Tuesday, 07 June 2016
Day two of house hunting begins. I spent a good portion of the evening looking at houses on the MLS and on the local buy and sell pages for houses to rent. I figure our backup plan will be to either purchase a home right in Kanata somewhere, or to rent in July and take the summer to find a house and then move again.
We rented for a few months when we moved to Winnipeg, and it's not a good way to have to do things. Not only is that a lot of moving and a ton of work, it gets expensive! The military only moves us once, so we generally try to make sure it's into a house we actually want to be living in.
Our real estate agent emailed the four houses she found for us last night, so we've had a look at those as well. She had asked if we would consider looking in another direction, so has found homes South-West of Ottawa. We know nothing about the area, but figure it's worth looking. Two of the houses look promising.
We're up early, Max has not slept well, nor have we. The hotel we chose is not comfortable. The beds are rubbish. We may look for another place to stay later today if we have time. The older boys seem ok in their room, but agree the beds aren't comfortable. It's just down the hall from us. They are a bit far away, but they are so used to staying in hotels by now, it's not a big deal to them. I still worry though!
We get a quick breakfast at Tim's and head out to meet our agent at the first address of the day. The drive out of the city is lovely. Lots of trees, hills and it's so green everywhere! Off to a good start!
The first house was ok. A bit too much traffic noise for our liking and inside needed a lot of fixing. We try to figure out a way to move the laundry to the main floor. The stairs to the basement were steep, crooked and not well lit. A recipe for falling with a laundry basket. The older boys do their own laundry now, and I'd like to minimize accidents. There was also a fairly large pond in the back corner of the yard. Not ideal for Max to be out running around. It was beautiful, but a bit too much of a hazard just now. The house also had a road running along side it that lead to some cottages behind it and a small lake. I think an acre of land is what it was on. Not ideal, but again, we could make it work. The family room/kitchen combo was huge. Really good space and the kitchen had been redone recently. Four bedrooms all on the top floor. Good points about it for sure!
House two. Oh, my! Really, really nice home. It's all been redone though, which makes me nervous. This means someone else has done the work, and we don't know how well. Was it done correctly, or just slapped on to make it look good for a quick sale? If it was rushed and this house was a flip for someone who decided to go cheap on materials, it will start to fall apart soon enough. Three boys aren't exactly gentle on a house. The yard is fine. Enough space on just over an acre, think we could do something with it and make it pretty.
House three and I think we have a winner! Location is great, curb appeal excellent. We all liked it when we first walked in. Needs painting for sure, but seems to be in pretty good shape. Rooms are all a good size, and the floors aren't sagging. Slanted floors were the theme of the houses we saw yesterday. I feel dizzy standing on them. It took a nice house off the list for that reason.
Back to today, house number three on day two of house hunting. The gardens are beautiful! Trees everywhere, with some pathways cut through the forest. Two acres that back onto nothing but more land, and eventually, a lake. Quiet street and the house is set back a nice distance from that. There is a small koi pond on the property with a cute wooden bridge over it. Very pretty. This is a concern with Max. There is landscaping around this pond, and the water isn't very deep, but it's still on my mind. It's on the side of the house, so not near where he would always want to play. We'll have to see. Very happy with this find, our agent did well! We take about 45 minutes to look around, which is a really long time for us. Everyone likes it. Feels like it could be home once we fix it up a bit.
House number four is also great! It is a 45 minute drive in good weather and traffic for Corey to get to work though, so it's off the list before we even get there. Corey opts not to go in. I do and like it. The entry is deceiving. I didn't like it much when I first walked in, but quickly changed my mind as I walked around. Good space. Basement smelled moldy though, so that's a concern. I convince Corey to come have a look. He agrees it is a nice house, but just too far to work.
We decide to cancel our second viewing of the house from yesterday and instead go back to the third house we saw today later on this afternoon.
We had arranged to drop the boys off at my brother's house where my parents were meeting us so they could babysit. We pick up a pizza lunch along the way. Corey and I grab a super fast bite to eat and are off again, already late, to meet up with our agent back at the house.
We like it even more the second look around. We take some time to walk around the property and get a feel for what it might be like to live here. This is the one. Needs work, but nothing we haven't done before. We decide to put in an offer.
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