The Bad, the Ugly, and the Outrageously Overpriced!

Also known as "Homes We Are NOT Buying!"

Now that you've seen the home we are buying, I thought I would entertain everyone with photos of some of the homes we didn't buy. Keep in mind, all of the homes you are about to see are located within a 20 mile radius of Boston and were priced (at the time we saw them) between $500K and $700K.

Home #1:  8 Sandspur Lane

We never actually saw 8 Sandspur Lane in person.  Sadly, priced at $729K, it was far outside our price range.  But, the pictures of this home were EPIC.  So, we had to include it.

Per the listing:  "A nicely maintained and updated home, perfect for the larger family with potential for a 6th BR in the lower level. Water for the pool and lawn irrigation system supplied by a private well. Professionally landscaped. Enjoy the quiet back yard with in-ground pool, pool bar and gazebo or maybe the deck overlooking the pool would be more your style. Separate entrance is perfect for a home business office. On the end of a cul-de-sac and conveniently located for highway access and shopping."

Note, they said "updated", just not when.  Judging by the decor, I think 1970-1980.

The pool bar. . .

I don't know if you can fully appreciate everything that is going on in this backyard.  The pool with slide is beautiful.  Then, you have a lamppost in the background of the picture that looks like Mr. Tumnus is going to appear momentarily (if you don't know who that is, please read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe).  Flanking said lamppost are two park benches, straight from Central Park, which go nicely with the grecian statuary and stone bench in the foreground (just behind the table and chairs).  And, who doesn't love a good tiki torch, strategically positioned just out of reach of the (probably flammable) green-and-white striped awning.

Really, a more apt description would have been, "There is nothing that this home doesn't have."

Home #2:  3 Hayward Farms Lane

"Cul-de-sac location, abuts Thompson Country Club. Hip Roof Colonial, custom built floor plan with bright spacious kitchen, formal dining room, formal step down living room, 1st floor family room with fireplace. Terrific sun room. Master bedroom has vaulted ceilings. Professionally finished lower level with Silestone wetbar and second fireplace.  Setting is on a builder's acre including inground, heated gunite pool, patio, and brand new custom deck. Many new features, newer furnace in '08, and air conditioning in '07. Great curb appeal.  Highly sought after schools."

Let me start by saying, this showing was destined for disaster.  We started by setting off the alarm system.  So, Mike and I had ample time to tour the grounds while our agent, Alison, called the sellers agent to figure out what the code was.  And, call of the alarm company.  In doing so, we saw the beautifully landscaped pool area, deck, ad patio.  Not being sarcastic:  they really were well done.

Then we walked to the front of the house.  And, what you really can't appreciate from a distance is all the unfinished details on the exterior.  The decorative trim/moulding around the front door was new.  Or, you hope it is new.  Because, whoever nailed it onto the house never puddied the holes for all the finish nails.  Nor did they paint it.  Same holds true for the new palladium window above the front door. And, while most of the trim is white, the gutters and downspouts are all pale yellow.  So, one would need to be painted/replaced.  We were taking dibs on the gutters and downspouts.  Since the clapboard siding also needed a new coat of paint, we weren't too concerned.

Until we ventured inside. . . Let me just say, if you are going to expect me to pay $700K for your house, clean it.  I mean, don't leave your dirty towel on the bathroom floor.  Don't leave your toilet lid up if you are too lazy to clean the poop stains out of the bowl.  I gave you 24 hours notice.  Work with me.

Annoyed as I may be by poor housekeeping, I could overlook it.  If your house was awesome.  But, this house needed something changed in every room.  Aside from being either Pepto Bismal pink or dark green, every carpet was in abysmal condition and needed to be ripped out and replaced.  The interior was of the palladium window was equally unfinished (see picture below).  The only room I didn't feel compelled to change was the second floor laundry area.

Add in the TWO sump pumps that were running continuously in the basement for the entire hour we were there, along with the TWO oil tanks (one to heat the house, the second to heat the pool), and immediately knew this wasn't our house.

House #3:  11 Bliss Road

"Fantastic colonial style home in tranquil wooded setting just a short distance to the sought after Batchelder Elementary School. Keep warm and cozy by the fire this winter in your great room with wood fireplace or enjoy your wonderful open concept kitchen with stainless steel appliances, granite & breakfast bar. This home is perfect for entertaining both inside and out. Don't take my word for it come see this for yourself! Live here and be happy!"

