Slow Summer

I went over to the Whitehead area today. I really dig this area of Athens. It's not too far out, yet not overcrowded with SUV driving college students. Word on the street is that there's a lot of young professionals moving over to this area and cleaning up/remodeling these homes. I hope I'm not too late!
There's quite a few 50's and 60's brick ranches over there. I took a look at one on Lillian Drive. Seller is asking $109,900 which is at the top of my budget. Well of course that's the asking price, so I would be buying at a lower price than that. Anyways, the house itself is okay. There's a perfect carport to house my '53 Buick. The lot, was really not to my liking. Neighbors were a little too close. The lot slopes in the back and levels out which allows a nice unfinished basement in the back. However there's no access to the basement from the inside of the house. Poor Leeloo (my 7 year old Great Dane) probably wouldn't want to have to go up and down stairs EVERYTIME nature calls. This also means that access to the top of the house in the back is about 2 stories high. I'm slightly (okay extremely) acrophobic (fear of heights) so this limits my handyman-ness for maintaining the house myself: gutter cleaning, painting the siding at the top, roof work, soffit/facia replacement, etc.I envision a nice fairly flat lot in the back that I can fence in. The house was built in 1960 which is okay, but I'm really wanting something from the 50's. So the hunt continues...