You know? I'll start with a little story.
We were house hunting during the time period of the $8,000.00 first time homebuyers credit in spring of 2009. We had just had a baby and were, at the time, renting a two-bedroom condo in West Bloomington. A condo is great if it's the two of you, but in cases of our little family, who sometimes have guests stay for up to a year at a time (my hubby's family is from Nepal), a two-bedroom condo can become cramped really fast! Add a baby to the mix and it was time to start looking for a house!
We saw a ton of houses. Mostly in the south and west suburbs. We were looking at houses every weekend and I was constantly on Edina Realty's website scoping out new postings. :)
There were a glut of foreclosures and short sales. Our realtor didn't want us to even consider short sales, so we didn't look at them. We found very quickly that a "good house" went fast. (And, most likely, we were in a very popular price point.) We put in offers on two houses - the first we lost in a bidding war and the second we found had sold the day before - and we had seen it on Day 3 on the market!
Anyway. We saw this house the first time in March. The house was empty when we saw it and so the rooms flowed together. I remember that it felt like the house just kept going! I remember liking the neighborhood. I made some checks on my list and kept looking.
A few weeks later, frustrated by the awful condition of homes we had been seeing in our price range, we revisited some of the earlier homes that we had liked. We saw the split-level (ironically, because I had initially said I did not want to even look at splits!) and I noticed more details, like the wall of brick in the family room and my husband mentioned that we could partition the large room and make a fourth bedroom.
I started to really like it...But, we had more houses to see, so we left and went to the next house.
Our realtor had gotten the "we're interested" vibe from us, so on the drive to our next stop (we rode separately), he called the listing agent. And the house? Had sold the day before.
Bummer.
"You never know," I said. "Maybe their financing will fall through." But, I doubted it.
A few weeks later, we were completely frustrated. All of the houses we were seeing were in bad condition or dirty or neglected or in neighborhoods that didn't feel like us. I compared every single new house we went through to the split-level that had sold. And kept checking Edina Realty's website obsessively for new postings.
And so, one afternoon, imagine my surprise when the split-level (my split-level) showed up on my search results! It had to be a fluke - it had to! But, the posting said "status change," so, even though I was sure it was a fluke, called our realtor, anyway, to check.
He called the listing agent - and the posting was active! And (imagine this), their financing had fallen through!
The house had been officially back on the market for four hours and he had already had six people interested in showings!
So...at nine-thirty at night, we got in the car, baby in tow, and went to our realtor's office to put in an offer. A (nearly) full price offer, but we had already lost two houses (and had already lost this one) and didn't want to go that route, again.
The next morning, our offer was accepted and the house that almost wasn't our house, became ours.
I like to think that our house came back for us. :)
...
We moved into our 1966 split-level ranch Memorial Day weekend of 2009.
Our first weekend? Was spent raking - we live in a wooded neighborhood with several mature oaks - we raked 56 bags of leaves! Insane. (That was one of the things I did not notice when we were looking at the house!)
Here is our house from the real estate listing:
Our landscaping isn't so nice as it is here - and they took the ranchy 1960's wagon wheel, as well. Our landscaping needs some help, to be honest. But that will come with further posts! :) Maybe this year!
Anyway. When you enter the front door, this is the room that you come into. (The door you can see in the picture is the entrance from the garage.) The first thing we did when we moved in was take out the paneling, which was a great change! The room is a fairly large and open space - kind of a living room plus a den. In the long-term plan, we would like to create a full wall where the soffet is and add a fourth bedroom.
Down a level, you reach the basement - this is unchanged, at the moment, although we did replace the carpet when we moved in. Little by little! Behind the fireplace wall is an unfinished utility room and the "scary bathroom," which I have entered maybe twice since the day we moved in.
Up a level is our family room and kitchen and dining area. There is a two-sided fireplace that separates the family room from the kitchen and dining area. We replaced the carpet in the family room, as well, although at some point, I would love to put in dark hardwood floors.
Then, up another flight of stairs - we love stairs in a split-level - are three bedrooms and what we affectionately call the butterfly bathroom.
When we moved in, the entire house was bland. All white walls. But we thought the layout was nice and the bones of the house were nice. In future posts, I'll show you some of the changes we have made.