This home really is stunning.  In layout, it as similar to our current home.  It is in a great school system.  It has a Buderus heating system. I didn't know what that was, but Alison was salivating.  When she stopped, she explained that it is a very expensive heating system that has the best efficiency of any system on the market.  And, it seemed like a steal at $579K.  

Unfortunately, Bliss Road is anything but blissful.  First, it is an unpaved, gravel road.  Second, the front of this lovely home looks directly into the side and back of a trashy home.  Unfortunately, the trees in the satellite image below obscure the broken down cars and school bus (yes, a bright yellow monstrosity with no tires).  But, the wooden shutters on all the windows weren't enough to block the image from my memory.  Probably why 11 Bliss Road has been on the market for a record breaking 78 days.  

House #4:  2 Benjamin Road

"AMAZING OFFER! PRISTINE & SUNNY HOME WITH 1/3 OF AN ACRE & A LEVEL BACKYARD OVERLOOKING TREES! SPARKLING HARDWOOD FLOOR & NEWER WINDOWS! LOVELY PERIOD MILLWORK AND BUILT-INS. NEWLY REPAINTED INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR, NEW BATH & NEW KITCHEN WITH WHITE MAPLE CABINETS, GRANITE COUNTER TOPS & SS APPLIANCES. 2006 PRIVATE MASTER SUITE WITH AN OVER-SIZED WALK-IN SHOWER, GRANITE VANITY TOP & A BALCONY WITH WOODSY VIEWS! SPACIOUS LOWER LEVEL FAMILY ROOM & A POTENTIAL 4TH BEDROOM. PLENTY OF YARD FOR EXPANSION!"

The agent left out, "IN THE COVETED LEXINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT". Which was really the main reason why I dropped everything one day and drove out to see it.  That, and the price break to $650K.  It looked a bit small, but the listing claimed it was just under 2200 sq. ft.  And, it was in Lexington, which, aside from being THE Lexington of "The battle of Lexington and Concord" fame from the Revolutionary War, is where rich people live.  And, rich people paying + hefty town taxes = really great public school system.  Plus, it was only 10 miles from work.  

First issue:  this is a corner lot, abutting Concord Avenue.  Which is very busy.  At 1pm, there was a steady flow of cars past this house. So, we would have needed to put a fence up or chain our kids to the house to prevent them from running into traffic.  Second issue:  it was in dire need of a new roof.  And walkway.  And repaving of the driveway.  Right there, I'm over budget and I haven't set foot inside. But, when I did (along with three other couples who got updates that the seller dropped the price), I was greeted by issue number three. This house was NOT 2200 sq. ft.  It might have been 1200 sq. ft. plus a mostly finished basement. I think the entire house could fit in the space taken up by my kitchen and family room.  The third bedroom could accommodate a twin bed, with no room for a dresser, unless it was narrow and could be pushed inside the closet (which was smaller than our coat closet).  

As if wasting my time seeing an overpriced home in Lexington wasn't bad enough, it took me an hour to travel the 10 miles back to work. ONE WHOLE HOUR.  At two in the afternoon.  Can you imagine what rush hour would be like?  Walking would have been faster.  

Those were the most noteworthy homes.  But, honorable mention must be paid to homes with standout features.    See our favorites below:

The world's tiniest sink:

Note, the tape measure is 3" wide.  The sink was about 15" across. Incredibly tiny.  

This same house also offered the original "double sink":

complete with heat lamps:

and energy efficient fluorescent lights, perfect for applying makeup by:

In the same category of "bathrooms", we found the camouflaged medicine cabinet:

and my mother-in-law thought I hid the band-aids.

The corner sink:

For small bathrooms that need to accommodate a toilet, access to the basement, and an exterior door, leaving no free wall space for a vanity, a corner sink is the perfect (and only) solution.

What home would be complete without the world's smallest electrical panel:

At about 5" wide by a little over 12" tall, this "efficient" panel was the main (and only) panel for the house, accommodating 100 amp service with 10 circuits and room to grow with space for two more.  

