Shopping for a New House: House 1

Scrreeeeeeccccchhhhhh!  The sound of smoking brakes as Jan's plans for Maison Newton do a 180 and - I'VE SOLD MAISON NEWTON.

OHMYGODDESS.

The house was NOT on the market. I got an offer out of the blue and, well, here I am. Desperately looking for a new place to live.

I had planned on downsizing - at age 65.  I'm still 2 1/2 years away from that.

Let me tell you, darlings, after the horrid experience I had with certain listing brokers in 2009 when I listed Maison Newton for sale, I was really really gun shy about ever using a broker again.  My sale - no broker involved. It's totally private.  Totally fell into my lap from -- probably the Goddess Hera (a mother goddess of family and the hearth in the most ancient times) had a hand in this.  Maybe a not to subtle kick in the butt from the Goddess that it-was-time.  Sooooo, thank you, Hera. I think.

Here is the house I'm putting in an offer for (not at the list price of $169,900, which is too high considering what else is on the market in the immediate area).  A one level Milwaukee style ranch, partial brick with siding.  Kitchen and bath totally redone. All floors natural hardwood refinished, not a speck of carpeting anywhere.  Tile in the bathroom and kitchen/dinette.  It is not a large house -- 1073 square feet, three bedrooms (no pics of them published here but they all have redone closets with good space) and one bathroom (small, but beautiful, shower over tub). No lower level rec room or separate laundry/furnace room or bath/half-bath. It's an open basement, clean clean clean.  Potential for future build-out is there:

The front.

 

The front from an angle.

Back yard patio view.
 

Back yard rear view of house. I would put in a patio door where the
large window is to the right (dinette window).

 

Living room view from the entrance.
 

Bathroom totally redone.  New vanity (check out that hardware), mirror,
light fixture, and on the opposite side, fully tiled shower over tub with glass
doors and a 6 inch wide strip of glass accent tile.  Tile floor.  Quartz countertop.
All in neutral tones.
 

Bathroom view 2, showing tub/shower.

Kitchen - totally redone.  Maple cabinets, check out the drawer pulls,
stainless steel appliances, tile floor. Back lighting on top of cabinets.

Dinette area, view toward kitchen.

View of dinette area toward rear door and stairway to basement. Yes, I
think that window wall on the right is begging for a patio door that
would open to the backyard.  The back door opens to the driveway.
 

It's a lovely house. About 500 square feet smaller than Maison Newton but then, I don't need all of this space, just me rambling around here now that Mr. Don has passed.  The yard gives me enough space for beautiful flower beds, but is much more manageable to mow (front and back).  There is a generous 2.5 car garage, bigger than the 2 car standard I have now.  The curved patio area is new within the past year.  There is a nice sized Norway maple which will grow huge and shade the entire yard unless I stay on top of it and have it pruned out once a year.  There are only 3 entry streets into the subdivision.  There is no through traffic, only local residents, so despite being 2 blocks away from busy South 76th Street and my Walgreens, Pick 'n Save and bus stop that takes me downtown (about half a mile to the south), it is peaceful and quite here.

Fingers crossed!  I electronically signed the offer papers this evening when I got home from the office.  My buyer broker is not feeling well, so I don't know if she was able to submit the offer this evening.

I do have a Plan B, and even a Plan C, if necessary, but Plan C -- oh my!