Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Four-sided Brick in Established Decatur Neighborhood

My blog title reads like a personal ad for a house, doesn't it? 

This casa is a 3 bedroom/2 bath with a lot more space than we expected. In addition to a good-sized formal living room (sidenote: what does one do with a formal living room?), the house has a HUGE second living room that flows into a nice sunroom. This will make more sense when you see the photos. The house is located in the same nice neighborhood as this cute 3/2 we looked at last weekend.

This place is currently sitting in second or third place on my list.


View from spacious formal living room into dining room.

Main living room/sunroom. It's H-U-G-E.

The kitchen has a similar layout to our last house — but the footprint is 
a little bigger. We would want to update this.

"Vintage" (euphemism for "ugly") pink tile in one of the full baths.

View of her backside. Can't you just see a basketball goal back there?

Part of the (unfinished) basement. This basement has potential for growth.

Cozy backyard, complete with birdhouse.

Pros:
  • Convenient location to Toco Hills, downtown Decatur, the Virginia Highlands
  • Established neighboorhood
  • Lots of space
  • Priced within our boundaries
  • Our investments in the home would be supported by the neighborhood — and we could cash-flow the improvements over time
  • Room to finish part of the basement (one large room, a bedroom and small family room or some kind of in-law suite)
  • Deep and wide two-car garage
  • Optional swim/tennis club membership
Cons: 
  • Bathrooms, kitchen need updating
  • Screened in porch downstairs is accessed via the unfinished basement (awkward for now — but will be nice if we finished part of the basement)
  • High taxes (more of this $6,000/year-ish stuff. ugh!)
  • House sits slightly below street level
  • Front porch slopes downward slightly (though this may be by design so it doesn't collect water)
  • Curb appeal is better than the photos show — but it's not the "looker" from the street that this one is 

3 comments:

mixie said...

You could make the formal living room an office or library by adding built in bookcases. I hate the idea of the tv in the main living room so it could be a tv/entertainment room. Good luck!

Kb_Mal said...

What a great idea!

Chi Chi said...

That sunroom is AMAZING!!! Can you give us a list of your top 5? I can't really tell from your pro/con lists.