House 9

Before this house, we saw another which was not worth seeing pictures. It was on a large lot with a barn but that's about all it had going for it.

With the ninth house we saw, we finally found the setting we were looking for. This home was situated far from everything, across the road from a large cemetery (perhaps the only way of ensuring that no development will take place!), on a large grassy lot in the middle of fields. The house was nice but small; the current occupants were clearly moving because of space. Pictures in the house showed three children. They had made a mudroom into a tiny office, made closet-sized rooms into bedrooms, and put a bedroom in the landing leading to the master bedroom.

The main downside of this home is the drive; it would be more than thirty minutes to reach nearer points in Grand Rapids. This house is still for sale, see more pictures at pprmi.com

After this we called it a day and headed back to Grand Rapids. Surprised by our attraction to houses in towns, our realtor promised to do some more checking into homes in Rockford (the red house we liked was well below our price limit), and also in downtown Grand Rapids' "Heritage Hill" neighborhood.

She called us the next morning very excited about what she had found, and had a fresh roster of another eight or so houses to see.