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 Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:54 pm
Yes. Mala needs haelp. Mala is in the market for a shiny new (to her) home and is very bad at making decisions. I would appreciate any feedback or advice. I'm going to be showing these same images to my mum and dad, too, and my coworkers. Because the more help the better. But if anybody has anything to say, or if you just want to plan on which room you're staying in when you come to visit ( ninja ) -- lemme know.
House #1 (Mala's very tentative top choice)
Asking price: 159,900
Square Footage (Total): 2018
Price per square foot (above grade): $103.97 / (total): $79.24
Distance from work: 1.2miles
Other: 5 bed, 3 bath; big, landscaped back yard with a deck & landscaped front yard; fireplace; comes w/ dishwasher, fridge; programmable thermostat; skylights in the kitchen and bathroom; storage in basement; wet bar in the living room
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Front of the house
Entry with bay window, and another angle of the entry as it opens into the kitchen.
Kitchen, complete with ugly colours and skylight.
Adjacent to the kitchen are some stairs that lead down to the den/family room, which has a fireplace and a little storage area - beyond that railing is the kitchen again. On the other side of the den is the wet bar with some storage under it -- this is probably where I would set up fish tanks.
Or beyond the kitchen is the garage.
Bathroom and laundry room in one; another bathroom upstairs.
Speaking of upstairs, there are bedrooms: one bedroom with a neat little window, and another bedroom. There is also the master bedroom, which has yet another bathroom attached.
Alternatively, there is the downstairs area, which leads off to two storage rooms and a couple of smaller bedrooms with shabby carpet; neither are terribly exciting, so I didn't upload more pictures, but would provide plenty of storage space for extra crap.
Back yard 1, 2, 3, 4 (trampoline not staying).
House #2 (Mala's very tentative second choice)
Asking price: 189,900
Square Footage (Total): 3196
Price per square foot (above grade): $109.26 / (total): $59.42
Distance from work: 0.87miles
Other: 5 bed, 3 bath; okay back yard with a deck, & sunroom; dishwasher, fridge, water softener; skylights in the upper levels, lots of random doors to close various areas off; beautiful birch kitchen; huge basement w/ storage
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The exterior with a little trellis and empty planters in the front. Only partial because my realtor was standing in the way. But here's the front door.
This leads right into a sitting room up front, with a window; it has a door that can close it off entirely from the rest of the house.
If you continue inward, there's the den (with the sitting room to the left, and the kitchen back where I'm standing when taking the picture. Den has a fireplace and another door that opens into the hall for the bedrooms.
Alternatively, the den also opens here, to a sunroom, 1, 2.
Down the hall is a really girly bathroom, with a peculiar bath that has no shower.
Also down the hall, one bedroom, a second bedroom, and a third.
Then there is the big kitchen with pretty roses on the cabinets and a window.
Beyond the kitchen is the small laundry area, which leads to a bathroom --same again -- and the stairs down to the basement.
The basement consists of one large room, which has two sets of folding doors (seen on the right of the first image).
The far set of doors leads off to two bedrooms, 1 and 2, 2nd again, and a bathroom.
The closer set of doors leads to a huge storage area, and more of the same.
The back yard comes off the sunroom and is mostly filled with trees, more trees, bushes, and a small deck.
House #3
Asking price: 164,000
Square Footage (Total): 2923
Price per square foot (finished): $93.39 / (total): $52.68
Distance from work: 1.11miles
Other: 3 bed, 2 bath; nice back yard with deck & patio; no dishwasher & no good place to put one, would prob require some overhaul to get one installed; fridge, built-in microwave; fireplace
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The house, with a garage and carport.
Right inside the door is an odd railing thing and a sitting room with a fireplace; the little ledge-things are hard to see in the image, but there they are above the fireplace.
After that room, you head into a dining area and the kitchen, which is fairly cute but small and lacks a dishwasher.
Past the kitchen looks like a later add-on, with stairs leading down to a den/sunroom area, which leads to the yard.
