searching.

I've been through many, many houses in the past few days. We would like to close on a house the same day our house closes. Meaning, we want to move directly from our house to a new place. No stops in between. No hotels, no storage units, no tents, or sleeping in cars. Although a woman in our ward has already offered us her spare room. The sparest of the spare. Which is always tempting, as Anne has taught us so well.

So this is where we are at. Which would you choose?

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House #1: The Model Home

On the higher end of our budget. Really big. Unfinished basement. 3 bed and 2 bath on main floor. Living space has a room for the piano and a separate family room with fireplace. The master bath is a bedroom in and of itself. Bathtub for the whole family type thing. There is a bonus room above the garage with a built in girl's cottage type play area. Fully fenced yard. No house directly behind it, but a huge soccer field with walking trails and a large play area on the other side of the field. So a nice view.

We call it the model because it was a model house in its day. So there are upgrades that we would never be able to afford, or know how to choose based on our own cheap-o tastes.

The house also sports the smell of cat, is a bit unclean, needs some touch-up paint (particularly in the play area bonus room), some carpet cleaning, window well covers are missing, and a bonus pile of cigarette butts sit on the grass outside the patio in the back. But there is no smoke smell inside the house.

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House #2: Pottery Barn

This picture does not do the outside justice. It is very pretty to look at. I promise. This house is impeccably clean. Has a finished basement for a total of 5 bedrooms and a family room. The main living space is a great room, with living space, dining room and kitchen all open to the front door. The laundry room is off of the garage and is large enough to also be a mud room. Storage space in basement. All new carpet. Fully fenced. RV pad. Large cement patio in back that is covered. Window well covers are already in place.

We call it the pottery barn house because the paint and carpet colors transport us to the store. The kitchen is not the prettiest and a cat also lives here. Although the house doesn't smell of it.

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Which would you choose?