Making a Home

We spent the whole of Sunday in Baltimore, looking at houses, talking about houses, thinking about houses and eating awesome diner food. We saw a total of 7 houses within 2 hours and there were some significant surprises. The very first house we saw was creepy. Dark wooden panelling on the walls and the owner actually followed us from room to room, giving a running commentary. And there were about 6 different types of carpeting, just laid on the floor. Not even fitted properly, or attached in any way. Just laying there. The house we were all waiting to fall in love with just didn't do it. It was beautiful on the outside, beautiful on the inside, but impractical, expensive and  would have cost several thousand dollars to make is suitable. It was built somewhere in the 40s (I think?) and still had all of the original electrics and plumbing. Just bringing that up to date and making it safe would have cost a couple of grand, then it would need redecorating (with potential lead paint, fun times) and the basement needed finishing too. We were sad, because in so many ways it was great  :( One house was full almost floor to ceiling of stuff. Clothes, shoes, beads and boxes and boxes of stuff. You could hardly move in 2 of the rooms, the others were challenging and WOW it needed a good clean. Surprisingly, it was pretty high on the list. The rooms were a good size and it was in a lovely neighbourhood, with about a 10 minute walk to the child's school. It would have taken a bit of work but would have been ok. But then we all stopped and thought exactly how much work we WANTED to put into a house before we even moved in, and realised that it wasn't as much as that place needed. The row houses we saw were actually pretty cool, just very deficient in the garden size. After a lot of talking over a delicious lunch, we narrowed it down to 2 options. A row house that Hermit fell in love with as soon as he walked into, and a somewhat confusing (though lovely) detached cape cod house. Both were very reasonable prospects, but what really tipped the balance was the price. The cape cod was 5k more than our max price and the row house was almost half of that. Bit of a no-brainer, really. Until Hermit had a chat with the cashier at the diner, who told him that the neighbourhood the row house was in is not somewhere we'd want to live. There was a reason why they were giving it away :( In contrast, the cape cod is in a lovely area with low crime rates and where we all feel comfortable. So, we'll be putting in an offer for it!

We all think that we can make it into the perfect home for us. There's room for us all, a lovely kitchen, room for a study, great finished basement and I get to have the attic room :D Oh, and the garden is HUGE. More than big enough for a good vegetable garden, space for the dog and space for the child to be able to play. We're thinking of (if we manage to buy it) staying there for a considerable amount of time, as long as I'm able to get a job and a visa after school. I feel very good about staying there for a while, and making it a home for our somewhat unusual family. Hermit and Minx have both been moving for so long that I think they're both looking forward to being able to settle somewhere. Even if we have to commute a long way for work, having a calm retreat of a home to come back to will (I think) make it all worthwhile.