Are you ready for house three on our house hunting trip? And since it's Halloween, we'll even give you a little Halloween twist we experienced while we were looking at this house.

But before we get started, we're going to make a slight change to our game. I know in the intro post about our second house we mentioned sharing three homes that we looked at, but that was a mistake, or at least a misprint.

All along Wendy and I have been planning to share four houses with you, but I referenced three houses rather than sharing four (House Hunters on the brain). So apparently, I lied. But I will remedy this by now going back on what I said and instead sharing four houses. Take that, journalistic integrity.

Yes, this is the advantage we get by not needing to fit this into a 30 minute television show. It does mean you'll ultimately not know which house for a bit longer, but it's not like we're getting behind on filling you in on anything important. It just means the tease goes on for a few more days by way of one more house that we'll share next week. But we hope you like the fourth house enough to forgive us.

Okay, on with the show, let's take a look at house number three.

The third house we have on our list of solid contenders is an early 20th century home with four bedrooms and three baths.

This house, an all white wood clapboard American foursquare, definitely has quite a bit of exterior charm and character, including a very large and welcoming wrap around porch.

The really interesting thing about this house is that the "front" of the house is actually in the back of the property, which means the porch has a great view of the nice open water and property's shoreline. This a rarity in an early 20th century home.

One very nice thing about this property is the work an owner has done to add riprap (the boulders and fabric lined backfill at the water's edge) and other erosion protection via a "natural shoreline" project.

As we've been looking for a house on the water we've learned quite a bit about riprap, sea grasses, piers, pilings, erosion, protected land, flood planes, and the various other maintenance items that need to be accounted for when caring for a waterfront home. It's mind boggling but seemingly manageable.

Beyond the great views, this home is very spacious. The main living level has a single fireplace with wood burning stove on the edge of the living room, plenty of windows to let in a lot of natural light, and large French doors that look out over the water.

The house's kitchen looks to have been updated in the mid to late 1990s and is very workable in its current state, but could also use quite a bit of work to update the aesthetic to what we're looking for in a kitchen. The general floor plan though is quite nice with a good flow from room to room.

Like the living room, the dining area, which is open to the kitchen, has a set of French doors that look out over the porch and water. While there are no walls of windows, for a place that is over 100 years old, the house definitely has some pretty great views of the water, both from inside and outside.

By far one of the nicest features of the house's interior is the home's main hallway and staircase with big chunky moulding, a large handrail, and a beautiful newel post. The walls are plaster, cracked, and bumpy, the floors a bit torn up, patched, and damaged, and paint has been splattered on unpainted wood surfaces left and right, but this is Wendy's chance at that "Christmas staircase" (one that can be decorated for the holidays with fresh greens, garlands, ribbon and more) she's always wanted.

The second floor is split into a front and back living section with three bedrooms up front, including the master bedroom...

...with ensuite bathroom.

There are more great water views from the second floor that give a good view of the shoreline project I mentioned.

The opposite side of the hallway has two guest rooms (one with great water views), and each has a very small closet. One even has an old mantel on the wall where I assume a furnace once stood and hooked into chimneys that have long since been removed.

The guest bathroom sits just at the top of the stairs and includes an original cast iron clawfoot tub that's in relatively good shape. Perhaps if we buy this house, Wendy won't mind if we don't finish our master bathroom project in our house for several more years. I mean, we'd have a whole other house with a clawfoot tub. Right? I mean, right?

The back living space from the house is accessible through the kitchen and includes a downstairs living area with full bathroom and an upstairs bedroom area that's accessible by a back staircase.

There's also a great staircase above the main staircase that leads up to the home's third floor attic, which has been largely converted to a living space with additional storage beyond the beadboard walls.

One thing you may have noticed about this house is the ample number of window units to cool the big old space. You see, this house has no central air. Thus far this has been a theme for the house's we've looked at, and it's a bit intimidating.

