It seems hard to believe that this is the 8th house we've seen in just 2 months (and I could be wrong, we could have seen more, I just can't remember!) Anyway, this one we actually noticed on the way out to house #7 last time, it's in Norton, just outside of the village (which is about 15 mins outside of Sussex), and the more we think about it, the more we like it. It's on a nice sized lot (1.5 acres or something like that), with only one neighbour and fields all around the other sides. It's a nice piece of property and has plenty of room for a garden/chicken coop, etc. It's 1600sq feet, so plenty big, 4 bedrooms plus an office space downstairs, large kitchen, deck, lots of natural light, brand new bathroom, family room separate from the living room/dining room area of the house, lots of character, all new click flooring throughout (except for one room upstairs). Plenty of good traits in my opinion.
Now, of course, a house like this in our price range couldn't be without its major flaws, and this one has a couple, mainly in the form of the basement and the septic/water system (yeah, not a big deal, right? haha). The basement is sketchy at best and had a lot of water in it even when we were there (it's really damp with a dirt floor, cracked walls, etc). There was a sub-pump down there and the foundation itself looked to be in decent condition, but it could use some MAJOR work to keep water from getting in. Also, the main pump for the water (from the well) is out in a shed in the backyard as opposed to in the basement, underground (like they are supposed to be I guess?), which means it most likely freezes in the wintertime, which is not good obviously. So those things would need to be addressed pretty much right away, so major bucks/work there. Sigh.
The good part is that there isn't much that the house itself needs immediately, so we could sink our money into fixing those issues and wait on the rest and still live comfortably (the roof may need a new coat of paint, but that could wait, along with a bunch of other 'cosmetic' things inside). They recently lowered the price, which is good, and we're actually going back to see it on Wednesday night to make an exact list of everything that will need fixed and how much it will cost to see if it would be worth it. Like I said, we both really like it, but we don't want to get into something that we can't afford to get into and that will cause more stress/work than it's worth.
So at the moment it's kind of a tie between
house #2 (the house in Church Ave) and this one. We may go see Church Ave again too to compare since we haven't been there in awhile, but that one was the asbestos one, so we're pretty wary of it.
Anyway, we haven't gone to see anything else since this one, we've pretty much scraped the bottom of our price range barrel, but we're hoping that with the warmer weather more houses will come up for sale this month...with a potential move in date of 6-8 weeks though, I hope something that comes up soon or that we're able to make a decision we'll feel good about!
Thanks for following along on this house hunting adventure of ours.
Back soon with our 2nd impressions on this yellow and green beaute ;)
G.
PS-We live in a small town of about 5,000 people in a poorer area of the country, in case you are noticing the prices seeming super low, haha. What are they like where you live? That kind of thing fascinates me...
