On the move

In a Great House Search of 2011 update, the seller agreed to a pretty nice price reduction after the inspection! Though we would have taken the deal previously, we were a little concerned about seeing a return on our investment since the house needs so. much. work.

This last month has been a roller coaster. And not to be a Debbie Downer, but it's been mostly downhill. But! We're on the move! I made the paper chain to count down the days until we get out of our apartment, a.k.a. The Worst Place to Live Ever. We happily rip one link off every day in anticipation. I took the photo quite some time ago, so we're down to one lonely but ecstatic ring.

Third Time's a Charm?

Okay, wow. House #2 turned out to be falling down, quite literally. And we just weren't sure it could be salvaged, for any price...so we walked away. It was totally heartbreaking. I wish we didn't have to spend $300 on a professional inspection, but that was $300 well spent considering we could have had tens of thousands of dollars in repairs to even make the house livable. But we moved on to greener pastures...

House #3! We have an accepted offer, and we had our inspection yesterday. The report wasn't super great, but for the right price we should be able to see a return on our investment. We're following the classic real estate rule of purchasing the worst house in a good neighborhood. And realistically, this neighborhood is more upscale than the previous two houses (which were on the same street).

Check out some interior shots in all of their old person glory (and it smells like it looks like it smells):

Front door and porch

Entry

Kitchen (and half bath through the doorway)

Dining room

Living room

Family Room

Sun porch with ghostly apparitions

Full bath #1

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

We've got a looong to-do list and certainly have our work cut out for us, but at least it will be our very own!

House Hunting Continues

I figured it was about time to update on the Great House Search of 2011. We ended up choosing...(look at each other and giggle)...House #2!

But don't get too excited for us, because we got outbid on it at the eleventh hour. It was disappointing, and dare I say a little heartbreaking (cue the violins). We took it in stride and moved on to...

House #1! This house has been a bit of a unique situation for everyone involved. It's what you would call a "distressed property", which means the homeowners have a financial situation that required the bank to step in. So many properties are falling under that category these days, but since it's a relatively new crisis for the real estate market, every bank handles them differently. Sooo, that means this has been quite the learning experience for everyone involved. You would think that because this house has been on the market and vacant for a year and a half, when a qualified buyer comes along the bank couldn't get rid of it fast enough, right? Wrong! Or kind of wrong at least. They'd love to unload that house from their books, but they've got a stack of 387,998 on their desk in exactly the same situation. Ick for us!

However, we've had a bit of a unique situation. An agent for the bank (not WITH the bank) in some capacity purchased up all of their distressed listings and works to sell them on the bank's behalf. They knew what the bank wanted to get for the house, and they negotiated through their Realtor with us on a price. This probably made the whole process go a lot faster had they not had the third party agent.

At this point we thought we were all well and good. But life can never be that easy, right? The homeowner—who we weren't even aware was still involved at this point—couldn't hold out any longer to file for bankruptcy. Which then pulled the house off the market until a judgement could be made on her assets. Which could take 60-90 days. Which made us want to rip our hair out slash gouge our eyes out. But fast forward to a mere 30 days after hearing this news, and the bankruptcy was settled! Had to be some sort of record I think. The bank, whom we think is now in full control of the property, accepted our offer!

We have a quick 5 days to complete our inspections and get this show on the road. B's parents are coming up this week to give us an architect's expert eye, and we might just have a contractor tagging along as well. This house is in less-than-pristine condition, and has its share of problems...from what we can tell. We're no experts, so we'll just have to wait and see. We've got to decide how much is too much to invest in repairs and hope the magic number is below that. I really want this house! I've been mentally redecorating for months now, and I'd like the ideas to get out of my dreams and into my car house. I can really picture us living in this house, so I just want it to happen already!

So there you have it, folks. Keep your inspection fingers crossed for us this Thursday!

Estate sales are my new BFF

A couple weeks ago I headed out bright and early (for me) to an estate sale 45 minutes from our house. Turns out the only things I can be on time for involve the promise of cheap junk—maybe I should have had my old boss dangle vintage costume jewelry in front of me. There was quite a crowd of geriatrics getting rowdy at the front door when I got there, so I joined the herd. They only let so many people in at a time, so I provided the entertainment for those of us stuck out in the cold. For. 30. minutes. Ick! I don't think the nursing home escapees quite knew what to make of me, especially when I started making barfing sounds when I found some nail clippers in a drawer of a dresser. Won't be buying those, thankyouverymuch.

I finally got in the door and wished my new peeps still outside good luck. I'm pretty sure they filmed an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive right before I got there. Since I had a dream the night before about not getting any of the stuff I wanted, I beelined it for this:

...an antique store cabinet. Don't love the drawer pulls, but I've been fantasizing about new ones. Maybe these or these or these. Or all mixed and matched! It cost a pretty penny, so I put in a bid and waited to see if I got a phone call. Immediately I started to have some remorse about the price I offered, so when the seller called I said no thanks. But with a heavy heart...I guess the cabinet and I were not meant to be. But I must find another one—the quest is on!

After the 28 drawer debacle, I focused my attention elsewhere. There were beautiful antique books, funky vintage sheets (which I can barely bring myself to touch, let alone purchase and use for a project), fun costume jewelry, and old sewing patterns. What really caught my eye though were the vintage Christmas ornaments. I've been a casual browser for a while, and decided it was time to take the plunge. I left with this stash to start my collection:

Along with a random cast iron star that I thought would look cool hanging with a picture grouping on a wall. All for $20! Hopefully I didn't get ripped off too badly. The ornaments need cleaned up something awful, but once I weed out the broken ones and polish them up they should be shiny brite again (get it?). Now I just need to find myself a vintage silver tinsel tree to hang them on.

My First Quilt: Part 2

After prepping my fabrics, I started cutting out the squares to make the hourglass blocks for the quilt center. I had to cut just as many white squares as colored, which started to get teee-deee-usss (that's tedious). If you know me, you know that I'm Impatient with a capital I.

Then I got to measuring, marking, sewing, cutting, ironing, more sewing, and squaring. Whew! A helpful tip I learned in my quilting class was to chain stitch the pieces. That means to start with a little "jumper" piece of scrap fabric and continuously sew all the blocks so they are connected by a little length of thread. There is no need to backstitch on quilt tops, and it saves time and thread by not starting and stopping with every piece. Brilliant!

Next up: sewing all the blocks together and devising a border.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you get to spend today with the one you love. I'm so glad I get to.

Love you, B.

P.S. Do you like my homemade heartshmallow? Recipe here.

House Hunters International

Okay, well only international if you don't live in the U.S. of A., but it just sounds chicer that way. We could be international to you, if you lived in Europe. Or Australia. Or Asia. Anyhow...

Over the weekend we went to revisit our top 3 house choices to decide which one to make an offer on. Channeling Suzanne Whang, will it be...

House #1, the leaky faux-finish-heavy mid-century ranch?

House #2, the stuck-in-the-sixties rambling mid-century ranch?

Or will it be House #3, the fuzzy basemented mid-century ranch? Admittedly, I forgot to get a photo of the outside, because no, it did not get sunny and make all the snow melt within the 45 minutes we were in the house. Oh well.


Stay tuned to find out which one we picked!