House Hunting Chronicles: Choosing a New Home

Twice I have walked into a house and KNEW it was the one I wanted: the first house we bought and the house we currently live in. Each made us gape in amazement at the beauty of the design and layout. We walked around and kept uttering things like, “oh, fuck” as we saw the kitchen or the upstairs or the wonderfully unique layout. Our current home sits under several trees, and when we went into the backyard, we could hear the wind moving gently through the branches high above our heads, but no breeze touched us.

I assumed we would have a similar experience when we were house hunting this time around as well. I was so wrong.

I will admit that my insistence at looking at houses months before we were ready to list our current home was a risk. Walking into open house after open house, asking our realtor to get us into houses that were newly on the market, could very well have set us up for disappointment if we had found “the one” but were not ready to sell our house in Ukiah. I suppose that subconsciously I was hoping we would find the right house, which would kick our sorting and packing and fixing into high gear and the entire move would happen quickly. A girl can dream, can’t she?

We went into the process of looking for a new home with the assumption that we could only afford a fixer-upper as we are moving back to a county that has a higher overall cost of living than where we have lived for eight and a half years. If we chose to purchase a house for roughly the same price we are selling our current home for, it would be much smaller and likely not as nice. The hubby is very, very handy, but any of the things he could fix or replace or remodel would take a of lot work and plenty of cash. As handy as he is, he is not a contractor and so was not keen on the idea of having to make major repairs.

We had a long list of things we did and did not want. We originally held the opinion that we only wanted to live in a house that is unique and full of character. We didn’t want a “cookie cutter” house. But once we decided to shift our attitudes, looking at new housing developments was fun!

One of my favorite was in a neighborhood full of attached three stories townhouses. The decorators for that neighborhood definitely had some fun. The model homes were so well organized, the prices were within our price range, and the spot was centrally located between work and family. The fact that they had no yard and that our bedroom would be on the third floor ultimately pushed that development out of the running. We are okay with living in a two story house as we like how strong our legs have become over the years. Just the thought of three stories, though, made my knees ache.

After that we seriously considered looking for a brand new house. A new house does not need to be fixed; it includes a builder warranty, appliance warranties, and solar is now standard in all new California builds. He liked the idea of spending time and money on the lighter construction that could help make the house look and feel like us.

All told we looked at half a dozen new housing developments. For a time, I had memorized all models, their sizes, amenities and layouts. Going into model homes is fun. I don’t always love the decor, but it is a treat to see the choices the designer made. One house had large horizontal red stripes in one bedroom. It wasn’t my style, but I appreciated how the red complimented the decor and layout. Other times I wonder how, or where, real furniture would fit.

Before we honed in on the house we are buying, we were very serious about another development. I liked one model so much when I walked in that I cried a little from a feeling of relief. We could afford to buy a nice house that would not mean a giant downsize. Ultimately, we ended up about a mile from there.

Even after we made the decision and committed a scary amount of money to the process, I was having doubts. I couldn’t point to anything specific that I didn’t like about the house, the location or the layout. The best way I can describe it was as a low level sense of anxiety. I felt some better after we chose the flooring, counters and counter tops. All concerns and doubts disappeared once we had a buyer for our current house and the dueling escrows began.

In all, we didn’t walk into our new house with any sense of awe. The first time we saw it, it was a newly framed 1st level with stairs that took us to the open sky. I think we will be happy here though. We will be about 12 minutes from our son and his family and 30 minutes from my uncle and our best friends. I will commute to work, but it will be shorter and easier than before we moved to Ukiah.