By the end of the day I was suffering from a migrane so bad I was about in tears. But I took four Tylenol and am feeling much better now. The Butcher and I ended up relooking at two houses–one on Kentucky and one on Litton.
I love them both.
But I don’t know if I want to buy either of them.
I think that’s what I realized after talking to the Butcher for a couple of hours about them. Both of them would have to be fenced in. That’s equally draw-backy to both places. The one on Kentucky is only 1000 square feet and there’s no basement. It’s very cute and I could see myself living there, but it doesn’t have a fireplace and the washer/dryer room seems very small (not the room itself, but the room alotted to a washer and dryer) and it doesn’t have a dishwasher. And I think it’s going to need a new HVAC in the next little bit. And the kitchen cabinets will need to be replaced. It has a great big porch, but when sitting on the great big porch, you’re staring at duplexes.
So, the house is cute, but the block it’s on is not so cute. And is Kentucky in a neighborhood on its way up or on its way down? I just don’t know. It’s close to work, which is a consideration. But I worry that it’s not enough room and that I like it because I don’t dare want too much and this house is not too much. Both cost-wise and house-wise.
The house on Litton is also darling. It’s much bigger. It’s got three bedrooms and a dining room separate from the kitchen and a fireplace in the living room. It’s also got a basement full of storage space and plenty of room for the washer and dryer. The kitchen is darling, if narrow, and it has a sunny back deck and a big back yard. But they’d have to come down about seven thousand dollars to be in our price range. And it would need a fence.
And, and this is a big “and,” when Realtracs gives you directions to the house, they take you up Gallatin to McGavock and have you turn on Riverside and then turn on Litton. You come through a very cute neighborhood past shops and restaurants that young hipsters and old farts like me could imagine ourselves in. You think to yourself “Oh, this is a good neighborhood and we’d be so lucky if we could get them to agree to sell us this house for what we can afford.”
But when the Butcher and I went back by it later, we came up Gallatin, and I was like “Hey, there’s Litton. Turn right there.”
And after driving block after block after block of Litton, I’ve got to tell you, I don’t think I feel like that’s a fair price for that house anymore. In fact, I’m pretty sure the very most I think I’d pay to live in that neighborhood is about $10,000 less than what the house is going for. And that’d be with some real assurances by folks that Litton is going to gentrify.
Maybe that’s unreasonable on my part.
I don’t know.
And I have realtors in my family–my cousin J. and my Uncle B. are both in the business and my grandma was a realtor for one million years–so I know there’s a level of bullshit to things–taking pictures from the best angles, painting things that should have been torn down, whatever.
But passing off a house as being in a much safer neighborhood than it’s actually in?
That seems to me to be bending things a little farther than they ought to be bent.
Edited to Add: I know it probably doesn’t seem like it from this post, but I am really excited about the houses we saw today. It’s just my inner B. was all “Hell yes, let’s buy them both and just split our time between them!” and when I sit back and say, “Well, wait, what are the objective facts?” I’m afraid I sound more down than I actually am. I’m just exhausted and have a lot to think about.
Edited Again to Add: Kathy’s blogging about them, too! check them out. I didn’t tell you about the green one in Lebanon, because, by the end of the day, Lebanon just seemed too far away, but it was also very, very cute.
Tiny Cat Pants 