Shhh, we're huntin' houses
Mar. 1st, 2013 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyMonday we went to visit two houses. One is very, very blue. I thought maybe it was one of those things where the listing photo was just kind of exaggerated. No, if anything the color is understated in photos. In person it is Smurf Blue. Which isn't a bad thing as I'd imagine ordering a pizza is made easier when you say "it's the blue house. The really blue house." (Incidentally, why are so many rental places blue?) The other was literally across the street from where Ari and Cass used to live. That one needs to update its listing photo since otherwise you'd spend forever looking for a red door when there is no red door to be found.
Anyway. We'll begin with Smurf House. Smurf House is right around the corner from my old middle school (is it still used as one?) which might prompt nightmares. It might not. *shrug* The boy, Mom, and I all end up going, with him squished in the back and you can feel the waves of annoyance coming from the backseat but... the truck isn't really meant for getting anyone in and out of the backseat, k?
We get out there and the Realtor is sitting in her SUV in the driveway, but she's parked sorta in the middle so while you could probably usually fit two cars in the driveway, Monday that was not an option. Nor was she pulled in enough to make it easy to pull in behind her, so Mums was trying to figure out whether she wanted to park on the dirt road (...yes) or not, but eventually just parked behind Realtor and said to hell with it. She goes and introduces herself, I think. I concentrate on not falling into the ditch at the side of the driveway while the boy climbs out of the truck. I'm also trying not to stare at how BLUE this place is.
We go inside and I notice the light outside the door needs to be fixed and that I think one of the windows in the front room area is probably in need of someone to peek at it but the boy, who claimed he wanted to come along to "look at windows and stuff like that" never once looked at a damn window. :P
There's this strange front room/hall area that's really too big to be a hall but too small for a real room. Mom, or possibly she got this idea from the Realtor, said it'd be a good place for the computer. I'm still thinking the front door is a piss poor place for a computer, but I will say that the house has two other entrances so one could be flexible. It'd be moreso if we were talking about a laptop. There's a step up to the hallway that has a room to the left. That room has a walled in window that in any other house would back into the kitchen so that you'd have an easier time of passing food and drinks from the kitchen to the living room (though this sucker is so obviously a dining room and is, in fact, labeled as one on one of the listings) only that window backs up to the weird front room. And they left the mini-shelf. I... do not understand. I truly don't. It's an empty room other than that, so... I can't really say much.
The kitchen has an attached dining area (redundant given the obviousness of the dining room trying to masquerade as a living room) and isn't much to write home about aside from the fact that half the cabinets and drawers were painted shut. :P
I somehow missed going out onto the back porch, but there's a small one that leads down and out into a huge backyard with a firepit. Seriously huge backyard. If only the fence were higher, but hey. The boy points out the probability that the A/C is ancient (or at least rusted as if it were) but that's one point in favor of rental- someone else deals with that BS.
There's a step on the side entrance that nearly trips me but I'm not sure if it's something you get used to (our other house had a really weird staircase that you got used to) or if it's something to be pointed out, hence me mentioning it now. The bathrooms pale horribly when compared to my lovely one (the poems I could/should write about it!) but they each have a linen closet that might've prompted an internal squee. The bedrooms are all about the same size and one has a bathroom attached so it might also be a smidge bigger. It's the room that needs the top shelf in the closet to be fixed. Otherwise smallish rooms are still better than not enough rooms period. I know which one I'd pick as mine for no good reason. There's another linen closet between two of the bedrooms and a utility mini-closet with a light that needs to be fixed (hello, dangling wires!) and... we're done with the tour.
All the while, our Realtor stood in the kitchen texting. I don't think she said one word to me at all, and if she spoke to anyone it was only after they spoke to her. I'm sure it wasn't the biggest thrill of her job but the person who just gave us the code to the Little House of No was more helpful and she was just on the phone, not in person. :P
Smurf House wasn't bad. I've mentioned just about everything wrong and that's in case we do try for it. More on that in a bit. In general, it's not bad and I don't think it would kill me to live there.
Next was Red!Less Door. Indeed it was across the street from the other house I spent most of my teens inhabiting, so I was a bit interested to see what it was like inside.
Inside was cold and dark because our Realtor at first thought the power hadn't been switched on (somewhere near the end of our rounds someone thought to play with the electric box) and also because the house was painted this really weirdly dark shade of not grey, not brown. This house was much older than the other one but that wasn't the dealbreaker. No, that happened to be the walls under the windows looking like they were set to collapse (my dealbreaker), the bloodstain on the wall in one of the bedrooms (the boy's) and I'm not actually sure what Mom's dealbreaker was. The uneven steps? Broken fence? The fact that when you tried to go out onto the back porch you damn near died even when you knew (not that Realtor said a damned thing; it's a good thing I do not wear heels or I'd be in traction) you had to step UP and not down like you would logically think to do?
*shrug* I dunno. It did have a lovely dishwasher as well as a fab fridge. The idea of the converted garage wasn't bad, but it was... strangely done. Mom was the one who had the boy check for cold air around the door in that room.
