Power Ranch

After I started to explore different neighborhoods, I noticed the varying HOA fees. Some were as high as $600, which seemed incredibly ridiculous, so I decided to find more information through Redfin.com. Thankfully, that website had the information I was looking for and I discovered some HOA’s are monthly, quarterly, and semi-annually (the $600 one being in that group). With that issue resolved, the HOA’s range from $76 a month to $228 a month for the neighborhoods we’ve looked into and while there are some neighborhoods with no HOA’s, they are not in the areas of Gilbert that we want to settle down in.

Even though I mentioned to our real estate agent that we weren’t interested in the condos, we went ahead today to look and see if a “home” just over 1,300 sq. ft is a decent size for our small family. We went ahead and left our agent’s card because the condos were nice looking and could potentially stay within our budget. The difficulty that arises in this situation is that the developer isn’t accepting VA loans for the community, so that’s a big negative (besides, little outdoor space) in this option.

I am still eager to look at the Power Ranch home I showed you yesterday, but I’ll try to keep my enthusiasm in check. I know it’s likely that soon enough someone else will see the potential in it that we do (from the photos anyways) and want to take their own look and might be smitten with it as well.

Here are the photos I took from our adventure today:

This master bedroom has a faux balcony, but the door does open for ventilation.

The wall is covered with cork panels; it looks and feels wonderful.

Slim laundry with storage cabinets.

balcony

Our two year old was very excited there was an iPad in “her” room.

Granatex bath surround

I finally got the copy of Home You Love-Without Busting Your Budget by Marni Jameson from the public library; it’s got some great tips but I am a bit disappointed by the author’s approach. I was pretty stunned by how much she farms out the designing aspects for her home. Now, I understand (fully, I might add) that interior designers are paid for their skills but it seems that if you want to stay within a budget (and my guess is a budget for the average American family) that you wouldn’t pay for design consulting services or custom drapes as often as the author speaks about in her book. So, like I said before, I am a bit disappointed in the book. I’ll share some of the tips I like in a later entry.

What I wanted to talk about today relates to what kept me up after I woke up early this morning. I am not particularly good at falling back asleep when I wake up unexpectedly and so my mind (naturally) drifted towards thinking about my home “dilemma”. I know it’s not really a dilemma to be waiting and wanting a home, but for me, it’s truly a big matter. I think when anyone has waited as long as I have and encountered all my different roadblocks, I am well within my right to call the situation a dilemma.

I am happy that we have settled on Gilbert as our town of interest; I think it fits so much of what we are looking for in a community and will provide a good balance between social entertainment, safety, and good school districts. And it’s a pretty good contender because we were considering Chandler, Mesa, and Queen Creek as well. Now comes the hard part of continuing to cull down the list of issues most important to us when it comes to a house and the property it sits on; we cannot forget that the neighborhood is an important consideration to getting those qualities that matter to creating the right family feel.

Power Ranch is at the top of our list as we had once considered Morrison Ranch to be among our top contenders. I’ve started to review different home sales in the past year to find what parts of Power Ranch are likely to have a home in our price range that is simple and efficient but has the architecturally attractive exterior that I am most interested in because it’s the least likely thing I can change (thank you, HOA’s). We are also willing to look at other neighborhoods and have some backups also located below the 202 and I’m looking at other neighborhoods for their architectural inspiration.

Here’s a Power Ranch home that has the wonderful small size we liked of the condo floor plans with the yard space I’d most like in a house; I’d take a smaller yard as well, but one of the things I favor most about this house is its privacy factor. It is surrounded by other single story homes with no home behind it. It might be hard to find another home with the same size lot and a smaller price tag, but I’ll keep hope alive while we save up for a down payment: