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Post by chaosisapony on Sept 19, 2019 3:07:51 GMT
I would be all over that farm house!
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MaryMary
Pearl Clutcher
Lazy
Posts: 2,975
Jun 25, 2014 21:56:13 GMT
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Post by MaryMary on Sept 19, 2019 3:34:10 GMT
The farmhouse sounds like my dream home. 100%, yes.
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Post by Basket1lady on Sept 19, 2019 6:09:21 GMT
LOL. I’m not sure you guys are much help! I was all set to pick the house in town. Now I’m undecided again!
To answer some questions—the energy rating on both houses is a D. Not the best, but not uncommon here. We only looked at one house that was rated a B, a few with a C rating, and most were rated E. The military stipulates that they won’t pay for anything lower than an E rating. I think the high ceilings in our two choices are what is giving the bad rating. And I want those high ceilings!
The yard area is actually larger for the town house. And there are horses behind us. But the pasture area adds to the feel of space for the farm house.
And we wouldn’t use the train for daily commuting. Just for our weekend excursions. We looked on the map last night and the farm house is about 5 minutes from a large hub station that goes all over Europe.
We went through so much last night, comparing the two. It’s like each has pluses and only one real negative for each. I was hoping a night’s sleep would tell us which house was ours, but it’s no clearer today! But is a good position to be in...
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Post by Basket1lady on Sept 19, 2019 6:15:19 GMT
Yes, yes, yes! Live in the farm house. That's the kind of house we ended up in when DH was stationed in the Netherlands. It was absolutely glorious. With a bike everything was close enough. It was our absolute favorite house. And an absolute gem of a find in Europe where most of the housing is row housing. You will regret it if you choose not to. Yeah, that row housing is not our thing! We’ve really avoided looking st any, but will see two today. One has an inner courtyard, so will probably be ok. But the other... the windows are good here, but I think you would still hear road noise if the trucks are 2 feet from you, brick wall or not!
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Post by Sanibel on Sept 19, 2019 8:27:15 GMT
We need photos!
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Post by jennyap on Sept 19, 2019 8:54:13 GMT
And we wouldn’t use the train for daily commuting. Just for our weekend excursions. We looked on the map last night and the farm house is about 5 minutes from a large hub station that goes all over Europe. I was already going to say farmhouse, this swings it completely for me.
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Post by elaine on Sept 19, 2019 9:51:14 GMT
They both sound wonderful! Like you, I am struggling to decide. I’d probably go for the extra room in the farm house.
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wellway
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,785
Jun 25, 2014 20:50:09 GMT
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Post by wellway on Sept 19, 2019 10:07:38 GMT
Farmhouse, you can live by noisy roads anytime!
Your dog would love the space and the studio sounds amazing.
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Post by mikklynn on Sept 19, 2019 11:23:51 GMT
What would the "goat path" be like in rainy or snowy weather? I'm a complete city girl, so I'd choose that house. I always joke I'm never living more than 15 minutes from a Starbucks. It's not about the coffee, it's about the level of civilization!
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Post by coaliesquirrel on Sept 19, 2019 11:52:28 GMT
We live on what you might consider a non-working farm -- 5 acres, no animals other than what mostly live inside. We do have a couple bee hives, but nothing more than you could easily have in teh average suburban back yard. Cows live across the street, and our road is paved but not curbed, and you have to scootch WAY over if there's another car coming from the opposite way. We love it, and I'd definitely pick the farmhouse if it was ME. But, for you, the decision might best be made considering your personalities. Do you like having neighbors close by and the interaction that comes with that? If so, you might feel isolated in the farmhouse. If you prefer to have your space and are more introverted, the farmhouse might be better for you.
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schizo319
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,030
Jun 28, 2014 0:26:58 GMT
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Post by schizo319 on Sept 19, 2019 12:10:11 GMT
Another vote for the farmhouse here. I enjoy gardening, so anything that had a space for that would be preferable (it's usually more difficult to find a home with yard/garden space in Europe when compared to the States).
