This post probably should have gone up before the first one.  Below is a basic list of what we’re looking for in a house.  However, please keep in mind that we already have a beautiful 3 bedroom townhome in a very nice part of north Reston that my dad helped us buy 4 years ago (that story is a blog post of its own).  We’d like to take advantage of this buyer’s market to look for the home of our dreams, or at least something very nice to get us to the home of our dreams in one or two sales.  We also think that, once the twins are a little older, it will be years before we’re able to keep a house clean enough to sell it again.  Okay, now to the list.

Things that our next house must have:

• 4 or preferably 5 bedrooms
• 2 car garage
• decent size yard (.3+ acres)
• good sized kitchen with a view of the backyard
• back porch for grilling
• sidewalks and some type of grocery type shopping center within walking distance
• central heating and air conditioning
• basement (finished or unfinished)

Things that we’d like our next house to have:

• a front porch
• a screened-in porch
• hardwood
• Verizon Fios

Let me know if you know of anything that matches these criteria and is in the sub $515k range.

I had planned for my first post to the site to be a recap of all the searches we’ve done so far.  However, after our long day the Sunday before last (1/25/09) I figured I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to post about our house tour.

For about two weeks now my dad has been running MLS searches for me on 4+ bedroom houses in Asbhurn, Va.  After looking looking through a bunch of listings I narrowed it down to about 4 homes that I thought Marie and I would like.  After convincing Marie mid-day Sunday that it would be a good idea to go look at these homes (which as you’ll see later it wasn’t) we packed up the twins and called my dad to take us through them.

Our first mistake was leaving about an hour before a feeding on a trip that would take about 25 minutes to get to the first stop.  The plan was to leave the babies in the car with one of us while the other went through the house and then we would swap.

As soon as we stopped the car at the first house (which I’m not going to post a picture of or address for because it’s my favorite of the four and I don’t want competition) we discovered Reagan needed to be changed.  Marie hopped out of the car to take the first look at the house and I preceded to squeeze in the back of the Pilot to change Reagan away from the cold.  This worked surprisingly well.  As soon as Reagan was changed and back in her car seat they both started to cry.  I drove around the neighborhood in attempt to soothe the babies to sleep… it worked… sort of, but they were definitely hungry.

House #2

This is when things got interesting.  Marie took Reagan (while parked) and nursed her (covered with a blanket) in the car in the driveway of the house while I took my turn in the house.  The feeding went surprisingly well, except when the owner of the house walked up.

At first neither of us were particularly impressed with the house (it was older than most in Ashburn and the current owner is a smoker).  However, the more both of us thought about it, the more we realized it was perfect for us.  It had everything we were looking for just a little older and stinkier (2 car garage, yard, screen in porch, 6 bedrooms, and more)

As soon as we were done at this place we drove to the local shopping center to sit in the parking lot and nurse Robert (III).  This also went well, though it took a long time.

Once the babies were fed the visits started again.  Our next stop was this beautiful place in Ashburn Farm.  It had all of our “nice-to-haves” (front porch, screen porch out back, second floor laundry, and completely spotless inside) and almost all of our “must-haves” (4+ bedrooms and a 2 car garage).  The only problem we had with it is that it lacked a back yard, which is something we really would like.  However, if a back yard isn’t important to you give my dad a call (703-999-5812) and he’ll take you out to it.

The last place was similar to the second but everything was just a little bit older (and the price was lower).  The first place which won’t be named is now at the top of our list.  All-in-all it was a successful trip, but we haven’t tried it again since.