Also in the category of "things you will find in the basement":

The saloon:

complete with the world's smallest dishwasher:

This basement also housed the a state of the art bathroom:

with reading material that my sister would appreciate:

In a different house, we found the "Barbie Room":

Mikie and Alison pointed this out to the rest of us.  A "semi-finished" room in the basement.  It conjured creepy visions of kids begging, "but I don't WANT to go play in the Barbie Room.  Please, don't make me go.  I'll promise to be good."  When you see the inside, you'll appreciate what I mean:

Clearly, this is where they sent their kids when they didn't follow the house rules:

No whining seemed to be a popular rule.  Another house had it listed in their kitchen too:

But, my two FAVORITE features are:

The creepy kissing door knocker:

because there is nothing more romantic then slamming someone's face into another for a kiss. 

And, tree trunks used as support columns:

the original "knotty pine".

With all of these winning features, I guess I should be amazed that it only took us five weeks to find a home.  

Love, The Trahans

The Home Shopping Process

Searching for house #3 can only be likened to the most exhausting, full time job, ever.  I swear, I don't remember it being this exhausting when we looked for our first two homes.  Mike laughs every time I say this and accuses me of wearing rose colored glasses.

Oh to be young and naive (and skinny) again.

The search for house #1 occurred when we were engaged and childless, or as Mike calls it, "young and naive."  So, I guess the bliss of embarking on two of life's journeys together overshadows any trouble we had.  I think we looked at a dozen homes before finding our first home.  Granted, those dozen were memorable:  the one with the bomb shelter being my favorite (Mike still maintains it would have made a cool fort).

Our first home

The search for house #2 occurred when Mikie was two.  He had boundless amounts of energy, but was always happy and was pretty content to sit in the back of our car, and watch DVDs.  Our agent, Sue, would take us through individually, and then we would compare notes curb side so that we didn't inconvenience Mikie.  And, in hindsight, we didn't spend much time in the car.  We knew we wanted to live in Sutton, Northbridge, or Grafton.  So, we focused on homes in three neighboring towns.  We could accomplish a lot in a few hours.  The only frustration came from the seller of the first home we put an offer in on causing a bidding war to try and drive up the price.  Ultimately, we walked away, found a house we loved even more.  And, karma came back to haunt them:  three days after we walked away (one day after we put an offer on our current home) they called us to see if we were still interested in the house.  Apparently, their buyer couldn't get financing and backed out.  They were on the market for another six months and sold for significantly less than we offered them.

Our second home

The search for house #3. . . where do I begin?  First, we made the process infinitely more challenging because we refused to focus on one town.  We agreed up front that our must have was an amazing school system in a town that has a good history of passing it's override.  We did not want to move only to find ourselves in a school district in jeopardy of losing its accreditation due to lack of funds.  While many people have extolled the virtues of catholic or private school, we agreed before we had kids that we saw a lot of benefits to public school education.  And, having looked into private school four years ago, we know that the cost of tuition times two kids times twelve years is enough to (1) buy another house or (2) send a kid to college.  So, we agreed that we would sacrifice on other things to ensure we were moving into a great school system.

Second, having lived in our beautiful home for the last six years, we had lofty standards for a prospective new home to meet:

• central air conditioning for our allergies
• two car garage because we live in New England
• at least three bedrooms plus a separate office, or four bedrooms if there is no separate office
• at least two full bathrooms (because Hannah and I will not survive if we have to share a bathroom when she is a teenager)
• ideally gas heat, because we spend a fortune on oil to heat our current house

Those were the big wants.  We probably also asked for at least 2400 sq. ft. on at least a third of an acre of land, but I can't remember.

From January to March, we stalked homes.  Literally.  We both had every real estate app.  We would look at properties and night and star ones we liked.  On March 13th, we accepted an offer on our house.  Within an hour, I called our agent to request showings of a new construction that had been listed on March 12th.  She called me back to tell me it was already under contract.  In 24 hours.

Initially, I dismissed this little detail because it was a new construction at a really great price.  The other house the builder sold in that  development had sold for $250K MORE.

In our efforts to reduce strain on the kids, we went to showings in the middle of the day while they were in school.  Not super convenient since we both work full time, but our employers seemed to recognize it was a short term issue.  What we quickly realized was there was so little inventory that EVERY home was selling within 24-48 hours.  For example, the first house we put an offer on, we were one of 20 couples to walk through in the first 24 hours.  And, we were one of at least three people bidding on it.  Second example:  my boss told me his wife's friend was selling her home on Facebook if I was interested.  I scoffed and said, "she'll never succeed with that approach. . . I'll look at it this weekend if I don't find anything else."  It was under contract within 3 days.  Anything that wasn't sold in a week made you wonder "what's wrong with it?"

