Housing Dilemma House is Cursed

[shanendoah]

For those of you who remember my Housing Dilemma thread, THE HOUSE is once again on the market. (And yes, C and I refer to this house as THE HOUSE).
Now, we are under contract on a house we really like which meets all of our criteria for moving, so I am fine with the fact that we "missed out" on this house. It really seems that we are just destined not to have it. Or perhaps that the current owners are destined to never be able to sell it. Really, I think the place might be cursed.

As I mentioned in the first thread, C and I first became aware of this house back in 2008/2009 when it was on the market. It has gone on the market a few times since then and never been sold. This is at least the 3rd, if not the 4th time, a sale has fallen through. I remember asking the realtor about the previous times - one the inspection came back with a few items, the seller fixed them all, but the buyer backed out anyway, another the buyer just got cold feet at the last second. I think there was one other, but I can't remember it right now.
This current time, the buyer's funding fell through at the last minute.

Posting a picture of the dining room in this house, because it is one of my favorite things about it. 

[NancysSummerSip]

The ceiling and pillars are not my personal style. Those windows, on the other hand...I'd build a bench seat in front of those and never leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tiny]

It's too much house for my tastes... but I have to admit it is a very nice house!  So, someplace i'd like to visit - but I wouldn't want to live there.

And just because I'm feeling devilish today -     There isn't anything to say you couldn't back out of your current contract and have another go at getting THE HOUSE.        AFter all a bunch of would be buyers did that to the seller of THE HOUSE. 


Is there some rumor of re-zoning or an expressway being built next to THE HOUSE or some other something that makes people have second thoughts?  (like a landfill a mile away or some issue with water or an airport nearby?)  
I doubt the house is cursed or haunted...


ADDED:  went back to the original thread... looks like the house is long and narrow (it may just be the photo) but maybe that's what is putting off potential buyers.   it looks like it's one room wide - so kind of a shot gun house - even though the entry is in the middle of the longest length of the house.   

I do think it's a very nice house!!

[happyhoix]

I wonder if the potential buyers got as far as doing a home inspection and then balked at a big ticket item, and the sellers wouldn't budge on the price?

Could be the roof or the furnace needs repair, for something like that I would want the seller to meet me half way.

The dining room is certainly unique, but too formal for me. I like furniture that cats can't scratch and floors that cat puke won't stain. I like the painted ceiling though. Very Cistine Chapel-y.
 

[busymom]

I like NancysSummerSip's idea of a bench seat.  Or, maybe I'd just turn that room into my personal office. 

[shanendoah]

From everything we heard, the sellers are VERY motivated, and have been willing to fix whatever the inspections have turned up. In this case, buyer's financing fell through at last minute. I don't know more than that.

The house is not actually that narrow. It is wide enough for their to be two good sized rooms (with a bathroom between) on each side of a wide hallway.

There is no rezoning going on around THE HOUSE (I know because I literally live less than half a mile away).
I think the big problem is that the neighborhood is "confused". When I moved in, there was a 2bd/1ba 800sqft house next store to me. There is now a 5000-6000 sqft Taj Mahal next to me. That was built right before the bubble burst, but it wasn't the only one. (It was originally listed at over $1mil, but sold for around $800k.) So we have some giant McMansion type houses in the neighborhood. Vacant lots are once again being developed and turning into solid mid-market homes (around the $400-600k mark), and but they aren't knocking houses down to build new anymore. And the older houses in the neighborhood are going for around $250k. So it's a huge mix of properties.

THE HOUSE is very unique. It has a formal living room (downstairs), an informal living room (downstairs, shares space with the kitchen), and a family room (upstairs, directly above and identical to the formal living room). The master bedroom is huge, probably the largest single room in the house. There are 4 secondary bedrooms, 2 on each side of the hallway, with jack and jill bathrooms in between them. You walk through the laundry area and a nook area upstairs to get from the secondary bedrooms to the master bedroom. There are also two sets of stairs, one on each side of the house. The family room is on the same side of the house as the master bedroom. I posted the picture of the formal dining room, which is set in it's own little nook, across a hallway space from the kitchen/informal living room (which can be closed off with french doors). We would have used the formal dining room area more as a library.

