SYNRGYdesign

When we decided to buy a house again I was pretty sure I did not want another fixer.  We spent 8 years fixing up our old house and it seemed like there was always something to fix and not enough time to fix it.  We looked at a ton of homes this time around.  More then we probably looked at when we bought our first house.  The Internet is a great place to actually look at a house with out having to drive to it.  We spent a lot of time looking at homes on the Internet and also many weekends driving around, using up a lot of gas, and carrying sleeping kids through open houses in the different neighborhoods that we could see ourselves living in.  We saw the ultimate homes that were beyond our price range to the homes that needed to just be torn down and a new house built.  We saw empty lots and homes where the house should be removed completely to homes that where just remodeled and everything in between. There were definitely homes we had on our “watch” list and homes that we thought we should make an offer.  So a few people have asked me why did we decide on this house.  It was obviously a fixer.  It needs a lot of work - still does.  It is not in our ideal neighborhood that we were originally wanting to buy in but it was in the neighborhoods that we were looking at.  Did it have everything on our list of wants? No.  Our ideal home would have been in a cul de sac, preferably a two story and at least a 4 bedroom home.  Ironically this home is a one story that is the second house from the corner just like our fist house (we must like being the second house in for some reason).  It is only a 3 bedroom but it is a lot bigger then our 4 bedroom home in Cypress.  So why did I give in and agree to a fixer?  A lot of different reasons.  There was a house we could have put an offer in that was already done.  There was a house in a cul de sac that did not need as much work that had a separate office and it would have been great but they were asking too much.  This house is one of those homes that you have to look beyond the initial condition.  Yes, I probably would have liked to just move in to a place and not fix it up - who wouldn’t?  But after really looking at every possible place available I realized that we could get a home that someone already fixed up to their liking or we could get a fixer and make it our own.  I think that is why we are drawn to fixers.  As architect’s we like the idea of designing our own place even if we have to work with an existing foot print.  Cost had a big part in what we bought also.  We wanted to stretch our money as much as possible.  But I think it was the idea of being able to have a blank slate and design our own home.  It was the idea of being able to make it OUR home instead of moving into someone else’s home that sold the house to us.  Would I buy another fixer?  Probably.  Would I try my best to not buy a fixer? Probably.   

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