"You sure about this?"Josh says to me over the phone.
I'm at work, in the middle of the busiest month in recent memory and we're in a multiple offer situation with a house we've been looking at for over a week. The bank has asked all parties for their "highest and final offer;" it's our last and only shot at buying the home we've fallen in love with. The number swirling around in conversation hits my ears with deafening power.
"No," I say, "but let's do it anyway."
On Friday, shortly before 5:00, I got an email from our realtor congratulating us on our new home. I called Josh and told him the news. I imagine we had the same response as most couples do when they find out they're pregnant with their first kid. He asked if I was serious, I repeated that I was several times. There was silence. Then laughter- that nervous laughter that often occurs on first dates after an awkward joke where the punchline wasn't delivered correctly. And then, more silence. Finally, Josh takes a deep breath and says, "looks like we have our own little house of horrors."
WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT?
It's the first question I asked when I saw the listing on our email from Shelly, our realtor. The house was just TOO perfect. After getting cold feet in our first house search earlier this year, Josh and I were convinced it would take several months to find something within our price range and, more specifically, something that matched our wish list.
We met Shelly at Cuppa Java a few weeks prior to see if she would be a good realtor for us. "If you don't like a house within the first few seconds of walking inside, tell me," she said. "Don't waste my time by having me show you around the whole place when you're just not feeling it." We were immediately sold, shook hands and then gave her our list of "wants" for our house:
- Three bedrooms, two bathrooms
- Master bedroom with en suite bathroom
- Minimum 1,600 square feet
- Two car garage
- Decent size yard for a garden and patio
- Fireplace
- Open floorplan
- Old kitchen we could gut and re-do ourselves
- Wood floors
- A man-cave
- A place for all my books
- In St. Louis Park
- Under $190,000
So imagine our surprise when we come across a listing for a home that matched all of our requests. In fact, if you had asked us to draw up our perfect house, this was what it would look like. So we asked "Ok, we love it. What's wrong with it?"
The answer we got wasn't what was wrong, but where to begin with the problems. Overall, the majority of previous remodeling work had been done without ever pulling permits. In fact, we are now proud owners of a 26-page report listing all the city repairs that need to be done BEFORE we can even obtain a certificate of occupancy. After meeting with a contractor, two city inspectors and a structural engineer, we realized the majority of our budget would be used just to make the house livable again.
LET'S DO THIS
It was a Tuesday evening, and we had just spent 90 minutes with a contractor walking through city assessments and other projects we wanted to complete. It was daunting; anyone with a shred of sanity would walk away. But we looked at each other with slightly guilty eyes that said "I know it's kind of a disaster and this is crazy but, I still love it."
So we took the plunge. And now we're here to share our trials (and triumphs) of being first time home owners with a beautiful house that needs A TON of work. One thing is for certain, it's going to be one hell of a ride.
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| Google Maps aerial view of our house and garage to the right. |
