House hunting 9/13

We checked out a basement home nearby. Unfortunately, it is not move-in ready and still at the high end of our range, so we can't afford it without selling our house first. It was a short sale and had about half the flooring still to be done; never lived in and not completed. The flooring that was complete was beautiful, same with the tile work and wood flooring.


We looked at some houses in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale next. Unfortunately, the older houses just don't have the open, entertaining layout that we're looking for. We saw a nice patio that was similar to a pebble tec surface. Their dead garden had an interesting layout in the corner through an archway.

One house was right off Thunderbird but was a horse property. The horse licked everyone's hands. They had chickens and roosters. I totally want a chicken coop! The house had two detached garages. One was "connected" by a covered patio walkway, wide and shady.

The Happy Valley house we were excited about seeing was on almost 2 acres. The lot was great, like living on a park. Unfortunately, the house was the oddest layout we've seen so far. It faced away from the yard, with the patio facing away from the yard, and the only door in the back of the house to the yard going through a bathroom. The street noise was not good either, especially considering it was only a Sunday! They had a built in water/rock feature inside the house that was completely inappropriate for indoors. This house had little "rooms" with no purpose as well as saloon doors in the master bathroom separating the extra commode and urinal from the remaining toilet and bathroom area. The built in shelves were a nice feature.


I think as we look, we try to figure out if we can make a place work for us even though it isn't perfect, and so far, nothing fits! We'll keep looking.... Do NOT like: carpet in bathrooms, sink outside the bathroom (in the bedroom), his/hers commodes, urinals in houses, pool fencing that runs right up to the house, electric stoves in islands (or at all).