Unless you have a large family (which the sellers/builders of the house did), it would be really hard to use all that space.

[shanendoah]

Oh, and while I do love this house, I am very happy with the house we are buying and have no intention of backing out on the deal.


The dining room in the house I am getting

[resolution]

I like the kitchen on the one you are getting. The cursed house had kitchen cabinets hanging from posts attached to the ceiling. DH said that would lead to a lot of instability in the cabinets and wouldn't stay stable in the long run.

[Deleted]

Maybe I am the minority, but I like the house you have under contract better. Nicely updated & in better school district/neighborhood & fenced!

[Deleted]

I like the kitchen of the house you are buying way better.  THE HOUSE looks confused and the zillow history would scare me.

[shanendoah]

I am very happy with the house we are getting. As I mentioned in my Housing Dilemma No More thread (which I don't want to find a link to right now), this house meets all of our criteria for moving - shorter commute, excellent schools, more livable space (though less storage space - but that means we are purging like nobody's business - it's awesome).

This picture lets you see how the living room flows into the dining room. The flow of space is very important to us. And unlike THE HOUSE, this house doesn't have a billion spaces we would never use.

[dannylion]

THE HOUSE has a dark aura.

The house you are getting is happy and inviting and not at all terrifying.

You will be glad you didn't get THE HOUSE.  It has a dark aura.

Congratulation on your new home!  It's beautiful! 

[hoops902]

You like the new house you're getting?  There aren't even clouds on the ceiling of the dining room in that one!

I actually like the new house better, the other one looks a little pretentious with the columns and clouds, like it's trying to be way more than it is.

[Opti]

Hopefully THE HOUSE isn't cursed, but just unique and therefore not easy to sell.

Your choice looks more standard, but I find the cow painting over the fireplace odd. I wonder if it was painted by a family member or has a story behind it. Good luck with your house choice.

ETA: They both seem to have pretty views from the dining room.

[Lizard Queen]

May 27, 2015 14:25:08 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

You like the new house you're getting?  There aren't even clouds on the ceiling of the dining room in that one!

I actually like the new house better, the other one looks a little pretentious with the columns and clouds, like it's trying to be way more than it is.

It's trying to be Caesar's Palace! 

[shanendoah]

A bit of history to help everyone understand the charm of the columns sky/cloud ceiling.

When C and I met and started dating, we lived in Reno. With the columns and the painted ceiling, that room actually reminds me of a casino, in particular the Silver Legacy where they project a sky scene on the dome (that runs through a complete day in a few hours or something like that, specifically to mess with people's sense of time - that's also why casino floors don't have windows). Instead of finding it pretentious, I find it a charming kind of tacky, partly because we have a really cute memory that took place in the Legacy while we were dating. (We were walking along the corridor that connects Circus Circus, Silver Legacy, and El Dorado casinos, in the Silver Legacy part. We were holding hands. There was a sign in the middle of the pathway, and one of us went on each side of it, lifting our still clasped hands over it. Just a few feet beyond the sign was a little old man walking down the center of the corridor. As we approached him, he stopped and kind of scrunched down. We did let go of hands to go around him, and he smiled and said "I was kind of hoping you'd London Bridge me.")

Also, when we bought our first house, C wanted to paint a sky scape on the master bedroom ceiling - blue sky with clouds. He felt it would be very relaxing. However, after getting the base pale blue on the ceiling, we both decided that was enough ceiling painting for us. (Yes, it got painted white again before we moved.)

So we both are charmed by the silly room with columns and a sky scaped ceiling. It would not have been a formal dining room for us. It would have been a library/gaming space. And when you're playing fantasy RPGs, there's nothing wrong with columns and sky scape.

