Well, it has been entirely too long since I've found the time to write! I guess in one way it was by design, given we had outstanding issues and complaints with our new home builder, and didn't want the builder to be aware what we were up to, hence the absence of posts on the blog. Though we originally put a deposit down to build a new home about 18 miles further south of where we currently reside, we have since decided that the development in question is just too far distance-wise from our places of work, coupled with what we feel was a less than honest representation of the community amenities promised by the builders in the golf course community in question. Our children's friends would also be even further away, so we set out to find a home closer to where we currently live.
Our search over the past several months was laborious yet fun. We quickly came to realize that new construction was not going to be an option, as the prices for new homes in our area are significantly more expensive than the prices down below the C&D canal where we were originally looking to build a new home, usually 70-100k more to build the same house, and it would have been difficult enough for us to have afforded a new home below the C&D canal already! For those who aren't familiar with New Castle County, Delaware, R.C. Peoples is one of the better known builders, especially when it comes to quality built homes. Given all three of our children currently attend Caravel Academy for school, we decided to look in developments close to school and, preferably, a Peoples built home. We toured a number of Peoples built homes over the past several months. We had a mix of requirements for any new home. Stacy had her list of requirements and I had my list. My list was comprised mostly of infrastructure concerns, since most of the best built Peoples homes in our area were built 20-25 years back now, I wanted updates to most of the important stuff for any house we would seriously consider purchasing, including roof, windows, HVAC (A/C and heat), water heater, kitchen appliances, kitchen counters, exterior doors, garage doors, etc. I also wanted four bedrooms (five would be awesome but this is hard to find even today), 2 1/2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, large den, two car oversized garage, exterior basement entrance, and a nice sized laundry area.
Over the Christmas holidays, we toured a few more homes, one of which had recently popped onto my radar via an internet search within a certain price range. I'd never seen the house in question before, so I figured it must have been new to the market, but came to understand that the owner had dropped the list price which fell into my search criteria, that the home was originally listed for quite a bit more but had been on the market for nearly six months without any movement. Well, Stacy really liked the house in question, so we put in a low ball offer and have gone back and forth for the past month with counter offers, and last Friday, we went to contract on our new home. Here are some pictures:
Our search over the past several months was laborious yet fun. We quickly came to realize that new construction was not going to be an option, as the prices for new homes in our area are significantly more expensive than the prices down below the C&D canal where we were originally looking to build a new home, usually 70-100k more to build the same house, and it would have been difficult enough for us to have afforded a new home below the C&D canal already! For those who aren't familiar with New Castle County, Delaware, R.C. Peoples is one of the better known builders, especially when it comes to quality built homes. Given all three of our children currently attend Caravel Academy for school, we decided to look in developments close to school and, preferably, a Peoples built home. We toured a number of Peoples built homes over the past several months. We had a mix of requirements for any new home. Stacy had her list of requirements and I had my list. My list was comprised mostly of infrastructure concerns, since most of the best built Peoples homes in our area were built 20-25 years back now, I wanted updates to most of the important stuff for any house we would seriously consider purchasing, including roof, windows, HVAC (A/C and heat), water heater, kitchen appliances, kitchen counters, exterior doors, garage doors, etc. I also wanted four bedrooms (five would be awesome but this is hard to find even today), 2 1/2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, large den, two car oversized garage, exterior basement entrance, and a nice sized laundry area.
Over the Christmas holidays, we toured a few more homes, one of which had recently popped onto my radar via an internet search within a certain price range. I'd never seen the house in question before, so I figured it must have been new to the market, but came to understand that the owner had dropped the list price which fell into my search criteria, that the home was originally listed for quite a bit more but had been on the market for nearly six months without any movement. Well, Stacy really liked the house in question, so we put in a low ball offer and have gone back and forth for the past month with counter offers, and last Friday, we went to contract on our new home. Here are some pictures:
Front
Back Yard
Backyard and back of house
Front Entranceway
Kitchen
Kitchen
Dining Room
Living Room
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