Upon Further Research...

We got home and raced to check both "Lucas" and "Johnson" out. We found slideshows online and pored over them one by one. Again, Ros preferred Johnson.

Click on the picture of each house below to be taken to the -- slightly dodgy -- slideshows.

500 Lucas

409 Johnson

We researched the Palacios ISD, the Palacios civic data, town history, future developments, financial assistance for first time home buyers and we actually got a kick out of being such grown-ups. We now know things like -- what is expected behavior at Palacios schools, what are the class sizes, what is the town's median income, what is the town's population, what sorts of property developments are planned in the future that could affect our property value negatively or positively and last but by no means least what kind of aid programs are out there that will make our first home purchase easier and less daunting financially.

Over all, we're happy with all of these areas of research. This is the right place for us to raise our family, and a great place for us to invest our money -- long-term. Most of all, we just love that the town is small enough for now that we will be able to make a mark on it. People are so friendly and welcoming that we cannot wait to make new friends in the area and really start living the sea-side life. (We're even thinking of buying a boat some day... we'll keep you posted, it's going to be a while...)

We finally got to the point where we wanted to share pics of the houses with family and friends. Ros posted them on her blog, Peter talked family through the slideshows online. Everyone was enchanted with the small town look and feel of Palacios, but it seemed that everyone had conflicting opinions on which house looked best.

For the most part, feedback was pretty tough. They're old houses, they need a lot of work.. we realize that.. but in exchange for a little sweat, we would be getting a brilliant house, in a great town that we can potentially live in forever. In the end, the "realists" agreed with Ros about 409 Johnson looking like a more solid investment, while the "dreamers" took one look at the red door on 500 Lucas and were as smitten as Peter was.

Ros' mom made one comment that really struck a chord with Ros, "Get the most house you can for the money." <-- now, what she meant by that was, by the nicest, most put together house you can afford on your miniature budget... but what Ros heard was, "Take another look at that big one... you KNOW you love the red door."

So she promptly did. Here's what she thought... The Johnson house is move-in ready and -- while it could use, new paint, new carpets and new fixtures in some rooms... for the most part it's cute and ready for action.

The Lucas house is a wreck... it needs a lot of work, but dammit won't it look incredible when you're done with it? Lucas is the house we can really make our mark on. Johnson is already "marked" with someone else's taste.

The Johnson house has just enough bedrooms for us to squeak by with an office and a bedroom for a baby if we get that far in the next couple of years. But once we're dealing with a toddler it will be time to move again.

The Lucas house is more house than we will need for a while, but it could easily accommodate two adults and potentially two teenage boys if needs be. It won't be overly spacious, but it will do.

The Johnson house has a room for a guest, or couple to stay over with us. With Palacios being a vacation town we are hoping that family and friends will all come through at some point and stay a while with us.

The Lucas house has enough room for a couple of guests to stay a night or two. In fact... with a day bed in the sun room, we could probably accommodate 3 or 4 couples and or a bunch of kids.

The Johnson house is more "modern" and in fact because of it's layout Peter refers to it as "the mobile home house" because the layout resembles a mobile home to him.

Lucas on the other hand has so much character it hurts. Ros can't stop thinking about how great it will be to peel back those wallpaper layers, rip up that carpet to see what lies beneath, replace the 1980's light fixtures and fans, and completely and utterly demolish every inch of that kitchen and start anew.

At the end of the day we know we aren't handy people -- well, we wouldn't really know even if we were... we've never challenged ourselves in such a big way. But we like the challenge of Lucas at this point, so we're going to go for it!! (Well, after we've actually seen the inside in person that is... *blush!*) We're scheduling viewings with Sheila for May 17th and we are starting the search for the perfect mortgage guy to help us with funding.

Meeting Sheila (and the first home contenders)

Our trip to Palacios was a short one unfortunately. We got to town at around 11am and drove the town center end to end, popping down a few side roads to see what we could find. We stopped at the Outrigger Restaurant where we chatted with the waitress -- who instantly identified us as "out-of-towners" and asked us how we liked Palacios.

After chatting with her about everything from the school system, to housing, to how she -- as a transplant from Montana -- liked the town. She raved about it, telling us about the great activities for kids, music events, outdoorsy things for people to do. One thing she did mention as negatives were that there's only one grocery store nearby and it's closing soon for renovations, and there aren't a whole lot of young people.

