(First of all, we really need someone to come along and buy our house. It's a really nice house. I wouldn't move if we didn't have to. But... So, if you know somebody looking for a house in the Eagle, WI area, send them our way.)
In the meantime, we've been looking at houses in the Champaign, IL area. I've been looking at so many houses online that I'm having a hard time remembering which house is which. There are quite a few houses available. The trick is going to be finding the right one - or at least one that we can live with. Unless we decide to build another house so we can pick the floor plan, the cabinets, the flooring, the colors, the lighting, and everything else, we're going to have to live with some things that won't be exactly what we would have chosen. Not to say that there aren't some really nice houses.
But the otherwise nice houses will have a small or poorly designed kitchen. The houses with nice kitchens will be lacking something else. I found some really nice houses, but they only had a 1-car garage. And since Jeffrey finally got his trailer, he's hoping to find a nice, affordable house with a 3-car garage. Or at least room to park his trailer. We've got plenty of room for the trailer here, but the lots all these houses are sitting on - they're so small! They really do build these houses right on top of each other, and there's just nowhere for the trailer to go.
A relatively small percentage of the houses for sale in the area have basements. We have a basement. It's a nice basement. We like it. Do we really need a basement? Maybe not, but we've been through a tornado; I'd really like a basement. We haven't completely ruled out buying a house without a basement, but we'd have to figure out where stuff goes. Sure, we can get a house that gives us the same amount of square footage we have now, counting the living space in the basement, but where does the stuff we have in the storage room in the back go? Where does the 2nd refrigerator go? And the deep freeze? Where is Jeffrey going to display his Jack Daniels collection? Not to say we can't change the way we do things and figure out how to make something else work, and if he built a classy display cabinet for all his bottles, it could work in a main-floor family room instead of a basement rec room, but we just have to figure it out before we commit to something. And I really am going to get rid of some of that stuff we've collected over the years, though I know it won't be enough that we don't need some kind of storage.
While looking at these houses I've been amazed at all the colors - different colors in every room. And here I agonized over picking just one color - besides the basic 'white' - to go on my walls! I do really like the green we chose, but do you know how much trouble I had choosing which color to use as the main color and which green I liked best? How in the world do people choose so many colors? Why do they want all those colors? (If you have different colors in every room, feel free to let me know) Some of their colors aren't too bad - earthtones and fairly neutral colors - and I could probably live with them, at least for a while. Others? The entire house will need repainted. Thankfully I know what colors I like now! And painting is something that can be done without too much trouble. Wallpaper and borders in every room is another thing. That might be a bit more trouble to fix - and it definitely must be fixed! Can you paint over wallpaper, or does it need to be removed first? Sounds like a lot of work.
And then there are the houses with the purple carpet. Or is it pink or rose? It's kind of hard to tell in the pictures, but whatever color it is, it would have to go - immediately. Why would anybody choose that color? Why is it even available? Of course, we eventually want to take all the carpet out of the house and go with all hard surfaces. Carpet that color would just mean we have to do it sooner, I guess. But I'd also want to pay less for the house so we'd have the money to do it. All our upgrades here have been done over time.
And then there are the houses that are gorgeous, with nice kitchens, and basements, and they even cost less than some of the others. Perfect, right? But they're what they call 'zero lot' homes, meaning they're attached to somebody else's house, and you really don't have any yard. Maybe a patio or deck, separated from the next-door neighbors' patio or deck by a fence. Definitely no room for the trailer, but one of those could be nice - if only I can be sure that the neighbors aren't smokers, because I can't imagine living that close to somebody who smokes. If they're outside, I can't be. If they're outside, all my windows have to be closed... Not that some of these other unattached houses are that much further apart....
Oh well, we'll keep looking and hopefully find something we really like and that gives us everything we need. We may even change our ideas of what we need by the time we find something.
And don't forget - we have an awesome house for sale in Eagle, and it has everything you need! (and everything we need, except for its location)
