House Hunters: Arizona Edition (Day 2)

Today, we started with more open minds and high hopes. We did make an offer on a home from Monday, but so did someone else (before we got to town!), so ours is sitting as a "back-up offer." That meant we were free to look at more homes and hopefully find something more likely to become ours. To open our horizons to more homes, our real estate agent widened our parameters, in terms of square footage and number of beds/baths to give us more choices. 

Tuesday: House #1

According to our realtor, the owner of this home practically gushed with pride over his newly refinished lodgings. We were very taken with the front as well. For an older one story, this was very cute and had a lot of charm. Being an older neighborhood also meant that the homes around had a lot of character as well. 

Right when you walk in the property to the right is a room that is technically a bedroom, as it has its own  closet and 3/4 bath, but with the fireplace, it seems more like a living room. It's a little odd being completely separated from the rest of the home, but has nice floors.

Looking back towards the front doors, the room I just showed is on the left and some interesting display sconces (?) are on the right. 

The kitchen was a great size and newly redone, with nice appliances. No separate eating nook, but the stools at the counter are very nice. The main eating area is off to the other side of the kitchen. A little dark, but very nice. 

Ed checking out the mini room off of the dining area that could be a small office or just a sunroom. 

Past the kitchen is a smaller family room, good for tv watching and lounging about. 

I loved the huge pantry and the frosted glass with the word "pantry" etched in. 

The laundry room was also newly remodeled with granite counters.

Out back there was a ton of potential. Very open, with a firepit already built in. Aggressive planting along the back and side walls would do wonders to help with the privacy and sound from the somewhat busy street behind the home (noticing a theme? lots of busy streets). 

The master looks out onto the backyard and features very nice french doors leading out. The doors actually have shutters built in between the planes of glass - according to our realtor a very high upgrade.

Pros:

City location. It's in a very desirable part of north Awatukee and is not a bad distance from Ed's work. Good school district.

Upgrades everywhere

Very cute curb appeal

Backyard has a lot of potential

Nice fire pit out back

Nice covered patio

Cons:

Very flat ceilings (con mostly for me)

Layout a bit odd (especially living room location)

Darker interior (kitchen area)

Not all the remodels are what we would have chosen

On a busy street (with noise) 

Tuesday: House #2

This home is in the potential desirable "Islands" community, with a view of one of the many lakes. It has the somewhat unusual split level design, so when you walk in, you either walk up or down. Up takes you to the main living floor, where you have a nice view out the window. 

The kitchen is a very nice size, with newly upgraded finishes, including a very nice island.  What this place doesn't include anywhere? Blinds. A pretty hefty expense apparently, and something we should request the seller to take care of.

Off the kitchen is a deck that overlooks the backyard. It would be a great place to have breakfast.

Looking back from the deck, you can see the main living space upstairs. Because of the split level, we wouldn't really have a formal and more informal space. Instead the upstairs would be a more daytime space for hanging out, and we'd go downstairs to be cozy in the evening.

This house had a serious, deep pantry. Very nice. 

Heading down the stairs, you reach the very nice (and much cooler) "family rom" area. A beautiful fireplace and it's location partly under ground make it the perfect place to cozy up in the evening.  

The laundry room is downstairs, which makes it great for doing laundry - no lugging things up to the main floor!

The master is also down below, which again, makes it very cool. The view out isn't that great, but with some plants in front of the windows, it could be very pretty. There is one other bedroom on the other side of the downstairs as well. 

Last slight quirk is that the garage isn't attached to the house by a door. It makes sense, though. Basically you exit the garage on a door on the right side, and then go in the regular front door right there.

