Shiny New House

So, Tino and I are looking into buying a country house. Our third trip out to Warren County will take place tomorrow. We found a 5-acre lot on which we can have a contemporary house built to order for half what a used, compromise of a house in Reston would cost.

We looked at a bunch of used houses too, even a round one (Hi, I'm Troy McLure. You may remember me from...). We came pretty close on one used house, but when it came down to it, I guess we really do want shiny new. There's the attraction of being able to say "I want no carpet and no vinyl tile anywhere in this house" and not having to rip it out and replace it ourselves. There's still vinyl tile in the bathroom here simply because there's nothing wrong with it and I'm too lazy to undo it. That doesn't mean it doesn't annoy me every time I'm in there.

There's also the attraction of having a place to escape from Fairfax County. I'm already looking forward to that and it's just an idea at the moment. I suppose for true escape it would be best if the new place were totally maintenance free...and damn it if that isn't another advantage of a newly minted house.

Tomorrow we meet the builder, and walk the lot with him. We have no experience evaluating such things and we haven't a clue how they decide to site houses, and since it's covered with trees and bugs and bushes critters and is at a 45' angle, we thought we should have him explain what he's planning on doing with it.

And we also find out how much the "upgrades" we want will cost. That may be a bitter pill right there, but I don't think we're really asking for too much. In general, hardwood doesn't cost much more than good carpet and padding. The slate tile for the kitchen is the same price as many ceramics and less than terrazzo or saltillo. The bathroom ceramic tile is actually really cheap. Here's hoping it won't break us.

And I was just complaining about spending all that time on our townhouse and how it fucked up our weekend. Gee, I wonder if that has anything to do with us sliding more towards the new house...