home

Introduction

How do you define the concept of home? Is it a physical location where you live with significant others, roommates, children, or pets? Is it a place you return to on holiday breaks, where your nuclear family resides? Maybe you have a faraway home state or hometown that you visit while you spend your daily life elsewhere. I began this summer with every intention of focusing on particular projects, but my plans were soon thrown into tumult. My landlord of three years let us know that he would like to switch to a month-to-month contract with the intention of selling the property. Suddenly, the security of having a home, a constant which I depend on to keep me grounded and provide me with a sense of peace between adventures, became an uncertain concept that could be taken away. Just thinking about it gave me that elevator lurch sensation.

My significant others and I discussed the pros and cons of buying a home, our first. Since we’d already experienced renting a house (as opposed to an apartment), we were familiar with the upkeep and care that a home required. And we’d reached a point in our lives – our mid-thirties – where we were tired of moving, and looked forward to inhabiting a space long-term. I reached out to a real estate agent with glowing reviews, she got me in touch with a lender, and my friends and I sat around on our laptops comparing favorite dream houses on Zillow.

After providing our debt and income information, and after several anxious, nail-biting days, the lender let us know what our max loan amount would be for a pre-approved mortgage. The easiest course of action would’ve been to purchase the home we were renting, requiring no move, but it was well outside our price range. Only two adults can co-sign on a home loan, where we had four contributing adults on our rental agreement.

With our max loan amount in mind, we scoured Zillow for favorites which fit our budget and our needs. Our real estate agent set up appointment times to meet us with keys, and we plotted the course for our first weekend looking for a new home in the Little Rock or North Little Rock area.

House 1: Oakview

Four of us set out, including my middle-school aged son. It was great to have so many pairs of eyes noticing different aspects as I captained the vehicle and drove us on our way. Someone would call out different businesses along the way, while someone else pointed out whether the houses nearby looked well-kept or worn down, while someone else noticed the kinds of cars that our might-be neighbors drove.

We arrived too early to this first house, while our real estate agent was running slightly behind, so we had plenty of time to take a look around the outside. It didn’t feel like the nicest neighborhood. The outside walls of the house looked dirty, and the yard was overgrown. The porch had a steep drop off rather than a series of steps, and the immediate neighbor’s dog was a loud, nonstop barker. There was a screen door attached to the back door, but there was a second screen door propped against an outside wall.

When our real estate agent arrived only to find that the key had not been left out for her as promised, she apologized profusely and suggested we could come back another time.

“It’s okay,” I told her, “I think we’re ready to cross this one off the list.” The house looked small and dirty, and the neighborhood didn’t feel safe. “Let’s take a look at the next one.”

House 2: Mirado

The next neighborhood felt significantly nicer, which put us at ease. The front yard plants were pretty and well cared for. Inside, we were all impressed with what we saw. The kitchen was updated, there were two living room areas each with fire places, and the full bath was newly renovated, too. The bedrooms were not huge but livable, with a slightly larger master bedroom, and one of the bedrooms had its own half-bath, with just a sink and toilet. I liked the cozy feel of the carpet and appreciated the neutral carpet and freshly painted colors. The dining room was also sizable, and there was something that made me smile about the modestly vaulted ceilings and exposed beams. As my friend Ben Garret and others had suggested, I checked under the kitchen sink, and found no evidence of mold.

The doors to the outside were tight in their frames and difficult to pry open, and the agent told us that may be an indication of foundation issues. Outside, the deck looked old but not rickety, and the yard was a decent size. The agent took us outside to show us the waves in the roof, which we would ask the seller to fix before purchasing if we made a bid, and the rust on the air conditioning unit, which might indicate a need for replacement in the next few years.

This was a home I could see myself and my family inhabiting. I felt willing to give up bedroom size for larger shared, communal spaces, because in my family we spend most of our time together. Between exercise, movies, tv shows, video games, board games, and art projects, we definitely need gathering places where we can coexist. I loved the idea of two large living rooms, split by an equally large dining room, each of them assigned various purposes for our family and friend get-togethers. We left with a significantly positive impression. My family and I rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

House 3: 55th

The third neighborhood felt like a middle ground between the bad feeling of the first and the nice feeling of the second. It felt “okay,” and if the house was great inside, we’d probably approve.

The driveway was steep and felt perilous as we parked. We walked around the outside of the house while the agent unlocked the front, and the angles felt all wrong. The deck was built up too high and the roof sloped down too low. Inside, there were odd paint colors and ugly wallpapers. Some bathroom and kitchen updates had been done but not nearly enough to give an overall impression of “new.” But the strangest aspects were the low doorways and ceilings. The tallest of our group could not clear one of the bedroom doorways without having to stoop over. The agent pointed out cracks in the walls moving out from the top corners of the doorways which indicated foundation problems. We all gave this home a resounding no and continued on.

House 4: Cleveland

Online, this house had been my top pick. I knew it was a great neighborhood, and I loved that it had a high square footage, plus a sun room! It looked like a great bargain “on paper,” but I tried not to get my hopes up because it said “SOLD AS IS,” And I wanted to know what was wrong with it that the web pictures weren’t showing us. When we arrived, our first impressions were positive. The kitchen was big, and the upstairs spaces felt clean and nice. The deck opened up onto a gorgeous view. The sun room was spacious and probably could be used as an additional bedroom in a pinch.

Downstairs is where things got weird.

The staircase was steep, and a bit scary. The laundry area was cramped, and the storage spaces felt ill-placed and added as an afterthought. One bedroom had no door, with a custom sized door frame. But we found the reason for the online warning when we entered the last downstairs bedroom: black mold, growing in a corner of the room. The agent advised that, sadly, there would be no way to know for sure if it had gotten into the walls and if so, how far it had spread. No amount of new light fixtures and new ceiling fans could make up for the fact that black mold was way too scary for us. We crossed this house off our list and set out for our last house of the day.

House 5: Birchwood

The very first thing we noticed about this house was how close it was to the highway, a definite plus for our commute-loathing family. We also immediately noticed how gorgeous and cultivated the front and back yard landscapes were, including the current owner’s vegetable garden. Going inside, the living room and dining room felt very small, but the kitchen was new and a decent size. The upstairs bedrooms were not large, and bunched close together. But the upstairs bathroom was new and looked great.

This house was in a flood zone and had some indications of potential foundation issues, so we would need to invest in flood insurance and look more closely at the records regarding what parts of foundation had been corrected, the agent made sure to tell us.

But it was the downstairs area that wowed us. The master bedroom was gigantic, and took up half the basement. There was also a sitting area, and a huge bathroom which included the sizeable washer and dryer area. I’m not sure if it was the openness of the space or the “rich” feeling of the current owner’s belongings, but we were definitely impressed!

One final factor divided the group. In the basement closet was access to a crawl space which opened up into a dirt floor area with ancient-looking structures and some forgotten junk. The boys found this extra-appealing and immediately nick-named it “The Catacombs.” The girls, on the other hand, found it creepy, and didn’t feel so great about it. Overall we gave it 4 of 5 stars.

Conclusion

In a single day my family and I traveled through several homes, and indulged in the mental exercise of imagining ourselves living in each space. Houses 1, 3, and 4 each had issues significant enough to knock them off our list completely, while Houses 2 and 5 tied for first place, with the girls leaning toward the large communal spaces of House 2 and the boys rooting for The Catacombs of House 5. We’re waiting to hear back from the agent with a more in-depth report on each, and there are still more prospective homes to visit. It’s scary and exciting to imagine a life stretching years into the future, anchored to a place we can call home.