So my husband and I are buying our first house this summer. We have a price limit, we are doing lots of research, blah blah blah responsible adultcakes. One of the websites we use for our research likes to play a dirty trick, though.
We put in a zip code, our top price limit, and minimum number of bedrooms, and hit SEARCH! The website spits up listings that meet those requirements. Yay! Except when you reach the end of the matching listings, you can still click “next.”
And when you click, it’s suddenly showing you houses that are $50,000 above your max price range. Which I guess in house money isn’t a lot, but it may as well be a million dollars more to us.
Several times, we’ve ended up clicking on an AMAZING house, oohing and aahing over the pictures. Then we realize the only way we could afford it would be to rob a bank.
Meh. I’m way too busy to rob a bank.
So to cleanse the disappointment, I spent some time this morning looking at houses I KNOW I can’t buy. Like this one:
It’s in Wiltshire, close to Bath. As I will be sore lucky if I ever get to VISIT the UK before I die, it’s guaranteed I will never live there. But isn’t it gorgeous?
I love houses with history– that’s what my husband and I are looking for, too. Mostly we’re finding 1920s bungalows, which are great!
Though Sarah Rees Brennan tells me that we’re looking at practically NEW houses, as far as she’s concerned. She’s lived in at 17th century flat before. So lucky. *sniff*
Anyway, more houses that I can’t buy! Like this one! It’s only like a million, seven hundred thousand dollars out of my price range.
(Note for my mother: yes, I know, I’d have to ask about asbestos, lead paint, lead pipes…)
Yes, basically, I want to live in the house that all the kids down the street swear is haunted. Both of these houses are WAY too big, but I like the style. I want a house that’s interesting, dang it. The Sims Houses that have gone up everywhere just make me sad.
Watch, that’s exactly what I’ll end up buying too. I’m going to shut up before fate gets all quirky on me.
But WHEEN! PRETTY OLD HOUSES WHEEN!
I totally agree. I grew up in an old farm house and now my apt is in an old windmill factory repurposed in to offices and apt. I LOVE it. I have an exposed brick wall and these high, high ceilings. Houses need history and personality!
That sounds AMAZING, omg. I would loooooooooooooove to live in something like that, a converted church or windmill or factory or… ANYTHING. I has a jealous of YOU!!
What you do is you come VISIT me while I’m living in the UK. See how that works? London. Notting Hill. Portobello Road a 10 minute walk away…
We could go write in pubs during the day, you expense part of it off your taxes as a writing retreat…
Man, that sounds amazing. I wish my daughter were just a few years older, man. I would be on that like a SHOT!
I agree with you, pretty old houses rock!
Good luck with the house-hunting!