It seems only fitting to chronicle the houses we tour in our search for a home for a bunny. *cough* I mean a home for a Zebra and her family.
So begins the REAL house hunting. Anything before this was just… um… pretend? For a hobby? I dunno, but I better start this entry already, no?
Sunday we went with Tino, our agent, to visit a 3 bedroom house on East Palomar. It was a good size, had a large garage and a big back yard as well as a private front yard. My favorite bit was that the closet between the two kids’ bedrooms was shared. You could walk in the closet from one bedroom and go out into the next. Just like the Brady Bunch bathroom!
The bits I didn’t like so much had to do with travertine floors (sooooo not my style), the crappy-ass poo-colored tile in the bedrooms, the falling over fence and… and? The awesomest “optional” room EVER. Which I will get into in a minute because it deserves it’s own paragraph. Anyway, for the most part, it was all cosmetic stuff, but even things like finding rugs to warm up the floors adds up quickly, you know? There was also a nice crack along the slab the house sits on which the Realtor thought might be a problem – and it might be, what do I know? But, in looking around the sidewalks here in town, I see cracks pretty much everywhere. I’m wondering how much of that is just common to San Diego and kind of unavoidable. Do you, my readers, have any thoughts? Facts? Outright lies? Please specify which you are sharing.
Anywho, this room. Apparently, the term “optional room” is real estate lingo for “unpermitted”. And, OY, was this one poorly done. It was so awful, it was beautiful. What they did was enclose a square section of the patio that had been bordered by the kitchen on one wall and the garage on the second. They added the two other walls. And they did put up a roof, but that was about all they did. They even left the porch light up on the inside of the room. Awesome. But even more awesome, perhaps, is that they, apparently, spray painted this new room instead of using, you know, actual paint. Beautiful. These people? Clearly top craftsmen. You should hire them.
All in all we weren’t thrilled. But looking back, I wonder why not. All foundational cracks aside, if that’s safe, maybe we should think again about it. I can grow to love a ghetto-ass room. I can also tear said ghetto-ass room down. Probably with my bare hands judging by the amount of actual work they put into it.
Z E B R A B E L L Y . C O M 
Cracked slab can be a problem when you have the house inspection. For us, the lender wouldn’t give us a loan on a house the inspector didn’t like. But it sounds lovely, ghetto “optional” room and all. The prices right now make me cry, my house has devalued 100,000.00 since I bought it. Sob. Not moving anytime soon.
Holy CRAP. I never thought I’d see the day when SoCal or any-Cal houses were cheaper than out here…but they are?! I think the person who put in the bonus room was the same person who did a lot of the cough renovations cough on our house. It sounds just divine. Travartine seems to be a big thing out there. I had no idea what it even was until I got cable and all the HGTV shows and Flip This House and all that used it in their houses. I was like, what IS this stuff?! As for the slab…IDK. I mean, like Lola mentioned it could def be a problem w/an inspection. But what it really indicates, I have no clue…we have foundations/basements here. If THAT was cracked it would definitely be an issue.
Yeah, when when it comes to the loan we’re eligible for, the measly broken window on the house probably would make the house unacceptable. So that’s definitely a possibility. But I am curious as to what a cracked slab means. Partly because I have seen the slab I am currently living on and it’s, uh… well to say “cracked” would be putting it mildly. LOL
A cracked slab can lead to problems when it rains a lot. This happened at my mom’s house, and water seeped into the floor. It all just depends though. Our house isn’t built on a slab, but has all sorts of cracks and issues. All in all, it works though. My DH spent many weekends repairing under our house. SO, I’d take it seriously. The inspectors (there are 2 good ones I know of) are pretty real and you can just ask them. We asked ours and he was like, it could stay cracked like this for 20 years. The problem is that now we want to sell our house, and the realtor tells us that in this market, everything must be fixed in order to not lose tons of money on this house. yadayada.
p.s. I love “bonus” rooms.
Ooooh, would LOVE the names of the good inspectors if you don’t mind. 🙂
I’m so excited for you and your search for a house! I hope you can find the right one at the right price; now is the time to look. I wish we weren’t locked into our condo right now because I want a yard so badly I could die. *sob*
Now I’m off to look up that flooring because I have no idea what that is.