Yesterday I took some time to rant a bit about the house-hunting process, and to warn anyone out there who’s looking to make sure you take everything you see with a grain of salt. With that said, I also have to say that it’s nowhere near as terrible as it sounded yesterday.

The second house that we went to see was quite a bit nicer than the first. It was well-kept, had a nice yard with a small garden patch and well-manicured lawn, and was in a nice neighborhood. It was also a cape, which made my girlfriend very happy. She likes capes a lot for some reason. I lived in one for a couple years, so I don’t mind the style at all, which is why we went to look at it. After the travesty of the first house we stopped at, this one was very encouraging, at least from the outside. The inside, however, left some things to be desired. Not because of the condition, but because of the layout.

The house was built in the 1940’s. The front door opened immediately into the living room (which did have a fireplace, to its credit), with the stairs going up immediately in front. This led back to the eat-in kitchen (no dining room), as well as a hallway going to the two first floor bedrooms and first floor full bath. Upstairs, the two bedrooms were absolutely massive, going the full width of the house, with a full bath in between.

Thus far through the tour, I had been somewhat ambivalent about the house. It certainly was in nice shape, but the layout was a bit dated, there wasn’t much room to entertain guests, and the whole downstairs felt kind of small.

Then there was the basement.

I like basements. They make me happy. I have no problem disappearing into the basement of a house for five or six hours at a stretch to work on a project at my workbench, play board games around a dimly-lit table, or just sit back with a few friends and toss back some pints. But I like to be able to do all that without worrying if I’m going to hit my head when I stand up. This basement would not have allowed for that. While it did cover the whole of the footprint of the house, it was barely 6’6″ (2 m). I’m 6’3″ (1.9 m). I would have been constantly hunched over, trying not to hit my head. I actually *did* hit my head once on some low-hanging pipes while we were looking around the basement. That pretty much sealed the deal that we were not going to consider this house any further.

All things considered, it was a nice enough house, just not one that I could see myself living in and enjoying. I wasn’t discouraged, though. There were still other houses to see, and plenty of time to see them. I’ll tell you a bit about the next round tomorrow, including the house that I hope (very much so) to make my own.