Buying my first/ last house. (restoring it to time capsule)
I've been a ghost around here.
Most of my time has been spent getting ready for the Denver Modernism trade show that went well, and the rest of it has been spent house hunting.
We were going to try and buy Amy's great grandmother's place in Lakewood, built in '61, we love the architecture and the style, but it was a tad out of our range in price, after it was appraised, by HUD.
It needed a lot of fixing up in some ways. Everything, even the shag carpet, is turquoise. Walls, ceilings, everything. I like the color, but nothing should ever be all one color, let alone that color.
Anyway, after we decided that they were asking too much for the house and found nothing, our dream house came up on the market, less than five blocks away from that house, with all of the remodeling ideas that we were going to apply to the other house, already there.
We contacted our realtor, who set up an appointment and we were the first to view it, the next morning, after it was listed the evening before.
Unfortunately, there were eight other showings scheduled for that day alone and the seller took another bid over ours, after mowing it over, that weekend. I didn't have much hope, honestly, knowing the market here has gone to people moving into houses and warehouses as well as store fronts to try their hand as potrepeneurs in our new, booming, slow, stupid and hungry industry. The market for reality is a seller's market, to put lightly. It sucks. Big.
A couple weeks ago, we get a phone call while we're at a concert, from our realtor, asking if we would still be interested in the house. Apparently, the seller shut the first contract down, because of a suspicious email she got, leading to her investigating the buyer's behavior. She found out that he had other houses under contract, on the same loan. Pretty nasty thing to do to everyone involved, but I guess that's a common thing that people are now doing in this market? Sleazy.
Anyway, we were pretty ecstatic to have been offered the house, directly. The seller could have put it up on the market again and we'd have to put in another offer, but had apparently liked our letter that we wrote to her, about her house and why we thought it was a good place for us. One of her issues was that she thought someone would come in and update the entire thing and ruin it.
The house does need some work, but that's what I do.
[/IMG]
The core elements of the house are solid. Some even better than most (new sewer line out to the street three years ago, as well as a new sewer line in the street, new furnace, roof, hot water heater, breaker box, etc.)
Much like many older Chrysler products, it has everything that I want and gathers my respect for what it is and the thought that went into it, when the house was designed and built in 1960.
I'm not going to change much, but I am going to do some things. I checked the edge of the carpet and it's sitting on hardwood flooring, so next summer, it's coming out and I'm going to refinish the floors in a dark color. Odds are, it has some stains from years of use and carpet tacks on the sides can leave mold lines.
It has no garage, but the carport is as wide and as deep as the 2 car garage I'm in now, only taller, so I can put a door on it, which I will do, but I am going to run the roof line out and build a 4 car on the hill, in the front yard, off of the 2 car.
The FHA chewed me up and spit me out, even when I tried attaching an additional $5500 to the loan on a 203K construction addition in the loan. They said ok and then had some ugly contractors come out and tell me I even had to have the trusses outside, over the brick walls, painted professionally. I know why and I don't care.
I'm also not one for paying someone else to do something that I can do. I've been framing an entire office building at my new work, over the past 2 months, complete with caissons, and bond beams on the foundation with a garage poured, so I've got hookups on equipment, material suppliers and help for future projects.
I've decided to sell the 240Z to fund the 4 car garage materials. Kinda sucks, because I love the car, but this will force me to have a nice place to work and get going on my Charger.
I want brick on the 4 car to match the house, so I'm going to learn that, too.
I've been a ghost around here.
Most of my time has been spent getting ready for the Denver Modernism trade show that went well, and the rest of it has been spent house hunting.
We were going to try and buy Amy's great grandmother's place in Lakewood, built in '61, we love the architecture and the style, but it was a tad out of our range in price, after it was appraised, by HUD.
It needed a lot of fixing up in some ways. Everything, even the shag carpet, is turquoise. Walls, ceilings, everything. I like the color, but nothing should ever be all one color, let alone that color.
Anyway, after we decided that they were asking too much for the house and found nothing, our dream house came up on the market, less than five blocks away from that house, with all of the remodeling ideas that we were going to apply to the other house, already there.
We contacted our realtor, who set up an appointment and we were the first to view it, the next morning, after it was listed the evening before.
Unfortunately, there were eight other showings scheduled for that day alone and the seller took another bid over ours, after mowing it over, that weekend. I didn't have much hope, honestly, knowing the market here has gone to people moving into houses and warehouses as well as store fronts to try their hand as potrepeneurs in our new, booming, slow, stupid and hungry industry. The market for reality is a seller's market, to put lightly. It sucks. Big.
A couple weeks ago, we get a phone call while we're at a concert, from our realtor, asking if we would still be interested in the house. Apparently, the seller shut the first contract down, because of a suspicious email she got, leading to her investigating the buyer's behavior. She found out that he had other houses under contract, on the same loan. Pretty nasty thing to do to everyone involved, but I guess that's a common thing that people are now doing in this market? Sleazy.
Anyway, we were pretty ecstatic to have been offered the house, directly. The seller could have put it up on the market again and we'd have to put in another offer, but had apparently liked our letter that we wrote to her, about her house and why we thought it was a good place for us. One of her issues was that she thought someone would come in and update the entire thing and ruin it.
The house does need some work, but that's what I do.
[/IMG]The core elements of the house are solid. Some even better than most (new sewer line out to the street three years ago, as well as a new sewer line in the street, new furnace, roof, hot water heater, breaker box, etc.)
Much like many older Chrysler products, it has everything that I want and gathers my respect for what it is and the thought that went into it, when the house was designed and built in 1960.
I'm not going to change much, but I am going to do some things. I checked the edge of the carpet and it's sitting on hardwood flooring, so next summer, it's coming out and I'm going to refinish the floors in a dark color. Odds are, it has some stains from years of use and carpet tacks on the sides can leave mold lines.
It has no garage, but the carport is as wide and as deep as the 2 car garage I'm in now, only taller, so I can put a door on it, which I will do, but I am going to run the roof line out and build a 4 car on the hill, in the front yard, off of the 2 car.
The FHA chewed me up and spit me out, even when I tried attaching an additional $5500 to the loan on a 203K construction addition in the loan. They said ok and then had some ugly contractors come out and tell me I even had to have the trusses outside, over the brick walls, painted professionally. I know why and I don't care.
I'm also not one for paying someone else to do something that I can do. I've been framing an entire office building at my new work, over the past 2 months, complete with caissons, and bond beams on the foundation with a garage poured, so I've got hookups on equipment, material suppliers and help for future projects.
I've decided to sell the 240Z to fund the 4 car garage materials. Kinda sucks, because I love the car, but this will force me to have a nice place to work and get going on my Charger.
I want brick on the 4 car to match the house, so I'm going to learn that, too.
