House hunting

So, we went to see the house today. The sun was shining and I was feeling cautiously optimistic although also very tired (the little one is not sleeping too well these days). The house was quite lovely. I liked it because it was big and because it just felt "homey". Husband liked it, too.

However, Husband saw the problems as well - which is good but I couldn't help feeling disappointed. We both were surprised by the fact that although the lot is huge it is just very long and narrow which means that the neighbouring houses are in fact very close. No disrespect to them but we kind of would have wanted a bit more space in between.

This, however, was not the real problem nor the fact that the roof was orginal and made out of tile and therefore heavy or even the fact that the outer walls were original, too, and therefore the insulation is not as well done as it should.

No, the big problem is that the end of the lot it is made of small boulders and the house is built quite close to them. Thus, when it rains, the water comes down the boulders towards the house. And the thing was that the base of the house was not protected by drains around it. Not good.

What is strange to me is that the couple living there had clearly spent quite a bit of money on the inside - and made a beautiful job at it - but then something as essential as drains in Finland are had not been done.

I, of course, had visions of Husband and I with shovels going around the house and placing the drains there ourselves until Husband pointed out that since it is built on rock that would demand dynamite and the house might not like it too much. And in any case it wouldn't help if the damage is already done and the stone foundation of the house has deteriorated.

So, with a saddened heart we had to say goodbye to our dream of moving in the near future. I think we are both so ready to move that it really is getting hard to patiently look for the right house. We have no choice, of course, and we haven't even put our flat out on the market yet, but still, we are ready. As we checked etuovi.com (frontdoor.com which is an internet service for those selling and searching for property) we found this house. Come new year we're off to take a closer look. You never know :).