Month: September 2017

One of our biggest concerns about getting this house was actually one of the most beautiful details of the house. The large two story bay is crumbling. The bay is three layers of brick and all three layers are bowing in the middle right where the second floor attaches, well, where it used to attach anyway. We were told by an inspector in March that any settling was done long ago and that he felt confident with the structure, but we were just not convinced.

We messaged pictures to a few contractors and had a few others visit for second, third, fourth and fifth opinions and the decision was unanimous, inspectors are inspectors for a reason. The bay must come down. At least our minds were put at ease about the foundation, but the bay definitely needed to come down. Now we have options. Do we tear it down then:

1. Rebuild with an inner shear wall and put back the two inner and outer layers of brick?

2. Rebuild with an inner framed wall and have a brick facade outside?

3. Rebuild with wood only and tie to the existing brick walls and side with something else?

We have decided we like the last option best if it’s an engineering possibility. The decision is also hanging on the fact that we may be getting historical grant money and that may require us to keep the brick look. If not wifey would love to see it sided in scallops to give it a bit of a turret feel. This big ‘ol lady is a craftsman and all, but a splash of Victorian never hurt anyone right?

…btw I love this little nook for some odd reason. I can’t wait to put a gargoyle and some hens and chicks right there.

It’s been a long time coming but we finally closed today. After much deliberation and finagling we were able to get the house for just under $40k.

We have been working feverishly to get the floor plans completed and ready to take to the county, but that will be much easier now that we have the key and can make exact measurements.

We have had many contractors over to the house since putting in our most recent offer and have decided that the foundation is sound despite town rumors, and that the bay wall will need to come down and be rebuilt. And for the first time we may bring a contractor in to do that so that we can spend our time on the roof.

This week we also visited our association of local gov’ts to talk about possible grants for the project because it is an historical structure. We should hear back Monday on possibilities (fingers crossed).

This key is a relief to have after such a long time coming and dreaming. It’s also the beginning of an arduous journey that I hope you will enjoy taking with us.

We have heard back from the seller today and he will be meeting with the realtor tomorrow to sign paperwork! He has accepted the offer, but said that he has to let his wife know…. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I will pretend it’s great news.

We were able to visit the house today and measure the rooms and tentatively decide on a floor plan. Now time to put it on paper and see if it will actually work out just as we are thinking in our heads. For the most part everything in the house is framed, but some of the framing will be changed and finagled a bit. After visiting today I was surprised at the things we had to compromise on in order to get the appropriate spaces into the house that we actually needed. I didn’t get my dance room like I had originally planned, but we can’t all have everything and my children won’t live there forever. But maybe a compromise can be a ballet bar in the family room. Everyone should have one anyway right?

We will have more than enough storage. There are so many nooks and crannies that are filled with shelves and closets, as it stands the house is a great use of space.

We know we will have a few HUGE expenses right off the bat: replacing the roof, HVAC and the large engineered beam that we will need to expand the kitchen. The beam that we currently have is 4 feet short of what we need to open up the entire front living space. We originally had only planned on opening the kitchen and not worry about the front parlor/dining area, but to do that the beam would need a post and that post would need a post under it in the basement and that post would need additional support under the current basement. We weren’t willing to deal with that so to spread one beam from one original outside wall to the next original outside wall is the best option for that space. It will be much more time consuming and will probably save us money in the end of the process. These walls will come down and we will definitely benefit from the wide open parlor/formal dining/kitchen area that we will gain from that expense.

Enjoy the first floor walk-through of this wonderful space. The space that I mentioned that we don’t know what we are doing with it….well, it has been decided that it will be Canessa’s bedroom.

We gave everyone a quick peek into our goals, plans, hopes and dreams for our family’s future home quite a few months back, but we hit a huge snag when the seller was largely mistaken on what he could get away with. He wanted us to have this home so terribly that he was willing to let us put a large amount down and then finance the rest of the home through him. Because of the condition of the home there isn’t much of a possibility of financing otherwise.

He accepted our offer and started to get things in order on his end and quickly found out that with the loan that he currently had that he wasn’t, in fact, allowed to finance the rest of the purchase. Until this point we weren’t aware that there was even a loan on the home. His current loan was obtained to finance other projects out of town while this house was still intact and being used as college housing, but during that time the kitchen had caught fire and the house was then gutted. We were completely devastated having already fallen completely in love with the prospect of this house, the neighborhood, and the thought of finally having a home large enough for us. We had a feeling that the timing just wasn’t going to work for us since we were right in the middle of a flip project.

We recently finished our flip, placed it on the market, and our fabulous agent had it sold and cash in our hands within a month and a half. It was the most perfect circumstances anyone could ask for while selling a home. With that money now in hand we went back to the sellers today and put in our new cash offer (fingers, eyes, toes and even attitudes a little crossed).

Tomorrow we walk through the home, take measurements, and start making floor plans to take to the county. We couldn’t be more excited for this project. It is more than 4 times the size of our most recent project, but I know that we can do it. Our sons are older, stronger, smarter and more helpful, mules really. And we have definitely learned a lot more about this whole process, mainly that even though we get to the verge of divorce time and time and time again over the color of grout or the texture of carpet, we still come out shining in the end. It really is worth it all.

Photos and videos to come tomorrow!