I find myself in the interesting position both of being a realtor and being in the market for a new home! Our house is under agreement. This means we now have a finite period in which to find a new place to live. I spend a lot of time contemplating what it is we want in a house. I know how many bedrooms, how much land, how many bathrooms and the locations in Northampton which are appealing to us - but, beyond that I'm just not sure. A wise friend recently said to me, "When you find the right house you will know it. You just need to love something about it. When we first found our house, I loved the 2 large windows in the front of the house, and I loved the big yard, I didn't actually love much else about the house!" This is good advice for buyers such as us. Some people prefer new construction, or want a house that doesn't need a lot of/any work. I relate to that preference, and it's good to know ones' limitations. But I think we are open to purchasing a house that needs some work. I like the idea of putting our own mark on a home to make it feel like our own. Of course, a person can do this with paint, decor and interior and/or landscape design as well. But I think that if we can keep our eyes and minds open to the possibilities, we will have more luck finding something within our designated time frame.
Here is the butler's pantry in the house we are selling. This is one of the details of our house that I fell in love with right away. Note the built in in the background, another selling point for me.
We opted not to open the walls between the kitchen and the dining room to create the ever popular "open concept" space on the first floor. We didn't want to lose the original charm and character of the butler's pantry. And, if we had, what would our butler have thought? At any rate, the decision to keep the rooms separate did not appeal to every buyer who came through our house, but we had faith that there would be other buyers out there for whom it did.
I was perusing one of my favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy, and found an interesting little piece discussing this very topic today.
So my friend's wisdom seems to have universal appeal. It makes sense to me, and I will certainly pass this advice along to my buyer clients when they are trying to narrow down what it is they want in a home.