A New Contender

Yes, that's a house in there.

We stumbled upon this place a couple of weekends ago while driving north of Columbia City and just happened to notice it is for sale (by owner). So Liane called and made arrangements for us to see it, which we did yesterday.

After having looked at it I can say it's one of very few we walked away from we can actually envision ourselves living in. It's about the only house I've seen on our quest that has a master bedroom, bath, and closet comparable to what we want. It has a walk out basement, a good sized out building, and the view from on top of the hill it sits on is pretty spectacular. The configuration of the rooms is decent, although we'd have to make a few changes. One of the bigger drawbacks is that virtually all of the woodwork is oak, just like what we have now and are SO tired of. This includes a set of bookshelves built into the great room, and the bar area of the basement, not to mention all the kitchen cabinets. Normally I'm not one to be put off by decor because I feel like things can be reworked, repainted, etc., but swapping out all the cabinetry would be a huge expense, and not really something that would add much to the value of the house. This is a major drawback for me.

They also are asking quite a bit too much for it in my estimation. But...at the end of the day it could be workable. They aren't in any big hurry to sell so we have time to sort through our stuff before we have to make any decisions.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting on what is hopefully the final layout from Nicole. Then we go to blueprints, and then the fun begins.