And the Winner Is....

Two houses in contention, but I can only buy one...

4002
 

3982

And the winner is -- 3982.  I am closing on its purchase on Monday - finally!  It took a ridiculously long amount of time to get to this point.

I really really liked 4002, but in the end, I was swayed by the list of recent improvements that the owners of 3982 had undertaken: new siding on house and garage; new concrete patio in back yard; new privacy fence to screen patio; new furnace and AC unit in 2013; beautifully refinished hardwood floors in the bedrooms; newer architectural style shingle roofs on house and garage; new vinyl plank flooring in the kitchen/dinette in a luscious dark cherrywood tone (that clashes horribly with the oak finished cabinets); newly remodeled main floor bathroom; updated kitchen; new front and rear exterior doors; new windows; new sliding patio door with steps down to the backyard (not shown on any of the listing photos, but if you look in through the picture window above you can see straight back through the living room to the patio doors in the dinette). 

I still have tweaks of panic now and then that I bought the wrong house (4002 has many appealing aspects), but to back out now would be disastrous for the young couple buying my house, and the young couple selling me their house, and the people who are selling my sellers their house!  Just cannot do it.  My rational side tells me that I will have little to worry about for years to come in buying 3982, other than installing a new water heater in a couple of years and decommissioning the old chimney.  Oh, and the brick veneer across the front of the house needs to be "re-tied" to the studs in some places and the stone cap on the brick half wall underneath the bedroom windows needs to be reset.

So, I will live right next store to 4002 and be witness to see what the lucky person(s) who eventually move in do around the place; it is under contract but has been pending for months.  I believe the buyers cannot sell their house, or more likely, cannot sell their house for the money they need to afford to buy 4002. 

So, shortly I will be embarking on the next phase of my life -- that of living in a much smaller house and yards.  My hands are itching to get at it.  As you can see, 3982 doesn't have much curb appeal, and there is lots of painting and minor remodelling to do inside.  What a thing to take on nearly at my 63rd birthday.  Geez, Jan!