Pros:
Cool downstairs (temperature wise)
Beautiful fireplace
Lot next to house is a greenbelt (a little more privacy)
On a cul-de-sac
New kitchen
Deck off the kitchen (for eating outside)

Cons:
Design makes it feel like a townhome (not wild about the split level right when you come in)
On a street that isn't super busy, but is still a main road for everyone coming into the complex.
No formal living/dining area
Can't access backyard except by stairs from the deck
Backyard is, frankly, a bit ugly, with a weird design and lots of palm trees

Tuesday: Home #3

This home was the largest one we saw and just went on the market. 

It had a formal living area (which they had set up with a bar! not something we'd have in our home)

Nice formal dining area as well.

A huge selling feature of this place is the backyard. Very private, big, and quiet, it has everything we could want. 

It has a beautiful built in grill, with its own fridge, ready to go.

A lovely pebbletec pool and also a spa.

It even has a koi pond for Ed!

One "quirk" is that the master bedroom is downstairs, but it is beautiful and looks out onto the backyard.

Even better, it has a fireplace! Technically, this is the fireplace from the family room, but it's double sided, so it serves both sides.

The stairs are off of the dining room towards the front of the house. 

Up the stairs is a great loft area. Once we have kids, this seems like the perfect play room, but for now, we'd probably use it like they do, as a hang-out media room.

Looking over the banister in the loft, you can see the beautiful kitchen, eat in nook, and family room.

Also upstairs are two bedrooms in the front of the house, 

one of which we'd keep as a guest room, and a 3rd room that would be Ed's office. 

Back downstairs, the kitchen was one of the huge features I loved. Especially, that is has a gas stove (which is unheard of in this area). 

We like the breakfast nook as well as the bar stool area - lots of dining options. 

Looking out from the kitchen into the family room, you can see the fireplace and the main hanging out area. We aren't sure about the TV above the fireplace, but we're not sure where else it could go. 

Pros: 

Huge space for the price; Seems like it would be a good investment

Privacy! The backyard is not up to a street at all, and the big trees from the lot next door makes it very lovely

Gas range and pond (both on our "dream" list)

Little work would need to go in right away

Amazing outdoor space. We could imagine spending most of the year eating, playing and relaxing out there.

Has all the rooms we'd want

Excellent neighborhood (a block from a park with playground, basketball court, and picnic tables, and 2 blocks from a school and fields).

Cons:

Possibly "too much house" especially right now

Large backyard means extra maintenance

Master is downstairs

Ideally, the seller wants to rent the home back and still live there (so anyone who offered that would automatically get the home)

That's the end of day two! Would you make an offer on any of these?

House Hunters: Arizona Edition!

 I thought it might be fun to keep a photo journey of our house buying experience that not only lets us share the homes we're visiting, but also help us keep a record of the pros and cons of each place that we've seen. One of these homes may be in fact the one we buy! See if you can guess :)

Monday: Home #1

This home was more of a Mediterranean style, with a boxy exterior an open walkway up to the front door. It has a beautiful front courtyard area.

Inside was very much a blank slate - all white walls! There was an interesting southwestern style fireplace and a very unique layout. Two "masters" were downstairs, both with a walk in closet and attached bath.

The selling feature of this house was definitely the huge outdoor space. Because it's a corner lot, the yard is expansive, with plenty of room to put your own spin on it. The bougainvillea were beautiful and there was even a pond already in place (which was right up Ed's alley). And, of course, the beautiful pool.

The kitchen was a good size, with dual ovens and stone countertops. 

Upstairs was a bit odd, with a hallway that had shutters which could be opened to the room below (with iron railings in place for safety), and two small rooms upstairs. 

There was also an upstairs patio, which offered a great view. 

Pros: 

Backyard is huge and feels a bit private

Unique layout

Two master backs

Double oven in kitchen

Separate dining/living area

Location!! (far north in Awatukee, which is ideal) and very cute location

Cons:

Layout is a bit awkward

Bank owned, so it's sold as is

Needs a lot of work

Master downstairs/upstairs not as usable

High HOA fee (near golf course)

Monday: Home #2

This home had a very beautiful (in my opinion) exterior and was recently completely remodeled inside (a "flipped" home). It's currently unoccupied. 

