Adventures in house hunting

Aaron and I decided that 2011 would be the year that we sell our first home, and buy one that is a little more spacious.  We love the area in which we have lived for the last 5 years, and I'm not exaggerating that sentiment. We totally buy into the cheesy Prairie Village = Perfect Village mantra that probably makes people in other parts of the city want to vomit.  In fact, I sense a little bitterness at times from Perfect Village outsiders.

For instance, I met a guy at a work function last night that lives 60+ blocks south of us.  That's an area that Prairie Villagers jokingly refer to as "Oklahoma", which I may or may not have made reference to in conversation with this new acquaintance.  Then he may or may not have gotten weirdly defensive.  "Ohhhh, I know, you live in Prairie Village. It's so much better there."

Seriously? Sounds like you have a complex there, buddy.  I quickly tried to amend the situation. 

"What?!  No!  I mean, we love Pairie Village, but eventually we'll end up out by you!  Everyone does!  How long can we really expect to live in such a tiny house?"  Not exactly the truth, but I think he bought it.

Because we love our neighborhood so much, we don't want to stray too far in any direction, which essentially limits us to older neighborhoods, and means there is a wide array of styles, most of which are not all that appealing.  We've come across some strange things during our search, and I thought you might want to share the experience with us.

Many houses have been renovated and added on to multiple times over their 50-75 year lives.  When adding on, it seems that some people don't realize that you can, in fact, go too big:

Here's the description in the listing: "Beautiful, unique, hard to find Indian Fields home. 7 bedrooms (2 master suites in separate wings), 5 baths, 3 car garage, 27x19 workshop..."  Back up. Seven bedrooms?  In a neighborhood where the average house has 3-4 bedrooms, I think you may have taken the expansion too far.  Not to mention that I don't even see the house because I can't stop looking at that giant garage, with the 2 tiny windows above it.  It looks like a mouth and eyes, which would be a little creepy to drive my car up to when I arrive home.

We liked this house a lot. Cute, right?

The photographer did a great job in that listing photo to avoid what is behind the house: a new elementary school gymnasium!  You can see it to the left in this shot, though you still don't realize how large and close it is:

This house was awesome, but we viewed it when it was dark out, and the gymnasium lights were on.  You don't realize how bright gymnasium lights are until you try to imagine yourself making dinner, wearing sunglasses to fend off the blinding light that is streaming through the kitchen window. 

This one certainly is charming!

Look at the nice backyard!  Wait.  What is up with that house behind us?

 

We have lived in Prairie Village for 5 years, and have never heard of Candy Cane Lane.  Apparently it's famous!  And it looks like this year round (except much gaudier at Christmastime, of course)!  Such a shame for the cute colonial that is on the market behind it (which we will not be buying).

Welcome to Grandma's!

I can hardly wait to host Thanksgiving in the mirrored dining room!  I bet everyone will fight over who gets to sit on the side of the table that views the mirror, because who doesn't like to watch themselves eat?! 

Let's head to the basement:

What do we have here? Six doors! Gotcha...there's actually only 3 doors and another wall of mirrors -- looks like someone was a little vain!  Why on earth are there 3 doors that close together?  Door #1 is a small bathroom.  Through doors #2 and #3 we found nothing but a small bench in a room that closely resembles a Dillards dressing room.  This discovery perplexed us.  Then our realtor discovered what appeared to be a covered over walk-out entrance from the backyard, where there is a pool.  Apparently these people used to have pool parties so big that dressing rooms were required.

This picture won't do the final house justice.  It was a beautiful colonial in a nice neighborhood.

It was also filthy, and jam packed with more stuff than I ever hope to accumulate.  I felt like I needed to take a shower before I got back in my car.  Here's a piece of advice: if you're trying to sell your house, clean it. 

I know, I should be on HGTV with powerful insight like that.