Vote: Which Mountain House is for You?
I am a sucker for open houses. When I’m walking around town and see those tell-tale balloons tied to a real estate sign, I make a bee line. I will stand-up friends or be late for a meeting. It doesn’t matter; I won’t pass up a chance to nose around someone else’s place.
If I open the door and find the house empty, I do a brisk walk through, maybe critique the bathroom’s tile job or admire a fireplace. I won’t try to engage the real estate agent for fear of diverting his or her attention away from a real, prospective buyer. I stay long enough to have my “what if I lived here” fantasy, and then I’m on my way.
But if I see a La-Z-Boy that’s too big to be “staged” or a cat scratch post hanging from a knob, any sign that real people live there, all bets are off. I linger, sometimes for an hour. I look in every closet. I open every cabinet, pretending to inspect the hinges. I peer under beds. I’m not searching for dust bunnies, just signs of life. I’m curious about the people who’ve sanitized this home, stripped out their books and family photos, painted accent walls back to renter white, and deserted the place for five hours so that strangers like me can tromp through.
It’s not like I’ve ever stumbled across a severed thumb or a secret meth lab. I’m not expecting my self-guided tour to turn into an episode of Murder She Wrote. I just enjoy it when folks forget to hide their kid’s battered hockey stick or they leave a mug that says “coffee helps me poop.”
Really, that’s it. That’s enough. I just need to believe that these displaced owners are people I could know and maybe even like, that this oddly depersonalized house could actually be a home.
Do you get into open houses too?
If so, you might like this. Below are two houses. Both are in the Southern Appalachians and both are up for sale right now. That’s where the similarities end. They’re different styles with different features.
Which is the mountain house for you?
Vote here, and it would be great to hear what won you over. Leave a comment below.
Stone House
Burkittsville, Maryland
This 1890 charmer is pure coziness. With its golden stone exterior and red wooden shutters, it has the feel of a cottage but three bedrooms and a two story extension make it big enough for most any family. Features include:
- Fireplace and wood stove
- Open kitchen/dining area
- Log storage building
- Separate workshop
- Repointed stone
- Refinished floors
- Garden
Plantation House
Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Built in 1939, this showplace harkens to a much earlier time. You expect a hoop-skirted hostess to greet you from the curved stairs or for juleps to be served under a big elm on the lawn. Features include:
- Paneled den
- Fireplace
- Sunroom
- Sauna
- Exercise room
- Carriage house with finished office
- Optional guest house
You might also like The Dearing Home Place
Can we move the stone house to N Carolina??
Hey, if a guy can build can castle using medieval techniques in Arkansas, then you can certainly move a house!
The plantation house is lovely, but the stone house has SOUL!
I like the funny stuff you see in open houses at times too. When Patti and I were looking for out first place we went into one house with a realtor in deep dark winter at about 6:30. The place was empty except for the requisite small table by the door with everyone’s business cards and a note that said the main breaker was off but we could turn it on to get lights. So I took the realtors tiny pen light from her car and ventured downstairs. I got to the landing in the L shaped stairs and slipped, ending up in waist deep water in the basement. When they killed the power, they killed the heat and so I discovered their brand new indoor pool.
A house I stopped in to see a few years later had medium sized room in the basement. Looked normal until you opened the door and saw the chains and shackles on the wall. I always wondered if they thought that would be a good selling point!
Unc, why have I never gone house hunting with you?! Chains and shackles are a heck of a lot more interesting than a beat up hockey stick.
That’s a really good question! You should have seen the poor realtors face! He hadn’t shown that house before and was just as surprised as we were!
My friend Kevin used to own a house with a built in bomb shelter. Turns out he got a discount on his homeowners due to having a repurposed “storm shelter”. I really like looking at the renovations people have done and on occasion wondering why they did that. Like one place in Botetourt I went in that had the whole basement cut up into lots of cubicle size spaces. When I found out that they hosted a homeschool group there it made sense.