1940 Colonial

I haven't posted anything here in awhile because, well, there hasn't really been anything new to post about!  Our house-hunting quest continues, but ever so slowly.  Still no word on the 1925 Hip Roof Colonial.  Sigh.  It sure would be nice to at least know if the other offer on it was going to be accepted, but the bank seems to really be dragging their feet on it (you'd think they'd be eager to get the house sold, but apparently not).  So we're still waiting and hoping.

Fortunately, while we're waiting and hoping, we're starting to see some new houses pop up on the market that are a bit more appealing than what we had been seeing.  So at least now we're starting to find things that we actually want to go look at.  (Yay!)  One of which was this 1940 Colonial.

This house is definitely the best thing we've seen since the 1925 Hip

Roof Colonial, but it still doesn't quite compare.  However, it does meet our top priorities (good location and nice neighborhood, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and enough bigger than our current house that we would feel like we had more space), so for now, we're keeping it in mind...sort of a runner-up, if you will.  Let's take a look, shall we?

First off, the exterior paint isn't in very good shape (which isn't too big of a deal, I guess, since I don't particularly like the color anyway), and the roof may need some work.  But it does have a garage, which would certainly be nice.  And there are a couple of nice trees in the front yard (yay!).  Around back, there are more trees (yay!) and a nice rock wall along one side, but the yard is not very private at all (boo!).

Upon going inside, you quickly realize that the previous owners loved wall paper.  Oh, how they loved wall paper!  Stepping in the front door, the stairs are off to the right (wall paper), then straight ahead there's a strange little entryway to the kitchen (wood paneling), and off to the left is the living room.  I think perhaps this was the only room in the house without wall paper.  In

any case, the living room is quite nice...great hardwood floors, fireplace, and a nice archway into the dining room.

The dining room is lovely as well (though I could do without the wall paper), with hardwood floors, wainscoting, and a beautiful stained glass light fixture.  On the other side of the wall to the right is the kitchen, and I could see knocking out part of this wall to open up into the kitchen (perhaps creating a place to put those vintage 1950's chrome and formica bar stools I've been hanging onto?).


On to the kitchen.  The kitchen could use some updating, but nothing so intolerable that it couldn't be lived with for awhile.  There is, of course, wall paper, and ugly flooring, but overall the kitchen is a good size and there are some nice windows over the sink.













That tiny little doorway to the right of the refrigerator leads to a tiny little bathroom.  I would prefer if the bathroom were a little bigger, but it's better than no bathroom on the first floor (which is what we currently have).  The bathroom has an oh-so-lovely combo of wood paneling and wall paper, with that same ugly flooring that's in the kitchen (hooray!  a trifecta!).  So that's the first floor.  Let's head upstairs.

I was pleased that the stairs didn't seem to be as steep as our current stairs (but not so pleased with the ugly wall paper that lined the staircase and hallway), and that there were not one, but two(!) closets in the hallway.  Off to the right is a nice big bathroom with (you guessed it!) wall paper.  But overall, a decent bathroom, and probably twice the size of our current one.  I think there was even a linen closet in there too!

Across the hall is the first bedroom, then there are two more bedrooms down the hall from there (one on each side), each with its own flavor of wall paper, but the orange and green plaid was the standout:

Despite the wall paper, the bedrooms were nice with hardwood floors and good closets.  Also, through the closet of one of the bedrooms was a walk-up attic, which would be great for storage, or perhaps one day could be finished to expand our living space.

All in all, this house is sort of a mixed bag for us.  The pluses:  good location & neighborhood, enough rooms & space, layout was good, hardwood floors.  The minuses:  lack of privacy in backyard, exterior needs work, kitchen needs updating, and wall paper, wall paper, everywhere!

Cramped Cape

While we are waiting to see what happens with the 1925 hip roof colonial, we decided to continue looking at other houses.  You know, don't put all your eggs in one basket, and all that.  So the next house we looked at was a 1942 cape.  The location seemed good, but the houses in the neighborhood were packed in pretty close together.  As for the house, well, it followed the same pattern.

At the side door (which would probably be the most commonly used door since it was facing the driveway), there was a small enclosed area, kind of like a mini-mudroom...it was configured something like this:

I'm not exactly sure what the point of this area would be other than to cause traffic jams with all those doors in such a small space (we have such areas in our current home).  This was also the only way to get to the backyard (which, by the way, was fenced but very small)...you would have to practically go out the front door of the mini-mudroom just to get to the back door!

Moving on....the side door opened into the kitchen, which needed some major updates (the appliances looked as though they'd been there since peg-rolled jeans and jelly bracelets were in style!).  The kitchen was also not quite big enough to fit a table.  There was a dining room, but you had to go through a small narrow hallway to get to it (I can only imagine the number of times I would have to go back and forth in this hallway to fetch more of this or that for the kids during meals...no thanks!).

The living room was nice enough, and there were hardwood floors throughout, which I do love, so that's one plus.  Upstairs, there was a nice bathroom and three small bedrooms with a variety of wall coverings.  The highlight of this house was probably the flocked red damask wallpaper in one of the bedrooms (sweeeet).  Sadly, I didn't get a picture of it, but it looked something like this.

All in all, the house felt small and cramped, and the layout was awkward.  Definitely not the house for us!