Whoa, three losers in a row. I am not surprised that the "Vicky" had small rooms and a dirt basement. It's typical of the time.

You were so lucky to catch the neighbot in the act. Imagine if you'd seen him after you bought. Of course there is never a guarantee that creepy neighbors won't move in later. That's what happened to me.

Bad smells are a complete turn off. Maybe you can fix the stink, but maybe not.

I hope "your" house comes along soon. Be patient.

Any bites on your Philadelphia house yet?

Oh, Susie! I remember house hunting way back when. The real estate agent got it in her head that we needed/wanted a "ranchette." Neither was true!

She took us to view (she didn't preview) houses in the country all over creation. There were two to which I said "keep driving." One had bullet holes in the upper story window. It gets rough out there in the country apparently. One family was at home when we came through. They had a cow's skull baking in the oven and opened it to show us!

And those houses were the best of the lot.

It was a wasted day after which my ex commented that "ranchette must be French for sh*thole."

Don't get discouraged Susie, I looked at a lot of lemon houses before I found my perfect one. I got very discouraged, but then out of the blue I just walked into my house one day and it said, "Welcome home!" You're going to have to sift through a lot of chaff to find that perfect place, but it will happen!

Susie - The agent who sold us our home has a client who's a bit of an eccentric older lady. She had a dead dear on her property and stuck a colorful spinner in it to welcome folks coming to see the house ;)

Sue

I agree with pinkmtn - you'll have to go through a LOT of homes before the perfect one sneaks up on you - it happened with the last two homes we purchased - I had all but given up and then out of the blue - the right house came along. Hang in there and keep your sense of humor!

Yep. We moved just about a year and a half ago (feels like a million years) and it took forever to find the right place. We ended up switching agents and our new agent forced me to look at a house in a town I wasn't even considering. Fell in love with the house, and now I'm in love with the town too.

It will all work out.

AM

I just read your other thread and know how hard is to move from a home that you have lived in for so long. My situation was different but it is still a hard thing to do.

My only advice is to keep looking. I'm happy with my new place for the most part. However, after living here for almost a year there are things I wish I could change and a few that I don't like and missed while looking at the house. I looked at a older home in midtown that had a basement, not common here, and I freaked when part of it was still dirt floors. Actually is was pretty nasty overall..lol.

Good luck and keep us posted.

David

Susie, I understand completely what you're going through, cause we're house hunting, too. We've decided to try to relocate to another town and state. We're wanting to move to where DH's heart still lives, Northeastern OK, (David, when we get there, we'll have to see about meeting! We're looking around the Tahlequah area.) We are looking for a place with some land, at least an acre, but preferably 5 to 20 acres. Nearly every place we've looked at has had some very good qualities and some very, very bad qualities. There haven't been any that were down right awful - that would make it easy. It's the ones that are situated on the perfect piece of land, gorgeous views, peaceful setting, nice neighbors, just a half mile from the river, but lousy house, that are frustrating and exascerbating. Or, there's the very clean, well kept house that feels right, but is way too close to the neighbors, and just a short way down the road are very, very VERY trashy trailer houses (I don't mind mobil homes, but when they are vomiting trash all over the yard, it's a problem). One place we looked at has an industrial chicken barn on it. I was excited because I could see turning it into a greenhouse for a growing operation. The land was beautiful. surrounded by hills and meadows, and very peaceful. We were warned that the house needed foundation work and was being sold "as is," but we weren't warned about the odor. Not the odor from the chicken house - the moldy odor in the home itself was over powering. The chicken barn was great - it smelled better than the house! In fact, there was no odor in the barn. It was in good condition, and looked to have a sound roof. Go figure. The roof of the home looked like a saddle. People keep telling us to keep looking, and we will. We're not really in a hurry, but we'd like to find a place while the prices are down.

Good luck in your search, Susie.

Sally

No bites yet on my house, bummer.
Oh well.

About the smell, it was just terrible. I grew up next to a harness racing track just a few blocks away and a pig farmer about a mile up the road so I am used to animal smells...this was not a live animal smell.

In the basemant there was a very elaborate workshop so my guess is that perhaps they old man was a hunter and did his own taxidermy on the side.
No really the house smelled like death.

Just after moving here oh maybe a year or so, the old lady next door passed away in the downstairs unit of the duplex next door. The grown son pounded on my door for help. As I went in fully prepared to do CPR I was hit with the wafting smell of her body. I told him she was gone. The police lady came in and gagged.
I don't know why I am writing this except to say the smell was a lot like that-only mixed with vanilla air freshners.

Frank is gung ho on the vicky...saying we could bump out the back and add a dining room plus add to the master above.
It would be easily done.
See he LOVES the garage!
I love the property...I could easily make a nice patio out back and use the side yard to have my own garden.

As for the Simpson house...I just don't see myself there.
It is really nice-super nice but its too far from the river and I saw a few roll out basletball hoops on the street.
Having endured a roll away basketball net behind my house on the common driveway for years I don't want that in my new home, sorry kids LOL!!

I know a great house is out there so I will be patient.

