Houses we looked at yesterday

We want to buy a house. We've been looking since September. We've come across a couple of good properties but their locations sucked. It's somewhat frustrating, and scary (as in the $$ aspect), but I want one. Our current residence, while great for the most part, is not ours. If we want to paint, the landlords say white. There's some foundation problems, and the back bathroom, which is basically a plywood add-on, started developing some mold. I told the landlord who brought in the Old-Timer's Handyman Gang and they found a leak. But they didn't really do anything about the mold. So, adios. Let's get our own place and paint it how we want it and do whatever the hell we want to it. I don't know, I just see a house being an extension of one's, or twos' in our case, characters and personalities, and not being able to do that to our fullest extense here is holding us back. Sort of. Whatever.

So yesterday we looked at 4 houses. The first one was 6706 Haney in the 23. The 23 (as in 78723) is where we think we've got the best opportunity to get something that meets all of our criteria. 6706 Haney is a 3-2 with 1257 sq. ft. It was in good condition on a pretty good street. If it wasn't for the few cons, we might make a move on it. The cons are as follows. 1) The bedrooms were all pretty small. 2) It had a 2nd living room which wasn't that big (it used to be a 4th bedroom), so what to do with it (maybe a reading room?). 3) The back yard was on the small side, which isn't too terrible. We do want to get a dog, probably a big 'un, and it wouldn't give him much room. 4) We are tired of washing dishes and would like to have a dishwasher. Again, kind of minor. I'm going to keep my eye on this one and just see what happens.

Then, it was down the street to 6715 Haney. This was the exact same house but with the 4th bedroom intact and the layout flip-flopped. It was a corner lot with a smaller back yard and no trees whatsoever. Also, the washing machine connections were in the kitchen, which I'm not having. Sayonara.

#3 was 1315 Westmoor. This was a 3-2 turned on its side, so the living room windows looked at the house next door and a tiny kitchen window looked out to the street. The back door opened right into the stove. Again the washer lived in the kitchen and the dryer in a storage room under the carport. The back yard made an L around the house. The 2 bathrooms needed updating big-time. And they were in the process of re-carpeting or something. There was some nice crown molding in the living room. The Mrs. liked it though. Call me crazy, she said. No, I said, I'll call you retarded. There was some kind of exposed pipe in the back yard? Moving on.

The last place was 2213 Rountree, in the 22. This was a 3-1. It had nice pecan floors and that was about it. It was on the corner with Manor and Airport Blvd. only a block away, so it backed up to a business and had the backside of a billboard hanging over the backyard. There was a hot tub also. One bedroom (and not the big one) had a walk-in closet with a 2nd door that led to a hallway. Huh?