House #4

Sorry for the delay in between posts. It's been a busy but exciting time... we've been packing boxes, visiting new babies (hello little Mr. Chase Zoladz!) and apartment hunting*.

Okay, here's house number four from last weekend's house hunting excursion.

I had decently high hopes for this place. It's within our price range, features four bedrooms and an "open layout," is near Buckhead and Decatur — and is convenient to I-85 and 400. 

And... the house was just okay. I mean, I think it has lots of potential but it's just not the house for us. A tree or limb falling on the sunroom made the home feel moist, if even temporarily. And it's position on the lot didn't let in much natural sunlight. Like with the five-bedroom house near downtown Decatur, I'm glad we satisfied our curiosity to visit this house.

The house was neat — but I think it would have benefited from some staging.

Pros:

• Nice hardwood floors
• No one will build in backyard because it's sloped and has a creek running through it
• Four bedrooms
• Enough within price range that we could put some money in it
• Would shorten our commutes by five to ten minutes
• Good-sized deck

Cons:

• Sloped yard with creek running through (i.e., not a very usable backyard) — the yard could also make the house victim to flooding/additional moisture
• Smaller kitchen
• House felt dark and moist (it didn't illicit the the warm, cheery feeling you hope to feel when you see a house)
• Damage to sunroom from limb falling may be worse than what it appears
• 1-car carport would be inconvenient 
• Didn't feel like it had as much usable living space (though I think that it could work size-wise; the set up would be critical)

We decided to not go see the fifth house, as our agent pointed out that it was next to the interstate. In fact, our realtor almost laughed at me for wanting to see the house because of it's super crazy close proximity to I-85. Whoops. Should have checked the stats a little better...

*We plan to move into an apartment for five to eight months while we save and house hunt.