"We Need a House"

THE New Family needs a house. Both Mom and Dad have said as much. The condo unit is too small with two little but growing quickly kids. Recently they took a road trip to Grand Rapids Michigan to look at homes. The drive was three hours one way, which is significant because hitherto Buggy has not been able to travel in the car for extended periods. Her inability to tolerate being restrained in a car seat caused Dad to cancel Christmas travel plans in 2013. 

She did well for the trip there, but she was not tired. Being out of her element, she was excited by all of the new stuff and never napped. So on the way home she became cranky making the last hour of the trip miserable for everybody.

I-80/94 in Indiana

I - 196 in Michigan

Rest stop

Back on the road, this one fell asleep.

The first home the Family saw had lots of privacy trees and shrubs.

Its back yard had an elevated deck. The trees are nice.

Mature trees are an important consideration for the family since they quiet noise and obstruct lines of sight allowing them to enjoy their property.

After having seen that home they moved onto others.

This newly built home lacked mature trees and landscaping.

This model home was nice but the lack of flora meant they were not interested in this location. The real estate agent explained that she wanted to see this home from this builder. It planned to build future home similar to it on future lots.

Above, while many of these homes are right on top of each other, this particular one is adjacent to an emergency services access road, so the nearest neighbor will be a narrow roadwidths distance away.

But on the other side the neighboring home will be twice the equidistance of the home side to the property line (where the sod ends).

Inside EJ plays.

The selling point of the home, the real estate agent explained, was the builder's choice of designer colors and use of 6" baseboards and full trim throughout. Dad can trim out an entire home this size in a day or two with stained red oak. The existing trim appeared to be MDF, an undesirable material in his opinion, though he did not confirm that. Also the color choices above, while nice, were the same choices he made when he repainted his kitchen back in 2002. He doesn't consider his tastes designer and was less than awed.

Don't worry, Dad did not let EJ bang the closet doors shut like he likes to do at home.

This home was architecturally interesting. That is a plus.

The final home they looked at was in a conventional neighborhood, not in a planned development.

Architecturally it is very interesting with wrap around porch. That is a plus for Dad that hates plain or cute but the same as every fifth home in a planned development.

Nice big back yard.

Awesome deck.

Inside has a nice storage bench on each floor.

The New Family has additional areas to explore in other states before settling on where to begin serious home shopping. Grand Rapids has its pluses and minuses. Next they will evaluate southern Indiana.