Wow. What an evening. We went to see two houses. The first house was an Earth Contact home straight out of my (and DH's) head. I mean it was exactly what we want to build all the way down to the secret safe room and central raised fireplace. I still can't get over it. It was 5 miles from DH's work. He could drive his electric car in any weather with the heat and cooling.
The down sides: It is only 2 acres. We own 12 now and were hoping to build on it, but it is 25 miles from his work. It is much more expensive than we planned on spending. It is a corner lot, next to two streets. DH said we could privacy fence a large section of it and we could, but it would cost more money. It is embarrassingly huge.
The second house was out in the country near Peculiar, MO. 35 acres and a house. The house was built in 1880 and was totally redone on the inside. They also added a basement space and built a new kitchen above it. It has original hardwood floors in it and was just an amazing house an property.
The experience however was kind of weird. So on the way out there Jeff (our agent) says, yeah the realtor said that when she heard kids she said the owner had said this: The man came come in first, the wife should stay in the car with the kids. Then she can come look at it. But the kids should stay outside. Ok.... well we thought it was weird but didn't worry about it, because the agent was the one meeting us at the house. We get there and NO it is the owner meeting us there and she kind of freaks out about the kids. Saying they couldn't come in. Then she says something about being an educator for 35 years so "its not that she doesn't like kids". well she is making enough of a fuss that Massimo was pissed. Jeff says, Do you want to just skip it? Massimo agrees, but I said, come on, we drove all the way out here. One of us should go in and check out the house. I have the baby in the sling, so I say Ok. I will go in, "the baby is fine right?" The lady says Absolutely not. I had a lady almost fall down the stairs with the baby. I just can't take the risk. So fine, I hand the baby to Massimo. He is pissed, but I am just trying to kill time so the kids don't have to ride in the car for a few minutes. The weird lady suggests the kids wait in the car, I said, No they have rode in the car a long ways to get out here.
When we go inside she is very nice. Telling me to take my time, look around. After we get in the door, she asks me to put on booties. The blue kind that go over your shoes, such as you would wear in a hospital. *Must make clean* *insert Macbeth jokes here* Not jeff, he can take off his shoes because he is wearing socks. I have to do this because I have on sandals and can't have my shoes or barefeet in her house.
Oh and after I was finished looking at the house she says, "sorry about the inconvenience. Do you want a Hershey bar or anything? " I just laughed and said no.
The house was wonderful. We will not be buying it for two reasons. One it has foundation problems, because it is over 100 years old. So understandable, but not something we want to mess with. Second, because it was WAY out in the boonies and the roads would not be conducive to Massimo driving his electric car to work and that is something we care about.
So thanks but no thanks crazy lady.
