4. Has 3.64 acres, and is a property you could have horses on. It's the only property I could see raising any sort of animal on. It's right next to a state park. The downside - neither of us really like the house. Amongst other things, the ceilings are low, and the overall feel is not what I had in mind.
3. 2.5 acre. Neat living room, nice sunken tub in one of the baths. The property has some trees and backed to a forest/tree area and what appeared to be a small creek when the water was higher. Downside here - the back area looked and felt like it attracted many bugs, the road to get to the house (off the main road was all gravel, and appeared to get washed out often. In fact, the road was a nightmare, and not a short one. The "neighborhood" did not appear to have restrictions on mobile homes, so re-sale would likely be difficult.
2. 1.34 acre. Beautiful setting. It was a gorgeous area, lots of trees, etc. The house - I like the house a lot, but, it would take massive amounts of time and money to make it what we want. Paint, flooring, molding in every room, and honestly, I'd want to completely rip out the kitchen and start over. Marc really, really doesn't like the front of the house (large pillars), and that is something we really couldn't change.
1. My favorite house. An earth berm home on 2 acres. The lot is a little irregular (and not level), but I really liked the lot, the view, it felt good, it was beautiful.
The house is a new construction and is HUGE. 2000 sq. ft., and most of that seems to go to the family room. (I think that room is bigger than our Coach House). 3 bed 3 bath - the baths are (of course) neat and clean, but, I'd eventually want to at least re-do the master bath. The bedrooms are larger than any we viewed, but not necessarily very large. The kitchen is very large and I like it a lot - one drawback is that the oven range is electric, and there is not gas in this house. All but 3 (maybe 4) of the total houses we viewed had electric, however, so to base the purchase on a gas stove would likely not be a wise decision. I love the space of this house, the front porch is great, the setting. The drawback - no garage. Even if we didn't care about covering the car (which we do), there is a lawn mower, shovel, hose, and rake to think about. In fact, we really would like some sort of "workshop" as well. And then there is storage to think about. This home does not have a basement or attic. It doesn't really have a surplus room designed for storage.
So that's the dilemma. Of course, we can probably have a garage built, but I'm not sure it can be bigger than a 1 car. We could probably also build a shed for the yard stuff. Of course, these things cost money. A new construction will no doubt need a refrigerator, washer, dryer, window treatments, along with the other purchases one must make when going from apartment to house dwelling.
All that said, I do love this house, and the land.