You come into a very open formal living/dining area, with everything freshly painted.

On one hand, the backyard is gorgeous, with a huge blooming tree, a big space, and a very nice pool. On the very downside, the back wall is lower, and just beyond is a very busy street (Ray) with a shopping complex, including Target, just on the other side. 

 The kitchen, also newly done, is beautiful and an excellent amount of space. Love.

The master has a balcony and, if you look to the left, the view is quite pretty. Straight ahead is, well, the shopping complex and busy road.

The view from the bathtub of the pretty pool and tree, but also lots of cars.

Pros:
Would need very little work done - everything's remodeled
Very big indoor space that seems used in the right way.
Beautiful kitchen.
Big backyard space.
Fireplace in the family room.
Nice entryway/stairs.
Nice sized master bedroom/bathroom
Close to lots of stores

Cons:
Location! Very busy street in back, with lots of street noise and lack of privacy
A "flipped" home, so some of the workmanship might not be as nice as if it had been done by a family living there.
Already remodeled, so you are paying for that in the price, and it's not exactly how we would have done it.

Monday: House #3

This home is on the smaller size, compared to some of the others, and is 3 houses down from the edge of the subdivision (and a busier street) but the neighborhood itself is lovely. No HOA, so we'd have freedom of painting the outside. 

A huge selling feature of this home is that big, beautiful tree. It blocks the busier street both from the yard and from the upstairs and is just heavenly to look at. 

There's a nice outdoor patio for meals outside that we'd take full advantage of.

An interesting wet bar - not sure we'd keep this forever, but it does add storage.

 The kitchen is on the smaller size, but features beautiful countertops and flooring, and very nice cabinets. It also has a pantry, which makes the fewer cabinets less of an issue. We love the eat in kitchen nook and it's connection to the family room.

The fireplace we love. It's style is very us, and having it in the living room is a huge perk. The lighting in this room is great, and we also really like the windows off the dining room.

Upstairs is a very reasonably spaced master bedroom, with the vaulted ceiling. 

There's a great deck off the master, with a nice view of the very pretty tree. 

Pros:
Nice layout
Updated countertops in kitchen (kitchen in general very pretty)
Beautiful fireplace in living room
Right number of rooms
Nice office
Backyard space very pretty
Nice windows
Brand new dual AC units

Cons:
Near a busy street (less privacy and some street noise)
On the smaller size
Smaller rooms downstairs (kitchen, family room, dining room, living room are all a bit smaller than others we've seen)
Another street of homes starts perpendicular to the house (so headlights might sometimes shine in front windows)

Monday: House #4

I liked the added sign to the realtor post :).

The outside was nice and on a very quiet street. 

The banister and overall layout of the home was very nice, though carpets looked a bit worn and needed to be replaced. 

The family room, in contrast, was gorgeous. Beautiful new floors and a great size. 

No fireplace, but it's always pretty warm in Arizona anyways. 

 We also really liked the kitchen - the size was bigger than the last one, and the countertops were very nice. The appliances were older and would need to be replaced eventually.

Outside was a nice pool, but not much else. The back of the house backed up onto a very busy street. Upstairs the master had a deck but the view of the busy street made it seem pretty unusable. You could also see the very big loud dogs in the home next door - not a plus. 

Pros:

Great layout and overall space

New countertop in kitchen and new hardwood flooring in family room

Right number of rooms

Nice stairs

On a nice street in the front

Cons:

Located on a busy street, making lots of street noise and visually unappealing

Loud dogs next door

Needs new carpet throughout most of the house

Would eventually need some updates

So, that's it! Day one of our house hunt. One house we tried to visit had apparently been sold while we were on our way there, and another home that we really liked has an owner who's having second thoughts about selling, so we couldn't see it (we still might be able to tomorrow). So, would you make an offer on any of these? Do you think we made an offer? What do you look for in a house?