Today's houses

This morning we met with our realtor yet again to go look at some houses that we had researched on the internet. We were most interested in a 4 bedroom house on 6.73 acres. Ironically it was next door to a church and the town it was located in was Churchville. It was the third house of three for the day and I will start with it because of the disappointment associated with it. It never ceases to amaze me how good everything can look on paper and in pictures, but just isn't right in person.
Here's the lowdown: It was a two story home, plus full finished basement...so basically 3 floors. Three of the bedrooms were upstairs and the fourth was in the basement. There were big windows in that bedroom, but it was just too far away from the other rooms to feel right. The kitchen was about the same size as mine is currently, but had a second doorway stashed in it. It just felt very crammed to me. The dinner room was carpet (ugh! can you imagine the spaghetti sauce stains!). The foyer and living room were a beautiful wood floor, but then the family room was a peel and stick parquet wood floor (ugh!). Comestic things can be fixed though! There was a solarium off of the family room which very very hot and stuffy. I can't see anyone using that room much. There was also a half bath in the kitchen where a walk in pantry should have been, but the cabinets and counters in the kitchen were top of the line.
The masterbed boasted of a spiral staircase up to a loft. Well, there was a staircase, but the loft was just an unfinished storage space. Certainly not what I pictured!
The yard was very big and very open with lots of fencing (nice!) and had a 6-stall horse barn. The current home owners would have a better time selling if they cleaned and spruced up the place a bit. We had to dodge dog turds on the front walk and the deck. The dogs were also barking up a storm the whole time we were there. We won't put an offer on it and I doubt that they will get an offer any where near the asking price.
House number #2 was just more of a curiosity than anything else. The original part of the house was built in 1940 and was really cool (if you were shorter than 5'9"). The ceilings were very low and just felt too low if you were any taller. The bedrooms were tiny (8.5' x 10.5'). The second part of the house was built in the 1980's and had the masterbedroom, the entry, the dining room and the kitchen (all very nice!) The third part of the house was built in late 1980's and consisted of a garage with an in-law apartment above it. It was nice and clean and connectted to the other part of the house by a beautiful greenhouse/conservatory room. However, the entire house sat less than 20' from a mildly busy road. Its 6 acres were in a long narrow strip running from the road straight back.
The Other house (which was the first we looked at) was probably kinda low on Jay's list and middle of my list when we pulled up. The house has been on the market since Aug 2007 and is currently sitting empty. Once I opened the front door, it just felt right! It is a massively big, sorta contempory house set on 4.3 wooded acres. The house has geo thermal heat and thicker walls and top of the line windows (for when it was built). It was built in 1986. The house was a full basement with walkout sliding door and a full bath in the basement. The main floor has large living room, a half bath, a dining room, an eat-in kitchen, and a large family room. It also has a two car garage on the main floor. There is a deck off the kitchen and a deck off the living room and dining room. One end of the house is actually U-shaped and the deck has a door from the living room and dining room. The upstairs has a master suite (with full bath), a guest suite (with full bath), a full bath, and three more bedrooms. There is also a walk in closet in the master bedroom. The two biggest bedrooms (both suites) are on the U-shaped end of the house and have doors that open to an upstairs balconey that holds the hot tub. Also from that deck, you can take a spiral staircase up to the star gazing roof top deck (awesome!) There are tons of closets on the main level too! The kitchen is very dated to the 80's and would need updating some day. It has brand new countertops, but the cabinets are just old. The yard has been negleted for some time now is it is empty. There is an awesome chicken coop(!) as well as a 7000 gallon water garden. The property is long and has a second driveway way at the back that leads to a 30' x 40' barn. The barn was locked and the key was missing so we were unable to see what it looked like. There were also some minor questions about all the drain pipe laying in the yard, but I really loved the house and it felt right to me. Jay liked it too, but it is a really far comute for him so we will have to talk a lot.
I asked Tommy which house was his favorite (I thought he would say the one with the horses) and he answered the first one we looked at. He said "I liked the top deck and the driveway) He then went on to say "but what about that hot tub? Tubs don't get hot so what's up with that?" I tried to explain what a hot tub was, but I don't think that I actually got through to him.