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YooHoot
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,418
Jun 26, 2014 3:11:50 GMT
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Post by YooHoot on Sept 19, 2019 12:24:31 GMT
An older European farmhouse might be expensive to heat in the winter.
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Post by refugeepea on Sept 19, 2019 12:31:27 GMT
I'd rather live closer to a train station. I grew up around farms. I'd prefer a new experience.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Sept 19, 2019 12:42:36 GMT
I would! Sounds peaceful.
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Post by jeremysgirl on Sept 19, 2019 13:03:52 GMT
I'm no help. Both houses sound good to me. I'm not sure you can make a mistake here.
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Gennifer
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,009
Jun 26, 2014 8:22:26 GMT
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Post by Gennifer on Sept 19, 2019 13:40:34 GMT
Farmhouse a million times over.
And, just to clarify, you don’t really “mow” a pasture like you do a yard. It’s used for animals to graze, or to grow hay, in which case the grass is harvested and baled once or twice a year. Or it could just be an empty field that doesn’t really have anything done in it. It’s not like the landlord will be “mowing” it weekly.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Sept 19, 2019 13:56:25 GMT
What would the "goat path" be like in rainy or snowy weather? I'm a complete city girl, so I'd choose that house. I always joke I'm never living more than 15 minutes from a Starbucks. It's not about the coffee, it's about the level of civilization! This is my line of thought exactly. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere where there is the potential to be stuck due to inclement weather. And I’m right there with you mikklynn only substitute Target for Starbucks. Now that we’re getting very close to being done with our cabin rebuild, lots of people are asking us if we plan to move there. Umm, NO. Too far away from a good hospital, the schools out there totally suck, the closest grocery store is 30 miles away and the closest Target to it is the one ten minutes from our house in the cities an hour away. So while it’s a nice place to spend weekends or the occasional week of vacation, I would take a hard pass on living there full time no matter how nice and new everything is!
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Post by quinlove on Sept 19, 2019 13:58:08 GMT
Two words ~. farm. house.
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Post by mrsscrapdiva on Sept 19, 2019 14:00:01 GMT
I was just looking at a house that was similar to this (maybe not so isolated though). Oh it was dreamy! But some days I feel like it would be lovely and calm but other days I think it would be great to live in an apartment in a busy city.
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sueg
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,085
Location: Munich
Apr 12, 2016 12:51:01 GMT
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Post by sueg on Sept 19, 2019 14:35:24 GMT
What would the "goat path" be like in rainy or snowy weather? I'm a complete city girl, so I'd choose that house. I always joke I'm never living more than 15 minutes from a Starbucks. It's not about the coffee, it's about the level of civilization! That is a bit trickier in Europe than in the US. I think there are only 4 Starbucks in all of Munich, a city of 1.5 million, and one of those is at the airport! We spent a week recently in a renovated farmhouse on the edge of a village in Provence. It was wonderful, and I would love to live there. The village had a small Carrefour, but there was a larger town about 5 minutes away by car that had most amenities, and another larger town about 30 minutes away with an international airport and train station. The roads were mainly paved, but it wouldn't be such an issue where we were as winters aren't so harsh. After 9 years in an apartment, the farmhouse was just so spacious!
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Post by kristalina on Sept 19, 2019 15:42:07 GMT
What's your personality? I'm a total introvert and would flourish on that farm and would kill for a studio. But if you're a socially centered person, maybe a more in-town place would make you happy. Also, walking to the train would be a huge bonus. Myself - I'd take the farm in a second and never come out of that studio.
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Post by Mel on Sept 19, 2019 15:47:38 GMT
If you are looking for someone to dissuade you from the farmhouse, I'm not the one! LOL I vote farmhouse too!
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muggins
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,861
Jul 30, 2017 3:38:57 GMT
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Post by muggins on Sept 19, 2019 16:10:22 GMT
If you’re not buying it, I would choose the farmhouse just for the experience. We have travelled with DH’s job and it’s been interesting to rent different types of houses in both urban and semi-rural settings to see which works better for us and what we want in a house when we buy.
