The builder was super nice. Its small, local builder who has begun a series of houses on our street, of which ours would be 6 of a proposed 7. We actually looked at another new build on the same street by a different builder, but it was small and cost more, so we were curious to hear what the differences were. He walked us through his plans, showed us some of the options, and lastly, the floor-plan.
It's HUGE! 3 finished bedrooms, with a 4th unfinished one we could use as storage, and convert later if we need to. The option of 2.5 bathrooms or 3 bathrooms (downstairs linen closet vs. shower), 2400 square feet. Hardwood first floor, carpeted second, tile bathrooms. Granite, stainless steel appliances, backsplash, and tiled showers all came standard. Pretty nice, right? In our budget, but still straddling the limit of what we wanted. Knowing we liked it, we asked a few immediate questions: Garage? $20k - nope! Can we lengthen the driveway? Yes. Hardwood second floor? Yes, but it would cost a pretty penny. When would it be ready? Mid to late October. The builder also covers closing costs if we go with a preferred lender, which was big bonus for us given some past sticker-shock on closing costs. We were very interested, and told him to send the initial paperwork to look over.
After meeting with the builder, we get a text from a friend living in the the OTP neighborhood we like, saying her other neighbor is putting her house up for sale (we put an offer on the first neighbor she told us about, House #1!). We were waiting on paperwork, so we decided to not put our eggs in one basket for once and keep looking just in case.
The next morning, we had an appointment to see the place, and or friend in-the-know told us we were the first people to look. Again, could you ask for better potential neighbors?
It. Was. Beautiful.
3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 1550 square feet. Gorgeous hardwood throughout the house, including the stairs which has a bull-nose trim on the steps. Granite countertops, gas fireplace, upgraded appliances, great paint, screened in back porch. The whole shabang. Detached garage they had finished on the inside, that was chock-full of stuff. The family had obviously outgrown the place, but we would have moved in with all their furniture and decorating choices as-is, it was just beautiful. The selling family was actually building a home, so the house would be available around the same time as the new build would. Neither home solved our need-somewhere-to-live-immediately problem, but, that's not a factor we wanted to include in the biggest purchase of our lives anyway. Icing on the cake? Significantly less than the new build, and pretty much spot-on with what we wanted to spend. Did I mention it was a very hard choice?
B, myself, and our realtor are standing in the middle of this beautiful house discussing what to do. We love them both! On one hand, we had the neighborhood we wanted from the park circle get-go: a beautiful house, in great condition, priced right. On the other hand, we had a great floor-plan for a brand new build that had the potential to be great.
I asked B what he was leaning towards, and he said he would be happy either way. At the end of the day we went with our gut... new build!
In the moment my logic was not nearly as laid out, but here are some of the things that went though my head.
| First Impressions | Liked the abundant space, but also very intimidating - we don't have that much stuff! With the previous house falling through, loved that everything would be brand new, under warranty, and pretty much we were paying for what we would be getting. Open floor-plan, and living areas and master bedroom to drool over. No closing costs was nice, but price would empty our savings. | I would move in today if I could. Curb appeal, beautiful hardwoods and finishes, and what we were looking at buying when we first set our eyes upon Park Circle. Great price, and would be a lot more comfortable for us financially. The small bedrooms worried me, and while we're not outdoorsy by any means, I liked the idea of a yard for the dogs. |
| Floor Plan | I loved the idea of a bedroom on the first floor, and always have. The main floor floor was very open, and we were drooling over the storage. | Similarly, open first floor plan. The natural light was great, and the rooms could be repurposed easily if we wanted to do a study instead of formal dining, etc. |
| Living Space | Massive. | Cozy. Had a couch and armchair in there, but there wasn't room for much else. That being said, a fireplace was a big bonus. |
| Bedrooms | 3, could be 4. Bedroom on the main floor was a big bonus. | 3. 2nd bedroom was an adorable nursery, but tiny, and 3rd bedroom was also on the small side. |
| Bathrooms | 3. We opted to have a full bathroom and bath on the first floor. | 2.5 - half bath downstairs, and 2 full upstairs. |
| Master | HUGE. We could pretty much have a sitting room inside the bedroom. His and hers walk-in closets. | A good size (not too big, not too small - just right, says Goldilocks), but had a closet that couldn't accommodate 2. Bathrooms in both houses were pretty roomy and comparable. |
| Outside | The builder would sod the front and sides, and seed the back. It had a huge backyard that we could eventually fence, but didn't come fenced in. Big 12x12 front porch, but in the back we would just have stairs to the backyard. Since a garage was out of our budget, we discussed lengthening the driveway so we could pull to the back for the groceries, dogs, etc. | In a neighborhood, so the HOA would take care of the beautiful landscaping, which was awesome. We could potential fence in the backyard down the road, but it was small. and didn't leave much room for running around for the dogs (even though they don't really run much). Screened in back porch was heaven. Garage was a nice option for parking and storage. |
| In the long run | Our realtor gave us pretty good advice here. She referred to this home as a "10-year home". However, the area of Park Circle is very much in transition, so we would be taking a bigger risk. | This was a "5-year home". She pointed out that the current family had quickly outgrown the place. That being said, she said we would easily grow our investment with this home, given the neighborhood and relatively easy things we could do to grow the house worth. |
So we made our choice - new build! An because I love a good to-scale floor-plan, here's a better look at what we got ourselves into.
No comments:
Post a Comment