House Hunting #3

The final house on our House Hunters tour.

A historic home on the same street in Fort Worth as the one that got away. Specs:

• 4 Bedrooms
• 2.5 Bathrooms
• 2,964 Square Feet
• 0.23 acres
• Built in 1919

A quick backstory on this house: When we originally decided to move, we wanted to be on this specific street in Fort Worth. We have seen 3 houses on this street in the past year. When the house we wanted sold, I pulled the expired/cancelled listing on that street. This home came up, and we did some serious researching. It was being rented, so I thought maybe it would pop up again. I was shocked when it pulled up on my email updates from my realtor. What are the odds that it pops up while we are actually searching for a home?

The porch wraps around in an L shape. It isn’t as breezy as house #2, but it’s large and covered. Definitely a feature to older homes that I really love even though it’s so hot in Texas I never go outside.

There are 2 living areas that are separated by the formal dining area on the main floor. The rooms don’t get much natural light which is unfortunate. They are also pretty small. The treatment on the wall is awful, but with a solid color it wouldn’t be so terrible. Retiling the fireplace would be a quick update that would make this room more appealing too.

Another crazy kitchen set up awaited us just around the corner. There was a butler’s pantry/cabinet storage with the sink/dishwasher in one area in a very narrow space as you can see. Then the fridge, stove, and nook area right in front of the sink. They were separated by a half wall. Again we were faced with a major reworking of a kitchen space that had very little promise of 1) being reasonably priced and 2) giving us a decent final space.

I do understand the kitchen more in this home though. If you look at this street historically, it was built for very notable people beginning in 1911. These people had help, so they weren’t in the kitchen hence the terrible set up. The houses also have separate exterior doors for the help to enter. Crazy to think about how different life was when these houses were constructed. I digress…

The area by the stairs had the half bath and mud room type space. This home has a basement which is RARE in Texas especially the Dallas/Ft Worth area. All 3 homes that we’ve seen on this street have had basements. They aren’t basements that can be finished out and utilized in any way other than keeping you safe from a tornado and storing your stuff.

All the bedrooms were up. The floors were in pretty good condition. The closets were decent for an older home, but the storage wasn’t nearly as abundant as house #2 (which was 1,042 square feet bigger anyway).

What we loved:

•  The location was choice. This area of Ft Worth is booming right now. It’s even on the exact street we want!
• We could walk to great restaurants and bars. Plus there are a ton of young families moving here.
• The price was under budget as were house 1 & 2 because we aren’t updating a house that’s at or over our budget.
• The basement because we don’t get them around here, and it would be pretty awesome to have one.

What we didn’t like:

• This house has major foundation issues. You literally felt like you were falling forward if you were on one side.
• The kitchen was a strange and probably couldn’t be changed to something we would love.
• It was very dark throughout the house. We really want something with lots of natural light mainly for blog purposes (haha I crack myself up but seriously).

What do you think about house #3? Am I doing Suzanne Whang’s narrating job well?