Remember two weeks ago, when I was planning all the exciting things for a house we hadn’t bought?
And last week, when I bragged about a secret?
And Tuesday when I teased about an exciting day to my Facebook followers?
And the majority of those two weeks were spent pinning home decorating images to my Pinterest board?
Last Saturday, Brian and I put a bid on a house. And within two hours of starting the paperwork, we had negotiated a deal with the sellers.
We were on cloud nine. We had a quirky amazing house. And plans.
Old bones with big additions. I was calling it my 90’s chic 90-year-old house.
Vaulted ceilings, book nooks, connected closets, walk-in closets as big as bedrooms, a gigantic jet tub in the master suite, a loft–it was insane. Great location. Near the train. Near highways. A little extravagant, perhaps, but somehow fell in our price range. We couldn’t turn it down. It called to us.
When we walked in, we knew it was our house. Just like everyone says about houses…you just know.
Tuesday, we had our inspection. We had told ourselves that there wasn’t anything they could find that would deter us from the house.
We were wrong.
Our inspector was GOOD. I mean as a person? Not my kinda guy…a cocky dude who talked down to Brian, for sure, but he knew what he was doing. He was thorough.
His thoroughness quickly found major issues with the foundation and property grading, some current, some potential. But big.
And we can try to append the contract to factor in these major problems, but do we want to?
Brian’s stipulations had always been that he didn’t want to deal with foundations or roofs at the starting gate. I can’t blame him. It’s a lot to deal with.
So we both grieved. Which seems bizarre for a house that we’ve only known for two weeks.
We learned a lot from the inspector (about clues to look for, how to tell the age of certain appliances and fixtures, features we should recognize…it was eye-opening).
And we realized that there were other things we were willing to overlook, but we’re relieved that we won’t have to deal with (ALL old appliances, huge heating and cooling costs, a creepy basement, and unusually high taxes, among other things…)
I do know, though, that we will find a house. It just isn’t this one.
18 Responses
This is a good thing. The inspectors here tell you the house is fine when it isn’t. We know from experience. Brian is right, you don’t want huge problems to deal with right away. You are right too…you will find your house!
I am sad because I really loved your Pinterest board: How to make a creepy basement less creepy.
It’s totally normal to mourn too because you have this lifetime of living in that house playing out in your mind. It’s a loss for sure.
Don’t worry, I’m going to keep my Pinterest board and all the other boards for the next house.
I am sad, but I’m relieved that we have a good inspector who WILL find everything, so we don’t have any surprises.
There is NOTHING more stressful than buying or selling a house (and I say this as someone who’s been through a divorce). The last house I bought came with a gas leak. Decided to go through with it anyway and 8 years later still glad that we did. But there were a lot of sleepless nights in there.
Yes…and there are a few other stressful things going on right now that is compounding the crazy in our lives over here.
Good to know that there are some things worth going through though!
Being a single guy at the time and at the start of my career, I started looking for condos in the So. Cal area. Not much was available in my price range, but I did find a two bedroom that would hold all my stuff and had a nice pool. Unfortunately I was noise sensitive and in talking to one of my prospective neighbors, found out a refrigerated freight company was going to be buying an old warehouse 50 yards from the unit I had put a down payment on. Big refrigerated trucks would be driving in and around the warehouse 24 hours a day! So immediately I consulted an attorney and got out of that deal. Caveat emptor!
Lucky that you got out of it!!
I have bought a house before. Lost it in a divorce….sigh.
Sadface.
Yeah…
I bought a townhouse on my own when I was 24. It was the most terrifying thing (at the time) that I had done in my life. My dad builds custom homes, so when I would find a house I was serious about he would check it out and bust my bubble. It was great and it sucked all at once.
I learned a TON though, so when my husband and I were looking for our current home 2 1/2 years ago we were able to weed out a lot of the bad ones before my heart got involved. As soon as we found our house though, I IMMEDIATELY started decorating it in my head. =)
Yeah, I was decorating and getting married and having babies all in my head. It was bad.
I am hoping and praying “the one” is close to your family. Although, 4 minutes away would have been nice, that basement was enough to scare me away too. The right one is aound the corner…figuratively or literally !
Oh Mama…I promise we won’t be more than 30 minutes (non-highway 30 minutes…not highway minutes away.)
That… is an unusually creepy basement. It looks as though someone has been imprisoned there. It’s not the creepiest basement I’ve ever seen. That award goes to the former slaughterhouse building that housed my first apartment, with the old hanging room and raised concrete butchering slab still in evidence. I tried not to go down there. Ever.
It was ridiculously creepy. That cage? Only one small corner. Then there was a little cellar crawl space with a gravel floor, a tiny closet-sized room with crumbling door walls(literally, just cut cinderblocks with foamy-looking glue) and the ceilings were all 5’6″ to 6′.
I’m sorry it went this way, but I’m sure your house will present itself soon!
Yes, it will. And probably with slightly better timing…at least an extra paycheck or two will happen between now and our next house.
Sounds like he was a teriffic inspector. He was cocky because he knew his stuff! Noi need to go house poor over a money pit!