On the other side is a hall, which leads to the bedroom which is pretty big and has two fair-sized closets. I think it was initially two smaller bedrooms that were made into one. The HUEG bathroom is liek Xbox. There should be another bedroom there, I'm pretty certain, but I guess I didn't upload a photo.
On the other other side of the kitchen is this door to the garage and to the left of that you find the stairs to the basement.
The basement has a fair-sized main room with abar thing; it doesn't seem sturdy enough for fish tanks, so I really have no bleeding clue what I'd do with it. Here it is again.
There's also a bathroom and bedroom downstairs.
Additionally, there is a laundry room, which is unfinished but big. Also, a small storage area.
The back yard, with a shed. The deck also opens to the garage.
House #4
Asking price: 149,900
Square Footage (Total): 1904
Price per square foot (finished): $78.72
Distance from work: 1.44miles
Other: 4 bed, 2 bath; nice yards in front & back w/ a small pool in the back & retractable sunshade over the patio; dishwasher, fridge
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The house and planter in the front yard. It's got a bench! There's also a stained glass window by the front door.
The entry was really hard to get a photo of, but immediately to the left of the front door when you come in, you can see through railings into the upper and lower levels both.
The upper level has a room that wraps around to the kitchen, which is rather green.
There is also a bathroom and the master bedroom upstairs. It's red and I couldn't get a very good picture of it.
Downstairs is a den with a fireplace, a bedroom with a neat showcase thing, and another bedroom. My picture of the bathroom sucked, but here's the mirror; you can see a reflection of the cute hangers.
Laundry room.
The back yard, with a shade over the porch, and the pool which is small enough to be fairly lame. Oh, and a shed.
House #5
Asking price: 142,000
Square Footage (Total): 1665
Price per square foot (finished): $85.29
Distance from work: 1.43miles
Other: 3 bed, 2 bath; okay back yard; fireplace; pretty kitchen w/ new appliances, fridge & built-in microwave, dishwasher
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The house. I like the arch. The garage only opens out into that walkway, though, no direct access from the house.
Sitting room when you first come in.
Past that room is the kitchen. Couldn't get a really good shot of it because my realtor kept loitering in there, talking on her cell phone.
The kitchen drops down into the nicely sized den area with a fireplace and the infamous swords. It also has a crawl space that leads under most of the kitchen, and it wraps around the corner and leads to a little bathroom that was hard to photograph. To the right of the stairs going into the den is a small laundry area.
Also off the kitchen, there's the stairs going up. Upstairs is kind of odd, because there's a bathroom that's just the shower/bath and toilet with a door, which leads out to an L-shaped area with the sink. The L-shaped area opens both into the hall and the master bedroom. You can see where it opens into the sink room a little on the right.
There's also another bathroom and a really hideous bedroom. I just don't know.
Eh. It's a back yard.
House #6 (For sale by owner)
Asking price: 157,900
Square Footage (Total): Not listed? 851 main level, prob approx twice that
Price per square foot (finished): est $95.69 / (total): ??
Distance from work: 0.79miles
Other: 4 bed, 2 bath; nice/small back yard w/ 3 car garage, dog run (garden?), but can only be accessed through the garage (on the main level) or from a deck on the top level; needs new carpeting, owner is offering an allowance toward recarpeting; fireplace; has new stove/oven, no fridge
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The house.
The front door leads right to a set of stairs up or down. The upper area has a fireplace and a view of the front yard. If instead you keep going straight past the stairs, you reach the kitchen (which needs a fridge); another view of the kitchen. If you stand at the stove and look back, the dining area opens back to the front stairs on the left and a small deck with stairs down to the back yard on the right.
An upstairs bedroom, one of two in the upstairs area; the other wasn't too exciting, so just one picture.
The back yard has a shed and dog run, as well as a basketball hoop, three-plus cars worth of garage and extra concrete parking area. The attached garage opens into the house at the stairwell and also opens into the back yard; you can also see a bit of the additional oversized two car garage on the left there.
