Looking at Houses & Dinner

Mel and I looked at four houses today with our Realtor. We had a list of six that we wanted to look at, but one of them had an offer pending, as well as mold in it, and another one in South Saint Paul that was unavailable to show today. We were a bit disappointed, because we really wanted to see the house in South Saint Paul. The four houses we did look at today all had some major issues. The carpet in the first house we looked at was soaked with water. The walls in the basement had mold coming through them! Our Realtor felt that the house was looked like it could possibly be condemned.

The second house we looked at, one in Richfield, was in the middle of a renovation, so we would have had to complete that. The layout in the basement was very odd, and it needed a lot of repairs. We looked at a second house in Richfield that started out to look promising, but none of the bedrooms were big enough for our king-sized water bed, plus this one also had an oddly configured basement.

We finished our tour of homes this afternoon with a house in Bloomington. From the description we saw prior to viewing the house, it sounded pretty promising. The description said that it needed some cosmetic fixes. I expected that it needed painting and maybe some carpet cleaning or replacement, but I was underestimating the amount of repairs the house would need. The carpets were all pretty disgusting, so they would all have had to go. The counter top in the kitchen was awful, and a lot of the windows were in terrible condition. One of the windows in the upper floor had a T-shirt jammed between the outer and inner panes to keep air from passing through.

None of the houses we saw today was the house for us, but now our Realtor has something to work with in regards to what we are looking for. This evening though, Mel and I were talking with my sister, and we decided that we would expand our home search to consider town homes as well. We figure that we can maybe get something that is in better condition for the money we can afford if we look at town homes as well. In fact, we saw a lot of promising properties online tonight.

Now for dinner, last night we were disappointed by that fact that the Woodbury Don Pablo's restaurant was closed. So tonight, we drove to Roseville to eat at Don Pablo's there. The food was good, but the service left some to be desired. We waited a long time for some extra chips, and for a drink refill. We think the server was probably just too busy with too many tables to attend to, and he was quite apologetic, but nonetheless, the service could have been better. That will not dissuade us from returning to that Don Pablo's though.