Diamonds and duds.  Now that Sherri Resnick, our realtor had a better idea what we were looking for, she could send us listings suited to our priorities.  Hopefully we could eliminate some duds without having to tour them.  Being able to look at houses online is a wonderful thing, especially when you want to limit your contact with others.

A couple of days after touring the two duds I talked about yesterday, Sherri took us to see some diamonds.  Both of these houses were much closer to what we were looking for.

The first house was out in the country – or at least what used to be the country – on State Route 3 north of Sunbury.  It had 4.4 acres of land and a 4,000 square foot outbuilding.  The house itself had been completely and beautifully renovated.  The 3 bedrooms and 2 baths were completely new and beautiful.  I loved the kitchen which was new and done exactly as I would have decorated it.  And, as a bonus, the house had a full basement.

The house was definitely a diamond.  But it was up on a hill and you had to walk up a flight of steps to get to the kitchen from the garage.  You didn’t want a deck on the front of the house because of the traffic on State Route 3.  You didn’t want a deck on the back of the house because there was a great view of the septic system and the propane tank.  We could see several industrial buildings and a couple of abandoned buildings across the street.

Tom liked the 4,000 square foot outbuilding but it was TOO big!  And it needed some repairs.  I would have torn it all down and built something new on the concrete slab.  The property was nice, but we could tell that the creek flooded.  In fact, there was mud from very recent flooding on grass in the yard.  This wouldn’t affect the house, which was on that hill, but it would make the yard a muddy mess.

Agreeing that the house was just right but the rest was too much, we headed to the next house.  This second house was on Bunty Station Road in between Powell and Delaware.  This was the only two story house we looked at.  It was also the biggest house we looked at, with 2,000 square feet.

The property was lovely, backing up to a Delaware County park, but it was also on a busy road without any sidewalks.  There was a two-car attached garage and a two-car detached garage.  There was also a pole building that the RV would fit into and a small shed-type building at the back of the yard.  The house was nicely landscaped, but the deck and patio needed some work.  We could also see cracks in the foundation.

Inside the house was nice.  Tall ceilings and a spacious master bedroom and bath on the first floor.  There was an eat-in kitchen with a lovely dining room next door.  Upstairs there were two more bedrooms with a bathroom.  The owners squished in an in-law suite next to the garage with a tiny bathroom.

The house had a basement with one “finished” room, a storage room, and  a large crawl space.  We could see that the basement had some serious leaks and it smelled and felt very damp.  Although the house was nice, nothing had been updated and we could see that it needed a lot of work. But we could see ourselves living in it and fixing it up over time.

So two diamonds in these two houses, but each with some serious drawbacks as well.   Still not the house with just the right combination of needs and wants.  We would keep looking.