We left the restaurant and took a walk down one of the piers into the bay to see how the town looked from the water. TOOO cute!! Seriously wish we could afford one of those water facing properties... they aren't actually too pricey for what you're getting, but unfortunately, they're a little above our budget.

After our trip out on the pier we stopped by the only realtor's office we had managed to locate online. There was only one lady in the office (odd for a Friday at lunchtime I thought), but she was so warm and welcoming you'd have thought there were three of her.
Sheila Valcik of Re/Max Coastal Properties [Now Full Stringer Realty] was definitely the realtor for us.

She took the time to talk to us about the area. She discussed the school system, the community, her experiences being born and raised there. She also took the time to give her husband a call to chat with me about the internet service options that are available in the area. She handed us a pamphlet with their active listings, and a map to guide us around town. She showed us slideshows of various properties online and talked about some of her newer listings.

Before we knew it, we'd been in there for about 40 minutes and could easily have stayed another 40 with pleasure. But there were houses to be seen and pictures to be taken, so we set off map in one hand, listings sheet in the other and camera... uhm... in another set of hands...

Our drive around town brought two clear favorites.
500 Lucas (Peter's fave), 409 Johnson (Ros' fave). Here are the stats.

500 Lucas

Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Misc: Sun Room, 2 Storey (sp?), 1940
SQ FT: 2,083
Lot Size: 75' x 150'
Price*: 95%
(*Relative to our budget limit)

409 Johnson

Beds: 3
Baths: 1
Misc: Screened Porch, 1960
SQ FT: 1,008
Lot Size: 100' x 150'
Price*: 80%
(*Relative to our budget limit)

We each immediately picked a favorite (based solely on the exterior).
Peter chose "Lucas" because it has lot's of rooms and he thinks it would be excellent to have rooms we don't use much. He loves the look of the building as it's similar to homes in Buffalo and Kent that he saw growing up. It's a block or so closer to the bayfront than the other. He liked the thought of having a larger home so we wouldn't need to move for a long time.

Ros chose "Johnson" because the exterior is freshly painted with new-ish roof tiles and a well maintained yard. The yard is big. It is one block away from the only Elementary school in town and would be convenient when we have kids. It is a single storey (sp?) home so no lugging laundry baskets up and down stairs. It has just the right number of bedrooms and no unnecessary rooms that need cleaning.

After checking out some other more "desperate Dan" houses in the area we headed home to upload and review the pictures we had taken.

Next we will show you some inside shots of these places, and how more thought and research changed our minds a bit.

Palacios Pictoral

1. P1050582, 2. P1050577, 3. P1050564, 4. P1050557, 5. P1050560, 6. P1050561, 7. P1050553, 8. P1050552, 9. P1050573, 10. P1050547, 11. P1050588, 12. P1050592, 13. P1050565, 14. P1050578, 15. P1050587, 16. P1050590, 17. P1050560, 18. P1050584, 19. P1050588, 20. P1050586, 21. P1050580, 22. P1050554, 23. P1050556, 24. P1050567, 25. P1050570, 26. P1050591, 27. P1050562, 28. P1050555, 29. P1050550, 30. P1050545, 31. Back, 32. P1050544, 33. P1050575, 34. P1050543, 35. P1050548, 36. P1050549

Click on the mosaic tiles above to see larger pictures, or on the corresponding picture number to view it in Flickr.

Let's Start at The Very Beginning...

A very good place to start, indeed.

We've always agreed that one day, our ultimate dream is to buy a home near the sea -- any sea... for that matter ANY large body of water would do. A few weeks ago, out of interest, Peter enlisted the help of our old friend Google, (we call him "G"), and used the maps to scour the Gulf coast searching for little po'dunk towns that may possibly be affordable places for us to live, (even if we couldn't afford to buy a home of our own).

Peter hit paydirt in March when he discovered Palacios and took a cruise through some local real estate sites, and discovered that... hang on... that is TOTALLY do-able! We can afford that house! He called me over to look at some of the properties he had found and I believe my first words were, "OMG that house is the cutest! That price can't be right? What's wrong with it?"

So Ros jumped on the phone -- doing what she does best -- and called the realtor's office to get more info. Nope she said, nothing major wrong... it could use some updating, but otherwise it's in good nick.

Now... we have been planning a trip down to Houston since January because Peter bought us tickets to see In Flames so we decided to swing through Palacios on our way home.

We think our pics from the trip deserve their own entry, so Ros will post those next.

Thanks for stopping by,