Rooting

[textualdeviance]

Now that we're starting to get serious about our house hunting, I'm trying to narrow down where we should be looking. As an addendum to the last poll on this subject, I have one more.

Seattle proper, of course, is still out of the question for us unless some sort of miracle happened and an incredibly cheap house in Madrona or something suddenly showed up on the market. In other words, not gonna happen.

We've also more or less ruled out the southern parts of Kirkland at this point, because so few things there are in our price range, and what is just isn't working for us for one reason or another.

There's quite a lot that's tolerable in Renton Highlands, but thus far, nothing's really reached out and said BUY ME. There are a lot of Stepford Subdivisions going up that have nice houses, but they're all on dinky lots, or look very cookie cutter or have bizarre floor plans.

Newcastle/Kennydale/Eastgate would be absolutely ideal in terms of location, but since the vast majority of houses there are ugly 1960s/70s ramblers, finding the few houses we really like has been a chore. We'll see something come up that looks really good, but then find out it has some sort of fatal flaw, like a lot the size of an SD card or a downstairs laundry room or something.

So it looks like we're sort of stuck looking further afield, unless the stock market suddenly jumps up in the next 30 days (about when we're planning to get serious about funding) or the House of Our Dreams shows up smack in the middle of Coal Creek.

The question then becomes: Which direction should we aim in our boundary extension? West, of course, isn't possible. Which leaves North (Kenmore/Bothell/Woodinville), East (Issaquah/Southern Plateau) or South (the northern tip of Kent--like Panther Lake, etc.). As we're trying to shorten the work commute, there's no way we can go beyond those places, of course.

Each of these places has its pros and cons:

North would be nice in a way because we're more familiar with it (including knowing all the backroads to avoid the freeway), but since many of y'all live south of the ship canal or thereabouts, it kind of defeats the purpose of being closer to our pals.

East seems fine to me, though house prices are a little steep and I have no idea what I-90 traffic is really like out that direction.

South I've always discounted because, well, it's Kent. And because 167 is always a disaster. And because it just seems so far. But strictly speaking, it's still closer (geographically) than where Chez Fou is. (And it's also not in the flow path for Rainier. Yes, I checked.)

[Poll #1429356]

Comments

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, but I'll say Newcastle because I live near enough the original one (-upon-Tyne). /paul-logic

[thefirstalicat.livejournal.com]

Since I haven't lived in your area since 1979, when I lived briefly in Seattle (in Ballard, if you know the districts), I can't comment on your search for a home in terms of location. But I had one comment to make, about this:

We'll see something come up that looks really good, but then find out it has some sort of fatal flaw, like a lot the size of an SD card or a downstairs laundry room or something.

Not sure what is meant by an "SD card" sized lot, but, really, if the ONLY reason a property is no good for you is that the laundry room is DOWNSTAIRS?! Hon, you need to do a reality check; aside from the fact that by no means could that possibly be a "fatal" flaw - even in an area that regularly floods! - it's quite possible to MOVE the laundry room elsewhere, with a little plumbing restructuring.

Admittedly, Chris and I stumbled into the exactly perfect home for us when we bought our place, and we'd both been renters all of our lives before then, and we'd never even seriously looked until then (and weren't seriously looking when we found it); that was serendipitous, no question. Even so, in the real world most of the time, I think a little perspective is a good thing.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

FWIW, after all the work we did to get the house in order, we're most definitely not interested in a house that would need any sort of modifications. We want to just move right in and forget about it except for basic maintenance. That's part of why we're looking for a newer house, too. I don't want to have to worry about old plumbing or wiring or anything like that. I want thick insulation, and double-pane windows and dry foundations and no chance of mold and all that other stuff that really only comes with new or heavily remodeled places.

And for us, a downstairs laundry kind of is a fatal flaw, because it would be impossible for me to negotiate stairs with a full laundry basket. I need at least one hand free for the railing or I risk falling because of my weak knees. If we found a house in which it would be simple to install a small stacker set in the master closet or something, then we'd do that. Or maybe a dumbwaiter or something. But if there are no other options, we have to pass on it and look somewhere else. We're seeing about half the houses with upstairs laundry here, so it's not something rare, at least.

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

I'm still not clear on the long-term plan. Is this meant to be a mid-step between you and your perfect custom house? Because if it is, then, I think having it in a good location would be nice, but not necessarily vital. For me, if I've got something which is largely good enough, it tends to sap my motivation to go for perfect.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is the mid-step. We had originally planned to be building about now, but then the stock market crashed and took out ~40% of our savings, so that's just no longer possible in the short term. We have a fair amount of savings and will be getting a bit back from the house sale, but it just wouldn't be enough to buy land and finance the construction, so it's pretty much scotched for now.

And then we realized that we'd be doing the adoption soon, and so trying to move or do construction or whatever when we have a baby or toddler would be a nightmare anyway, so whereever we were at the time we got the kiddo, we'd definitely be stuck there for at least five years or so, until the kid was more self-sufficient and didn't need constant monitoring.

Not wanting to be stuck in the Northern Boonies for five more years, and not having the cash to build the dream house, we decided to split the difference, and find a place that was closer in and an upgrade from where we were, but still within our limited budget.

Location is really the biggest concern, since that's the biggest reason we want to move from where we are now. It's just way too far out for us to spend any real time with our friends, and that's been really difficult. The work commute's not horrible, but it could be better, and we definitely don't want to go worse on that, either (which is part of why we won't do a bridge commute anymore.)

So we're not looking for the patch of land we want to stay in forever, but we do want something that we can tolerate more in the short term.

And we also want enough of an upgrade on the house itself that it will seem worth the extra money we're spending on it. Technically speaking, we could of course get by with something on par with what we have now, but we've gotten a bit spoiled, and there are some bells and whistles and such that we'd like to have with the new place. There are a few "musts" on that list, though definitely plenty of room for negotiation. We're unlikely to find a place with a jetted tub in the master bath, for instance, though that would certainly be delightful. It's not a deal-breaker the way a tiny kitchen or no space between houses would be.

I doubt we'll find perfection. That won't happen until we build, undoubtedly. But I also don't want to be stuck in some god-awful 1970s cheesefest, either. ;)