It's a shame since the backyard and porch were quite loverly, as was the dining room that backed up to the porch so that in the nicer months you could've entertained more people. In theory. The steps would've killed anyone not paying attention, though. :P
So... we all immediately agree on two things. One, our Realtor was useless. Any question she was asked was answered with "I don't know" (said nicely but still, a two second peek at Smurf's Listing site answered one of the questions and it's not like she wasn't on her phone the whole time). Two) Red!Less was a No.
Which left Smurf House. The boy was probably about as enthusiastic as he'd be about anything once I explained how it was totally possible to afford this and had no huge issues with it. (Aside from ... well. We'll get into that later.) Mom didn't seem bothered by it when I asked, but it's Friday and the price has dropped and she still won't give me an answer as to whether I should attempt to fill out an application for it or not.
In the meantime I've been looking for another option. So much looking. So much not finding. I'd kind of like to at least attempt to move before Mom and the boy bleed me dry of the money that will be enabling this move. Lord knows they've already started. Mom unintentionally and the boy is very much intentional in his lack of paying for shit.
Even if I do fill out this stupid application, there's no guarantee they'd accept it, but I'd really like to have a fucking plan, you know?
Sigh. This is on top of the boy telling Mom that he would see us through the move and then he'd be on the lookout for a place of his own, get an apartment so he could "get a girlfriend, maybe get married, have a life."
I'm sorry-what? You think you get to insist that we look for a four bedroom place when you're planning on just ditching us? Might I remind you that a) I cannot afford this damn thing on my own, even with Mom bringing in money and b) Widget is NOT MY KID. I love him dearly, I do, but everyone has made it very clear that I can pay for things but aside from that and occasionally serving as a lie-detector my input is very much ignored.
I love my mother. I love Widget. I usually even love the boy, but the way he seems to think he gets to just up and leave is so maddening that I've spent the whole week since she told me this basically waffling back and forth between extreme anger and this need to cry. It's not like this is really a surprising declaration, because he's made it before, but it's just... why do you get to run away? Why do you get to help make this huge fucking mess and leave me to deal? Why is that okay? On what planet does DITCHING YOUR SON sound like a good idea?
I just... I can't wrap my head around that so I don't even try.
It's not surprising but it still feels like someone just slammed and locked the door on me.
That said, good luck with that, Sunshine. You make more than I do an hour but you don't work as many hours and thus I actually make more than you do... soooooo, yeah. Good luck with that.
One more day of work this week and well, this weekend won't be my favorite ever but apparently Monster High has its Scaris Special on Sunday? Note to self, buy some DVDs.
Anyway. We'll begin with Smurf House. Smurf House is right around the corner from my old middle school (is it still used as one?) which might prompt nightmares. It might not. *shrug* The boy, Mom, and I all end up going, with him squished in the back and you can feel the waves of annoyance coming from the backseat but... the truck isn't really meant for getting anyone in and out of the backseat, k?
We get out there and the Realtor is sitting in her SUV in the driveway, but she's parked sorta in the middle so while you could probably usually fit two cars in the driveway, Monday that was not an option. Nor was she pulled in enough to make it easy to pull in behind her, so Mums was trying to figure out whether she wanted to park on the dirt road (...yes) or not, but eventually just parked behind Realtor and said to hell with it. She goes and introduces herself, I think. I concentrate on not falling into the ditch at the side of the driveway while the boy climbs out of the truck. I'm also trying not to stare at how BLUE this place is.
We go inside and I notice the light outside the door needs to be fixed and that I think one of the windows in the front room area is probably in need of someone to peek at it but the boy, who claimed he wanted to come along to "look at windows and stuff like that" never once looked at a damn window. :P
There's this strange front room/hall area that's really too big to be a hall but too small for a real room. Mom, or possibly she got this idea from the Realtor, said it'd be a good place for the computer. I'm still thinking the front door is a piss poor place for a computer, but I will say that the house has two other entrances so one could be flexible. It'd be moreso if we were talking about a laptop. There's a step up to the hallway that has a room to the left. That room has a walled in window that in any other house would back into the kitchen so that you'd have an easier time of passing food and drinks from the kitchen to the living room (though this sucker is so obviously a dining room and is, in fact, labeled as one on one of the listings) only that window backs up to the weird front room. And they left the mini-shelf. I... do not understand. I truly don't. It's an empty room other than that, so... I can't really say much.
The kitchen has an attached dining area (redundant given the obviousness of the dining room trying to masquerade as a living room) and isn't much to write home about aside from the fact that half the cabinets and drawers were painted shut. :P
I somehow missed going out onto the back porch, but there's a small one that leads down and out into a huge backyard with a firepit. Seriously huge backyard. If only the fence were higher, but hey. The boy points out the probability that the A/C is ancient (or at least rusted as if it were) but that's one point in favor of rental- someone else deals with that BS.
