Brownies anyone??

We continued the open house ritual this weekend. We may be waiting a few months longer than we really want to, because the economic reality still has not hit our local market as hard as we need it to. Things may change with all of the banks taking a hit on the subprime market.

Anyhoo, we did see some good stuff, but among the bad was a common theme. Never mind the insane prices. Never mind the realtors and their BS. We wandered into this one open house, because it was next door to another we wanted to see (which actually was reasonable in price and beautiful!). The house we stumbled upon was 150,000 more, but as far as I am concerned, the cheaper house was way better (restored farm house, owner is an architect and it had a modern layout which you do not see in old buildings, replaced the wiring as well). The more expensive house had finished part of the attic. In the unfinished section of the attic, there was a full bath. So imagine a typical attic (boards from the roof with nails sticking through the wood, ceiling shaped like the roof, etc) which you could use to get ready for work. They had a claw foot tub under the window. In a pathetic (possible part of a staging) attempt to make this seem pleasant, a book entitled, The Art of Bathing rested nearby. The attic bathroom also had a sink and toilet. I am going to make it a point for now on to ask if they have an attic bathroom when a realtor is bothering me! In the same house, they also had a full bath that opened into the kitchen. That resulted in a reprise of inappropriate jokes. It is a common theme that we ran across weeks ago.

Flashback to another renovated farm house. This particular house we looked at did not have a ground floor bathroom. I am sure renovating old houses is tough and you have more limitations. The kitchen in the house we saw a few weeks ago was tiny, and they put the fridge right next to the back door. There was a minuscule dining nook with windows on one side of the kitchen (I am sure Mike and I would not fit in that nook with a table). The realtor suggested we could put the powder room in the nook (which is essentially the heart of the tiny kitchen). I do like a good potty joke (I think it may be genetic) and we riffed off each other for about 10 minutes on that one. "What are you making for dinner?" We thought about awkward moments while hosting a holiday meal. The kitchen bathroom is just not a plus. I would rather walk upstairs personally. The full bath right off the kitchen was weird. Could you imagine cooking when a wet person walks by in a towel? You would have to ban #2 in the kitchen bathroom for sure.

The worst part is these houses are all over 800,000!