We Found Our Castle....

March 2010

 

Josh and I spent a few weeks using every available internet hour to search for houses.  Houses were going in days and we were not going to be beat out.  We had now seen 11 houses and none seemed worth putting an offer in.  In desperation, we were tempted to put in an offer on a move-in ready bungalow.  But it was close to the interstate (you could hear it with the windows open) and the few improvements we would have made would not change the fact that you were still 2 blocks from a 6 lane highway. 

Then, our little house posted on a rainy Thursday in March.  We did a drive-by on Friday and told our real estate agent we wanted to take a look.  The roof was shot, the plants were over grown.  But gosh darn it, it had the cutest hobbit door. The neighborhood was not in our first round of options, mostly because it was older, respected, kid-friendly, expensive... so pretty much everything Josh and I were currently not. Overlook will win you over in seconds, with it's pretty yards, kids on bikes, and people who actually say Hi to you.  We knew that it would be a 'great investment' even if we were a couple more blocks from the 'hip' part of town.  Our agent suggested we try to see the house early Saturday before the Open House.  That way we could decide if we liked it and then see if there were a lot of offers. 

 

 

The owner took us through and that is actually the best way to see a house!  He had lived there for 40 years and he had some great stories and information.  The house was beat up, had a big 70's vibe and smelled a good deal like cat pee.  However, it was: priced well, not visibly falling down, did not have drugs in it, and appeared to have everything we wanted on our list (minus a bath tub).  That night we put in an offer and a day later we had bought a house....

Except, if you have ever bought a house you know that this is the best part.  It is literally all down hill from here.  Now you have home inspections, appraisals, bickering over repairs, general doubts, and other horrible misgivings.  But since this is now a year away, I will gloss over them and say we bought a house.  On May 5, 2010 we got the keys and the real story of our Castle began.

The House Search Continues...

April 2010

 

After our first foray into house hunting went so well, we decided to try out a couple more...  We went and saw another house a couple of blocks away that was an old duplex.  It was on sale for $265,000 and it's listing had the exciting words of 'original built-ins' and a 'great opportunity'!  I can only say this about the house, it did have built-ins and the exterior was in okay repair.  What I can also tell you, is there was crack on the kitchen table and the renters dog peed on me.  FACT. 

Once again, the most disturbing thing about all this, we weren't totally deterred.   We actually calculated how much it would take to make this place liveable (roughly $100,000). It was only when our realtor told us they were firm on price we talked away. Let's count our blessings!

 

Since the neighborhood we lived in was 'hip' and 'up-and-coming'  we actually found it really difficult to see houses in our price range.  Several houses were put on the market and sold before we even got in the door.  This seemed unimaginable, everywhere we looked and listened people were talking about how bad the economy was and yet these houses were selling in 2-3 days.  It was really discouraging and in many ways intensified our need to find a house-- if the market was this quick now... what about in a year or so? I think this is how they get you.

So, we spent a Saturday a little further a field looking at houses in the Alberta neighborhood.  These were a series on small little houses with little personality and a huge lack of yard.  Until... we saw this one.  Personality was NOT lacking in this house. It was a cute tudor on a pretty nice block.  I was excited when we pulled up.  At first the inside was bad, but appeared to be fixable.  There were original 'features' and nice 'hardwoods' but then again the bathroom was completely caved in and the upstairs made no sense, sure there was potential.  But, we made the mistake of going in the basement.  Seriously, America is hiding some freaky stuff in their basements! This basement appeared to be a sex den.  Complete with curtained off raised beds, shag carpeting everywhere, leather walls and mirrors, lots of mirrors. I was just glad I had on high heels so I was about 2 inches off the carpet. phew. 

 

 

The night after this search Josh and I had a long conversation about how much of a fixer-upper we wanted.  We would need to be able to live in it while working on it... we would like to be able to sleep at night, we would need a working bathroom and a kitchen.  We decided we needed to look for houses in a little better shape, o yeah and we had about 30 days to sign a contract before the house buyer credit expired... pressure?