We met our friends to transfer the kids and Owen was excited to go play with his new friends.
We met our agent at the first house and actually really liked it. It was quite similar to the Band-Aid house:
- Four bedrooms…but an unfinished basement.
- More hardwood floors…but not quite as open a floor plan.
- A deck…but no fence possible.
- Kitty corner from a playground…but everything felt a bit crowded.
But $200 cheaper a month. 😐
So it was back to the Band-Aid house to talk with the owner, who had requested to meet us. He wasn’t thrilled with the July 1 start date but he liked the 3-year lease…so apparently he wanted to see if he liked us…?!?!
Amazingly he is willing to put up a fence and some ceiling fans. It’s only three bedrooms but it’s got a HUGE finished basement with a full bath so will be great for (long-term!) guests! The one small bad/strange thing [that we didn’t realize in ANY of our searching thus far] is that bedrooms here typically have no overhead lights…so we have to buy lamps again.
So it was a very tough decision. I honestly thought we’d be good in either house, but my gut said the Band-Aid house. Tom was in the same boat…but I think the agreement to put up a fence sealed the deal, so we filled out the app, shook on it, then went to get certified checks…and breathe a sigh of relief. And panic a little because it’s a bit over our budget. But we’ll make it work because we have to.
Of course then we started thinking about things…and looked at the listing again. It says 4BR but we don’t remember four bedrooms—in fact, both of us were sure it was three. But if it’s the same as the first house, then it has four (because I remember thinking the basement bedroom made five). And we can use our own washer and dryer—but we’re pretty sure it’s a gas hookup so we may need to ask to have an outlet installed (I’m not buying a gas dryer AGAIN—we did that in Troy and sold it when we moved back here). And where are we going to put our deck set with no deck?! I guess it will be a party table in the basement.
So…exciting and still terrifying at the same time!
So here’s the Band-Aid house—the houses are very close together but at least it’s a house and not a townhouse!
You can just see the corner of the kitchen (hardwoods), then the main living area with the fireplace, and the carpeted (?!) dining room (which will likely be a play room):
The kitchen—with Corian counters and the gas stove on the island. He calls the appliances upgraded but they’re pretty basic (though I guess the fridge is a side-by-side with a water dispenser). We’re debating bringing our awesome stainless fridge and putting this one in the garage (then buying a cheap stainless one for our house in Jacksonville).
Cool windows in the stairwell:
The huge master bedroom:
And the closets are BEFORE the bathroom like I wanted—not THROUGH the bathroom like we have now. 🙂 It has a soaking tub (not jetted like we have now) but we never used it anyway so no biggie.
And the kids’ bath has two sinks like I wanted!
There’s not much of a back yard…but at least there’s some nice grass!
So we’re just waiting on the app and credit check to be run Monday morning so they can send us the lease to sign!