December 18h 2005

Last night Bob and I did an exercise that we got from ctrealtor.com. it's a property wish list that helps you narrow down what is important in a house for you. There were many things listed and then 2 columns - one was "Must have", the other was "Would Prefer".

Bob blazed through his while I,of course, wrote qualifying comments opn almost everything. Then bob read my lista nd I read his. The result? After the 2 BR minimum, prefer 3 and 2-car garage, the only thing on his list that was in his "Must have" column was "Laundry room". So we laughed over that. mine of course - being the world's greatest procrastinator - was full of hemming and hawing - EIK not necessary if there's a DR, fierplace is not a dealbreaker, family or living room, don't need both etc.
Anyway it was quite a good thing to do and we also made notes on access to highways and neighbourhhod and house styel and age etc.

So our list is this:
Near a highway so bob can get to Manhattan and I can get to Stamford.
Bob needs airport access.
Area: realistically specific areas of Danbury, most of Bethel is more affordable but schools aren't as good as elsewhere. Ridgefield, where I live now, we love but it's out of our price range unless we want to settle for a condo.
Best schools we can afford as can't afford houses in best school areas as ..
we want a single family rather than a condo.
Colonial or cape - ranch would have to be exceptional as we noth like 2-storey.
New construction to old - no preference.
I'm willing i think to do more renovation than Bob but he's game for a little. I'm happy to move the odd wall and paint etc and in time re-do bath and kitchen if necessary but I think less is better for a first home. I guess it depends on the bargain.

Obviously there's things that you'd die for but they tend not to be deal breakers to me - fireplace, vaulted ceiling etc. They kind of fall into the category of "sure I'd like to drive an Infinity FX35 or a Honda S2000, but in reality I drive a Honda Civic so get real" so we need to read between the lines of what we like in other people's house and what we can afford now that it's our money that's paying for it!

I did find another area of Danbury that I liked and would work - the Aunt Hack Road area - that is just off I-84 but up towards Richter Park GC. There was an awesome ranch up there that was too much $$$ for us, with that price (399k) we could only put 10% down and still have a mortgage payment that was near our monthly nut limit before we've even figured in property taxes and home insurance.
Then I also saw a ranch with a 2-storey end section up by Candlewood lake that looks like it has an awesome view from the master BR and we both kayak - with the lake below the house. Wouldn't change Bob's commute but would make mine a bit longer but once you were home we wouldn't be driving anywhere to go kayaking. The price is right ($319,900) so i think i'll drop Ginny a line with our wish list and see if we can see this one. She is away this next week so it'll have to wait 'til after Xmas I think.