As I mentioned in my previous post we visited the house on 2.2 acres today. The entire front yard is a horse pasture. Apparently the family loves and owned at least 3-4 horses. The home itself, was nice. Well kept, needs some minor exterior work that we could see. Beautiful large front rocking chair porch. Swimming pool, although the pool had been neglected for some time. Not sure what kind of condition it is in once the algae and dirt are removed. Overall a very nice home on a nice plot of land. The only negative, the price. Close to 300,000. It is at the very high end of our budget. The owner just reduced the price and is not willing to go any lower at this point. So after we walked around for about an hour, we decided to go home and think about the numbers.
On our way home we get a call from the realtor. She has just spoken with another realtor who has just begun selling a new neighborhood right outside of Fort Gordon.
Homes in the 150-250,000 range. This is more like it, we think. Still yearning for land and not keen on house upon house living, we decided to give it a look. Turns out the homes are absolutely beautiful. It is a very brand new neighborhood with a builder from Atlanta. The builder is offering closing costs and very generous upgrades. We looked at a plan called the Catherine, 3343 square feet, 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. The best thing about the house...the laundry room is upstairs! I love it. The lot we are looking at backs to green space and has a buffer zone on one side.
The other good thing, the price..only 215,000! It is well within our budget. Stone, brick, hardwood, granite counter tops. 10 year home warranty. Energy efficient appliances.
So we are considering both homes at this point. I am leaning toward the new home in our budget. He is back and forth. He really wants land, but the price on the newer home is more our speed.
Here is a pic of the new house, this picture is of one being built now. Our home will have stone accents and a front porch.
Here's the floor planClick on the Catherine.
and a link to the horse farm.
Here's our dilemma, new vs. older. Land vs landscaped. Top ramen for dinner or hamburgers on the grill.
Ach!!!!!!! I like hamburgers.
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"An error in the beginning is an error indeed." - St. Thomas Aquinas
"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine." - St. Thomas Aquinas
***10 Week Challenge Update: Week 1 9/12-9/16 10.75
"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine." - St. Thomas Aquinas
***10 Week Challenge Update: Week 1 9/12-9/16 10.75
Monday, May 4, 2009
It's Decision Time
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3 comments:
the link to the floor plan does not work. I'd be interested in seeing that.
I saw the pics of the farm . . . hard to resist that! NEW is hard to turn down, but as shoddy as the new stuff has been, I'd be looking harder at the farm. The privacy would be divine!
Good luck and God bless as you figure it out.
I say go with the cheaper in your budget house. I think overspending on a house is one of the biggest mistakes you could ever make. Friends of ours nearly lost everything because of it.
We live in a nieghborhood where we built a new home like the Catherine. While the new home is great we often have pangs to be in a non-neighborhood. Our neighborhood has deed restrictions and while they are good in theory they have restricted us from some of the things we'd like to do, kids riding their motorbikes, what if we wanted chickens???
The biggest draw for us to living on land that gave us some distance from our neighbors was...our nieghbors. They are all nice people but we have found that most parents today aren't all on the same parenting page. The neighborhood influence on our children ended up requiring us to restrict them from much play with the neighbors who exposed them to the innocence robbing ideas we try to filter from our lives but is so much a part of children's life earlier and earlier these days....sigh....
Knowing what I know now, I'd go with the land and put in a lower offer. It's a buyer's market and it can't hurt to offer lower.
God bless you in your discernment process.
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