So we saw the house last night - finally! And now that we know, we know it's not one we are interested in living in. Don't get me wrong, it was nice, and we liked it - but it had really awkward uses of space, so we would have to do A LOT of work to make it workable, and for the price they were asking, combined with the renovations we would need to do, it was not at all in our budget.
Let me try to take you on a mental tour of the house.
When you first walk up the front walk, there are perfectly manicured tree's on either side strategically placed in the yard - then just off the front door to the right is a round deck with room for a table and 4 chairs to sit and enjoy an afternoon tea. Once you go inside you are at the start of two long hallways, one heading straight ahead toward the kitchen, and one off to the left leading to the bedrooms and bathroom, and to the right is an opening that leads to a long narrow living room space - probably 12 feet wide, and 20 feet long. Turning to the left to go down one of the hallways, there is a bedroom on your first left - it's very small, an office, maybe 8 x 10. The next room, also on the left is a little bigger, but still only maybe 10 x 10. Then turning the corner in the hallway we reach the newly renovated large bathroom, that doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the house - there is a floor to ceiling stone shower, and a bidet (which still weirds me out).
The next room, and last room in the hallway is the master bedroom, which couldn't be more than 12 x 12, and held a king sized bed in the middle, allowing only 2 feet all the way around the room to move (Ben and I want a King sized bed, but we also want a room that can properly fit it too). It also only had one small closet, no bigger than the one we share now - we already did our time with the tiny closet, our next house HAS to have a bigger space for us.
Then you go back down the hallway toward the front door again, and this time go straight toward the kitchen - the kitchen is very dated with flourescent pannels in the ceiling (I hate those), and a pink counter top, and built in bench nook. To the right of the kitchen is the back of the long hallway-like living room, which opens to the extension which the kitchen over looks. You take a couple steps down to get into the extension, and it's a warm room with a wood burning fireplace, and automatic blinds - about 15 X 15.
Going back up through the kitchen on the left hand side of the room is a set of steps that lead to the back door, and downstairs.
As you reach the bottom of the stairs, there is a large office to the right with built in shelving and book cases all around the room - the room is maybe 14 X 14. Then the next room is open to the rest of the basement and is about the same size and has a few pieces of exercise equipment. Off of that is a pantry/cold room. Across from the exercise space is a long narrow area with just a long cupboard built along the wall (similar in size to the living room upstairs). Once you reach the end of that, there is an open space with the laundry facilities and a bathroom with a shower. ... you know, come to think of it, this house did not have a tub!
The basement was like the mainfloor - a series of awkward spaces and hallways. There was no den, or lounge area in the basement, and not much of a place where one could be put in either.
Once we go out the back door, we are on a nice deck with a hot tub, and an extra large built in BBQ with room to cook 40 burgers (three grills), that was bolted to the deck. Then once you leave the deck there are 3 apple trees, a green house to one side, with a huge garage at the end, and a parking pad and shed to the right of that.
Inside the garage you see everything a man dreams about - floor to ceiling tools, built in storage with a second level on one side and a room to park 4 cars - PLUS a 6 foot by 22 foot work space at the front. We would have had no problem fitting Goldmember and our cars in there, plus all the camping, bikes and any other equipment we wanted to throw in there.
Unfortunately much to Ben's dismay, we can't buy a house based on the Garage :p
Like I said, it was a nice house, and had potential, but in order to make it something Ben and I want to live in for many years to come we would need to basically re-gut the whole house and move everything around. The Kitchen upstairs would have to go 10 feet to the right into the "living room hallway" and the Master bedroom would need to be expanded into where the kitchen was, and those renovations are just too much for Ben and I.
Oh well, now we know. First house down, many more to go!
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