Growing up

Bob having finally graduated from school and getting a job, we immediately started house hunting. Actually, Orsi has been looking at listings online and hitting up open houses for a year. 28 houses or so later, we finally narrowed our choices down to two.

The first house we put an offer on was a 3 bedroom/3 bath, 1800 sq ft. two-story on a quarter acre. The owners are an interior designer and a builder, and it shows. On the one hand, the place had a gourmet kitchen, which was very nice. And the bathrooms were awesome. On the other hand, we didn't like the decorating (Greek columns everywhere), and we wanted to replace all the carpeting upstairs with hardwood (Orsi has allergies, and we have lots of pets). And we'd have to put up a fence. So, even though the place was in great condition, we were going to have to put a significant amount of money into it anyway. And they weren't willing to budge on the price (which was already much more expensive than the other places in the neighborhood).

Still, we saw some other places that were "fixer uppers" that were only a little less expensive, and would require a lot more work. This was discouraging, and Bob was leaning towards just paying for the Greek house.

But then Orsi brought up a foreclosure that they had looked at earlier. At the time, Bob didn't take it very seriously. It needed a lot of work, and Bob doesn't have the skills (or patience) for that kind of thing, and he knows it. But Orsi's dad is a contractor, and offered to help us fix up anything we might buy, and after much discussion, Bob actually got pretty excited about it. The place is 3000 sq ft. ranch, 2.5 bathrooms, full, partially finished basement, on 2 acres. And it was cheap (well, the taxes aren't, but still). We could take the money we saved and turn the house into exactly what we wanted. And at the price, we could almost turn around and sell it immediately for a profit. (Of course, we're planning on staying for a long time).

These pictures show the front and several angles of the backyard. About half of the back is wooded.

So we put the offer in, it was accepted, and we expect to close by the end of February. Our lease doesn't end until March 31, so we'll have some overlap in which to get things into shape, specifically a bedroom and bathroom. Orsi's parents also just redid their kitchen, so we're going to take their old appliances and cabinets.

So when we say it needs some work, what exactly are we talking about? Here are some pictures that illustrate some of the issues:






Garage door broken.











Kitchen floor damaged. Island not attached, and appliances missing or in bad shape.











Hole in master bedroom wall (intended for A/C unit).













Bathrooms need a lot of work, too.












Here's a sample of some of the work that needs to be done:

• Roof+gutters
• Insulation
• Windows
• Bathrooms
• Kitchen
• Floors
• Fence
• Siding
• A/C (we're considering a geothermal system)
  

So, basically everything. Of course, we don't have to do it all at once. With Orsi's dad, we'll only have to pay for materials for most projects, which will help a lot. We're going to try to get into the house again before closing so we can make some more concrete plans so we can hit the ground running.