Jungalow Fixers and Jungalow Dreams

And the search to find the jungalow of our dreams continues!! In this home search, I’ve quickly learned that it’s all about seeing the potential in a home. Not all the homes in our price range look as inviting as this one ^. In fact, a lot of them look downright uninviting, more like this one :

It’s amazing what some cute Spanish tile and a window trim will do to make a house scream “Don’t you wanna live here?!?” And conversely, it’s amazing what a chain-link fence and a lattice-covered porch will do to make a house scream “You really don’t wanna live here!” But, one can’t judge a book by it’s cover, right? What kinda curb appeal would this house have if the chain-link fence was covered in bright bougainvillea? And look at the merits of this guy: That’s a pretty great tree in front of it, there’s a decent amount of space around the home, and that roof looks ripe for solar panels, huh? Plus this white house is about 1.5X the size of the one above it…all good things to keep in mind.

And it’s not just about the outside….Not all homes are staged as beautifully as this one pictured below (that I suspect was staged by my friends at Platform, since I recognize that canvas that they bought from me at my pop-up shot last year.)

  

Pretty, right? But that’s not what most of the inside of these homes look like. Most of them look like this, a tiny white cube with a mystery view:

or like this:

I mean, is this room growing a beard?? WTF?

Or this one with veneer walls and a highly questionable…rug? moss? I mean what is growing on that floor?!?

But, my friends, you can’t focus on all that when looking for homes to buy…First of all, this house is in Atwater Village and I friggen LOVE Atwater Village. Now picture crisp white walls, hardwood or simple tile on the floor. Paint that rock  behind the potbelly fireplace white…and you may be able to achieve something along these lines:

(Image via)

It’s not a huge leap, right? 

 

So as we continue our search, Jason and I are organizing the houses we find on our shared boards on Trulia. All the houses I blogged about today are either on our Jungalow Dreams board:

or our Jungalow Fixer board:

We still have a long way to go here…we’re still waiting finish our 2014 taxes and (hopefully!) get pre-approved for a loan–but in the meantime we’re keeping our eyes out, trying to gauge the types of homes we’ll be able to afford, research the different neighborhoods and the schools in them, and decide what types of compromises we’re open to making–because it’s clear we will be making some compromises. Hopefully out walls won’t have beards though.

Also, there is still time to enter to win Trulia’s $25,000 giveaway. One randomly selected person who creates a board on Trulia between now and 4/30 will win some serious cash and credit to One Kings Lane. Now that would help with that down payment, huh? I’m crossign my fingers. And have you taken the Buyers Digs test yet? Apparently, I’m a city-loving frugalist that also happens to be a neat freak and a social butterfly…Who knew!?!

Stay tuned for more news on the house hunting front!

I’m documenting our entire journey of becoming first-time home owners in partnership with the online real-estate site, Trulia. Catch up on all the posts here.