House Hunting for The Princess

So you'd think that The Princess (me) would like a big mansion with all the upgrades and tons of space.

Frankly, I am scared of big open spaces in the house. What the heck do you do with them? Cartwheel across your living room until you reach the kitchen? I was never that great a gymnastics... I envision the Bruce Wayne manor, with that long table where Bruce (Keaton) is at one end and Vicki Vale (Basinger) is at the other end and there are like 30 chairs between them, and rooms you never go in. Decadent, but vaguely creepy. Once you do have to go in one of those forgotten rooms for something it (either the room or the item, or both) would probably be infested with spiders.

Yesterday we looked at a few more houses. We focused on the east/central side of town.

One house we saw was a undervalued because it was a repossession where the people leaving had taken all the appliances, all the cabinet knobs, and it had no less than 5 paint colors on walls visible from the front entryway. It would be a nice one to fix up. It was 3 blocks from "casual fast" food like Chipotle, a coffee shop and a grocery store. So it had the walking distance thing going for it. The down side (for me) was that the space would all be used up once we were moved in - with only 3 bedrooms we'd have a master bedroom and each of us would get an office (except the dog, but I asked and he was ok with that). There was a small basement and we could finish it, but I think a bedroom would leave the rest of it feeling small. My office would be kick-ass, though, because the rooms were so big.

We looked at another one really close to our coveted Cherry Creek area. Not really walking distance to anything, and it didn't have a real space for 2 offices and had no garage (I hate scraping my windows in the morning -- and I don't even drive to work. See? I am The Princess).

The strangest house we saw had not one, but TWO, workshop areas. There would be a lot of pressure to start learning woodworking, something involving a blow torch and a welding mask, or at least a fancy historical car needing refinishing. But there were lots of places to hang those pictures of curvy chix on motorcycles on the wall. It also had a Mother-in-Law apartment next to one of the workshops. That had a bathtub with a 2-foot ceiling - which would be perfect for washing the dog if your MIL would let you in her apartment.

We saw another one that was move-in ready -- only needed window coverings. That one had a few remodels done to help update it, was open (which seems to be a side effect of tri-levels), had nice neutral tan paint, hardwood floors, updated kitchen, more closets than we currently have. But a dinky master bath with the sinks in the same room as the bed (no real divider). Priced appropriately. In the middle of random suburbia. But minutes from I-25...

So you'd think with as picky as I am, I should get a house in the "being-built" stage so that I could choose the floor plan and the fixtures. EEEEK! That is way too intimidating too. It's way easier to see what didn't work on something that is already done... I would probably pick out Cowboy paint colors, Southwest tile, Ultra-Modern cabinets and antique Asian cabinet handles all for the kitchen. And I would love each item individually so much that I would believe it would "just work" once it was all together so I wouldn't listen to the advice of the expert. Then I would walk into the finished kitchen and exclaim, "What mess of historical eras and cultures threw up to create this kitchen?!?!"

On the up side, I am probably perfect material for one of those DIY-Network shows where they try to help you find the perfect house. And everyone would have great sympathy for my poor Iggy.