All in all it's a really nice house with an amazing porch, a wonderful view, some great historic charm, and a lot of original details. But it's also a very large house that needs a good bit of updating, some major work on the HVAC, and ongoing yard and garden maintenance.

Alex's take: You know me, I love a good project, and this seems like it could be just that. While the house isn't that 18th century colonial farm house I dream of, it is a century home, and it still has a lot of its original charm and character. The windows and exterior doors have all been replaced, which is a major bummer, but the floors are largely intact and a good portion of the interior doors, plaster, and mouldings seem to be original. 

The photos do a good job of masking many of the problems that you tend to see up close and in person. From cracked textured walls and ceilings to tired bathrooms and kitchen cabinets, but like I said, that's okay with me, I can sleep when I'm dead (as a previous commenter said on an earlier post).

While there aren't any outbuildings, and no basement means no large permanent wood shop/project area, there's no reason we couldn't add one down the road. The lack of central AC is also s pretty big downer and something costly that would eventually need to be tackled. As I see it, every room needs some sort of minor to major attention, but the whole house is still very livable for the time being. If we're willing to take one another big project (and I totally am), this might be the one for us.

I just can't help but picture hanging out on the porch with friends and family, watching the boats go by or learning how to crab off of the pier. I feel like the view and orientation of the house looking out over the water give this house something unique that would make it great in any season.

Wendy's Take: Christmas staircase? Check. Claw foot tub? Check. Water views? Check. A floor plan that will function well for entertaining large groups? Check. When looking at my list of desired features, this house does a great job of ticking the boxes. I really like the look of the home, and think it's a good compromise between Alex's list and mine. 

To echo his point though, the pictures do gloss over a lot of items that need to be addressed. We'd have to have all of the floors refinished (though they look great in the photos), think about removing that funky half wall in the living room in order to have the floor plan I'd like, take on the cost and headache of adding central AC, repair and repaint a large percentage of the molding and plaster, and the yard seems to be ripe for snakes (auughh!!). And for the record Alex, having a tub in this house does NOT eliminate the need of installing the claw foot tub in our bathroom at home, despite what storing ours in the basement for over a decade might make one believe.

Halloween Twist

As I mentioned at the start of the post, given that it is Halloween and we like to tell ghost stories on Halloween, we wanted to share something a little bit odd that happened while we were looking at this house. 

After walking through the house and looking in all of the rooms, Wendy and I were talking with the agent in one of the downstairs rooms, Wendy shot me a wide eyed look. You know, the sort of look that only a spouse can really notice and immediately understand that something had happened. At first I thought I had said something rude or inappropriate, so I started wracking my brain to figure out what would have garnered that response. As Wendy's stare went back to a more normal and less alarmed state, I didn't think much of it. 

About 10 minutes or so later we got into our car and began discussing the house as we drove away. That's when Wendy said, "Did you see when I shot you that look when we were talking with the agent?" 

As a mature adult I responded, "Yeah, what was up with that? Did you hear a fart or something?" 

Clearly amused with my immaturity, and so thankful she had chosen me as her spouse until death do us part, she said "No...Did you hear a voice that wasn't one of the three of our voices there talking?"

Sensing that Wendy had actually heard something, or at least thought she had heard something, I said, "No, I didn't hear anything other than us, but I was in the middle of talking when you shot me the glare. What did you hear?"

Wendy sheepishly but directly said, "I know this is crazy, but I heard a voice from right behind me clearly whisper in my ear, "Happy Birthday." You didn't hear it at all?"

Given that this was neither of our birthdays, who knows what it was, perhaps someone celebrating a birthday at some point in the house? It could have been any number of things, maybe even something that one of us said that just sounded a little different, but Wendy's face had told me everything. It wasn't major, wasn't a poltergeist or other major spirit flicking lights and closing doors, but it was enough to make the little hairs on the back of Wendy's neck stand up for a minute or two. 

So what do you think? Does this house seem like one we should go for, what with all of it's space, projects, views, porch, and possible spirits? Or do you think this is just too much to take on, too big, too many things that need to be done, and too overwhelming?