One of my reasons for starting this blog was to share the remodeling process of our new house with family and friends who live far away, and who probably won't be able to visit in person. Well, that remodeling process is pretty much done now, except for decorating with artwork, etc... So, that brings me to the next purpose of this blog: to chronicle the experience of having and actively living in two houses.
For those of you who may not remember how this whole adventure started, let me refresh your memory. After looking for a new house for 2 years - one that we planned to fully move in to, and then sell the old house - we finally came to the realization that the odds of finding our dream house were slim to none. We came the closest with a 2400 sq ft home that would have required a 40 min. drive each way to work, which was a deal-killer. One of the prime features of this "almost" purchase was that it was on a slab. Not only was it the largest slab home we found in our search, it was the ONLY slab home we found. I asked our realtor very directly if he thought we could find a house that large on a slab closer to work. He said no.
We found lots and lots of ranch homes with basements. One thing I had never realized before is that whenever you have a house with a basement, there are also going to be steps up into the main level because traditional basements are not fully sunken underground, so there will be steps up to the front door, the back door, the garage into the house, etc... Many of these ranch homes with basements also had some room inside that was sunken - typically a living room or family room. I guess that was "in" at some point in the '50s or '60s? The bottom line is that we had to have a house with no steps because of my bad knees. Realistically, many people are eventually going to need to live in a home with no steps as the aging population falls prey to arthritis and joint injuries. I guess I expected there to be more no-steps-houses out there, for that reason. Well, that's not the case in this area. At least not within an easy drive of my school. Of course, it is possible to retro-fit existing homes with chairs that carry a person up the steps or with elevators, but both options are expensive and less than perfect.
Now, interestingly enough our old house is a slab home, in a large neighborhood of slab homes. These houses are Huber Homes - built in the '70s by a man named Charles Huber. He developed large communities of these small well-built brick ranches throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s. (In fact, here in Ohio there is an entire city of Huber Homes called Huber Heights, a suburb of Dayton.) However, one drawback of the Huber Homes in this area is that they are fairly small. The smallest is less than 1200 sq ft with a one car garage and virtually no storage space besides regular closets. There are several models, and they vary somewhat in size. Most are 3 bedroom, and they typically have either 1 1/2 bathrooms or 2 bathrooms. In our initial search, we didn't even consider another Huber because we wanted more space. We were already in a mid-sized 3 bed, 2 bath Huber with a 1-car garage that is just over 1200 sq ft. Our whole reason for moving was to get more space.
After we decided that our "almost" purchase wasn't going to happen, we felt very defeated and out of options. Then Hubby had a brainstorm! He said let's buy the house around the corner... and keep this one... and live in both. WHAT? SERIOUSLY? He had crunched the numbers and had a very long list of positives, and after we discussed it, we really couldn't find any downside to the plan. And so, here we are with 2 Huber Homes within sight of each other!!
The two houses have the same basic floor plan, but there are 3 major differences that were selling points for us: 1. New House has a 2 car garage which has allowed us to close out the storage unit we were paying $100/month for. 2. New House has a large storage room behind the second half of the 2 car garage which Old House doesn't have. 3. New House has a very large and very well-built 3-season room which is something we had seriously considered putting on Old House.
Previously, every time we had talked about adding on or remodeling Old House, we always came back to the issue that we really didn't want to live in remodeling dust and debris and noise and smell, etc... Nor did we want to half-way "move out" during the remodeling. With New House, we didn't have to do any of that. We were able to remodel from a distance without having to "live" in it, yet we were close enough to keep an eye on things on a daily basis. The 3 season room didn't need any remodeling, so we were able to set up that room comfortably for our visits and then close the sliding door to keep out the dust.
With buying this 2nd house, we've gained 1200 sq ft of living space. I now have a place for my baby grand piano. Hubby now has a nice workshop area that is well lit and has plenty of space for his workbench, tools, and an area to spread out in. I also now have a craft/sewing room where I can leave projects out that I am working on (I used to have to work on the kitchen table.) We now have a good storage space that is temperature controlled and insect free. We have a lovely 3 season room where we can enjoy the sunlight without excessive heat/cold and bugs/varmits. If we would have purchased the "almost" house, we would have 2400 sq ft of space, but we would have actually had to "move" to it, and sell Old House. Now we have 2400 sq ft of space without having to move or sell anything. "Almost" house had 3 bedrooms - we now have 6. "Almost" house had 2 garage spaces - we now have 3.
In the days ahead, I plan to talk more about the pros (and cons, although there aren't many, yet) of living in 2 neighboring houses. So, stay tuned. You might find that this idea could work for YOU!
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish! :)
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