There's a step on the side entrance that nearly trips me but I'm not sure if it's something you get used to (our other house had a really weird staircase that you got used to) or if it's something to be pointed out, hence me mentioning it now. The bathrooms pale horribly when compared to my lovely one (the poems I could/should write about it!) but they each have a linen closet that might've prompted an internal squee. The bedrooms are all about the same size and one has a bathroom attached so it might also be a smidge bigger. It's the room that needs the top shelf in the closet to be fixed. Otherwise smallish rooms are still better than not enough rooms period. I know which one I'd pick as mine for no good reason. There's another linen closet between two of the bedrooms and a utility mini-closet with a light that needs to be fixed (hello, dangling wires!) and... we're done with the tour.
All the while, our Realtor stood in the kitchen texting. I don't think she said one word to me at all, and if she spoke to anyone it was only after they spoke to her. I'm sure it wasn't the biggest thrill of her job but the person who just gave us the code to the Little House of No was more helpful and she was just on the phone, not in person. :P
Smurf House wasn't bad. I've mentioned just about everything wrong and that's in case we do try for it. More on that in a bit. In general, it's not bad and I don't think it would kill me to live there.
Next was Red!Less Door. Indeed it was across the street from the other house I spent most of my teens inhabiting, so I was a bit interested to see what it was like inside.
Inside was cold and dark because our Realtor at first thought the power hadn't been switched on (somewhere near the end of our rounds someone thought to play with the electric box) and also because the house was painted this really weirdly dark shade of not grey, not brown. This house was much older than the other one but that wasn't the dealbreaker. No, that happened to be the walls under the windows looking like they were set to collapse (my dealbreaker), the bloodstain on the wall in one of the bedrooms (the boy's) and I'm not actually sure what Mom's dealbreaker was. The uneven steps? Broken fence? The fact that when you tried to go out onto the back porch you damn near died even when you knew (not that Realtor said a damned thing; it's a good thing I do not wear heels or I'd be in traction) you had to step UP and not down like you would logically think to do?
*shrug* I dunno. It did have a lovely dishwasher as well as a fab fridge. The idea of the converted garage wasn't bad, but it was... strangely done. Mom was the one who had the boy check for cold air around the door in that room.
It's a shame since the backyard and porch were quite loverly, as was the dining room that backed up to the porch so that in the nicer months you could've entertained more people. In theory. The steps would've killed anyone not paying attention, though. :P
So... we all immediately agree on two things. One, our Realtor was useless. Any question she was asked was answered with "I don't know" (said nicely but still, a two second peek at Smurf's Listing site answered one of the questions and it's not like she wasn't on her phone the whole time). Two) Red!Less was a No.
Which left Smurf House. The boy was probably about as enthusiastic as he'd be about anything once I explained how it was totally possible to afford this and had no huge issues with it. (Aside from ... well. We'll get into that later.) Mom didn't seem bothered by it when I asked, but it's Friday and the price has dropped and she still won't give me an answer as to whether I should attempt to fill out an application for it or not.
In the meantime I've been looking for another option. So much looking. So much not finding. I'd kind of like to at least attempt to move before Mom and the boy bleed me dry of the money that will be enabling this move. Lord knows they've already started. Mom unintentionally and the boy is very much intentional in his lack of paying for shit.
Even if I do fill out this stupid application, there's no guarantee they'd accept it, but I'd really like to have a fucking plan, you know?
Sigh. This is on top of the boy telling Mom that he would see us through the move and then he'd be on the lookout for a place of his own, get an apartment so he could "get a girlfriend, maybe get married, have a life."
I'm sorry-what? You think you get to insist that we look for a four bedroom place when you're planning on just ditching us? Might I remind you that a) I cannot afford this damn thing on my own, even with Mom bringing in money and b) Widget is NOT MY KID. I love him dearly, I do, but everyone has made it very clear that I can pay for things but aside from that and occasionally serving as a lie-detector my input is very much ignored.
I love my mother. I love Widget. I usually even love the boy, but the way he seems to think he gets to just up and leave is so maddening that I've spent the whole week since she told me this basically waffling back and forth between extreme anger and this need to cry. It's not like this is really a surprising declaration, because he's made it before, but it's just... why do you get to run away? Why do you get to help make this huge fucking mess and leave me to deal? Why is that okay? On what planet does DITCHING YOUR SON sound like a good idea?
I just... I can't wrap my head around that so I don't even try.
It's not surprising but it still feels like someone just slammed and locked the door on me.
That said, good luck with that, Sunshine. You make more than I do an hour but you don't work as many hours and thus I actually make more than you do... soooooo, yeah. Good luck with that.
One more day of work this week and well, this weekend won't be my favorite ever but apparently Monster High has its Scaris Special on Sunday? Note to self, buy some DVDs.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-02 01:43 am (UTC)Your brother...IDK. Sounds like he's pipe-dreaming. You could always look at 3 bedrooms (or even 2 bedrooms - his son should go with him, period) and "threaten" him with it to call his bluff.
Speaking of Monster High: I saw some dolls in Big Lots! but was not sure if you already had them or not (probably). But if you don't already look there, maybe you should. They get decent stuff from time to time.
ETA: I peeked at your MH list, and I believe the dolls I saw were Scaris - unsure if deluxe or basic.