Possible new house...

Grimster74

My wife and I are thinking about buying a new house and it's funny how the first thing that comes to mind is, "where am I going to put the H/T room"? Well, my current house is a 2400 S.F. (living space) split foyer and the house we are looking at is a 2200 S.F. (living space) Rambler on a crawl space with an oversized 2 car garage. I live is a really nice neighborhood which my lot is 3/4 of an acre and the house we are looking at is in a neighborhood with large estate lots which this house is on 5 acres with lake access with our own boat slip. The first thing that came to my mind when I seen the house is to convert the garage into a H/T room and just add a detached 2 car garage behind the house. I took some pics today so you guys can tell me what you think. My wife works with the wife of the builder of the home and the house has been on the market for over a year but I guess with the housing market being so bad in my area, they haven't sold it yet. This house just appraised for $394,000 and the owner said if I give him $350,000 for it, I can have it just so he doesn't have to pay taxes on it anymore. Here are some pics, you guys tell me what you think.

Grimster74

Here are some pics of the interior of the house.

Grimster74

The forth pic in the second set of pictures is where I would have to figure out how to get a 62" Mitsubishi TV, all my gear and some sort of motorized screen on the wall to the left of the window for my H/T setup. It even looks like I may have to go to a 5.1 setup instead of a 7.1 setup due to it being an open floor plan.

Grimster74

On the 3 picture from the left is the dining room, far left and it looks like I may have to put the pool table in front of the fire place which is to the right of the rear door which you can see in the first picture.

Grimster74

All the bedrooms have 10 foot ceilings which really makes this house look huge, the crawl space is temp. controlled, what ever the temp is inside, the crawl space is with 10 degrees which is supposed to cut down on heating and cooling. If you look at the picture of the front of the house, the windows to the far right is the side the kids bedroom is on and the windows to the far left is the master bedroom.

dane_peterson

I just like the camera on the side of the house.

Seriously though, it's a good looking home! I can't wait until it's that time for me. Home shopping is almost as fun as buying new speakers.

schwarcw

Very nice! Good luck with your offer. It a buyer's market right now, don't be too anxious. If they don't accept it, don't make a counter offer for at least a week.

engtaz

Good Luck

danger boy

nice.. hope you get the house.. perfect size back yard for a POLKFEST!!!!

brettw22

The house looks good.......few thoughts.....

Are you OK losing 200 sq/ft in living space if the trade off is more land?

I never understand why builders spend the money on stainless appliances etc etc and then put gold lighting fixtures in the same room....

Also, before you do the house conversion on the garage, I'd put a lot of money into curb appeal.......

engtaz

Nice looking floors.

MikeC78

House looks very nice!

I'd also have to agree with Brett; brass and SS appliances just don't mix, but that's an easy fix. IMO, I wish every home was done in brushed nickel.

george daniel

very nice,, good luck

the back is screaming for a pool

Bill Ayotte

MikeC78 wrote: »

House looks very nice!

I'd also have to agree with Brett; brass and SS appliances just don't mix, but that's an easy fix. IMO, I wish every home was done in brushed nickel.

I agree as well....not to mention the rest of the cabinets are stained and the island cabinet is white..WTF? Builders do scary things...The house I am in looks like it was sheetrocked by Helen Keller. Yeah, you are losing 200sf of living space, but now you sure as hell have enough room to add a sizable addition later if you so choose, and your neighbors aren't near as close.....Converting the garage isn't a bad idea IMO, but I would put up another one first....I have something against parking my car outside if I don't have to...Good luck man.

wingnut4772

I would say that if you are not in a hurry wait for THE house where you don't have to finnagle your HT gear in a less than optimal space. I guess it depends how important that is to you but I compromised with my house and I am not completely delighted with the size of my HT room.

If I had it to do over, I would have gotten a house with a better room for the HT. I still kick myself and it bothers the hell out of me. But that's just me. It is a really nice house though.

wallstreet

Nice looking home. I agree, what's up with the island!? The other thing that caught my attention was no sidewalk to the front door. You're also on the hook for front landscaping. Make sure you get a market analysis with recent sellings in the area. The appraisal doesn't mean squat if noone is willing to buy. I guess I always cringe when someone says I'm tired of paying the taxes, so please take it off my hands. Since he's a builder, he pays a fraction of the taxest until it's sold. I guess I feel fortunate to live in Texas with our inexpensive property. $400K here gets you 4000 sq ft, 3 car garage, media room, and a pool.

Bill Ayotte

wallstreet wrote: »

Nice looking home. I agree, what's up with the island!? The other thing that caught my attention was no sidewalk to the front door. You're also on the hook for front landscaping. Make sure you get a market analysis with recent sellings in the area. The appraisal doesn't mean squat if noone is willing to buy. I guess I always cringe when someone says I'm tired of paying the taxes, so please take it off my hands. Since he's a builder, he pays a fraction of the taxest until it's sold. I guess I feel fortunate to live in Texas with our inexpensive property. $400K here gets you 4000 sq ft, 3 car garage, media room, and a pool.

Same here for cheap property, 400K here would get you a mansion....Near Nashville though, not so much...Still inexpensive compared to MN though...

ben62670

wingnut4772 wrote: »

I would say that if you are not in a hurry wait for THE house where you don't have to finnagle your HT gear in a less than optimal space. I guess it depends how important that is to you but I compromised with my house and I am not completely delighted with the size of my HT room.

If I had it to do over, I would have gotten a house with a better room for the HT. I still kick myself and it bothers the hell out of me. But that's just me. It is a really nice house though.

I'm the same way. I need a good kitchen, and audio room:)
Basements are very nice. Something we don't have here. That would be the place I would set something up for the kid's to go wild in:D

hearingimpared

Very very nice. . .go for it!!!

BaggedLancer

Nice looking house. Good luck!

Brass and Stainless mixed is exactly the result of what was cheap for the builder at the time he needed the goods to do the finish work on the house. I wouldn't be suprised if many of those fixtures he pulled out of a storage shed from previous jobs that they never got used on.

EDIT: Tell him to throw in the Jet Ski over on the right of picture 3 as well