Could one of the sitting areas be more of a kid play area? Or is there a separate playroom?
This may be a dumb idea, so feel free to shoot it down, but you could make the dining room the play area so kid crap is a bit enclosed, and put the dining table where the brown couch and chairs are.
I would actually consider making the sitting room with the white couches the dining room, and the dining room a play room/ kid space. I didn't look close enough to see if the basement has the space for a play room, but as someone who has a playroom on the second floor, I sometimes wish we had a playroom closer to the kitchen so I can make dinner and still have DD close enough (she doesn't like to go upstairs to play by herself).
We thought about that, because the idea of a play space near the kitchen is really appealing. But there's nowhere good to put a tv if we use the front space as the living room. And we really like to watch tv!
In that case, I'd put the play room in the dining space, the dining table where the brown couches are, and have a TV setup like they have now where the white couches are.
You could always have a more formal TV space upstairs (eta: for things like watching the news, while you're cooking, etc), but then do a more comfy theatre space downstairs.
I really like it. The only things I dislike are the kitchen layout and the exposed ductwork, but neither of those are dealbreakers. I'd be a little concerned with the quality of the renovations, since it's a flip, but it looks well done from the photos.
I love it- can I move in??? I love those lamps with old fashion bulbs. But this house is totally our style.
If you are concerned about storage from not having a garage- how big of a shed could you put on the property. Also, don't worry about the $5K difference. In the grand scheme of a mortgage that is nothing and this house may have a few upgraded features the other didn't.
The interior finishes on the main floor are gorgeous. So pretty.
The floorplan, however, is too "open" for my tastes. When kids get older, it's nice to have separate zones in which they can entertain while you do your own thing. The basement with egress makes comings and goings a little too easy for teens.
The curb appeal is OK out front and the back yard looks like it needs a lot of work and maybe even terracing for play spaces. That shed looks scary.
I like it. I'd definitely look into the quality of the renovations - how long did the previous owners own it? It may have been a quick flip, but they may have just renovated and then decided to move for some other reason, so I don't think that just because it looks like it's been flipped means that renovations were done poorly...but it's something I'd want to look into. (I say that as somebody who has renovated most of her house and found lots of shortcuts that the previous owners had taken that were...not good.) I'd also check into the ceiling height and codes for the basement to see if you would be able to add flooring and a drop ceiling or drywall and still have enough clearance to pass inspection.
I love the interior, but I am not really a big fan of the exterior. I feel like you could find something with more curb appeal if you aren't set on this one.
I did legit loled that listed Home Park as a comparable neighborhood, my brother lived in Home Park when he was at Tech and the interior of his houses looked nothing like this one
I love the interior, but I am not really a big fan of the exterior. I feel like you could find something with more curb appeal if you aren't set on this one.
I did legit loled that listed Home Park as a comparable neighborhood, my brother lived in Home Park when he was at Tech and the interior of his houses looked nothing like this one
Yeah it's also on the other side of town from Home Park, so there's something wrong with their algorithm.
I love the interior, but I am not really a big fan of the exterior. I feel like you could find something with more curb appeal if you aren't set on this one.
I did legit loled that listed Home Park as a comparable neighborhood, my brother lived in Home Park when he was at Tech and the interior of his houses looked nothing like this one
Yeah it's also on the other side of town from Home Park, so there's something wrong with their algorithm.
Wow, it is not what I expected based on the exterior. I like the open floor plan, and the finishes are gorgeous. If that's a competitive price for the area, I would absolutely consider making an offer.
I like it! The master bath is fantastic, as is the kitchen. Plus, they really made a great mud room.
I couldn't help but map the location when I saw it fed to Lakeside HS. I grew up in Dekalb county. One of my schools was on N Druid Hills, and then I went to Chamblee HS (Stone Mountain HS was my local school though).
