Who Designs These Houses?

We looked at six homes yesterday. None of them spoke to me in such a way that I had to have it. The strongest contender has a contingent offer on it already. It is a beautiful piece of property with a creek, however someone has put a lot of love into the landscaping. I don't know if I would want to maintain the garden and many flower beds. The lawn definitely would need a riding mower. My main objection to the house itself was it only had one and a half baths. The full bath was right off the kitchen(!) and the half bath downstairs.

One home had been set up for dairy goats. To access the front door you had to climb up about a dozen steep stairs, not something I would look forward to in the winter. The garage was separate from the house so you'd have to wade across the driveway to get to the stairs. The main level was kitchen and living room. The master bedroom was off of a loft overlooking the living room. The bathroom sink was in the bedroom. There was a second stairway leading down to the other bedrooms, laundry room, etc. The stairways were so narrow that it would be a nightmare to move furniture in or out.

Another piece of property didn't have a garage but we looked at it anyway. Again with climbing stairs to enter the front door. This house had a really odd design but it did have a screened in porch - a huge plus for me. There were also four hens that followed us everywhere when we were tramping around the outside. Have you ever seen a chicken run? Too funny.

I don't understand why one home had the shower and tub in the master bedroom with wall to wall carpeting. At least the toilet was in a private alcove. This was also the only bathroom on that floor so all your guests and whoever used the second bedroom would be sharing that bath.

The next home was a gorgeous ranch style that was in the middle of nowhere. I think it would have been "the one" if there hadn't been miles of dirt road to get to it. My husband doesn't like to take the Harley on long stretches of unpaved streets.

The last house we looked at was almost perfect except for the location. The neighboring homes were too close for the property to have privacy.

I looked online today and didn't see any new listings that grabbed my attention. It will be interesting to see what the realtor values our home at to have a more accurate idea of what priced homes we can actually afford.