This is not my beautiful house.

[constance]

I went on my blind date yesterday. In fact, it was really more like one of those 20-minute dating round-robin nightmares than an afternoon of coffee and window-shopping, and I saw three houses and peeked into the windows of another and didn't see a fifth at all. The three houses were each of them mighty fine, in their own way, but because I have a yen for May-December romances, it was the turn-of-the-century houses that were the most seductive.

I still like the red one best. It's a Craftsman, which as we all know is an open obsession of mine. It's a bit on the shabby side, but appears to me to be in fairly decent shape. 1750 or so square feet. Five fireplaces, some of which have been stripped in preparation for staining. It has a wide front porch (albeit a porch inexplicably COVERED IN ASTROTURF OMG). It has a kitchen and a butler's pantry, both of which retain their beautiful glass-front original cabinets. The bathroom is pedestrian, but serviceable. Big, slightly overgrown fenced backyard. Floor furnace heat, no central air. It has glittery ceilings. The floors are in decent shape, with no soft or rotten spots that I could see. The neighborhood is like the house, shabby but decent, and it deserves to make a comeback because the houses in it are genuinely charming. It's $10000 cheaper than

, which, objectively speaking, is by far the best buy. It's priced low because it's corporate owned, and that and the fact that the former owners were partway through a major renovation are the only things that pull it into my price range. It's in a comfortably middle-class to upper-middle-class neighborhood, full of well-kept homes. It's got some major sex appeal. It sits on a slightly larger lot than Bachelor No. 1 does, and it is also fenced. It's one of those Late Victorian/Craftsman Hybrids. The kitchen has been completely modernized. There are three fireplaces. It has what the realtor calls three bedrooms and I call two, and it's huge, around 2200 square feet, and all the rooms are big--I worry that it will be a little too much. It has a back deck, with positively dangerous steps that will have to be replaced before anyone can use them. Central air and heat. There are a couple of spots where the ceiling plaster will have to be patched, and the owners had knocked out a wall between a bedroom and the butler's pantry and finished the walls but the floors are still a mess, though the tile they'd planned on using is stacked neatly against the wall. It's got a wraparound porch and lots of windows (both houses have lots of windows, actually). The bathroom's big but awkwardly laid out, and the fixtures are pink, and the wall tile is pink and bright new-leaf green O_o.

It's a good thing to have two houses to crush on, right? I could seriously love either one. And so now I have to decide which one I'd most want to commit to and fight the onset of a major panic attack and set everything in motion.

*takes deep breath*

:::

Of course you have seen neither of these houses personally. But I'm curious to know: which do you like best?

Comments

[aubrem.livejournal.com]

One if fantastic but two is a keeper. OMG I love two. Are you really home shopping? If yes, more details! Is this you alone? Are you planning on staying there the rest of your life? A very long time at least? Will you have money to do the work that needs to be done? (pink fixtures! what were they thinking?)

oh god this is exciting. Beautiful liveably sized houses set in much greenery. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

[sunkentreasure.livejournal.com]

I vote for #2 as well. #1 is lovely, no denying it. But #2... *swoons*

[kickthebeat.livejournal.com]

oh man oh man, they are both darling but I think I'm going to have to go with house #2 as well. though, honestly, I'd be most inclined to vote for whichever house would accomodate drop-in guests the best.

[dahlia-777.livejournal.com]

I vote for no 1. The exterior is prettier, the interior sounds as if it has more character, and from what you say the changes you'd make are easy and cosmetic (getting rid of the astroturf) rather than major (replacing the pink bathroom). I also have a bias towards shabby, unpretentious, mixed-class neighbourhoods (providing they have the basics like a few decent bars, restaurants and a local cinema, anyway!). I'd hate to live in a community that's only made up of middle class people. It would be so dull and... unreal.

[font.livejournal.com]

Oooh, #2 is a looker, sure, but my heart has beat for #1 since first you introduced us.

I would find the bathroom silly and I would no doubt giggle every time I had to use the toilet -- my current bathroom is decorated in ducks -- and so that bit of the fix-up wouldn't bug me, but as for the rest of it, no. And to be honest with you, that extra space kind of wigs me out a bit. It seems like the things you would be paying extra for -- more room, better neighborhood, modernized (yet incomplete) features, the Victorian character -- are things you don't want very much, and that it has built-in inconveniences, while #1 is lovely in every way except for the astroturf, which is no big deal. And the cabinets! <3333333333! One question about #1, though, which is that I can't tell if this is just the picture or just me, but is the roof sagging a little over the front porch? Obviously you would get an inspector in to look at the house, but I am a little worried about structural soundness.

#1 also is in exactly the same style as this house that I pass by several times every day on my lunchtime walk, and upon which I have been crushing excessively. I am just hardwired to think it = sexy, I am afraid.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with Bachelor #1 immediately upon viewing your first posting of the picture, and the flash and elegance of Bachelor #2 isn't swaying me from that one bit, though I can certainly appreciate its appeal.

The first house LOOKS like a house you would live in, insofar as I know you. And as for the neighborhood, I'm probably personalizing this, but the idea of "shabby but decent" seems more romantic and appealing than "comfortably middle class to upper middle class". I dunno- seems like there'd be more interesting neighbors surrounding House 1.

Is the lack of central air a problem? We don't have it, but then again, we don't have your formidable humidity, either. It looks like one of your potential neighbors has one of those "air conditioner in the window" thingies- could you get by with something like that?

Original glass-front cabinets! Whee! And forgive my ignorance, but what's a butler's pantry?

Think of the fun you could have throwing a "Rip out the godawful astroturf" party! (What comestibles would one serve at such a function?) And then you could festoon the new non-fuzzy porch with a carnival of potted succulents and annuals! (Sorry, personalizing again.)

Goodness, this is getting wordy. Clearly ONE of us needs to buy this house. As someone above pointed out, House 1 is also more move-in-ready than the second house, so there's one more point in its favor.

Thanks for posting about your round-robin date! I was seething with anticipation over it.

[alkaloid.livejournal.com]

#2 is a Better Investment because the housing market is currently over-valued (I'm assuming you're capable of finishing the repairs within, say, 5 years? Working on weekends? Yes?).

You could get royally fucked if you take #1, depending on how bad the over-valuing is in your area. Negative equity, the works.

I'm kind of shooting from the hip, here, since I don't have a realistic notion of markets in your part of the country, but I know around here it's so bad I won't even *consider* buying a house until the pricing bubble is well and truly popped.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh. I totally understand where you are coming from, as I'm living in a 1920s Spanish Eclectic myself. Older houses have character.

If it were me and my husband, I'd go for #2, but if it were just me, I'd go for #1. We are in the middle of major renovations, and let me tell you, it sucks your time and money and will to live. In fact, I'm stealing time from what I should be doing - staining baseboard trim - to post this comment.

Also, floor heat? The best thing since sliced bread.

I was going to say that I would choose the one in the neighborhood that you prefer, because location truly is important. I love my house but I also love where it is. But then I saw the comment where you mentioned how much they cost, and all I can say is, BUY BOTH OF THEM, THEY ARE SO CHEAP!!! Geez. I am astonished and amazed.

[l-goldenquill.livejournal.com]

You know, I was reading about the first, and I liked it very much. But then I saw the picture of the second, and it has a little round room!

I could make up some impressive-sounding reasoning that would obviously completely convince you to get the second house, but the truth is that there is nothing that can be said against a house with a little round room, really.