All posts tagged simplifying

nebojsa mladjenovic via Compfight

I said I wasn’t picky, right?  Well, I’m not…exactly.

But then again, I sort of am.

We’re not planning to move again from this property, hopefully ever.  It’s supposed to be our “forever home.”  Therefore I’m not looking at the properties with an eye for “Yeah, I guess I could live there, deal with that.”  I’m looking at them with an eye for “Can this really become our dream home, with some patience and work?”  If the answer’s no…then it’s not something I’m interested in.  That makes it trickier.  I’m not looking for a “perfect” home, but it must have the potential I need.

With that said, I’ll tell you how it went last week….

House #1

I didn’t take any pictures of the homes because I felt like I should respect the privacy of the current and future owners.  I probably wouldn’t want pictures of all my stuff and my property all over someone’s blog, so…yeah.  If and when we find houses that are serious possibilities I may take some pictures, and I definitely will once we’ve purchased.

This house was about 2100 square feet and it sat on 8 acres of land.  The land, unfortunately, was very narrow (maybe 50 feet wide?) and extremely long.  Most of it was inaccessible, very heavily wooded.  That was a problem for us.

The house wasn’t in very good condition.  The outside was faded and the wood needed replaced on the deck.  The inside of the house held a fairly tiny kitchen with very little eat-in or cooking space.  It had just one other room downstairs, plus the master bedroom.  The floor plan was a bit more open than a house we saw previously, but still fairly closed.  Upstairs there were two more bedrooms.

The property was also very overpriced.  Our realtor said that he would probably price it under $250,000; the owners have it priced at $290,000 and have refused to come down.  It hasn’t sold, and the realtor isn’t surprised.

Ultimately this property isn’t for us, because the house’s floor plan isn’t ideal and couldn’t be easily changed, plus the property isn’t good for grazing animals.

Ville Miettinen via Compfight

House #2

This house was very nice.  The land was very open, with a large amount of cleared, sunny land around the house — plenty to start a large garden and a chicken coop in the first year.  The rest of the land was accessible and easily cleared, for grazing animals later.  The land also had a big pond on it, with a dock!  It also had a large front porch.  The only drawback was a “shared driveway” with a neighbor, who was literally in front of this house.  We aren’t sure how to feel about that….

The house itself was very nice.  It had a decent-sized kitchen with good counter space and eating space (and could be added onto if we were into knocking out walls, since it was at the back of the house), and a nice mudroom/utility room/pantry between kitchen and garage.  It had a smaller-than-I’d-like living area and no second room.  There were two bedrooms downstairs, right across the hall from each other.  I don’t really love having bedrooms downstairs…but at least there were two, so I could have the youngest child close.

Upstairs there was one finished bedroom and a large nearly-finished “bonus room.”  All it would need was insulation, dry wall, and a floor (all the plumbing and electricity was there).  So it could be a four-bedroom home with minimal work.

The basement was also very nice.  It was poured-wall (very sturdy, ideal), with a big open space.  The furnace and such were over to one side, and there was a small area with shelving that would be great for storing canned goods.  The rest was open, and could easily be finished and turned into a couple of rooms, like a good homeschool room and/or another bedroom.

This one, we will consider.  I’m hesitant about the area because I really don’t want to be on the west side, but it’s looking like that’s where we can afford property and where it will be close enough to Ben’s job.  But this one definitely has a lot of potential and we will probably go see it again.

House #3

This one is in a very heavily wooded area.  There is a small amount of cleared land right around the house, but it’s very shaded.  I wouldn’t be able to garden or raise chickens without some major work.  That’s a big drawback for us.

The house is very nice, and very big.  It has a decent living room, plus a formal dining room, another main room, and an office, plus a decent-sized kitchen and utility room on the main floor.  It’s actually a little bit too much for me…I’d rather have fewer rooms but bigger rooms.

Upstairs, there are five bedrooms and three bathrooms.  It’s a loooooong hallway!  I’d be nervous because the master bedroom is all the way on one end.  I wouldn’t want kids all the way on the opposite until they were older!  I know, I know…it’s just a hallway.  It was nice that there was so much space, though, for when we would have more children.

This one was also a short sale and we would have no ability to negotiate or have any conditions on the sale, which I didn’t like.

Ultimately we will probably not consider this house.

Bernat Casero via Compfight

What I’ve Learned

I’m refining my desires all the time!  I’ve learned that what I really prefer in a home is:

• Kitchen against the back of the home (so we can expand it later)
• Utility on the first floor (between the kitchen and garage as a mudroom was really awesome, too — if it had been a little bigger it would have been the perfect multi-purpose room)
• Bedrooms upstairs (we keep arguing about this one but I feel safer with everyone on the same floor at night and feel like upstairs/bedrooms are “private space” for the family)
• A large, sunny area of cleared land on which we can build a play area for kids, a large garden, and a chicken coop in the first year
• Not on a main road, or very far back from the road (I don’t want to have to worry about kids getting in the street!)
• At least four bedrooms
• Only three main rooms on the main floor: kitchen, great room, smaller living room/library, with a very open floor plan.  We’ll spend most of our time in the first two anyway
• Outdoor buildings are not that important at this time
• Having a fence around an area near the house would be excellent, because we would need to do that immediately to protect the kids
• A large front porch (I’ve always loved the idea of having a rocking chair on the porch!)

Now, that last one we could always add.  The rest, though…needs to be pretty much there.  That’s why I wanted to see houses, even ones we weren’t sure were even realistic possibilities for us, because I wanted to get ideas for what I really liked.

Decluttering

Curious how my efforts are going?

It’s a little bit frustrating, because the more I go through, the more I realize just how much stuff we really had that we do not need.  And that stuff can’t magically disappear, so my house has gotten generally messier as I have cleaned out rooms and closets.  Some rooms and closets are very clean now.  But the hallways and some big rooms, well….

At least we’re making progress, right?

I’ve gathered a couple big boxes of clothes to sell or donate, and some blankets and baby sheets.  I’ve weeded out almost 80% of the kids’ toys (and still feel like they have too many!  And simultaneously wish they had more of certain things, like blocks and kitchen tools).  I’ve gone through my closet, linen closet, hall linen closet, and hallway bathroom.  My daughter had most of her things taken away months ago when she would not stop ripping them apart during quiet time, so her room is clean.

I’m attacking surfaces downstairs as I have time.  I have a bunch of junk piled on the changing table, fish tank, and dehydrator.  Since I rarely ever go into those piles, I’m pretty sure I don’t need most of it.  I’ll be trying to get rid of all those this week.  I will also be going through my son’s closet (we store stuff in there that mostly isn’t his) and the kitchen cabinets.  When we can, my husband and I will be heading down to the basement for a half hour or an hour after the kids go to bed and cleaning up.  We’ve made some progress in this area, but my son being sick on Friday night derailed us a bit.

I’ll show you pictures of all the piles we’ve cleared out next week!  I’ll also talk about our (hopefully) upcoming garage sale and all that we learn about that.  I already took a load of cardboard to the recycle center so at least something has left my house.

How is your decluttering effort going?  Any other dream home hunters out there?