We put an offer on another house yesterday, and it was accepted today. This one sort of came out of left field. We were planning on doing concise 30-minute walkthroughs of three properties yesterday. Instead, we got to the middle one, spent an hour poking around it in considerable detail, started to leave and found ourselves asking, "Is there any reason *not* to bid on this place?". And so we did.
It's on Mill St. in Burlington, a fine location -- a reasonably quiet residential neighborhood with plenty of parking, that is less than 10 minutes from 128. The house is a classic 70s split, same basic model as
elizabear's, but heavily redone in the past ten years: it's now all hardwood on the main floor and tile on the bottom one, with a big cathedral-ceilinged family room added onto the back of the main floor. The bedrooms are a bit ordinary, and the exterior is bland, but the main living space is just plain pretty, and hits that good balance point of being small enough to live in, but big enough to entertain well. It has more land than we had planned on (about 1/2 acre), but what the heck -- it gives the Barony another potential combat-practice site, and it should be lovely for garden parties.So far, we have found only one apparent issue with the house, and it's probably one that's good for us: it has no dead storage to speak of. The house has a lot of living space, but it really only has living space; I believe we will be using all of the rooms on a regular basis. The attic is inconvenient enough that we won't be able to use it for a lot, and the basement is fully built-out. (I scarcely consider it a "basement" at all, since it is at ground level.) So we are going to have to tame our packrat tendencies and prioritize better, getting rid of the things we aren't willing to devote living space to. This will probably be good in the long run, but will make for some painful decisions in the short term.
Anyway -- this is far from a done deal yet. The Inspectors (you remember, the ones who shot the last house down in flames) come in on Thursday, and we'll see what they say. I can see a number of minor issues that they will point out; hopefully they won't hit on any major ones. If all goes smoothly, we may be at least starting to move before the beginning of the year...
