living room. If nothing else, I'd make that area into a snack bar. There is also an arch going into the living room.
The fourth side opens up into the laundry room, where I guess I could put the frig if I have a small table in the kitchen (where they kept their frig).
I love that there is a crawl space and the laundry is on the first floor. The house is really quite clean.
Another draw back is that the plaster walls in the kitchen aren't perfectly flat.
Oh, and much of the house (if not all) has ceiling tiles for the ceilings. The ceilings aren't hideous. I could live there, but I also want to eventually replace them. Wouldn't it be fantastic if they were hiding old tin ceilings??? LOL Okay, a girl can dream . . .
8 x 10 isn't a bad size for a kitchen -- certainly not huge, but OK. My kitchen was about that size, and had two windows, four doors, and a floor register to work around. The next owner shuffled things around to make room for a table on the long interior wall, which was where I had the stove.
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Originally Posted by metamorphosis
The interior long wall is where they had the frig. Part of the wall has a cut out so there is a view of the living room. If nothing else, I'd make that area into a snack bar. There is also an arch going into the living room.
Is there room for a small table under the pass-through to the living room?
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Another draw back is that the plaster walls in the kitchen aren't perfectly flat.
That's common. Things settle over time. Alas.
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Oh, and much of the house (if not all) has ceiling tiles for the ceilings.
Possibly because a previous owner didn't want to repair the cracks in the ceiling; that was the case in my old house. I really never noticed them. But you could pull them down and have thin drywall screwed in over the plaster, if it's badly damaged.
Congratulations on finding your 'dream house'! I agree with ohiogirl81- get a roofing contractor to take a look at the condition of the roof and possibly give you an estimate on repair costs (you can factor this in to your budget when/if you make an offer).
As for the kitchen, I've always wanted a big kitchen too- but I actually made a sacrifice on kitchen size with the house we bought because I loved 90% of the house! This is the first kitchen I've had out of all of the properties I've lived in, that I can not eat in. Thankfully though, it has double doors leading out to the dining room.
Our neighbors a few houses down, with a similar floorplan, just got around to knocking through the wall between their kitchen and dining room to make it a larger space- they've been there 12 years though so put up with it for quite some time! So far, for me, the kitchen hasn't been as big a problem though as I thought it would be. I've just adapted to always eating in the dining room! If a table won't fit comfortably, I say don't worry about it, just adapt your lifestyle to fit the kitchen, it's easier than you think
If the house is the right price, and is your 'forever home', remember, you can save up to change things as necessary. If it's 90% right you're doing pretty well! No house is 100% perfect!
Good luck and keep us posted on what you decide to do!
P.S. 8x10 is bigger than my kitchen! Oh and my appliances are 30+ years old, mustard yellow, and still going strong, so I wouldn't worry too much about the old dishwasher either
See if the floors are hardwood so that can be on or off your list. Go look. A closet will generally give a first idea. But also pull up a bit in the main rooms.
With only one bathroom it's probably harder to sell so that might work in your favor to buy.
The kitchen...can you knock out that wall and extend it...say into that laundry area? There are lots of homes with the washer/dryer in the kitchen. At some point you might move them to another spot like the garage if you don't want them where they are.
No new houses have eat-in kitchens, unless they are custom built houses. That country kitchen thing has gotten hard to find. It might be something on your wish list that you will end up giving up, anyway.
Expect a lot of repairs and updating with an old house. Personally, it is worth it to me if the house has character and the land is really nice.
Perhaps get an inspection to see what needs to be done. Expect a long list. Price it out and see if it is worth it.
Could the washer and dryer be moved? Maybe to the garage? Then that little laundry room could be converted into a breakfast nook, tiny dining room.
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