And the one "issue" with the house we are buying is that there isn't a really good library/dedicated gaming space. We think we have a plan around that, but can't really put it in place or even talk about it until a new placement for Cupcake has been found.

And here's another picture of the new house because I've spent less than an hour in it total, am closing in a week and a half, and need the pictures to remind me why we are buying it.



I should also go and see if I have pictures from the Babayaga Hut house.


Edited to add: Lizard Queen - the Silver Legacy was kind of trying to be Ceasars, so it all makes sense

[dannylion]

I like the cow painting. It is cheerful and unexpected.  Also, I like cows.  And goats.   

[shanendoah]

dannylion - I also like the cow painting. Sadly, it will go with the current owners. We have been told that hidden behind the painting are all the hookups you need to put your flat screen tv over the fireplace, which is likely what we'll do. We'll then put shelving along the wall where they have the TV in the picture. And we'll put similar shelving where the china hutch is, next to the fireplace, for video game systems.


Okay, and because this is my thread and so I can take it in whatever direction I want, here are pictures of the Baba Yaga hut house.













You can't see them in the photos, but the back supports for the gazebo are actually decorated to look like chicken legs, just like Baba Yaga's hut.

This house was so completely impractical for us, it was never under consideration, but once you know you could have Baba Yaga's hut in the back yard, you kind of want to have it...

[dannylion]

Oooo, I like the hut house. It lacks a cow picture, however, so there is that.   

It would be fun to live in, though as you say, impractical.

I think your new house is much the nicest of the three. Enjoy it in good health! 

[Deleted]

Oooo - I want the Baba Yaga gazebo!  I think I will build that at the next house, since that should be my last house.

Starting my list: Cool kitschy gazebo, 30' RV parking pad, 2-3 extra Bedrooms for 4+ months a year DD/Gkids will 'hang out with me', Wood floors EVERYWHERE, freshly painted ceilings (yeah, I hate painting overhead too), NO Eucalyptus monster trees, NO ivy . . . 

[Deleted]

May 27, 2015 14:45:21 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

You can't fit a hut with chicken legs back there? You are not trying . . .

[shanendoah]

@rockit - oh, when we sell the current house we'll do at least one frivolous thing with the money. I'm going to vote for a hot tub housed in a gazebo with chicken legs.

Also, goats, and a barn/shed for the goats to live in.

[Bonny]

May 27, 2015 14:47:58 GMT -5 dannylion said:

I like the cow painting. It is cheerful and unexpected.  Also, I like cows.  And goats.   

 for goats!

[Bonny]

Shan, I think a hot tub gazebo would look great in that yard! 

When's the house warming party again?

[shanendoah]

June 27 - also C's birthday. Seattle area people can PM me for the address, if they really want to come by.

There won't be a hot tub by then, though. The current house won't go on the market until late July at the earliest.

[toomuchreality]

Is there a little stream in the backyard, of your new place?

Let me know if you really NEED a cow picture. I think I might be able to draw / paint one 'that' good!   (no offense intended!)

Congrats on your new house!   




   I hope you didn't have to search too long, to find it!

[shanendoah]

toomuchreality - no new cow painting needed. I think living room artwork will be crows and landscapes. I do think I may need to move at least one picture from it's brown frame to a black frame though. I don't think the brown frame will look good on the gray walls.

All the maps I think will go in the room we designate as the library/game room.


As for how long we looked, it depends on your definition of looking. We learned our tenant was going to be moving in January, and I started looking/following the market in our preferred areas then. The condo closed in mid-April. During this time we looked at lots of open houses. (There was one Sunday when we looked at 11 houses. The Baba Yaga house was #2 that day.) We got our price range firmed up with the mortgage guy. Finally we decided we were probably ready to seriously look. We had our first meeting with our real estate agent on Saturday. We saw one house with him and two or three others that day in open houses. On Sunday we went to one more open house, and that was the house we put an offer on.
So yes, we'd kind of been looking for months, but once we decided we were ready to buy, so seriously looking, we found the place right away.