A large room downstairs at the front of the house, with an attached laundry area, bathroom, and two bedrooms. There is also a small storage area under the stairs, perfect for storing Potters.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:35 am
Okay, I'm looking over stuff.
For house number one:
It looks nice, but inside it looks kind of drab. The kitchen seems to be a bit small, as do the pictures of the bathrooms you posted. I hope if you get that the carpet will change, because the carpet and wallpaper in the house is horrible looking. The backyard, however, looks nice even though there seems to be a huge tree that takes up most of it. Still, I liked the backyard a lot but not so much the inside of the house.
Edit: But with all the rooms ( and ugly wetbar ) there's a lot of storage, which is nice and probably something you could use. I'm not sure you'd need that much storage, though. The house is a little too big for you. But lordy, I hope you'll do some remodeling eventually. Get rid of some of that carpet and do a new paint job for the ktichen. That is, if you get that house.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 12:06 pm
Akimbo Okay, I'm looking over stuff. For house number one: It looks nice, but inside it looks kind of drab. The kitchen seems to be a bit small, as do the pictures of the bathrooms you posted. I hope if you get that the carpet will change, because the carpet and wallpaper in the house is horrible looking. The backyard, however, looks nice even though there seems to be a huge tree that takes up most of it. Still, I liked the backyard a lot but not so much the inside of the house. Edit: But with all the rooms ( and ugly wetbar ) there's a lot of storage, which is nice and probably something you could use. I'm not sure you'd need that much storage, though. The house is a little too big for you. But lordy, I hope you'll do some remodeling eventually. Get rid of some of that carpet and do a new paint job for the ktichen. That is, if you get that house.
And this is one of the smaller houses I'm looking at. sweatdrop So I can't really say I don't need that much storage space, because I'm pretty badly cramped in 1400 and this one's only about 2000.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:08 pm
I dunno if this'll help, but which ones could you imagine yourself living in? All of them? None?
I like the first one a bit, and it doesn't seem too expensive, but I guess you should count in the money it'd take to redo the kitchen with the cost of the house in your mind. And do you like the feeling of it? The front and back look nice, and skylights are a plus! I really liked the sunroom in the second house though...
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:34 pm
I'm only partially done, but I've got to say how much I really like Option #2. Really expensive and fairly big, but it just looks great.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:47 pm
I'm liking number 2 and 3 heart heart
I'm gonna come live with you 4laugh wink
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:50 pm
The one with the bar. Because it has a bar.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 3:25 pm
Ok... here we go.
House 1: I hate it. It's ugly and looks like it will need A LOT of work. Painting, removing that god awful wallpaper, and some new carpeting. Seriously. Do not like. xp
House 2: This is my favorite of the bunch. The small touches are charming, the backyard is... well... I prefer grass to brick, but it's ok. 3nodding
House 3: I like the den/sunroom area. The backyard is also pretty impressive. Not truly impressive, but nice. 3nodding
House 4: The small touches make it really charming. The yard is cute too. A pool? You might need to read up on pool maintence. gonk
House 5: Hot damn, I love the crawl space. I'd probably leave it empty and use it to chase Genrou around. xd I also like the drop from the kitchen into the living room. I'd have so much fun jumping off that. But then... Nabs is like that. xd Ooh! Orbs in the bedroom. Be careful of ghost molesting you! wink (yes, I'm kidding... but being possessed might explain that easter colored closet. What the hell were they on? gonk ) Needs paint... and not easter egg dye.
House 6: Nothing particularly stands out. Not impressive, but nice. The dog run could be handy. sweatdrop
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:05 pm
AzurePaleSky I dunno if this'll help, but which ones could you imagine yourself living in? All of them? None? I like the first one a bit, and it doesn't seem too expensive, but I guess you should count in the money it'd take to redo the kitchen with the cost of the house in your mind. And do you like the feeling of it? The front and back look nice, and skylights are a plus! I really liked the sunroom in the second house though...
