Less is....Less?

This week seems to have been slow for the real estate market.  Our realtor thinks it might be all of the college graduations stalling things out.  But we trudged out in the rain nonetheless this afternoon (don't feel too bad for us, it was still 70 degrees in that rain).

• House #18, Warrenton: N found this house yesterday and got all excited about the pool in the backyard.  I just laughed at him until he pointed out that I have not yet experienced a true DC summer, the kind that melts your face and everything else.  Then I stopped laughing because that's not funny.  This house is in a more suburban, subdivision neighborhood, so not walkable to anywhere useful, but it had a huge, lovely front yard and a lawn filled with tiny wild strawberry plants!  N rained on my parade by informing me that they are not, in fact, edible.  What's the point then, I ask you?!  The exterior was nice except for the vinyl siding that was done in a fake woodgrain pattern.  N thinks it hides dirt and wear better; that may be true but I think it just looks tacky.  Very nice backyard....that backs right up to a noisy road.  Silly cars.  Everyone should own a Prius so there's no road noise.  We are so confused as to why they did not build the house at the front of the lot where it's quieter.  Anyway...realtor was running late and the noise killed it for us, so we just headed for the next place.
• House #19, Warrenton: Foreclosure in another subdivision.  Wooded backyard that was kind of nice...except for the large number of trees right up near the house.  Also had too much road noise.  Bah.
• House #20, Warrenton: Cute little place on a dead-end road within walking distance of Old Town.  Bonus!  A little bit of road noise, but barely audible through the birdsong.  Backs up onto a cemetery.  Giant front porch with a swing.  I want a giant front porch with a swing.  This house is old and has the quirks and character of an older house.  Some of these manifest in good ways, such as the built-in bookcase in the small, cute dining room, or the hardwood floors in the first floor bedrooms.  Others are not-so-desirable, like the really low ceilings, and the step from dining room up to kitchen and down to living room.  That wasn't really too bad.  The master bed/bath is in the basement, which we were aware of.  I speculated that it would either look lovely with tons of recessed lighting, or would be a cave.  Cave it was.  Too bad.  The master bathroom had a giant soaking tub and a teensy-tiny shower.  In a perfect world, I would love a giant soaking tub.  In the real world, I need a reasonably-sized shower so that I don't have to contort myself to shave my legs.   Having the master bed/bath on a different floor from the rest of the house is kind of awkward, and with all the levels and stairs this is not a child-friendly home.  Not that we have one of those, but we are looking at houses with an eye towards that possibility.  The living room clearly used to be an outdoor patio and was walled in, which actually looks kind of neat.  First floor bathroom recently redone.  Stairway up to the second floor (accessed from the dining room/kitchen area) is really, really narrow.  So are the doorways to the two rooms on the second floor.  Ceilings up there are very low too - N almost bumped the ceiling.  Backyard is cute but not level.  Would need a little retaining wall put in and a new patio.  This house is really cute, but it's worth about $100K less than the current owner is asking for it and needs tons of professional (ie. not our) TLC.  Next!
• House #2, Warrenton: This is the Cape Cod we saw on our first day out, the one with massive curb appeal and a great backyard.  It is still on the market, so we went back to refresh our memories.  We confirmed for ourselves that if we could completely redesign the first-level floorplan, it'd rock.  As is...it's expensive, 15 minutes from the rest of Warrenton, and has an awkward first-level layout.  We think that's why it hasn't sold yet.  Still love the backyard, though.
• House #21, Marshall: Short sale.  Nearly all of the rest of the houses in this neighborhood are ugly ramblers and ranchers, but this is a colonial.  This is not the pretty part of Marshall with the mountain view.  I don't know why I imagined all of Marshall has a mountain view.  First floor is a pretty nice layout.  Kitchen needs updating but it's good space and opens into a large living room.  Very nice dining room and a sitting room.  Parlor?  One of those.  I have no idea what the upstairs looks like because the current occupants were home at the time and would not let us up there.  In their defense, one of their little dogs had major surgery yesterday and they were trying to keep him calm and quiet, so that's fine.  But if we can't see half of your house, nice older British couple, we're not going to buy it.

Not the most successful day, but not a waste.  Plus, we made kale Caesar salad and black bean/corn veggie burgers for dinner, so it could be worse.  Then I poked around on Redfin and discovered that if we magically came up with an extra $100K we could get a colonial with a wrap-around porch in Hume that has 5 acres and that mountain view.  Heh.  Some day, I will have a porch, and it will be amazing.

Looks like we'll have to slow the hunt for now, as next weekend will be taken up with N's graduation and the resultant festivities.  June could be dicey too, as we will be spending a weekend in the Berkshires and half a weekend in Philly.  We'll see what the spring brings.