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Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

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Original poster

Did you ever just WANT a house...

50 replies

CheerfulYank · 24/01/2015 06:55

and you're not sure why?

There's this house in my neighborhood that I firmly feel should be mine.

I was in it once when it was for sale, with friends who were looking to buy. They didn't want it, but I did. Instantly.

I'm not sure why...I've seen many nicer houses. But I did. It's got more space than ours and I'd just convinced DH that we should speak to the realtor if it hadn't sold by that spring...when someone bought it.

Now (especially as I'm pregnant with baby #3 and we need the space) I keep hoping I see a for sale sign in front of it.

Sigh. Anyone? Any dream houses? I don't mean the fabulous mansion you saw in a magazine, I mean like a real house. :)

OP posts:

DeathstarDarling · 24/01/2015 14:43

It was an instinctive thing for me.
I was looking for a flat (all I could afford) and had just about seen enough bad conversions with horrid kitchens and feeling a bit down. Anyway, I said to my mum, I am going to buy the one on the corner when it comes up for sale....when I have more money... this week... next week... sometime ...never. It had a big slate fireplace (seen through the window) and a nice vibe.

Anyway it came up for sale and I couldn't afford it. Then I got promoted, the original sale fell through after about six months and I made a silly offer on first viewing. I had deck chairs in the front room and the fridge was a plant pot outside the back door for the first six months. I have been here nearly two happy decades and now it is all mine, bought and paid for.

Original poster

CheerfulYank · 24/01/2015 15:11

All these stories are giving me hope! Thank you.

Yes Ninny it does look a bit frightening in the pictures :o But it isn't in person, it's full of light and really nice, I promise.

It sounds silly, I know, but when I was inside it I got the impression that it had been owned by a big, loud, happy family...and wanted to be again.

OP posts:

PrincessPilolevuofTONGA · 24/01/2015 15:34

i was going to say that i didn't know they had houses like that in America, my knowledge being based purely on infomation gathered from pinterest. then i got to the 5th or 6th pic and yes, it's all gone pinterest.

buy it. it's lovely. is it always cold there? i might move to be near you if not. i'd like a house for $90k

Original poster

CheerfulYank · 24/01/2015 15:50

It isn't for sale right now Princess. :( I'd buy it if it was! (Providing we could sell ours anyway)

It isn't always cold. Winters are very chilly but summers are 30+. Springs and autumns are lovely. :)

OP posts:

Onecurrantbun · 25/01/2015 07:21

Slightly different but I am feeling a little sentimental. When I was a little girl we used to drive home from school along a particular road. 10 of the houses were beautiful, individually styled and backed onto the local park. I drove my mum mad asking if we could live there! Eventually we started calling it "Onecurrantbun's road" and I used to simply state that I would live in one of those houses when I was a grown up.

When I was 18 my new boyfriend lived alone in a house he'd inherited from his parents. I arranged to go round and lo and behold his address was 123 Onecurrantbun's Road (one of the ten!)

Reader, I married him.

Sadly we had to sell the house as the renovations needed were outside our scope. We will move back to that road one day!

rumbelina · 25/01/2015 07:51

In May 2013 I was selling my house and DH and I looked at a house that was going to be sold by a kind of auction process. It needed lots of work, elderly couple had lived there, no central heating etc, was on quite cheaply. Just a standard 3 bed semi.

I got a real feeling about it like it should be my house, or would be my house. Unfortunately we couldn't go any further as DH changed job, my house sale was going slooooowly and we decided to rent until DH had been in his job for longer.

Fast forward to October 2014 and we are looking for a house to buy and it comes on the market, all work done, we offer and it's accepted and are now in final stages of fixing price and should be in in 3 weeks.

I haven't told anyone this but it's almost like I knew I would live there when I saw it. I'm not woo at all and I know it's just a happy coincidence really but it was very strong and I almost wasn't surprised it had come on the market when we needed it to.

JingleBellsJuliet · 25/01/2015 10:41

The house I moved into last week just feels like home. I had 125k to buy with, which realistically should have bought me a 2 bed terrace in this village, but I advertised on local groups on FB and this place belonged to a friend of a friend who was just thinking about selling. I'd joked to my dad that my ideal house would've been a 3 bed semi with parking for 2 cars, a low maintenance garden, loft conversion and an open fire... Walked into here and it had all of those things! It had been valued at 15k higher, but they took my stupidly low offer, and 6 months later, we're in and I'm as much in love with it as I was the first time I walked through the door.

It needs a lot of work - rewiring at some point, new kitchen, new bathroom, windows replacing, loft conversion finishing off, driveway digging out and redoing - but it's liveable for now and I have all the time in the world. Plus, if it had been in fab condition, it would've been valued at more like 150k, which was way out of my budget.

ClaudiaNaughton · 27/01/2015 08:46

Hope you're not snowed under Cheerful. The bright side is you're safe from MN stalkers in this weather.