There are definitely some strong and weak points for each. I was a little taken aback how much people hated #1. xd I agree the wallpaper isn't great, but I personally thought there were other houses with much uglier wallpapers and colours (like the hideous lavender and floral print bedroom and awful pink bathroom in house #2, or the terrifying pastel bedroom).
On the other hand, when I'm looking at the houses, I tend to think a little less on the things that are easy fixes - like wallpaper or painting, or even carpeting - and a lot more on things that aren't easy changes, like the layout of the house.
House #2 is definitely getting a lot of support; it's got a few things that keep me from definitely putting it in my top slot, although it wavers in and out anyway. It's huge, which is nice...but when I try to plan what I put where, I really come up with rooms for which I would have absolutely no purpose, leading me to think that perhaps it really is a bit too big. (Loathe though I am to admit that there is such a thing.) While it wouldn't be too big a deal to have an empty room, I cringe at the thought of the utility bills when it comes to heating that entire place during the cold months.
There's also the issue of neighborhoods. House 1 is indisputably on the nicest street and in a neighborhood where it is surounded entirely by more nice streets. That was a big factor for me. 2, 3, and 6 are all in a second neighborhood which is still pretty nice. 4 and 5 are at a disadvantage there because not only are they the farthest from work (they're actually back-to-back neighbors, so they're in exactly the same neighborhood as each other), but while they're on fairly nice streets, they are really close to a not-so-nice neighborhood. And walking to work in the middle of night would take me even closer to said not-so-nice neighborhood, which is a kind of scary disadvantage for both. sweatdrop Even though I'm living on the nicest side of town, I'm still in a low-income city with a pretty good amount of gangs and violence and I try not to forget it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:12 pm
Zelyhon I'm only partially done, but I've got to say how much I really like Option #2. Really expensive and fairly big, but it just looks great.
But then I got to thinking...and I seriously have no idea what I'd do with some of the rooms. I mean...that first room would make a fine reception area for guests, except I don't get guests and I don't really plan on it, so it would be a big waste of money to furnish a room I never use. I would be using the biggest room in any house as the area for my TV, etertainment centre, and computer usage, as that would be the room in which I would spend the most (awake) time. The second most time goes into the kitchen. I don't really use a bedroom for much more than sleeping and changing, so that's a little less critical, and other rooms would be for storage and stuff display.
Unfortunately, several of the houses have the disadvantage of having the kitchen on the top level and the biggest open space in the basement, which would mean I'd have to run up and down all the time (because I'm a frequent snacker). That's why I like 1 and 5, since there's pretty direct access from den to kitchen. I guess I could also use a room on the main level for the computer/TV in 2 or 3, but then I'd have absolutely no use for a gigantic room in the basement. Alternatively, I could set up a little minifridge and spare microwave in the downstairs area and stock it with the necessities for little snacks... But I still can't help but think it would be more convenient to be close to my kitchen. ...And I cringe at the thought of moving my heavy furniture down some of those long stairwells.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:16 pm
Shoujo Phoenix I'm liking number 2 and 3 heart heart I'm gonna come live with you 4laugh wink
I really do like House 3, it's just the fateful issue of the dishwasher which keeps me from taking it as a really serious contender. gonk I've become really spoiled by having one and I'd rather not go back to the olden days of hand-washing everything. If it was just a short time, I'd deal, but if I'm buying...I want the basics. sweatdrop The flooring in the kitchen wraps all the way out into the entry way, so I'd have to tear up all kinds of flooring and cabinets if I wanted to put the dishwasher next to the sink, and I'm not sure how else it could be done. I'd probably have to rip up the entire kitchen and start over from scratch to get one and that doesn't quite seem worth it. :Sweat:
It's also got the issue of the huge area downstairs from the kitchen, though I could probably use the den/sunroom with the fireplace in its stead.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:17 pm
Lori Zechlin The one with the bar. Because it has a bar.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:18 pm
I have to say, I can really see a Mala living in the first one. It does look like it'd need some work, but.. they all do. talk2hand
EDIT: And the blue bathroom is really neat!
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