Itchy and I both felt like house 5 was "our" house. We had both seen the listing online for the two years we spent looking at houses. Itchy liked it on paper more then I did but once I saw it in person, I totally felt like it was ours.
It's not perfect but I think we could make it really great. Now it had a pipe burst in December that caused some damage in the kitchen and bathroom. But the insurance company was paying for the repairs and they had already been started. We had questions about what they were doing (would they put in double sinks?, what color tile are they using?, if they accepted our offer would they let us pick out stuff?, etc). Our realtor said he'd talk to the listing agent.
Saturday night we practically picked out paint colors. We were both excited and it felt like it was really going to happen.
Fast forward to Monday. The owners decided to pull the house off the market until all of the repairs were done. They wouldn't even look at any offer that we might want to make. The contractor said it would take three weeks.
I was irrationally angry. I hated the owners for this. They had been trying to sell the place for at least 2 years and they finally have someone ready to make an offer and they pull it off the market? WTF! I had a feeling that they wanted to finish the repairs and then jack up the price. Which would make it over our budget. It was so depressing.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Let's get started
On April 20th we looked at the first batch of houses. 6 of them. The 7th was on a crappy part of the lake so we didn't even bother.
I'm not going to describe these houses in detail because it would just take too long but we named them ala House Hunters.
House 1: Rope railings, close to hospital
House 2: Neighbor to rope railings, gas station bathroom, moldy basement
House 3: Huge yard, awkward layout upstairs and downstairs, steep elevation, ugly.
House 4: Across the street from the murder warehouse, nice yard, closet for a bedroom
House 5: Our house
House 6: The dam sink house
The first three were terrible. Nothing that we could even reno to make it better. They just weren't going to work.
House 4 could work if we could have gutted the basement and then turned it into 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Turned the master bedroom upstairs into a playroom, the 2nd "bedroom" upstairs into an office, and then reno'd the kitchen. Sounds like a lot of work because it would have been. Plus it has this weird warehouse across the street where I think they could hide bodies.
House 5. Ahh, 5. Walked in and loved it. Loved the location. It needs some updating. There are a few projects that we'd want to do over time, but we both really like this house. A pipe froze in the kitchen over the winter but the owners were taking care of that as well as redoing a bathroom. We wanted to know more about the not quite completed projects.
House 6. Sinks galore. Kitchen was a total gut job. I hated the location, Itchy liked it. Didn't matter since we both wanted 5.
I'm not going to describe these houses in detail because it would just take too long but we named them ala House Hunters.
House 1: Rope railings, close to hospital
House 2: Neighbor to rope railings, gas station bathroom, moldy basement
House 3: Huge yard, awkward layout upstairs and downstairs, steep elevation, ugly.
House 4: Across the street from the murder warehouse, nice yard, closet for a bedroom
House 5: Our house
House 6: The dam sink house
The first three were terrible. Nothing that we could even reno to make it better. They just weren't going to work.
House 4 could work if we could have gutted the basement and then turned it into 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Turned the master bedroom upstairs into a playroom, the 2nd "bedroom" upstairs into an office, and then reno'd the kitchen. Sounds like a lot of work because it would have been. Plus it has this weird warehouse across the street where I think they could hide bodies.
House 5. Ahh, 5. Walked in and loved it. Loved the location. It needs some updating. There are a few projects that we'd want to do over time, but we both really like this house. A pipe froze in the kitchen over the winter but the owners were taking care of that as well as redoing a bathroom. We wanted to know more about the not quite completed projects.
House 6. Sinks galore. Kitchen was a total gut job. I hated the location, Itchy liked it. Didn't matter since we both wanted 5.
Monday, May 27, 2013
We're hunting houses
Shhh, be verwy, verwy quiet we're hunting houses. Don't want to scare them off.
Like I said before, we're finally looking for a house. I feel like this needs to be documented so I am making an effort to blog about it.