LOVE IT! The shower, the closet, the mudroom, the deck! I need that shower. We are about to pay a bit less for an older home. Our home-to-be is maintained but there is a lot of wallpaper that I have to remove and repaint and the kitchen needs to be updated to our taste, then the bathrooms are next on the list to bring out of the 1960s. I would much rather pay more to have the inside of this home. We put an offer down on a house the day after we saw it and had it accepted the next day. My husband is very much a "Get it done now" person versus me and my dad like to linger on our decisions and make sure it's the right one, explore all options, sort-of like what you described in your OP. There was a comp from a few months prior that did get a better house for less than what we are paying, but their taxes are $5K higher. My husband laments that they got a better deal but he doesn't get that in the end it's like the same - they pay $5K more per year to live in a nicer interior, I will be using the $5K per year to upgrade my interior and not raise my taxes that much more than standard increases. But now that I've been looking at the market and what's out there for the past 2 months, that comp was sort-of an anomaly. Even my dad admits that there is really nothing out there for what we want when initially he gave me a huge guilt trip for signing on for a house so fast. But we rent and our lease ends this spring so we were on a bit of a deadline so that helped make our decision too. Unless there is a ton of inventory, I say go for it. Good luck!
In this area it's hard to find flat lots. For this area of town, that lot has a good slope and is not a drop-off into a ravine like a lot of yards.
The neighbors have a retaining wall in their backyard, so we could consider doing that to flatten out part of it.
The slope isn't really that bad IME. And yeah, Atlanta in general isn't known for its flatness.
right? "Heat, hills, and humidity".
I love what they did with the interior. I love the colors and the space. I know my DH has decided he prefers houses to have 'defined spaces' so the openness would probably annoy him.
That exterior needs some TLC. And I would enclose the carport to be a garage. I loathe pollen and extreme temps. Having our 2-car garage has been so so nice. Plus extra storage and the Mr has a place for all his tools and car stuffs.
That's a great renovation. Are you someone who can appreciate quirk in a house? I find that it makes or breaks your experience with an older home. Our kitchen is awkward, we don't have a pantry, our master bath is tiny, something always needs repair, and our scary shed is still intact in our backyard because no haul away company wants to touch it. All of these things weren't dealbreakers for us since we planned to be here only 5-6 years. I honestly don't know if I could handle it for 10-20. Of course, our house doesn't look half as nice as that one though. Maybe I could get over it for wood floors lol.
I'm Team Gray Doors. They work in that house. Very stylish.
I love this house! It definitely looks like a great long-term house to me. And I like the grey doors.
I know if we had that space, the dining room and TV areas would probably stay where they are, and the front sitting area would become lined with bookshelves - a library with sitting areas kind of thing.
Um that is a gorgeous home and a steal at that price. I thought you guys were looking OTP due to commute issues though? I don't like that one of the bedrooms and baths is in the basement though. I also think you need to walk through in person because there's a lot of wide angle lens shots that have me re-thinking the bedroom sizes. We are horrible at judging housing long term so I have no advice. We are back to the drawing board less than 3 years after moving into our house.
Oh and I would highly recommend touring the local elementary school to make sure you like it. At least you know going in whether you will use the schools or not.
We thought about OTP neighborhoods, but they weren't going to get our commutes that much shorter. And we got really sad about the prospect of leaving the city when our entire lives (besides our jobs) are here. This neighborhood keeps my commute the same (which I'm ok with) and improves H's, so win-win.
We have walked through the house twice and can't make up our damn minds, so I need MMM to tell me what to do!
I think it's beautiful. How's the neighborhood? I put a lot of stock in neighborhood/location, so that's something I'd think about. Not just neighborhood, but where in the neighborhood--a good street, walking distance to anything (a park or something), the houses around me, etc. It looks really nice and livable though. I love the back deck, but it seems very high/removed off the yard. Is that normal for the area though? I like the back porch/deck to be a little bit closer to the ground, so kids can play out there without me feeling completely removed. We're looking at houses now and a lot of the houses have this kind of set up. I'm still getting used to the idea though, so I'm always leaning towards the houses that are closer to the ground or have a two tiered deck If that's what's normal though, I could live with it.
The interior is beautiful! I was ready to hate it after the first picture of the front of the house, but I really, really like the inside a lot. And the deck is AMAZING.
