We viewed a different sort of house today. Instead of being up in the hills, we were down in the flats looking back at them. Bland exteriors (or overly builder grade, really) hid serious potential inside. Two ten year old townhouses, less than a block apart, were surprisingly well-appointed inside. They came with ready-made entertainment, as each had picture windows in the back overlooking a lacrosse game playing this afternoon. I feel like maybe these houses were more for families than my clients’ plans include,
The first home was a single-owner setup. It was built in 1987, and hadn’t changed since Grandma moved in. In fact, as I had arrived first and opened the door, those were the first words my old friend spoke: “Is Grandma home?” (For the record, the house was completely empty, and we could see where the furniture had sat for 30 years.) As houses of this vintage go, this one was spectacular. It was enormous, and it was seriously dated. One of the clients and I could see massive potential. The other client (the one who went to high school with the Mr) could only see the 80s.
The last one was in a great location, but wow was it disappointing inside. It was much cheaper than the others, and it showed. For real, square this in your head: around the edges of the city of Boulder, up the foothills or out toward Celestial Seasonings, a price tag of $740,000-850,000 gives you a house that needs a total renovation before habitation is possible. One was just full of sadness and dark corners, the other had renters who were taking advantage of grow laws, and not caring well for the house they are renting.
It’s going to take me days to recover from this level of energy output. I hope I can sleep late in the morning and forge some new spoons.
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