For five and a half weeks, we searched.  Every night, we culled through listings.  On Thursdays and Fridays, I would spend my entire lunch looking at what came on-line that morning (realizing most agent listed on Thursday or Friday, had an open house on Saturday and/or Sunday, and accepted offers on Monday).  I dropped everything to see house in the middle of the day if our agent, Alison, could get an appointment.  And, we saw a LOT of homes.  Three we liked enough to put offers on (two of which were obviously not accepted).  I lost count on how many I walked through.  I plotted out Sunday's packed with open houses scattered across towns 15 miles apart and dragged Mike and the kids to them (because, with the amount of gas I was using to look for homes, I couldn't waste money on a babysitter).  Last weekend, I dragged Mike to see six homes.  He still has to look at the pictures to remember what we bought.

And, we are currently dealing with the little snafu of "what do we do between houses?"  We (fingers crossed) are scheduled to close on our house on Monday and rent back through June 2nd.  But, we can't close on the new house before June 25th. So, for 3 weeks, we will be homeless.  We are hoping to negotiate with our buyers to move out after school ends (June 21st) so that Mikie can finish school in Northbridge.  Then, we can spend an extended weekend at a hotel near the new house.  But, if we are unsuccessful, we will be renting a hotel through the 21st near Northbridge, moving all of our stuff into storage for three weeks, then moving to a hotel near the new house for a long weekend before we close and move in.

So, where are we moving?  We will be moving to Andover, about 20 miles North of Boston.  You can click here to watch the video tour, or just check out some of the pictures below:

Our home-to-be

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

I refuse to say that this will be the last time we move, because, every time I have said that in the past, we move within 5-10 years.  I just hope that if we ever move again, the kids are both old enough to stay home by themselves!

Love, The Trahans

Sell This House. . . Check!

I realize it has been a long time between posts.  And a lot has happened.

First on the to-do list was selling this house.  And, I will say, I won't sell another house until my kids are teenagers.  If we ever move again, because, as I keep saying, "I hate moving".  I have said this two other times in my life, and each time I vow, "This is the house we are going to live in forever. . . the kids can bury us in the backyard."  Until we move again.  

It is infinitely hard to sell a house when you have two kids.  Because, the key to selling your house is making it look like something out of a magazine when anyone comes to view it.  Now, Mike and I are not "messy" people.  Our house is generally neat.  Yeah, I should dust and vaccuum more frequently.  But, if people popped over unannounced, I wouldn't be embarrassed by the state of my house.  Possible exception, the bathroom toilets since the kids will occassionally forget to flush and no one discovers it until we get home 10 hours later.  

My point is, the house is usually organized.  But, not magazine worthy.  And, to get that last bit of chaos and clutter cleaned up is no easy feat.  Opening and filing away mail.  Hand drying everything in the drying rack so that it can be put away.  Staying on top of the laundry so that there isn't any in the dryer should a buyer want to open it up to see the capacity.  Keeping the stainless steel refrigerator free of smudgy finger prints.  Polishing the granite counters so that they sparkle.  Cleaning the toilets, showers, sinks so that they don't have toothpaste haze on the chrome finish.  Swiffering the hardwood floors.  Most of those things could be done at night while they were sleeping.  But, making their beds every morning, opening the blinds to let all the natural light in and swiffering my way out of the house. . . those three tasks added a significant amount of time to my morning.  Every day I thought, "I have defied the third law of thermodynamics and reduced Entropy!"  And, by the time I got to daycare with the kids and realized, I forgot someone's jacket, stuffed animal for naptime, what day of the week it is, I realized that while the house may exist in a lower state of entropy, my life/brain was in a higher state.  

Thankfully, our efforts paid off and we had an offer after the first showing.  For anyone who hadn't seen our house, you can see the video our agent posted here.  We did have to clean like crazy people three other times for backup showings and the home inspection.  But, as of earlier this week, we have a signed Purchase & Sale Agreement and our buyer has secured a mortgage.  So, we are in the home stretch.

Now on to finding a new house. . . which makes for a lot of entertaining posts.

Love, The Trahans