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Post by monklady123 on Sept 19, 2019 16:14:18 GMT
We just moved to Belgium and have been house hunting. We are down to two choices. Both have a ton of charm. But one is an old farm house. It’s been completely redone, including one section completely rebuilt from the old bricks. But do I want to live on a farm? And by farm, I mean a gentleman’s farm. There aren’t any animals, tractors, manure, or anything like that. But there are several outbuildings, an (unused) pasture, and it’s about a kilometer out of town. There’s a Carrefour about 5 minutes away, so it’s not totally isolated. But the road in is little more than a paved goat path! However, that describes a lot of the roads in the area. The kitchen is a big old farm kitchen (with modern appliances), it has a beautiful terrace with large doors that open out into it, and my dedicated studio space would be huge, with old French doors leading into it. The bathroom in this house is really weird, with a room for the shower, a room for the toilet, and a room for the vanity and tub. Also not unusual—we looked at a lot of houses like that. ETA:mowing of the pasture and such is done by the landlord. The other house is just outside of a little town. The commissary is about 15 minutes away and a small Carrefour about 10 minutes away. The house is a lot smaller, but even more charming, with huge old beams and a wine cellar. The train station is within walking distance. It’s on a side road (and when I say on, I mean about 1 meter off the road—also very common here). There is traffic in the morning and evening, but it was quiet during the day. And the windows are really good, so I couldn’t hear the road noise when a car would go by at 1 pm. The bathroom is all one room, but it’s a big step into and out of the shower and the tub is framed in as a large rectangle that’s tiled. So it’s not really better than the farm house, just different. This house is a lot smaller and I don’t have a dedicated studio. I’d have to have my space in the (very) large main room. But the bedrooms are just gorgeous with white plastered walls and beautiful huge beams from the rafters exposed. And there’s a whole line of closets in the hall that would provide more than enough storage. (Very few Belgian houses have closets). I’m really torn! Update: We didn't get the farm house. I slept on it and dreamed of baking bread in that great kitchen. We had 2 other viewings in the morning and went over to the housing office to put in our offer for the farm house. Another family beat us to it. It’s been up for rent since July and we missed it by 2 hours! Gah! I’ll admit, I’m bummed. But the other house is quaint and the village is really cute. We drove over there today and looked around the town. I didn’t see a grocery store right there, but there is a patisserie, so I’ll get my croissants! I’m really disappointed about losing that studio, but I do believe things happen for a reason. We’ve been saying we need to downsize and this house is half the size of the house we had in the States. So it will be a good test run for us. DH is 20 minutes from work and Emma (therapy dog) will probably work at the school or hospital on base as well. So that’s not far away. And then there’s that train station so close—we plan to take advantage of that! we see it again on Saturday to negotiate the terms of the lease, so I’ll take some photos then! I came to this thread after the update....But I was going to reply that I would go for the smaller house close to the train station. I mean, you're in Europe! You can go anywhere by train, and having it right there would be so much fun. And downsizing sounds like a good plan because presumably you'll be moving again at some point so you'll have less to pack up. The farmhouse sounded lovely for several reasons, but in the end I think the smaller house is better. And, there is that patisserie!
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schizo319
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,030
Jun 28, 2014 0:26:58 GMT
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Post by schizo319 on Sept 19, 2019 16:53:00 GMT
That is a bit trickier in Europe than in the US. I think there are only 4 Starbucks in all of Munich, a city of 1.5 million, and one of those is at the airport! Very true, but compared to European coffee, Starbucks is little more than skunky black water.
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peabrain
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,588
Jun 25, 2014 22:18:04 GMT
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Post by peabrain on Sept 19, 2019 17:14:26 GMT
Update: We didn't get the farm house. I slept on it and dreamed of baking bread in that great kitchen. We had 2 other viewings in the morning and went over to the housing office to put in our offer for the farm house. Another family beat us to it. It’s been up for rent since July and we missed it by 2 hours! Gah! I’ll admit, I’m bummed. But the other house is quaint and the village is really cute. We drove over there today and looked around the town. I didn’t see a grocery store right there, but there is a patisserie, so I’ll get my croissants! I’m really disappointed about losing that studio, but I do believe things happen for a reason. We’ve been saying we need to downsize and this house is half the size of the house we had in the States. So it will be a good test run for us. DH is 20 minutes from work and Emma (therapy dog) will probably work at the school or hospital on base as well. So that’s not far away. And then there’s that train station so close—we plan to take advantage of that! we see it again on Saturday to negotiate the terms of the lease, so I’ll take some photos then! It sounds awesome. I hope you enjoy!
