We got married in October of 2009, both took new jobs in January of 2010, and we started living (at least most of the time) in Charleston in March. Part of the relocation "deal" (and we use that term loosely) is the incentives to buy a home in our new city. Over several months we looked at hundreds of homes in Charleston, both online and in real life. One home after another seemed about the same they all had the "Low Country" style, Well kudos to Charleston for at least having a style (try that, Ohio) and for preserving the heritage of the old South, but Low Country Style is definitely NOT our style. To us, all of the homes looked alike. Here are some examples of homes we looked at:
The homes are very big-looking from the street. They have lots of details and they are usually elevated (for floods and hurricanes, I am sure, but also to just look more expensive). The interiors have very high ceilings - which is great - but also a lot of wasted space. There is extensive wood trim and moldings, coffer ceilings and superfluous details. Most homes do not have gutters, which baffles us a little, and it looks like insulation is pretty poor in general, despite the high heat and need to run and air conditioner most of the year. A lot of form before function. Jon calls the look 'old balls'....Not exactly complementary, but many of you understand what he is getting at. Sometimes Jon calls our male cat "old balls" so I never know exactly what he means.
We were assigned a very nice and competent realtor and we explained we were looking for a modern home. Or better yet, a real 1960s-era atomic mid-century modern home. He worked with us tirelessly, but nothing ever came up. There either just weren't any for sale, or they just weren't any ever built here. Sure for millions of dollars some of the beach front properties were modern, but nothing in our middle class prices range for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment