what can your money get you!?

We met with Monica on Tuesday morning to see what our 90K-100K would buy us.

The brick was really cute and the house was well maintained

This is the back side.  Covered patio thing, I guess?  It was kind of rainy that day, so we didn't venture to the back on our tour

We would be sharing a driveway with the neighbors which was a huge turn off and the driveway was a mix of gravel and dirt and that equals a lot of mess in the house.  Plus the shop looked kind of old.  Probably sturdier than heck, but still old and could potentially have issues later.

It does come with some land, but unlike the blue and yellow house, it would be much harder to distinguish property lines and it just didn't seem as inviting for our dogs to run around in as the other yard

This is the living room.  It does have a very lovely fireplace with a proper mantel.  Something the blue and yellow house doesn't offer.  And built-in shelving!  I think the living room is darling.  That couch? notsomuch

HELLO DARK WOOD PANELING!  I still don't understand this concept that must have originated around the 40's or 50's.  Why? Oh why would you do this to a home?  And worse!....no one has ever changed it.  Roll with the times people!

The kitchen had an overall update, which was nice.  And you all know how I adore an open concept like what's shown.  Even though it was updated, it still lacked room and there wasn't a ton of cabinet space and I'm not really crazy about freestanding stoves but I could have lived with it. 

Anybody see a refrigerator?  Yea...me either...in fact, if you look closely to the bottom left corner you can see the wall ends.  There is a jut in the kitchen and the fridge sits right there.  And it doesn't face the kitchen, nope, the fridge faces the other wall.  Weird, I know.  Again, why wasn't this fixed at some point?

Here's another bedroom.  Obviously they decided that wood paneling was not appropriate for this room.  What is? Pink! Oh man, let's just pretend we're more mature than a 10 year old girl when we choose the paint color for our walls please!

Here's the third bedroom.  Again pink...why?  But also, notice how small it is.  We would have to use it as an office or craft room because there just isn't a whole lot of space.  I know there is a bed in there, but honestly, if you were staying at my house overnight, would you want to sleep on a double or a queen?  Yea, thats what I thought.

Here are the details:

List Price: $98,500 Subdivision: NONE Bedrooms: 3 Full Baths: 1 Half Baths: 0 Type & Style: One Story w/Basement Area: Area 3: 85S to 52E MLS Number: 52489 Apx Acreage: 1.633 <---no where near the 2.89 at the blue/yellow house Master Bedroom Level: M Construction: Brick Veneer Heating System: Oil Furnace <-- I don't have any experience with this, but it sounds dangerous Garage/Carport: Garage Single Detached, Carport Single Detached Lot Dimensions:   Apx Year Built: 1946<--wowzers! That's an old house

Apx SqFt Total HLA (above grade): 1380 Master Bedroom Dimensions: 11'6x11'6 Elementary School: FAITH Middle School: SOUTHEAST High School: CARSON Foundation/Bsmt: Partial Basement, Walk Out Roof: Shingle-Composition Air Conditioning: Central Electric Water Heater: Electric Water/Sewer: Private Well, Septic Tank Porch: Covered Porch, Covered Patio Exterior Features: Outbuildings Miscellaneous: Other-See Remarks

The house was actually really cute, overall, despite it's quirks.  Had it been in the location we were looking for, it may have even been a contender.  It was an older home and they do tend to have funny layouts sometimes.  And this one did.  But I don't think there was anything that we couldn't re-configure or fix with some DIY lovin'!

The goal was met though.  Jason and I had a very good grasp on what our money was getting us and again we mutually decided that the blue and yellow house was exactly what we were looking for.  Monica did a very good job with helping us visualize what was available in our price range and made our decision even more concrete.

Monica also said that maybe our idea of 89K wasn’t that bad of a price either, after she had thought about it for a day or so.  The reason? Well the tax value was listed at 92K and the house does look out onto a box site, which could affect resale value in the future.  So we all decided that $94,000 was a very reasonable offer and since we were going to ask the sellers to pay closing, it would total a $89,000 offer.  Monica was going to have the papers drawn up for our signatures.

Wow…that sounds very grown up doesn’t it?  Yikes!  

Because Jason had some extensive burns to do for the NCFS that week, he had to head back to the office and get prepped and was going to be busy all day on Wednesday and Thursday.  So we decided to part ways with Monica for the day and meet up again that Friday at the house that we were certain we would be putting in a formal offer on and go from there.

Love as always,

Meredith