It would be easy enough to add some curb appeal to the front.
This was my thinking too. I saw the outside and thought "meh", but the inside is fantastic. You can fix up the outside easily!
We looked for our forever home for 6 months. Exclusively online, b/c nothing even looked good enough to see in person. When our current house was listed on Redfin, I literally stuck my phone in DH's sleeping face and made him look at it. We saw it that day and made an offer right away. It had all of our needs and most of our wants. I'm so glad we didn't hesitate. Go see it, I hope you love it!
Post by crispnclean on Mar 1, 2016 13:16:08 GMT -5
The finishes are beautiful, but I feel like the front living room is a complete and total waste of space. Why would you want two sitting rooms/family rooms literally right next to one another and open to one another? I don't think they thought this all out well when they did the renovation.
The basement might look cool, but concrete floors in a basement are cold and with an open ceiling, it's going to be loud and echo-y down there.
I think the beauty of the renovation is overshadowing the practicality of the use of space. I think there's a reason you are hesitant to pull the trigger, because there probably is a home with a better use of space out there IMO.
It looks beautiful! Beyond what everyone else has mentioned I would look at adding a ceiling in the basement bathroom someday to contain the humidity. Also I would add a vented fan in each bathroom if there isn't one already (can't see any but that doesn't mean they aren't there). They are meeting the minimum code requirement by having an operable window in the bathroom but it's not a good long term solution to humidity migration.
It's hard to tell does the basement bathroom have a glass shower surround installed? That would need to be installed for that shower to be very usable. We spent the extra money to get an ion infused glass that causes water to bead up so it stays cleaner so much longer than regular shower glass. It's built into the glass so you never have to reapply any coatings. We've had it for 3 years and love it!
Also I'd prefer an entry closet for guests but you could use a coat rack or tell them to come through the side door.
The interior is beautiful! I was ready to hate it after the first picture of the front of the house, but I really, really like the inside a lot. And the deck is AMAZING.
It would be easy enough to add some curb appeal to the front.
This was my thinking too. I saw the outside and thought "meh", but the inside is fantastic. You can fix up the outside easily!
We looked for our forever home for 6 months. Exclusively online, b/c nothing even looked good enough to see in person. When our current house was listed on Redfin, I literally stuck my phone in DH's sleeping face and made him look at it. We saw it that day and made an offer right away. It had all of our needs and most of our wants. I'm so glad we didn't hesitate. Go see it, I hope you love it!
Ha, I saw this listing in the morning while H was in the shower and took my iPad to him in the shower. If this isn't our house, it's certainly the closest we've come so far.
Post by hbomdiggity on Mar 1, 2016 14:18:06 GMT -5
I'm generally not keen on flips. Someone put maybe $60k into it and they are set to make get $250k more than they paid. I know you don't have the time to do it yourself, but it just pains me to give that kinda profit to someone.
Also, I'd want to know what happened when it was listed in September and sat for 2 months before being delisted.
Otherwise, I'm with others that it needs some curb appeal.
I obvs don't know your entire financial picture, but I might be willing to stretch more for a 10-20 year house.
I have dark gray interior doors. They are so much better than the white we had before...with kids.
rbp, I like it a lot. I love white ranches because my first & most favorite house was a mid century semi similar ranch. The only part I'm not so crazy about is the open floorplan, but I know people love those...and the light fixtures.
I like it! I think you can do a lot with the exterior - it's a blank slate right now which makes it fun. The smaller windows in the bedrooms aren't ideal but that wouldn't put me off the house. The only thing that personally gives me pause is there isn't a whole lot of cabinet space. I always count because I need at least 14 cabinets to make my kitchen work without cutting back.
I would move the dining area over to the part open to the kitchen with the doors leading outside. I would make that enclosed area where their dining table is into a library. Honestly, when anyone posts a house on here asking what to do with an extra space, I want to make it a library! But here it would be perfect with floor-to-ceiling bookcases and a few cozy chairs; it would work nicely, visually, with the current living area.