Small Houses

Today's cleanstravaganza made me so happy to live in our little house - I realized today that if I finagle it right, I can vaccuum both upstairs and downstairs WITHOUT UNPLUGGING. Sigh. Heaven. We really wondered if we could survive in 1500 square feet when we bought this house, and I love it. Less is more.

Chris' parents old house

Chris and I both grew up in big houses. Our parents worked hard and bought (well, his built) houses that they felt met the needs of a growing family in the 90's. I think if we had the money, Chris would have wanted something in that 2000+ sq ft range to get us out of the 'starter home' category. And as much as I love skipping over things, we just couldn't make the money work and almost ended up in a condo (shudder) before we found our bungalow.

Before we bought this place, I was already a believer in the Bungalow. I nannied for a family in NH while in college who lived in a tiny house, probably around the same sq footage if not a wee bit less than ours. At the time, they had two cats and two girls under five who were everywhere in that house. I remember thinking, "How in heaven's name will I manage this in so much space?" Here's what was great about that situation:
1) You always knew where everyone was. There was almost no place to hide or get lost.
2) You were constantly within yelling distance of anyone else in the house.
3) Animals were extremely easy to locate (especially the ones that didn't belong in the house...that's a long story).
4) There was limited space to get messy/less space to clean when it did.
5) Easier to heat in the winter/cool in the summer.

And most importantly...it forced everyone to be together. Growing up, if you didn't like what was on TV in one room, you moved to another. The two girls I cared for had to hash it out. The tight quarters led to very useful life experiences for all of us. Big houses can be very useful, but at this point in life we are so happy to have a house that meets the size of our needs.

That said, we're pretty far off from having kids. There's a good chance that could change my mind entirely. But you know Chris...he's already got napkin plans about how to re-configure and add to this house to meet whatever needs we come up with. We'll just have to see if this stays a 'starter home.'

The House is Warmed

This would be the place to put all those pictures that I took at our housewarming party that we finally had on Saturday. Right. Except that I didn't take any because I was running around like a crazy person. Oops!

It was so nice, though, to have all of our friends and family have a chance to see the house. We love it here and we hope that others do, too!

It was interesting to get the perspective from other homeowners about the homeowning process. The one hint we keep getting is that the work never ends. It's true. I may have new, less dangerous stairs, but I'm balancing my legs underneath my hips right now to avoid resting my feet on the freezing, uninsulated kitchen floor. One thing at a time, right?

The other sad news is that Chris' CFA exam materials came yesterday (which was also my birthday). He'll go back into his Fortress of Solitude to study again starting this week, coming out only to eat, work and take the exam in June. I know this is good for our future but I've really grown accustomed to having him around. For example, I went to close the living room blinds on Sunday and they crashed down on my head. Instead of spending the next hour fiddling with them, I shouted, "FIX IT!" and Chris lept into action. They're sitting on the couch now, lifeless, but at least I'm not entirely to blame for their demise...

Winter is settling in. The animals around our house have gone into hibernation and the trash is safe, for now. Penny's fall coat is shedding out and her winter coat is glossy, red and beautiful. I've had the piano tuned in advance of some jamming while Chris studies and I've re-invested in the gym, looking towards a 10k race in April. This weekend we will buy and set up our fifth Christmas tree together. All is calm, all is bright.

And most of all...I love sitting on our freezing cold porch with Chris in the glow of our Christmas lights and the strange ozone smell of that giant Santa.

In lieu of pictures of the party, I will post some of Penny with her new favorite toy. My sister bought it because it was called a 'backyard pest' and she found that humorous. Penny has yet to be separated from her loving possum.

The Bothersome Bathroom

Our house has two bathrooms. The downstairs one is great and needs very little work.

The upstairs one is not so great. My research shows that it was added to the house in 2007, around the same time as the owner previous to us was probably starting to realize that he wasn't going to be able to afford his $3800 mortgage payments. Hence, it ended up looking like this:

You are probably aware of the fact that I'm a morning person, but Christopher is not. We were worried that with this bathroom upstairs, many of Chris' mornings would start like this:

So we hired a fantastic contractor to tear out and replace This Old Bathroom with one a bit more motivating. As of today, it looks like this:

Shower side - actually, that red wall to the right is gone now too...he's building us a little shelf in the shower to make up for the empty space there. We'll also have a 36x36 window. He had planned for a bigger window, but he measured it out too high for me to reach...