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Post by Basket1lady on Sept 19, 2019 17:22:20 GMT
I came to this thread after the update....But I was going to reply that I would go for the smaller house close to the train station. I mean, you're in Europe! You can go anywhere by train, and having it right there would be so much fun. And downsizing sounds like a good plan because presumably you'll be moving again at some point so you'll have less to pack up. The farmhouse sounded lovely for several reasons, but in the end I think the smaller house is better. And, there is that patisserie! We looked at 13 houses, took 3 off for safety reasons, and 2 off because they just didn’t work at all for us. That left us with 8 potential houses. From there, we just went with a gut feel. There were very few houses available with the base listings in our price range. Since we really need them for the legal work of the lease and translating, we decided to take the smaller house and be done with things. If we travel enough, we’ll hardly be home anyway!
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Post by Basket1lady on Sept 19, 2019 17:26:51 GMT
What's your personality? I'm a total introvert and would flourish on that farm and would kill for a studio. But if you're a socially centered person, maybe a more in-town place would make you happy. Also, walking to the train would be a huge bonus. Myself - I'd take the farm in a second and never come out of that studio. DH has said that several times. I am a fairly social person. But the reality is that my French isn’t that great. It’s better than I thought, but I’m far from being able to carry any friendship along with my French. So that leaves the international community on base, at least for the first few months until I’m better at carrying on a conversation without Google translate. I do get out when I’m working visits with Emma, our lab. She’s a therapy dog and that forces me out of the house some days. And the next step is to buy me a car...
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Post by Basket1lady on Sept 19, 2019 17:28:28 GMT
What would the "goat path" be like in rainy or snowy weather? I'm a complete city girl, so I'd choose that house. I always joke I'm never living more than 15 minutes from a Starbucks. It's not about the coffee, it's about the level of civilization! This is my line of thought exactly. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere where there is the potential to be stuck due to inclement weather. And I’m right there with you mikklynn only substitute Target for Starbucks. Now that we’re getting very close to being done with our cabin rebuild, lots of people are asking us if we plan to move there. Umm, NO. Too far away from a good hospital, the schools out there totally suck, the closest grocery store is 30 miles away and the closest Target to it is the one ten minutes from our house in the cities an hour away. So while it’s a nice place to spend weekends or the occasional week of vacation, I would take a hard pass on living there full time no matter how nice and new everything is! This is me, too. On our last day in the States, I went to Target and Hobby Lobby. From now on, I’ll rely on the crafty Peas to enable me with what to buy online.
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wellway
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,785
Jun 25, 2014 20:50:09 GMT
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Post by wellway on Sept 19, 2019 18:06:04 GMT
This is my line of thought exactly. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere where there is the potential to be stuck due to inclement weather. And I’m right there with you mikklynn only substitute Target for Starbucks. Now that we’re getting very close to being done with our cabin rebuild, lots of people are asking us if we plan to move there. Umm, NO. Too far away from a good hospital, the schools out there totally suck, the closest grocery store is 30 miles away and the closest Target to it is the one ten minutes from our house in the cities an hour away. So while it’s a nice place to spend weekends or the occasional week of vacation, I would take a hard pass on living there full time no matter how nice and new everything is! This is me, too. On our last day in the States, I went to Target and Hobby Lobby. From now on, I’ll rely on the crafty Peas to enable me with what to buy online. Rather than online, check out the places you intend to visit for crafty stuff e.g. The pretty town of Utrecht, Holland has a fabric market every Saturday morning, the market is 400 years old. Utrecht is a train hub as well so should be easy to get to. www.holland.com/global/tourism/destinations/utrecht/markets-in-utrecht.htm
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