Our New House!!

We went to Atlanta this past weekend to do some house-hunting. I had found about fifty houses that I liked, and our realtor, Rick, went out and previewed the homes before we visited them. He was able to eliminate houses that were in need of repair, were on a bad lot, or in a not-so-great neighborhood.  He also removed any that were off the market or short-sales.

We had a list of about twenty to see over two days. He had said that seeing five in one day would be a lot... and he was right. We squeezed in about ten each day... and had a cranky, needy 17 month old with us. Taking Gus in and out of the houses and back into the car seat, just to get back out, was a lot for us and a lot for him. Through it all, he was such a trooper and did amazingly well.

On our first day (Saturday, November 5th) we were disappointed that the houses that I thought we'd LOVE were not so great. We gave each house a rating (0-10) and by the time we went to lunch, the highest rating that we had given was a 7, and the rest were 4s and 5s. 

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I had spent HOURS researching and finding these houses and then spent more time organizing our binder so that we'd have everything we needed. I took notes in each house and for some, just seeing the neighborhood and exterior I knew it wasn't the right house for us. 

I was most upset by my top two houses. The one (Fox Grape Lane) did indeed have the remarkable kitchen, but that's all it had going for it. All the rooms were tiny and on top of each other... and there was no openness to the home. We gave it a four and I had expected it to be "the one."

On Sunday, we saw what I thought was my ultimate favorite (Windrose Court)... it had a pool and a kitchen with a double oven (so I thought). Well... this one was just unappealing from the moment we pulled up. It just looked "dirty" and the seller didn't do anything to make it look nice. The basement was a wreck, smelled, and had ceiling panels missing in spots. The pool was under construction and there were tools and sawdust everywhere. It looked really bad... and without much thought I immediately made up my mind about it. 

The thing that got me about it (and a few others as well) is that the pictures made it look like it had a double-oven but it was just a microwave on top of the oven. This one was the worst... the old microwave was out and a smaller one was in its place and it looked terrible. 


It was just a HUGE disappointment as I was certain that it would be the house. I thought that even if other houses weren't what we wanted, we at least had Windrose and Fox Grape to choose from... it's so funny how things work out.

We went to lunch and then saw a few more homes after. Then we saw a house that we ranked a 10... (Amberleigh Way) it had a lot of things we wanted (no double-oven) and a HUGE wooded, private lot with a creek running through the back. We loved the master bedroom, bathroom, and incredible closets (one for each of us). We didn't love the livingroom and didn't love the weird attic. I envisioned the dogs playing in the creek daily and getting muddy... Steve thought I was being silly.

The last house we went to (Windview Place) was not one that I expected to love... it was pretty, but I didn't remember it from my search. When we walked in, Steve and I let out a gasp at the same time and commented on how beautiful it was inside.

I gave it a 10 and Steve gave it a 9.5 and we called it a 9.75.  On Sunday we headed to Marietta to see homes (and two in Roswell that were duds) since Saturday was devoted to Johns Creek and Alpharetta.

Marietta is nice, but remarkably different from Johns Creek/Alpharetta. I'm glad we saw JC/A on Saturday because it set the standard for us. Marietta just felt older. We felt like JC/A has a lot of homes (subdivisions upon subdivisions) and the river (Chattahoochee) running through it and it was just really pretty. Marietta was nice, but different. I can't really put words to describe how it felt, but it's almost like comparing Garden City (which is a nice little town) to like Birmingham (for my MI readers).

We found two houses in Marietta that we LOVED. One had a pool that we loved (Renford), a great yard, awesome kitchen, and okay basement but was about $20,000 higher than we had hoped, and then the other (Snug Harbor) had it all. I fell in love with the whole house... the only part that I absolutely hated was the kitchen. Oh, and the neighbor's had a dog that was outside and barked nonstop... which made me picture Elphie and Ned outside barking too.

We came back to the hotel and listed our top four homes... Steve did his own analysis and I did mine. Renford and Amberleigh Way each had 39/70 points on my chart, and then Snug Harbor had 51/70 and Windview Place had 55/70. Steve came up with the same order for his choices. We were totally in sync.

We decided to call Rick and tell him our thoughts and he drafted the offer. We asked for quite a few things and in the end, came out with an accepted offer and many of the items that we requested.

On Wednesday, we had the home inspection done and we stopped to see the house and take more pictures on our way back to NC. Here are some pictures of our new home!!

 

The master bedroom (on the main level)

 

Master bathroom

 

Double-doors into the master bathroom/bedroom

 

Custom built closet (yes please!!)

 

Master shower

 

Hallway view from just outside the master bedroom

 

View of the formal dining room taken from the office/den

 

Mahogany glass door (front door)

 

View of the entrance

 

View from the formal dining room

 

Formal dining room view into the livingroom

 

View of the kitchen from the formal dining room

 

The kitchen and nook

 

View of hall from kitchen (door at the end is the laundry/garage entrance and just to the right of that is the master... to the left across from the master is the guest bathroom)

 

Kitchen/nook

 

Kitchen/pantry/formal dining 

 

View from the nook

 

View of livingroom and upstairs overlook from nook

 

Entrance, stairs, upstairs and livingroom

 

View from the livingroom into the nook

 

Stairs to the basement

 

Small storage room view into the hall and guest room (straight ahead) and the basement bathroom is where the light is coming from on the right

 

Full bathroom in the basement

 

Another storage area... with a fridge (that we get to keep)

 

View from back of storage area to hall (see Gus)

 

View of the game room  and entertainment room (we get to keep the pool/ping-pong table... AND the tv and furniture in the entertainment room)

 

View of the entertainment room looking into the game room

 

One of the bedrooms upstairs

 

View of the stairs (bedroom pictured above is just to the right)

 

The bridge to another bedroom

 

View of the bridge

 

View from the bridge looking into the livingroom

 

View of the entrance from the bridge (on the right)

 

Another bedroom (end of the bridge)

 

Such a HUGE room (this will be Gus's room)

 

View of the room

 

HUGE room!

 

Another view

 

View from Gus's room to the other end of the upstairs (the attic ladder is down bc of the inspection)

 

Another view

 

Room at opposite end of the upstairs (end of the hall)  The closet door in this picture opens up into a HUGE storage space (above the garage)

 

View from the corner to the door

 

This room is also HUGE

 

All the closets upstairs have these custom built-ins... they're awesome!!

 

Upstairs bathroom

 

Has the sink in one room, then a door that goes into the room with the tub and toilet

 

The laundry room (at the end of the hall) and the door to the garage

 

The playset and trampoline in the backyard (we get to keep both)

 

View of the backyard

 

There's shrubs on the left that give privacy

 

View of the house from the backyard

 

Another view of the playset

 

From the backyard looking at the house, the far left side

 

Another view of the backyard from the door to the basement

 

View to the left from the driveway

 

View to the right of the cul-de-sac

There you have it... our new home in Johns Creek, GA!!!