House Deal Breakers — Savannah by Season

First of all, the Dallas housing market is no place for picky buyers. I'm sure this is true for many cities across the country right now. It is a seller's game and us buyers really don't have the leverage or the time to consider whether or not we're truly willing to look at those dark mahogany ceiling fans for the first few months of our new house life.

However, after years of pinning to my future house boards, flipping through magazines and studying all the HGTV shows, I do have a very specific idea of what I would like in a home. We definitely have to be very flexible when it comes to a lot of these things, but it's fun to think about our preferences anyway!

MUST HAVES

3 bedrooms (1 for us, 1 for guests, 1 for video gaming or crafting or officing or other fun stuff), 2 baths (1 for us, 1 for guests).

Open floor plan with tons of natural light streaming in from the many many windows.

White. White walls. White cabinets. White subway tile. White brick fireplace. White errywhere.

Wooden floors of any shade perfectly compliment all those pretty, imaginary white walls.

All the hygge, warm fuzzy feels. I am so inspired by Nordic and Scandinavian style, so anything that remotely favors any of my home boards, I'm all about it.

1500 square feet. Or a couple hundred less. Or a couple hundred more. That seems to be our sweet spot, though.

A backyard big enough for my hammock and our grill, but not too much grass. I'm not trying to buy a huge lawn mower right now. Also, mowing is not so fun.

Did I mention a brick fireplace? Because that's only my favorite thing in the world. That alone basically sold me on our current apartment.

A garage! I have never ever had a garage in my life. I think that partially makes them a little scary to me, but also excited because my car will be protected from hail and such.

On the same front, we'll need a "safe" tornado room. Our current place has absolutely no space that isn't attached to an exterior wall. If you know a lot about spring storms in Texas, you know you have to have an interior room!

Closet space. Not for clothes, though. It's a neccessity for holiday decoration storage because ya girl may have three Christmas trees now and she needs somewhere to put them the other 10 months of the year.

DEAL BREAKERS

Brown granite. My husband and I totally disagree on this, but every house we’ve seen that boasts granite countertops have my least favorite shades of tan or brown. Coach thinks it’s better to have something "nice"…I think it’s better to not have a tan color-scheme. I don’t care how fancy it is…if it’s ugly, it’s still ugly.

Beige. Apartment buildings love beige walls and beige carpets. I'm so tired of beige.

We are so not looking for a pool. I don't really know what that costs and I don't know if I'm wanting to find out. It's certainly not our must list.

Popcorn ceilings haunt me in my dreams! This is apparently not a realistic request, as we have only seen ONE home that doesn't have the textured snowy mess above our heads. Yikes!

Major cracks and a faulty foundation. This is actually a legitimate concern and super scary. Apparently lots of Dallas suburbs are on fault lines, sinking soil, flood areas, etc. Holy. Moly.

Just a couple months into looking, we realize that things we thought were definitively "Absolutely not" are turning into, "We can so make it work." I think maybe that's what house hunting has taught me so far. I can see past certain deal breakers and picture the improving, painting and constructing I can do to turn it into a house I dream of.

That is, unless it's foundation work because that plays no games, y'all.