House Hunting

I think that the majority of people who read my blog know that we are trying to sell our house. It's been a nice home and after the improvements we've made it's in really great condition. Over the course of the almost eight years that we've owned it we've had new insulation blown into the attic, installed new double pane windows, replaced the furnace and added central air conditioning and remodeled the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom. It's in pretty great shape. It needs new carpet and a few things here and there, but it's now a really great home. It's just a little smaller than we'd like. We are looking for a more open kitchen, a garage, and a home that has the potential for four bedrooms. This weekend a couple decided they wanted to buy our home and we are now under contract scheduled to close the on May 27th! Hooray! That means we'll be moving over Memorial Day Weekend and we need to find a home A.S.A.P.

I really wanted to live in Murray. I grew up there and my parents and sister live there now. It's central and has great schools. The bad part about Murray is that it's expensive and a lot of the homes that we've looked at need some serious updating. Plus there just aren't a lot of homes for sale in Murray right now. So the search has expanded. West Valley is pretty much out. If I live in West Valley I want to live right in my in-laws neighborhood and that's it. I'm not really fond of the schools and the potential upkeep issues that tend to plague the city (although the city is really working on code enforcement so it's getting better.)

So yesterday I branched out and looked in a few different locations and actually found some homes that are pretty promising. Here's the top three contenders so far:

West Jordan New Construction

This is a new home off of 9000 South and Bangerter. It's almost finished and just waiting for the buyer to choose carpet, paints, cupboards, etc. It's a big home, 3281 sq. ft. with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. It will come with a nice kitchen that has double ovens. The master bedroom is good sized, but the other two bedrooms are a little small and we'd need to put in a yard and finish the basement so we could have a family room. It's also on a west facing corner lot and the school the kids would go to is year round. This home is across the street from an older park

Sandy Adorable Remodel

The next home is in Sandy at about 1800 East and 10000 South. This home is also big, about 2973 sq. ft., and it also has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms with an unfinished basement. It's in an older well kept neighborhood and I would have my choice of two fantastic schools not far away. It's on a south facing lot with no backyard neighbors because behind the house is a great big park. The owners of this home have completely redone the interior of the home, taking out walls on the main level to make it open and spacious. It has three really big bedrooms upstairs and the master has a big walk in closet, but only a 3/4 bathroom. The biggest disadvantage to this home would be Brian's commute home from work and the fact that we'd be considerably farther away from both of our parents.

West Jordan Short Sale

This last house is probably my favorite. It's on about 1300 West and 6600 South. I love, love, love the location of this home and the neighborhood that it's in is so nice. It has 2935 sq. ft. and three bedrooms and three bathrooms. This home needs a serious cleaning job. It's a short sale so the people had no motivation to clean it before they left, but we'd have a ton of equity right off the bat. I love the porch and the huge cold storage that is underneath it in the basement. It has a formal living and dining room (although I'd probably use it as a computer room or library). There's an open kitchen and a family room just off the garage. The basement is unfinished. The thing that I love about this home is the bedrooms. Upstairs there are two HUGE bedrooms. The first one I went into I thought it was the master until I realized there was no bathroom in there. We could easily fit three boys into the one room. The master bedroom is up another short flight of stairs (a little distanced from the kids' bedrooms which I like) and is also big with a grand master bath. The biggest hurdle with this home is that it's a short sale which can be tough to negotiate and close on. I guess if it's meant to be it will happen, and if not we have some other strong contenders.

So that's it. I may keep looking, but we have three really great homes after my search yesterday. Maybe one of them is our future home.