...And the Hunt Begins Again

Found this in a basement of a house we looked at.
May it forever haunt your dreams.

Welcome back, America.

The Houghs have been living in central Michigan for about a year and a half now, but regardless of the fact that we're both holding down well-paying jobs and are in close proximity to all sides of our family, we still aren't feeling 100% settled up here.

And that's because we're still living in a f***ing Rental.

Not a bad floor plan - if not a little small - and
the appliances were pretty old.

While this little house of ours is getting us by - there's plenty of storage space for all our crap, the neighborhood's great, we're centrally located in town to just about everything you could ask for - it still isn't quite 'home.'


The house we've been renting since June of 2015 is small, it's old, and the yard looks like a hobo without his shirt on.  We have my Granny's piano in our dining room, my library has been sitting in a mountain of cardboard boxes atop steel shelving in the basement (undisplayed), and I have stacks of swords everywhere because there's no real place to display them properly.

Long story short, Kris and I are ready to be home-owners again.

I know I've mentioned this before, but we were fortunate enough to make a decent chunk of change off the sale of our Majorama House in Orlando.  To date, that money has been sitting safely in our local Credit Union, biding its time until we can use it to throw down a down payment on our next house.  This next house of ours, dear readers, shall hopefully be the last house Kris and I ever purchase, and I'm aiming to die in it as an old man.

Checking out a built-in library in a property

Preferably in front of the fireplace, with a sword across my lap and a Who album on the turntable.

Anyway.

Now that the Holiday juggernaut has come and gone, and things have once again fallen back into a familiar grind - Kris and I are back at work, the kids are back in school - we've decided to start actively looking for a new place to live.

Our current lease is up in June, so while we're entering the market at a less-than-opportune time (not a lot of inventory available in the dead of winter, so it's definitely a Seller's Market up here in Midland), Kris and I are hoping we can catch something within the next few months and be able to move out before having to extend our lease any.

Checking out a not-so-nice deck of a house that could have worked,
had the owners actually bothered to take care of it these last couple decades. . .

After asking around, Kris and I were led to a realtor that works through the same real estate company we use as our landlord's rental agent.  This guy, Rick (at left), is known for being straight-forward and honest with houses, which Kris and I prefer.  We wanted someone with experience who won't fluff a place up if he doesn't think it's worth it, and fortunately that's not something we have to worry about with him.

After being approved through a lender, we were ready to start viewing available properties. . . and I remembered how much I loathe house-hunting.  Of the five we saw over the course of the last week or so, some were nice, others were comically bad, and some could have worked if only one or two things had been different regarding the floor plan.  Neither of us want to settle, considering we're betting on this next house to be the last we ever own.

I'll use this particular house on Mason St. as an example.  This old Dow-designed house was in our price range, in a desirable neighborhood, with some great landscaping, and three living rooms. . .

. . . a built-in library, with a nice staircase, room for a piano, and an indoor opening that looked down into the kitchen. . .

Slate floors, plenty of retro charm. . .

. . . BUT antiquated windows that would all have to be replaced (they were from the '60s or '70s.)  And replacing an entire house's windows is not cheap, folks.

 Nor is replacing an entire house-worth of peeling wallpaper.  Had this house been about $100,000 less, Kris and I would have pounced on it, but, sadly, we had to pass on it.  This sort of 'on one hand this, but on the other hand, this' thing is starting to get really, really old, and we've only been looking for a week or so.  Can't imagine how many more white hairs I'm going to start sprouting if we're going to be at this for a few months. . .

Rick and Kris, inspecting another property's living room windows. . .

Kris and I have realized we need at least three bedrooms and two bathrooms in our next house (well, four bedrooms or three bedrooms and an office space for Kris, to be exact.)  We'd also need a Living Room (for the couches, TV, etc.) as well as a Family Room (for a fireplace, our library, the bar stuff, etc.)  A two-car garage, a large basement (to house our storage, our exercise equipment, drum set, girls' playroom etc.), and a shed.  In addition, we'd like to be on this side of town, near the kids' schools and where the neighborhoods are a little quieter.

Retro '70s basement, anyone?

Maybe that's frivolous, maybe that's being too picky. . . but, damn it, you know what?  I'm pushing 40, and I deserve this crap in my life, already.

We'll keep you posted with how this whole disaster of a situation unfolds. . .

- Brian