Thursday, July 16, 2009

In my next life..

I've always wanted to be a real estate agent. I know it isn't a glamorous dream but I love houses. I used to think I wanted to be an architect but now I know that I am no good at the details of designing a house. I love the detail of old houses and could see myself specializing in historic homes. I know that now is not the time to be trying to become a real estate agent but maybe in my next life (or 10-20 years from now) it is something I could pursue.

I have an odd pastime that I really enjoy. I love going on real estate sites and looking through the houses on the market. I know I'm not planning to BUY a house any time soon but I find it so fascinating - the prices, the different floor plans, the pictures. I love looking at the pictures of the historic homes especially - the high end mansion ones, the small bungalows, and the fixer uppers. Especially, I love the fixer uppers because I envision what they could be (did I get that from my mom?!). Some make me sad - for example right now there are two that make me very sad. There is a huge four square style house on Cowden (here is the Crye Leike listing) that is selling for $199,000. It is in Central Gardens and is a historic home that needs a lot of work. They don't even have pictures of the inside (a bad sign) and when it says "all offers will be considered" in the description, you know it can't be good!

The other one that makes me sad is one on Overton Park - but not the nice tree-lined, close to the zoo part of the street... the part that is right off I240 and Cleveland. It is another historic home - the pictures of the detail are wonderful... huge bannisters, fireplaces, molding.. AH! (listing). Yet I'd never buy this house because of the location and no one else really probably will either that is looking to restore it. I noticed that it says in the description "as is, where is" so maybe the owner is thinking someone might buy it and move it to another lot? That could be cool. It still needs a lot of work and you're looking at buying a lot, moving the house, and then restoring the home so I don't know about that one...



Right now the type of architecture I'm really in to is the Arts and Crafts (or Craftsman) movement. We've got Arts and Crafts house all over Midtown and I love finding the little details!! The picture above is typical of an Arts and Crafts - except sometimes there are bookshelves under the windows. Doesn't that just look so cozy?? Arts and Crafts houses were usually built between the 1890's and 1930's and the style is in response to the excess of the Victorian era design. The next pictures shows a restored house in Oregon - see the dark beams, 15 over 1 window, and columns? It is just beautiful!! If I could own a house like this eventually, I'd be very happy. Or at least selling these type of houses to other people, making them happy.



Well, on to more browsing of houses while watching HGTV!!

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