How To Look At A House

Ignore Paint Color. Ignore the furniture. Ignore the family photos. Your job is to see the bones and only the bones!

Make notes as you go. If you see more than 3 in a day the details are just going to run together. Another trick to help you remember is to name the house. Stand in the entry hall on your way out of the house and give the house a name.

Look at the size of the rooms. Most updating doesn't involve moving the walls around. Some people are comfortable in smaller spaces, some people in larger. You have to decide which one works best for you. Do you want one large room or two smaller ones? Are you happiest with one living area or two? Do you want to have the "mess" of your office out in the middle of things or do you want to be able to close it away out of sight?

Think about "flow". Think about how you could use the space. A room that has a wall of windows and doors on each of the other three walls is going to be difficult to use. There aren't any walls against which to put furniture! A kitchen that is a narrow galley with only one way in or out is going to be a bottle-neck when you have parties!

Look for the light sources. Usually the reason that skylights get installed is because someone felt that the room didn't get enough light. A north-facing room that only has windows that face north is never ever going to get direct light. A window over the kitchen sink is a nice thing to have. Think about what sort of light you like to have in your home. I know someone who built a home that has only the bare minimum of windows required by city code. He doesn't like strong light. (He doesn't like drop-by company either so there isn't a doorbell on his house). I have a child who follows me around turning off the lights because he prefers it to be darker than I do. So, he turns off the lights. I follow him around turning the lights back on! We laugh about it!

Look at the storage. The older the house, the less storage there usually is. Attic storage is pretty much useless. It is too hot up there to be able to store things. The heat just ruins things.