House Hunters Huntsville - House One

I've got some exciting news to share. Well, I think it's exciting. My dear friend Erika is considering buying a house and has started looking at homes. Erika has always been a renter since she moved out from under her parents' wings all those years ago and she's just about hit her limit recently thanks to her new neighbor. 

For the past several years, Erika has rented a duplex in the medical district in our fair city and has had some good and some bad neighbors throughout her time there. The neighbor that most recently moved in, came with a dog which was a little surprising since the landlords had never previously allowed pets. However, their heart strings were tugged upon (or something like that) and they decided to give the new tenant and her dog a trial run, much to Erika's chagrin. The new tenant's dog is apparently yappy and then tenant is also loud throughout the day and at odd hours of the night and so basically, Erika is just done with neighbors in close proximity. So, she has decided to consider buying a home of her own so that she is her own landlord and doesn't have to deal with yappy dogs and loud people on the other side of her wall and y'all, I couldn't be more excited for her! 

Erika sent me an email with the link to a house she wanted to look at and asked if I knew anything about it or the area. It is close to where I live and where some other people I know live and when she scheduled the appointment to go and take a look, I invited myself along. I also asked if I could chronicle her house hunting and she agreed so just consider this House Hunters Huntsville or something like that. 

The viewing of the house was this past Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. Erika and her mom came by my house and picked me up and we drove over to the house for sale. Erika's friend Michelle also met us there because four opinions are better than one. Erika and her mom and I walked around the outside before the realtor arrived. The backyard is very spacious and fenced in. There is a covered patio which would be great for entertaining. The front yard is sodded and has been kept up nicely over the years. It looks very nice and neat and well manicured. 

The house itself has three bedrooms and two baths as well as a garage with plenty of space for two cars. It comes with a fridge, but since Erika already owns a fridge, she could move the fridge already at the house into the garage and be like a "real" adult with a fridge in the garage for extra food and drinks. Most all of the floors are the original hardwoods and are in very good shape. The kitchen and dining space have been replaced with laminate which matches the original hardwoods and looks to be of good quality. The bathrooms have the old retro tile from the late 1960s, but Erika loves that and wouldn't change it for anything. There are lots and lots of closets throughout the house including one in one of the bedrooms that has a lot of shelves perfect for storing all manner of knick knack. There is a laundry closet in the hallway for the washer and dryer. This closet seems to have some rotting from a leaky washer, but hopefully nothing that the inspection wouldn't catch and fix. The kitchen is gigantic and has so much storage space I wanted to cry. Seriously, the kitchen alone may sell the house. The central air unit, roof, range, dishwasher and other items have all been replaced within the last 5-10 years (if I am remembering correctly) and so there is likely a low chance they would need to be replaced any time soon. There are some cracks in the walls from either settling (hopefully) or foundation damage, but should Erika decide to get this house, those things will be determined in inspection. 

Overall, this is a great house and very affordable. The area is a nice neighborhood and when we left it was dark and there were lots of people out for an evening stroll which indicates they feel safe in the area - a big plus! The realtor is going to pull together some other homes for Erika to look at before she makes a decision. So, I have no doubt we will be looking at more houses in the near future and I'm just tickled to death about it. It's such an exciting time for my friend and I'm glad to be tagging along and offering her support through this journey.