when you move, think of the boats

I don't think this is in our price range.

The hubby and I have been going to open houses for the past couple of years and dreaming of moving into our next home from our small but very nice ranch. Now that we have two Sunfish, our requirements have changed a little.

Pre-Boat:
- At least 3 bedroom, 2 bath house
- Decent sized lot with mature trees
- Updated is nice but not required

Post Boats:
- All of the above +
- Three car garage OR walk-out basement OR shed/ability to build shed

You'd be amazed how that last stipulation really eliminates a ton of houses. Three car garages are fairly rare, especially in our house size range (anything above 2400 sq ft starts to feel too big), and many neighborhoods we are interested in have anti-shed covenants, so we couldn't even build a shed if we wanted to. I've suggested to hubby before that we could enclose the area under the deck stairs and store the boat and trailer there, and some recent houses we've looked have actually done that to store their lawn stuff and still be within the subdivision's codes.

We used to look at houses for the feel of the floor plan, as well as neighborhood and lot, but now we have to think of our two "children." A couple of real estate agents raised their eyebrows when we said we currently store two boats in our walkout basement, but I'm sure they are envisioning something much bigger than our wee Sunfish.