We visited the house on 1019 Buchanan,
and liked what we saw. This is definitely the
most promising of all of the houses we have seen so far...
This is a central location to shopping, schools, and the public pool.
We measured the distance to the courthouse downtown,
it is 0.7 miles, the same distance from my office to downtown.
The house is one block South of the Arc (resale shop),
a dry-cleaners, and a small grocery store,
and 0.5 mile East of Fred Meyer (about four blocks).
CVS (Corvallis High School) is one block away,
this is right next door to the green house for sale.
One block East is ninth street, and Borders bookstore.
The arrow points to the corner business building for sale.
We parked in the driveway.
There is a gate to the yard between the house and garage.
Mark walking to the front.
The yards are nicely landscaped with rocks, mulch,
evergreens, perennials, and ornaments.
Something is popping up from the mulch here.
It would be fun to find out what was planted.
The two front trees and lawn are a nice size.
There is a small side yard with sidewalk between
the house and the yard of the next house.
The path leads to a space to store the garbage cans...
The recycling bins go out of sight, behind the garage.
A side view toward the garage.
We liked the way the exterior looked, so we
contacted a realtor and visited the house again in the afternoon.
The house was owned by an older couple, she gardened,
and he was a fisherman.
It is still furnished with dark wood stuff,
but the house itself is quite light and airy feeling.
The stairs to the front door...
There is an entry way with a light and closet...
and parquet floor.
From the entry hall, the den is to the left,
the living room is to the right.
The den is the least attractive part of the house,
let's start there...
The den could use a skylight, and some paint.
Mark envisions a door in this wall, which would
create another "bunny path" to the back of the house.
The living room has big windows, but could be
even better with a skylight or two.
All of the photos were taken on an overcast day with
the shades drawn, but the rooms still were light.
This room could have a conservatory feel.
Also, a new wood facade over the brick fireplace
would be a huge improvement.
The living room leads to the dining room.
The rounded arch is decorative, and could be easily
made larger and square-shaped if preferred.
A different view of the dining room.
The dining room leads to the kitchen (behind Mark)
and a hall that leads to the bedroom.
Note, Mark is wearing one of Dad's hats!
The hall leads to a bath with tub,
and three bedrooms. It also has built in linen cabinets.
Two bedrooms have corner windows.
This one would be a nice computer room.
The smallest could be a guest bedroom (for the boys).
This bedroom has two beds and is the most secluded.
It also has a nice view of the garden.
Here is the bathroom with a tub.
Also off the dining room is the kitchen,
it has a window view of the backyard.
It is small, but well laid-out with nice custom cabinets.
Off the kitchen is a pantry with utilities
(gas forced air heat).
Past the kitchen is a laundry room...
Another room with a freezer (may have been a canning room),
a bathroom, and a door to the yard
and another bath with shower.
The yard is quite nice, it backs onto the yards
of two other homes.
There is a cement deck.
Even in the winter, the garden looks nice.
Interesting use of pavers, rocks, and bricks.
Looking for herbs...
Found a patch of white violets!
Here is the path between the garage and house.
The garage was used as a hobby room, with a partition
to make it two rooms.
The partition could be also
removed to make a regular garage,
If you wanted to re-sell the house.
Here is a rough floor plan.
Here is the flyer.
This house appears to be in great move-in shape,
but we would personally make some improvements.
This would include:
- Skylights in living room and den (front of house)
- Solar tube in kitchen (for more natural light)
- Possible door from den to back of house
- Wood facade over brick fireplace (or close it off)
- Possibly painting woodwork a lighter color
- Remove door arches to make square (purely aesthetics)
We would offer a lower price and maybe offer to clear the house.
Anyway, it is a cute cottage corner home.
Some Corvallis-wear to go with a new house :).
