On to the next one

So, I guess the Home of the Week was only a Home of the Weekend.

We met with the developer and one of his sales guys for the Villas at Dilbeck Court tonight, and discovered some things that made our sweet villa not quite the right place for us.

The problems were many. The lot we could buy was limited to a 1200 square-foot house…about the same size as what we’re renting now, but a little more than double what we’re paying now to rent. Somehow that doesn’t quite seem worth it.

We loved the two-story layout, but the lot also limited us to a house that was 1 1/2 stories. So I guess we could forget the spiral staircase.

The guy couldn’t give us a straight answer about whether we could afford to build our home with granite countertops, hardwood floors and a formal dining room, three things that we’re hoping for in our new home. Granted, building is not his part of the deal. But we wouldn’t get an answer about that until well after we had put $5,000 down and had gone through several rounds of design talks with the architect.

And the kicker were the dues on their new homeowner’s association - $250 a month that would give us the privilege of using the Belmont Hotel’s pool and provide landscaping for our miniscule front yard. And for an extra monthly fee, we could become members of the health club they’re building next door. No thanks!

After this experience, I’m pretty sure we’re going to give up looking at townhomes, give up thinking about building our own place, and keep searching for a nice, traditional, already-built home, in a neighborhood without a pricey homeowner’s association.