A House With a Story...

So Mark has been driving us down streets that we like around campus for the last month or so, looking for homes that might be for sale but not listed through a realtor.  Just west of OSU there are two streets that have "wealthier" ranch homes, spaced back from the road with big yards and these two streets are dead ends (no through traffic).  The homes on one of the streets (Jackson) actually back up on OSU agricultural land ("green spaces").  

A few weeks ago we noticed that one of the homes looked a bit empty, and today we drove down the street again and noticed a dumpster out front.  I e-mailed Clare and she knew that it had been for sale (listed at $524,000 eek!), did not sell, and found out from the realtor that it is going to be re-listed again soon.  The current owners bought the home for around $350,000 a few years ago, so the asking price is quite high.  There is a house a few blocks away (blue corner house I had in a previous blog) that is selling for $425,000.   Clare knows this street because she used to live in this area as well.  The street is friendly (has picnics, a real neighborhood) but very quiet.  The lots are BIG, the one we found has one of the biggest lots, 0.66 acres.

Now about this house, it is probably going to sell for over $400,000 so its never going to be cheap, but it has a waterfall, hot tub, above ground pool, and the best part is that it backs up on the OSU fields.  It also is one block from the bus route.  Here are some photos from the old realty listing (photos taken in 2002 so the interior and yard probably look different):

Lots of room for landscaping (that's an understatement).

The interior shots are pretty limited,

there appears to be built-ins, but we can't get a feel

for whether it was remodeled from the photos

(that can be good or bad) or whether it has good bones.

It has a sprawling yard.

And a view of the OSU fields over the fence.

Best location we've seen yet, but it'll have a hefty price tag.

The former (high price) listing  with photos is here.

The Price is Right...

This listing came up today, the house is $234,900 and a few blocks away from the one we wanted to bid on. The price is right, but for some reason this part of the neighborhood did not appeal to us right away. The people were moving out,so we took a few photos from the car...

This is the house for sale
(there is a better photo in the listing below)

Here is one of its neighbors.

Some of the homes are fixed up, others are not.
This is a nice yard across the street.

The listing is here.

Want a Bed & Breakfast?

I was perusing through the "for Sale By Owner" listings today and found a huge house close to downtown (415 11th St., so a few blocks northwest of the library) for $449,500.  Normally I would have averted my eyes at that price, but then I read that it had a "Grand circular stairwell with 42 stained glass windows has 2 large skylights & chandelier above" and "5 bedrooms are masters w/their own baths & heating."  So I had to take a peek, if you ever had dreams of being a proprietress of a B&B, this is a LOT of house (although I can't tell if it has much yard from the listing).  It is a massive house at 4800 square feet, and it looks like it was custom and expensively built fairly recently.

Here are some photos from the listing, 

The exterior is not eye-catching to us at all,

it need some flags and a big B&B sign or something.

The blue and white colors are a bit stark,

but there is a lot of parking, important for a B&B.

Nice plantings, check.

This house does have a nice interior...

A GRAND staircase.

Gorgeous kitchen.

A second-story sunroom, drool.

And a room that our whole house can fit into. A big space to "rent" for events.

And you can see more at the link here.

Something different!

Another House NW of Downtown

There is a house that is going up for sale tomorrow for $275,000, a few blocks East of the one for sale we almost bid on.  I'm not sure how I feel about this one, the exterior shots don't catch my eye (the one on 30th didn't either).  To hit two of the three big criteria, it needs to have a great interior and large yard, to offset its distance from downtown (it is one block east of 29th, the road the downtown bus travels along).

Here are the photos from the MLS listing (there are bigger photos at the link below):

It is a 1950's western ranch design on a street

of ranch houses.

Hardwood floors throughout.

Updated kitchen.

Interesting skylights.

And a big yard that needs some plants.

You can see more here.  If you are interested,

Clare has offered to show us the house tomorrow.

No New Homes Yet...

Well, we drove by a few open houses today we saw the listings for and weren't thrilled about, and they didn't look any better in person. The prices seem high to us.

So, here's what $300,000 could get you in a custom built house on our land, a Sunset magazine prefab house from California designer Michelle Kaufmann. You may have heard of the designer on the Chicago news because one of her homes is on display in the parking lot of the Museum of Science and Industry (the link to the story is here). These are "green" energy-efficient houses partially built in California, then shipped elsewhere.

One MK house is the "Breezehouse," built for California living, its not much to look at in the exterior view, but has a great floorplan...

Here is the floorplan:

Actually for that amount of money, you could build any house of your dreams. Just thinking of all of the options!!

Home for a Bunny

Here we are summer 2007!

So for Easter 2009, we have a story...

Vladi's favorite book
(and mine too, of course)...

Home for a Bunny.

You can click each photo to make it bigger to read the
story (and then the back arrow to come back here)...

And now the new bunny family...

Mark updated the family photo :)

Happy Easter!

Pricy, Big, with a Greenhouse

This house is pricy ($350,000) and big, but I wanted to show it because it is the next street over from the last one we looked at (29th street).  There are a lot of photos at the realty website here.

Find Realty in B.I. and B.S.

Find any realty you want, by clicking here.

View of 1005 at Dusk

We decided to go back to the house at dusk to see if it was quiet and what the neighborhood is like with people at home after work.

We parked along the neighbor's house across the street
(to the South)

This is the neighbor to the south.

This is the neighbor kitty-corner.

Directly across from the front door (to the west)
is the backyard...

...of this house.

The closest neighbor is...

The next door neighbor to the North.

Here is the border between the neighbor and
the garage of the property for sale (about 50/50).

Mark in the driveway.

Path from the garage to the front path.

This is the front "median strip," Mark
thinks lavender would look good there too.

The front and side lawns are big, in part because
the sidewalks are next to the street.

The back of the yard is big and used to be open to the
sidewalk. Someone propped up a fence once the
family moved out. That's Mark in the distance
by the stop sign.

The other neighbor, behind the yard (to the east).

Another gate to the back yard from the side yard.

View to the garden over the fence.

Its pretty here in the spring!

One last view before driving home...

Here is the Alternative Food Coop (grocery store)
a block and a half away.

And here is Schmidt's Garden Center.