This is the view standing in the doorway. The old bathroom was too dark to take a picture from this view, believe it or not. We tore out the closet in the smallest bedroom (diminishing our value by going from 3 legal bedrooms to 2, but honestly, it wasn't even big enough to be a Harry Potter closet) in order to make more space in the bathroom and to put in a wee little linen closet. By the end of the week, the new roof should be on and the dormer for the new bathroom should be framed! Exciting stuff at our little house...more pics Sunday or Monday as we decide on paint!!

We Have A Permit!!!

Just take a look! She's about to be ours. We have an occupancy permit at last and we are still set to close on July 24th. Things have been going so well so far that we're now looking into the remodeling process - and boy, does she need some work done. Recent weeks have highlighted the differences between our families. Chris' dad today remarked that the hardest thing to manage would be the lawn, as it is in rough shape. My father, after seeing it last night, had this to say this morning:

You need to do three big things right away, the chimney, the roof with the added dormer/window, and the heating system replacement with a gas furnace and removal of the old oil tank - probably in this order, as you need the chimney done before you do the roof, and the chminey before you re-do the heat. You may want to think about talking with your neighbor about what good contractors he has found in his building process...

On the heating subject you may want to find plumbing/heating specialists (most of them are), and have them look at all the plastic plumbing used in the renovations - I don't think that is done right, and think it will be a problem downstream (I know, poor word choice). They also need to look at the ductwork, and repair all this so it at least works with the existing floor grates, etc. I would not think about finishing the A/C now, leave that for next year...

Just a guess, but I would say you are most likely looking at the better part of $20,000 to do all of these things - and I am always low in my estimating.... On the roof especially, with a house that old, you may have surprises once the contractor goes into the attic and looks at the structure of the roofing timbers and underlayment. In the old days they used boards not plywood as underlayment both on walls and roof. I noticed a gradual sag in the roof towards the middle last night, and this may mean - only may mean - some work to repair the substructure and plywood the whole thing - it has to be stripped, don't let anyone fool you into just a re-roof, and the chimney work has to be done first.

The only worries I have about the house other than the above are 1.) the bow in the front wall - but it is possible this has been there for 100 years, 2.) where they excavated the foundation wall for the kitchen remodel - I would have the mason repair this and leave an opening to crawl through for access, but it is too wide for my liking the way it is, and 3.) the sill damage by the bulkhead - but we can figure out how to fix this - rent some jacks and go at it - I have done this before, and with Chris for muscle and my mind/tools we can fix this, but it should be fixed.

Other than the above, you should plan on lots of buckets, Murphy's oil soap, some bleach, ammonia for windows, not a lot, and TSP, sponges, mops, rags, etc. as you really need to scrub before you move in.

As you can see, this is a bit different from "good luck fixing that lawn!" Chris and I are trying very hard to stay in the middle - heed my Dad's caution and excellent advice, but still enjoy and embrace the situation like Chris' parents insist. It's a beautiful thing, having two caring and involved families, and we're lucky for any advice we can get!

And on top of all of this - Chris' brother and his girlfriend had an offer accepted today, too! Hopefully there will be enough pickle-colored paint to go around. Their property needs less work than ours does, so hopefully we'll be able to have a couple of barn-raisings where we help them, you know, paint the walls, and they'll help us, you know, jack up the back of our entire house....

So it begins! Stay tuned, as I think this is about to get much more exciting. :)

The House!

Pictures to follow, but I can give you this for now...

Charming single family featuring nicely updated kitchen and bath, hardwood floors and solid building systems on a good sized lot. This bank-owned property is being sold in "as is" condition.

As you can see, she is the sweetest little house. She also needs a new roof, new heating system, and, if you ask Chris, a new upstairs bathroom. Our home inspection yesterday (Tiger Home Inspection was great! 9am on a Sunday?!) showed much of what we expected but nothing we felt we can't handle. I have a couple of phone calls to make this morning - Chris' dad is a bit worried that there may still be open building permits out on the property, and we would have to have that fixed before we could occupy. I'll post on the status of that later. 

You'll also notice that the listing is labeled "as-is." Pictures will show you just how "as-is" she really is. That also means that the bank doesn't negotiate anything - we have very few ways out of this deal if we sign a Purchase and Sales agreement today as we're scheduled to. They see it as they're giving us the house for a very good price, and we should do the rest. It also means they act with a complete lack of compassion, empathy or value for human life and/or our hard earned cash. 

My philosophy on this house is "one crisis at a time." Yesterday's was the home inspection. Check. Today's is the building permits. Tomorrow may be mortgages or heating systems or roofing guys, who knows. But you know the motto - no risk, no reward!