Drove out to the boonies and looked at a few houses today. I found one listing and Liane found a couple that held a glimmer of promise, two of which had an open house. They didn't suck, but as usual they each had something about them that was a show stopper. One open house was on a lake. Generally I'm not a huge fan of houses on lakes because even though there are quite a few lakes around here the houses on them are priced at a premium. Today's wasn't so bad, but it would have required a lot of work to get it where we'd be comfortable. Ultimately being right on a lake is not a benefit to me. It can be nice for an afternoon here and there, but eventually the drone of the motors on the watercraft would get annoying. It sure is aesthetically pleasing looking out over a body of water like that though.

Ultimately it's hard to assess exactly where the value is. I know we will pay a premium for a custom house, but it will be how we want it (more or less), whereas with an existing house we will end up spending a substantial amount on upgrades and modifications to bring it close to where we want it. And then you still have a used house, with who knows what about to give out in the next year or three.

These trips through houses can be useful for ideas though. The other open house had a couple of simple features we liked. The first was a set of double doors leading to the main storage area in the basement. I like this. Small enough to be low impact for one person to get through, but big enough to get larger items out without a hassle.

The other was this idea of having lockers and shoe shelves in the garage. I don't think I would have gone with white here, or done as many, but the basic idea is worth pursuing.