The (Other) Thing That is Keeping Us Up At Night

So, we are house-shopping. We have decided that, in this down market, we will be able to afford a house that we could never have afforded 2 years ago, and that we will never be able to afford 2 years from now. The problem is, of course, selling our place. It goes on the market "officially" on Friday... so that's pretty exciting and terrifying. In the meantime, we've been scouring the internet for home sales, and we have taken a couple day trips around town with our Realtor.

We love the idea of living somewhere urban, close to downtown, etc... but we're having trouble finding places that are the size we need, at the price we need, in a place we like. The classic Real Estate conundrum. We've looked at places all over, from ransacked bungalows in Highlands to icky, boring, tri-levels in Littleton. Foundation issues? Trash, mud, and dirty laundry EVERYWHERE? Freaky Hannibal Lector Basements? People Hiding in the Bathroom? We've seen it all. If we were playing "Perils of House Shopping Bingo," we'd have already walked away with the Grand Prize (a $40 gift certificate to Old Country Buffet).

So far, we've seen a lot of horrible, horrible houses. But we've also seen some really wonderful houses. Realtors tell you never to fall in love with a house before you've sold your own. Good, solid advice. So, we haven't fallen in love. But we are deeply, passionately in LIKE with a few places we've seen. Here are our three favorites so far.

"The Mansion"


This place is our most recent discovery. We haven't actually been inside yet, but we've seen some pictures, and we drove by it yesterday. Karissa even got brave enough to get out of the car, walk up the sidewalk, and stand in the front yard for 12 seconds. It's hard to imagine something like this is in our budget, but it is.... barely. If it were in a trendier location, it would be selling for 2 to 3 times more... but the neighborhood is definitely "transitional." (Bruce Randolph and Colorado-ish) It apparently needs a TON of work, but it has updated electrical, plumbing, and, shockingly, AC. Although we originally decided we didn't want to live in a fixer-upper (because I am completely worthless at fixing things up), this house just might be too cool to pass up. It was built in 1890, has 4 beds, 4 baths, and an "attic retreat", which has me salivating uncontrollably. It sits up on a hill just northeast of downtown, and I'm assuming that the views from the second floor are probably unbelievable. We'll hopefully get to go inside early next week. More updates to come if it's half as amazing on the inside as we hope it is.

"Williams Street"


This is a totally gorgeous Victorian house that we saw in the dark a few weeks ago. But what we saw, we loved. It was also built in the late 1800's, and it has amazing everything: 4 bedrooms, a formal dining room, fireplace, bannisters... and the best part, a little bedroom/study right off the kitchen. (We've decided that's where my home office/studio would be.) Worst thing and best thing about this house... location. It's right between Five Points and City Park, on 26th and Williams street... the neighborhood itself feels super safe and nice...and we could walk to City Park or drive downtown in about 2 minutes. However, the house is directly across the street from a pretty notorious inner-city high school, Manual High. But, from what we hear, the high school is in the process of a complete overhaul, and is improving dramatically; also, the neighboorhood itself is on a huge upswing... $650,000+ homes are being built all around, and all the old homes are being snapped up and restored.... so if this place is still on the market after we sell ours, we're going to have a pretty hard time not making an offer on it.

"Chase Street"

The least dramatic of the three, the Chase street house isn't nearly as bland on the inside as it is on the outside. It's the prototypical "sprawling ranch" of 1950's Lakewood... and it is quite large (6 bedrooms), and almost completely remodeled. The kitchen and living room are absolutely beautiful. Plus it has a finished basement and a massive yard with a big patio... and is in a very safe neighborhood. In fact, it's only about 6 blocks away from our current house. So this is the "sensible" alternative to our wild-eyed dreams of buying 100 year-old homes in sketchy urban neighborhoods. It'd be a really nice place to live. We just don't know if we're ready to give up our dreams of living in the city just yet.

MUCH more to come over the next weeks and months ... Yikes! We is havings of fun times now, please?