Bin85 · 27/01/2015 08:55

Some of you might like to read " Sleeping Murder" by Agatha Christie where a young wife is house hunting and feels herself drawn to a particular(lovely sounding ) house and then .......!

SnowBells · 27/01/2015 09:24

Wow. Given it's 50% larger than our home which cost about 8x the price of that property, I'd say... buy it!

I would if I were closer. I have to say though (as someone who has lived in the US for a bit), I don't understand why there are beautiful houses there, but often filled with cr*p...

Original poster

CheerfulYank · 27/01/2015 13:59

I don't know either Snow! :) The house actually isn't for sale, that's the problem.

Ooh I do love Agatha Christie Bin.

OP posts:

Bin85 · 28/01/2015 09:08

One of her best stories if you've not read it
The Marple one on TV also good but they change the story quite a bit

shovetheholly · 28/01/2015 10:41

Yes, yes, yes!

There are a couple of absolutely lovely places up the road from me that are very distinctive for the area and have beautiful views. I stop to admire every time I go past. I doubt I'll ever live there, but I enjoy the dream!

LaurieFairyCake · 28/01/2015 10:49

Omg that house in my area would be over a million

That's about 70,000 pounds for 2000 square feet
Omg

PossumPoo · 28/01/2015 13:07

Not me but DH. He saw this house and wanted it before we even got through the front door.

We did get it and have been happy here (much to my surprise! ). The old gent that was selling it had a twin brother who moved to Aus and ended up in the same tiny town where my dsis lives.

There was other competition and we offered lower but they wanted us to have it.

I was also 7 months pregnant, on a visa with no apparent credit history in the UK so l never thought we'd even get the mortgage.

Sometimes things do just turn out!

Should point out that l had totally disregarded this house as it didn't have a bath. Bathroom has now been updated

SquinkiesRule · 28/01/2015 20:43

I always wanted a Craftsman style house when we lived in the US. I used to drive through a neighborhood to work that all kinds of the Sears catalog homes that had been put on large lots. Then I made friends with a few women who lived in them, one in a tiny two bed and another in a large 4 bed similar to the one you like OP, I really didn't like the inside like I thought I would so that dream went out the window. We had a California modern house built in the 50's and I hated it from the day we moved in. Then a traditional 3 bed ranch style that I loved and still miss. I miss the open floor plan and living all on one level.

mathanxiety · 01/02/2015 08:12

I love that house, CheerfulYank. You could add $300,000 to the price where I live for exactly that sort of house, same vintage, and even if it had somehow lost the gorgeous original built-ins and doors original floors, it would be bought an hour after it went on MLS. You could add another $50k at least for original woodwork like that one has.

When I was selling my house my real estate agent insisted I eliminate all traces of books and I thought this was completely wrong. My thought was like Tangoandcreditcards, that the house's soulmates would walk in the door and be smitten by something in it that spoke to them, so I should leave the books in situ and they might draw someone in. I had felt drawn to the house in the first place, and by the same token I know there were houses that repelled me.

LuckyLopez · 01/02/2015 08:20

Just wondering if anyone knows what 2.25 bathrooms would be?

TalkinPeace · 01/02/2015 13:45

Go and knock on the door.
Tell them that if they want to sell, you will buy, saving them the realtor fees.
You never know.

A cousin of mine (in the US) got their dream house that way.
Turned out that the owner wanted to move right away.

CanadianJohn · 01/02/2015 16:22

LuckyLopez, bathrooms usually have 4 fixtures, sink, toilet, bath, shower. The expression "half-bath" refers to toilet + sink. My guess is that a 1/4 bath refers to a toilet only.

SirVixofVixHall · 01/02/2015 16:28

OP "your" house is lovely. It looks like a Swedish house, do they look like that generally round your way? Have you read "the children of green knowe" books at all? The author, Lucy Boston, fell in love with a house, and it did become hers. The books are set in a slightly fictionalised version of her real house. I think some houses are just meant for some people . I'm still waiting for my destined house to appear.

mathanxiety · 01/02/2015 20:43

I suspect a room with just a toilet would be against building codes because of hygiene concerns but older houses from an era before strict codes that have not been modified much might have features like this.

Could it mean that the plumbing is in place for a half bathroom but no fixtures have been installed? This is the state of play in my mum's house in Dublin.

TalkinPeace · 01/02/2015 20:48

Toilet only not barred in the USA (at least not the States I know)

LuckyLopez · 01/02/2015 20:53

Thank you canadianjohn

Justwhy · 01/02/2015 21:06

I live in the house I wanted. We looked at it two years before buying it. It was taken off the market and we decided not to move anyway. Two years later we sold our flat at a £17,000 loss when the housing market was at its worse. 'Our' house came back onto the market and we bought it at almost £30,000 less than it was two years previously. It's not a big house and it's not perfect but it just felt like home. And still does.

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