We moved here in 2010. We stupidly thought we'd stay in our rental for 6 months and then buy a house. We are dumb. It doesn't work like that. Neither one of us had had a job since 2006. No bank (except those in Nigeria) would even talk to us (again the Nigerians were willing to deal if we gave them our SSN, full names, bank account numbers). So we waited. And waited. We looked at houses online at least once a week. Mocked the ugly ones, picked out paint colors for the ones we liked. For TWO AND A HALF YEARS. Which brings us to April 2013.
We got our 2012 taxes done as soon as we could. Delays happened because of the accountant, but whatever. Once we had that in hand we talked to the bank. They pre-approved us for much less than we were expecting. Insert sad face. We look at the hospital like it's a huge asset. They see it as a huge liability.
Well, we took our disappointment to the best realtor's office in town. Ok, the only one in town. We told him what we wanted and he started working on a list. It's a short list. We have a long list of demands.
1. Location. It has to be on the lake. With a low to mid elevation. On a good part of the lake. This narrowed our search substantially.
Our demand for at least 3 bedrooms (preferably on the same level) and 2 bathrooms (or potential to add a bathroom) made things even more difficult.
Our realtor found us 7 homes to look at.
Like I said before, we're finally looking for a house. I feel like this needs to be documented so I am making an effort to blog about it.
We moved here in 2010. We stupidly thought we'd stay in our rental for 6 months and then buy a house. We are dumb. It doesn't work like that. Neither one of us had had a job since 2006. No bank (except those in Nigeria) would even talk to us (again the Nigerians were willing to deal if we gave them our SSN, full names, bank account numbers). So we waited. And waited. We looked at houses online at least once a week. Mocked the ugly ones, picked out paint colors for the ones we liked. For TWO AND A HALF YEARS. Which brings us to April 2013.
We got our 2012 taxes done as soon as we could. Delays happened because of the accountant, but whatever. Once we had that in hand we talked to the bank. They pre-approved us for much less than we were expecting. Insert sad face. We look at the hospital like it's a huge asset. They see it as a huge liability.
Well, we took our disappointment to the best realtor's office in town. Ok, the only one in town. We told him what we wanted and he started working on a list. It's a short list. We have a long list of demands.
1. Location. It has to be on the lake. With a low to mid elevation. On a good part of the lake. This narrowed our search substantially.
Our demand for at least 3 bedrooms (preferably on the same level) and 2 bathrooms (or potential to add a bathroom) made things even more difficult.
Our realtor found us 7 homes to look at.
House hunters
Oh the lies they tell on that show! I hate them so much. They gave me the idea that finding our first house would be fun and exciting. It hasn't been.
Yeah
So a toddler walks into his sisters room.. Wait have you heard this one? LOL. I know, right?!?
Having a three year old and a 18 month old is an adventure. Obviously I suck at blogging about parenting. It just isn't happening. Every once and a while I'm all like, I should totally blog about this! But then I don't, because every time I touch the computer, Little Dude finds another death defying activity.
The last thing I thought that about was Stowa's latest plan for when she's a grownup. She wants to be a cat. A white cat with green polka dots, a purple collar, a pink nose, and blue eyes. And she totally knows that she can't just grow into a cat. She's not dumb. That's why I have to get a magic wand and turn her into this cat. She's got it all figured out!
Little Dude is busy. Always. Not talking though. He has no interest in sharing his thoughts with us.
Having a three year old and a 18 month old is an adventure. Obviously I suck at blogging about parenting. It just isn't happening. Every once and a while I'm all like, I should totally blog about this! But then I don't, because every time I touch the computer, Little Dude finds another death defying activity.
The last thing I thought that about was Stowa's latest plan for when she's a grownup. She wants to be a cat. A white cat with green polka dots, a purple collar, a pink nose, and blue eyes. And she totally knows that she can't just grow into a cat. She's not dumb. That's why I have to get a magic wand and turn her into this cat. She's got it all figured out!
Little Dude is busy. Always. Not talking though. He has no interest in sharing his thoughts with us.
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