The House Hunt Continues Part 2

                                     Tuesday 6/10/2014

In the previous blog, I showed 10 houses we saw, now I will finish that day with 6 more.  This house has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, and is 1,900 sq ft..

The driveway is share by 3 or 4 houses to the right of it. There is an alley that continues behind the house to the other houses. The owners of this home have it neat as a pin inside and out.

There is a busy road between the house and the lake.

The lake shore bottom is sand and rocks.

This house has a nice grass area on the other side of the street, making it great for family to hang out under the trees while kids are playing in the water. This house is priced at $374,900 and is a contender.

Next we drove to the west side of the south arm of Lake Charlevoix. As we drove in, I thought, " Oh this is going to be good" ( in the negative way). This is one Joe picked out to see.

Parking sits up higher then the house. There is no garage with this house, just a large shed. This is the back of the house and does not inspire.

View of the house from the lakeside. (much better). The house has 5 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms and 2,300 sq ft of living space. It was built in 1970 and the decor reflects that era.

The south arm of Lake Charlevoix is narrow, but you can get to the main body of Lake Charlevoix from this arm of the lake. The property has a permanent dock which Joe likes a lot.

The lake bottom is a mix of sand and muck.There are some weeds along the shoreline, but we were told you just need to pull them out and eventually they don't grow back. This would make a great family and guest home, but the asking price is $498,000. We figure you would need to put at least $50,000 if not more to get it looking good inside. We would consider this house if the price fell considerably so we could do the updates. Negatives on this; that the deep water is just beyond the dock. Not good for little ones.

This house was south of the previous one. We had to travel about a mile on gravel to get to it. Joe didn't like it for that reason.

This house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and is 1,236 sq ft of living. No garage, and on a wider section of the south arm of Lake Charlevoix. The lot was very uneven, so you would need to have it grated out.

It had a very large and nice 3 season porch facing the lake. I loved this porch.

The house has an old log cabin feel which I didn't think I would like, but I am starting to warm to.

The lake shore was sand with some rocks,

but the deep water dropped off quickly.

It didn't have a tub and would need to be remodeled to enlarge the small kitchen, and perhaps get a tub too. It did not have any heating system as it was strictly a summer cabin house. It is priced at $449,900. I liked it if the price dropped, but Joe didn't.

Further down the south arm of Lake Charlevoix was our next house. It had very little yard that had sun or grass. Mallery and I want sun and grass. It is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 2 car garage, 1,241 sq ft house.

To get to the water, you need to walk a distance through a wet land area. In the wet land areas you can cut trees down, but you must leave stumps and any ground cover that is there presently.

Next we drove north of the south arm just to were the main body of Lake Charelvoix starts on the west side. This property had a large sunny lot with a very large 2 car garage.

It has 2 very large bedrooms, 2 baths, and has 1,559 sq ft. It is priced at $269,500. This is also a possibility.

It sits across a dead end road to the lake.

You get a boat dock that you share with others in the neighborhood.

It has a nice 3 season porch which you know I like.

Not as big as the one in previous house, but adequate.

The lake shore bottom is rocky.

The last house was further north of the last house. Our realtor informed us that there had been a problem recently with the front porch, but he could still show it.

The front porch cement had  collapsed in. Our realtor was trying to climb to the lock box to get the key. Joe jumped up to keep the cement from rocking. I told them both it was not worth getting hurt to get in.

Mark our realtor got the key, but then didn't know how to get to the door to put the key in the door lock. Again I told him to forget it, it was not worth anyone getting hurt.

We walked out to the back and saw that the back yard was another wet land area.

Looking back toward the house.

Then we noticed that the neighboring docks had to be out like a 1/4 of a  mile for their boats. Who knows what the lake shore bottom was like. We could not get close enough to see if it was sandy or what! I told Mark, they should not show this house until the porch is fixed, as it doesn't give a good first impression. Between the porch, wetlands, and dock length, this property was not a contender! 
          This day resulted in 4 house that we liked. We went home and listed the pluses and minuses of each one. There was not one that stood above another, so we decided to see if any dropped in price, making one stand out more than the other.