Cheers!
Susie

Good grief -- how long had that woman been dead?? I found my great aunt when she died and nothing smelled at all, except maybe me because the perspiration jumped out all over my body.

I am so glad that you are watching out for those annoying things that will drive you crazy over time, like bouncing basketballs.

Pam, Her son was a bit of an alkie...was known to check out for days on a bender and sneak back in the basement door when mom went to work. The police said she was prop dead just a few days.
Heart attack.

Poor thing...very nice lady too. I never smelled anything in my house to alert me but when we went into her room it was just terrible and yeah there were flies.

Oh Good Gravy I cannot stand the bouncing basketball noise.
If I see one now I will know to run the other way!!

Cheers!
Susie

Susie, are you and Frank also changing jobs? You mentioned moving to another State.

Annn

Well, the deer slayer wouldn't have bothered me, but the smelly house would.

When I bought my house we looked at 40 or 50 houses, countless houses in lots of areas. Eventually the right one came along. I didn't want the swimming pool but everything else was right, so we bought it anyway.

Patience....

Annie

I know a couple who is reported to have looked at 400 houses before buying. Now that is patience. At least on the part of their real estate agent...

Sally, be sure and get in touch....even if you are here for the day looking around. The Tahlequah area isn't that far from the Tulsa Metro. We could do lunch or dinner or whatever.

David

Ann, No job changes for either of us right away. The area of National Park and Woodbury are within a modest drive.
I did time my commute the other day. It was after rush hour and it took under 30 minutes...certainly within my comfort level for a daily commute. On Sunday it was about the same.

With my job if I trasfer to another store within my chain its a lateral move but if I trasfer out of state I would lose all my seniority within the chain. That would mean basically starting over. Not really ready to do that but there is a store in South Philly-near the stadiums that is just a hop to the bridge. The great news is I am pals with the store manager there and he said he would love to have me join his team!!
Frank is a mailman in suburban Philly. He can probably ask to be transferred since south Jersey is part of the Philadelphia postal system. But he is fine with staying put. He does have a part time job a few nights a week and will no doubt transfer once we move.
Drew just started working as a bagger at my store so if he were to transfer he would not be losing anything.
Amy works at a store closer to her school so she'll have to decide what she will do when she decides if she is staying at that school...she was considering switching to a better school for business. (St Joes-yeah Pam!!)

As for looking...jeez its seems like every chance we had, we'd drive over with a list to drive around and look.
So far we've only actually looked at 6 houses-3 were new construction-an option we are still considering.

Annie, you cracked me up....the deer slayer LOL!!! The father and son SO reminded me of Hank Hill from King of the Hill and the son was a dead ringer for the boy in the show.
I really like that house but I think the BBall hoops were the biggest turn off...I mean, if the nieghbor is a hunter, theres a good chance I'd get some good deer meat right??

I will continue to Motor on!!

Cheers!
Susie

Susie, St. Joe's is about 15 minutes from my house. It's a great school and probably a lot more fun than where Amy is now (Ursinus??).

I love to look at the real estate listings and think maybe.....!

Sally - Check out the area between Tahlequah and Fort Gibson/Muskogee - it's very pretty area.

I'll be sure and look in that area, even though it's not high on DH's list. He likes the area around the river the best. I'll also let you know, David, when we'll be up that way again. It would be fun to get together.

Susie, I know exactly what you mean about the bouncing basketball. My neighbors had one of those, and a teenager to go with it. Luckily, the teen has lost interest in the B-ball, so I don't have to endure the noise of that...now all we have to listen to is their pack of dogs barking at anything and everything. When I go look at a house, if I hear a barking dog anywhere near the house it's off the list. Of course, that could always change -people could aquire a dog after we move in, but I'm not going to buy a house with a barking dog next door. Uh-uh, no way.

Sally

Pam...Amy is at Gwynedd Mercy-not too far from Skippack Village.
She is happy with the small school experience but St Joes has always been her first choice.
Her grades were very good but she was still turned down.
Acme has a program with St Joes but its for juniors/seniors so she will be eligable next year.

Yeah if I see a net I am so moving on. Our delightful neighbors would play behind my house of the common driveway because there was always cars parked behind their house.
Apparently the next door neighbor said it was ok with him but keep in mind he was nearly deaf so the noise did not bother him at all.
My biggest gripe was with the dozen or so kids who would hang out back there every day and use my back alley as a restroom and throw their garbage all over.
Probably the best day of my life was early spring when it broke!!!

Oh the stories I could tell!!

Cheers!
Susie

It takes time. We looked nearly a year when we bought our first house. I lost count of how many we looked at, but we knew it was the right one within ten minutes of seeing it. We still talk about how perfect it was for us.

The couple who just bought our last house told me that they had been looking about 10 months, and they just "love" it. I'm glad, because they're stuck with it now. We were in a hurry when we bought it, and I don't think either one of us was all that taken with it. I didn't feel sad at all leaving it like I did the first house. Of course we'd had it up for sale over a year and I was more than ready for it to sell just so we could cut the last ties to that area.

The point is, take your time. It could take quite a while to find the right place. We've decided the next time we move to a new area, we'll rent for at least the first year just to avoid feeling rushed.