Doug and I once again headed out to look at houses on Saturday.
First stop was an open house in Brunswick, MD. We like Brunswick, it's a gritty little town with a nice brewery and coffee shop. It is very hilly, an adventure to drive around! And there is a hugely active train depot there. You can get the MARC train into DC, if you're lucky it is actually running. They notoriously cancel trains (from what I understand...).
The open house was at a place where from the front it looks like you have to climb up 900 steps, but, there's an alley in the back for parking and that's much better. In fact, there's no door on the front of the house except for kind of a small basement door that leads into the grimy basement, so, you wouldn't want to come in the front. There's a lovely porch, but no steps up to it. Back door is the way to go!
The alley has a nice level 3 car parking slab off it, and a sidewalk to the back patio. Entering in through the kitchen, it's cute. She's cute. There are 3 nice rooms in addition to the kitchen, a first floor half bath and a big laundry room with hookups. The front door goes out onto that patio with no staircase down, which would be a gorgeous place to sit and enjoy coffee daily and watch the quiet street and the view. Toffee would be nice and safe chilling on the porch with us.
The middle room of the three on the main floor has a beautiful wood stove and hearth. They didn't rip everything out and shove in a stupid gas fireplace the way so many houses have now. I'm not a fan of gas fireplaces.
Upstairs there are 4 bedrooms and a very small full bath. Strangely enough, the bathroom vanity is only thigh-high, not waist-high. We had a good laugh at that. 6' 2" Geoff standing 4 feet above the sink for brushing his teeth would be amuzing.
One of the bedrooms could easily be converted to a really nice, large bathroom. If one wanted. Which I kind of would.
No usable basement at all. It was gloomy and musty. I wouldn't even want it for storage even if I had shelving and everything off the floor without a dehumidifier running all the time. Geoff would have to live on our level with us which takes his privacy and ours.
So this wasn't the house for us. Oh, and also, they're asking way too much money. 399k is way crazy.
We did a drive-by on another house, Doug was curious about the yard and the street, and I'm glad we came by. Very crowded street with another staircase up to the front door, but nothing like the last one. It has all very fresh vinyl siding and it seems to be a 2 family without separation between the units, which is weird. Like someone was in the middle of a house flip and gave up or ran out of money?
A second floor unfinished unit with a private bedroom, private entry, and full bath seems nice for Geoff, to be honest. And then when Geoff doesn't live with us, we could rent it out? But wow there are problems with this house other than the lack of completion for the project.
We have NO idea who installed the heat pumps on this house - the hoses are all exposed, holes drilled into the walls and expanding foam filling the gaps. It looks like someone said "oh I can install this shit" and they bought the heat pump kit from home depot, didn't know what they were doing, and committed a crime against humanity. Every other house with heat pumps has had a lovely finished box around the hoses to protect them from the weather. Again, did someone just run out of money, time, energy to complete this?
The backyard was an absolute mess. We're not afraid of an outdoor gardening project but really, ugh. The alley in the back ends abruptly, right before getting to the house, and it crumbles down the hill to where people have thrown garbage over the years. There is a shed at the back of the property that is just about to fall down, but someone thought to install a really nice set of double doors with a locking mechanism on it. Too bad whatever you want to get out of this shed will probably result in your death if you step on the little deck/platform by the door.
Top it all off with the fact that the house next door was the site of a major fire at some point. No wonder it has all new siding, the side of this house probably was destroyed when the neighboring property burned.
All told, this was a big no from both of us, not just the house but the neighborhood. All the houses are so close, you could reach out your window and get a cup of sugar from a neighbor. Way too tight. I was not comfortable with the setup.
Next, off to Hagerstown again. A different neighborhood than the last (we love the North End where the other house was, and this is much closer to downtown).
Our broker took us to this cute house (at our request) which truly is delightful. It has everything, updated, new, wonderful. The only thing is the oven/stove which look like it could be replaced.
As someone who uses their stove every single day, looking at the family here, they obviously do too. Six kids! And probably the most organized space I've ever seen. In the mud room, they had a wall of lockers like a school would have. Genius. Gets all the shoes and coats and nonsense off the floor! With six kids that's a feat. The mud room has the washer dryer in it, with a ton of storage and shelving. It's well done. I would want a nice bench and shoe rack, we don't need lockers.
Walking into the kitchen, I noticed that they had notched the kids heights into the door frame coming into the kitchen. It made me think of the first house we had, where we had our kids measured up, and our neighbor kids too, in the doorway of the garage. I was remembering Matt and Megan in that moment, knowing Megan has passed on years and years ago now, it made me a little sad. It's the one thing I kind of wish we'd pulled out of the first house we owned. I wondered about this family, with all their kids (and mommy and daddy) on the door frame. Where are they moving? What is their plan? Hopefully a bigger house so bedrooms can be a little more private for the kids!
