So while I was doing some cleaning, I was thinking of all the weird, odd or unique houses that we looked at when we were looking for a House to buy. Don’t ask why that popped into my head…guess I was bored. Anyway, does anyone else have any stories of odd or weird homes? Here are some of my house hunting funnies!
I have 5 that really stuck out. They were so odd that I actually considered buying either the church and mansion just because it was so odd (and old)…so here they are, mind you I am trying to go from memory here:
The Old Church
Click to view slideshow.3500 sqft north of Cove. 5 Bedroom / 4 bath if I remember correctly on 10 acres. Even had a single wide trailer on the property with water and electricity. Wrought Iron fence entrance with an awesome gate. It was fenced and ready for livestock and had a barn.
Sounds awesome right? So…first the house had 4 different doors you could enter through. When we got inside, I quickly realized it had been a church at some point. The house was shaped in an L shape. We came in through what would I guess of been a side door (it was actually where the Sunday school classroom was).
We passed through that to another room, then passed through that into what would be the kitchen/dining room. That room was massive. Now the other two rooms, when I say we passed through them, they were completely closed off with doors, so it’s not like it was an open concept room or hallway.
Now as you look to the right you will see above where there once was a balcony of some sort that led off of a very small room. Like an Altar or where a preacher would stand (it was VERY ODD). And yes the balcony was still there.
Now if you turn right and walk (as you are now at the corner of the L) was the living room (I guess) and a set of very narrow stairs that led to the attic but was now “rooms”. There was no hallway to get to the rooms, you literally had to walk through one room to get to the other room.
Needless to say, we didn’t buy that house, because we would have literally had to gut it and reconfigure EVERYTHING.
UPDATE: Looks like it is back on the market as of this posting. Just looked at the pictures and the people that bought it did an AMAZING transformation on it! Looks nothing like it did when we toured it!
The McCelvey Mansion in Temple (my favorite).
To see more pictures or to learn more about the McCelvey Mansion, check out this post! While this isn’t a “funny” it was unique. You don’t really find houses like this on the market anymore!
It was built in 1906 and just shy of 5700 sqft. The reason this one caught my eye is that it was old and historic. And it was a toss-up between that house and the one we bought.
The main reason we decided not to buy it, is due to the entire second floor needed to be renovated in addition to the parade balcony and the balcony off of the master. The old servants quarters on the property has the roof completely missing. Oh and the basement needed to be entirely redone. It had a massive attic that was a good 8ft tall (I just had to go up and look) that looked to be in pretty good shape.
Granted we could have lived on the bottom story, and if our kids were already out of the house, we would have bought that one. My husband told me that if it came on the market again in a couple of years, we could buy it (fat chance of it coming on the market again).
It sold in October of 2013 (we house hunted in March of 2013) and I was heartbroken. Most of the old features and fixtures were still in that house. I could actually sit here and cry, that’s how heartbroken I am over it! The one thing I did not like, is it had no “backyard”. You walk out the back door and you literally walked into an alley. But hey I would have made due!
Oh, and it sold for $50,500 less than their asking price (or $10,000 more than what we bought this house for). If I would have known that (it was at the top of our budget) I would have bought that and used the $50,500 for repairs!
The “Motel” House in Gatesville
Click to view slideshow.Granted I have no idea if it was really a motel at one point or not, but it was sure set up like one!
4 bedroom, 3 baths with a pool! It had a weirdly shaped drive with awning by the front door (like you see at a lot of motels). It was all done in brick. When you walked in you stepped into a small foyer area with the living room to the right that had a stone fireplace. The kitchen was directly in front of you with another living area that was done in stone and hardwood (reminded me of a lodge) and a hallway to the left that led to 3 bedrooms and a bathroom.
Now here is why I said it reminded me of a motel. Each bedroom was rather small and had a door that led out to the pool. Each had very small closets. It was the oddest thing ever! The master bedroom was towards the back of the house off of the living room area.
There were also stairs that led to the basement that they had converted into a bar/game room. From there, there was a door that led to the backyard and bottom of the pool (no pool access).
The pictures below are from the listing (IT DID NOT LOOK LIKE THIS WHEN WE WALKED IN)! It was a lot more chaotic. The main areas were beautiful, but the bedrooms needed some work as well as the basement area.
Animal House
I think this was a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. When we arrived you could tell someone still lived there. The outside was a little in shambles. I definitely didn’t have a good feeling about it at all!
When you walked in, the stench of piss and poop immediately greeted you (apparently this family did not believe in cleaning up after their pets and allowed them to potty all over the place). There were a couple of bedrooms downstairs in what I call the dungeon area. None of the lights worked despite there being electricity. One door was literally boarded off so you could not access it from ANYWHERE! Another door was padlocked.
Yet another door was open and the room was a complete mess. When you walked through that door, it was a bedroom that led to another bedroom area (completely odd). Under the stairs was a closet area with a very small door leading to it that had also been padlocked. What in the world were these people hiding?
The entire downstairs area (what we walked through anyway) was just full of trash and looked like it had NEVER been clean. It almost looked like a crime scene and none of us had a good feeling.
My realtor asked if I wanted to look upstairs, my answer was hell no, I think we should probably get the hell out of here! And we did!
For the record, this was not one of her listings and she had never shown this house and would never show it again lol.
Let Me Watch You Take A Bath House
Click to view slideshow.I don’t remember the square footage of this house, but I do remember that it was a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom on 8 acres of land with 2 barns and horse arena.
An old pier and beam house, it looked like a double-wide but was an actual house (so it said anyway, I still think it was a doublewide made to look like a house). The ceilings were short! In fact, the bedroom areas I know my husband would not have been able to stand upright.
So when you walk in, you are immediately in a very small living room with the kitchen behind it. To right is a hallway with the bedrooms and at the back of the kitchen is the same hallway. To the left of the living room is set of steps that lead down to a massive living room and off of that is the back door and the master bedroom/bathroom.
First, let’s get back to the other bedrooms. One bedroom, you could tell it use to be the master bedroom as it had a huge bathroom attached to it. It looked like the bedroom next to that was probably a dining room at some point because it had a door that led to the other bedroom. Confused yet? Yea, we were too.
The huge living room to the left of the smaller living room, you could tell was an add-on (and they didn’t do a very good job either). The floor was completely uneven. The master bedroom was directly off of this living area. Inside the master bathroom was a bathtub. Yes, ladies and gentlemen a freaking bathtub! No walls to section it off, nothing and in the corner was a toilet (although this did have a wall but no door).
I loved the decor and charm of the house, but the extremely low ceilings and add-on had me worried. If it had not been for that, we probably would have snatched it up!
So let me hear it! Do you have any house hunting funnies? Comment below!
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