The attic has two bedrooms (not separated by a door, it's not there) for four of the kids. A small music area, desks, and nice closets. The parents' room is on the main floor, with one full bath right there. The kitchen is so cute, and rather large, and a separate dining room which used to be a bedroom at one point, but obviously with six kids, you'd want a good place to sit for a meal.
The living room has a lovely setup, very nice inlaid wood in the floors, and a gas fireplace. As mentioned, I hate gas fireplaces but Doug pointed out that it's nice to have one because if it does get cold out, the heat pump systems that everyone has around here usually struggle under 30 degrees so a supplemental heating source is a good idea. It gets cold around here, so I just don't understand why heat pumps are so freaking popular instead of actual furnaces. Mystery to me.
The basement has a large living room area where they had a big couch and video games. There is a really dry storage room, another half bath, a kids bedroom with a set of bunk beds, a Man Cave, and a really cool office.
The backyard is fully fenced, it has a back alley with a gate to it too and the alley is in excellent condition. And they have a trampoline, swing set, and fun playhouse that we wouldn't need but could ask to have removed (if they would do that concession). If they didn't want to take them I'm sure we could give them away on Marketplace or Nextdoor.com or something. They're in excellent condition.
Doug and I talked about converting the 2 bedrooms in the attic to a primary suite with giant bathroom, and we could live in the bedroom on the first floor for a while.
And one of Doug's favorite things is glass "bricks" which this house has plenty of, but, the light doesn't shine through them. Which is weird. Still, they have them all over the front of the house, and it was delightful to see.
And the front porch is the cutest damn thing I've ever seen. The back porch is also incredibly cute. Porch Life in the front and the back!
Anyway.
We chatted with some neighbors who were having a yard sale, they were super cool and very nice. They offered me plants, if we buy the house, all I have to do is come back by and get some. We set off to check out the big park around the corner, which has a lot going on. It used to be the fairgrounds, and now has a BMX track, dog park, tons of playground area. And then a drive around the city to get acquainted with parts we had not seen yet.
After a while, Doug said he was very hungry so we grabbed a quick BK burger, and headed to a brewery we hadn't tried yet. Thick n Thin Brewing is in another part of town away from the Hub Brewery we've visited 3 times now. We weren't sure what the food action was around there but they have a permanent food truck and we could have had a much much better burger than what we got at BK, I'm sure.
The beer was nice, the staff was very friendly, and it was the first Saturday of the month which meant it was karaoke night!
We watched the regulars all start to file in, lots of hugs and handshakes, lots of laughs and smiles. Doug isn't big on karaoke, so we finished our beers and headed out. I was tempted to look at their listing to see if they had any Guster songs. Maybe another time.
I met this sweet couple and their dog Harpo. I loved their shirts and asked for a picture. Harpo's first visit to the brewery according to "Sweet," which she told me goes with her name Caroline. and he's Sour. It's a joke with their grandchildren. They aren't grandma and grandpa, but Sweet and Sour. I appreciated chatting with them.
I can electronically sign things and pay the stuff that needs paid like the home inspection and termite inspection etc...
But he'd be in charge of stuff and appointments and sometimes he's not the best at that, so I'd be pushing him to go go go.
We'd use the same companies we used for the first house. Everyone was wonderful. I feel like this house would pass inspection in a heartbeat with flying colors and no worries.
He's also not sure about Hagerstown overall, and is looking around at other spots. Back to Front Royal. We're in no hurry to find a place, so if this one is lost to us we'll be okay.
I think we'll decide tomorrow what we'll do.
The day was a lot of nothing. I watered the plants, Geoff went to the market to get a couple things for dinner tonight and tomorrow. The weather was gorgeous but I didn't go sit outside to hang out at the patio. Doug took a big nap and took Toffee for a walk while I made dinner. Doug tried to get ahold of his aunt because he wants her to decide what she's doing with her storage unit that we paid for on moving day. Today was the last day to cancel. She didn't return his calls. So I guess we'll pay another month and he's going to up his game with her to get a plan while I'm out of town (good).
Not a lot else to report, off to bed! Digits below.
Saturday digits
exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 1 hour by being in the car. "dedicated 10" walk in the house while Doug was showering. 7000+ steps by bedtime.
blood glucose:
xam: 156
n/a pm: n/a
11pm: 169
food & meds:
xam: jardiance+phentermine
11am: several slices of roast beef & some provolone cheese
3pm: met+glip; double cheeseburger from burger king
7:30pm: giant bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
10pm: met+glip
Sunday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours. 3 measurable walks, 2 for 15 min each about .72 miles each. One to the pokestop down the street, 11 min for .42 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
8am: 197
4:30pm: 126
10pm: 176
food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: pb& low sugar j on 647 bread
2pm: met+glip
2:45pm: protein shake
4:30pm: a couple cookies
6pm: chili, 2 beers
8pm: met+glip
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