www.tulippress.ca/2009_04_01_archive.html
So perhaps I spoke to soon. Perhaps I shouldn't of shared that we found "the house". Because in fact we haven't, not yet anyhow. Saturday I brought the Lawrence brood to the potential home and at first it was mostly cosmetic. Things that of course add up to being costly, but when attempted one project at a time it doesn't seem so bad... Till we got to the upstairs portion of the house. The little room to the left (which would have become Hazel's playroom) as you climb a ladder and come through a hatch door, needed work- for sure. Peeling wallpaper,some covered up (badly) water damage. But it wasn't until you walked through the doorway and got to the larger room that my brother saw the problem. The floor was bowed. He jumped up and down to show all of us including the realtor- just how terrible it was. The entire floor was shaking, windows, the door to get to the outside from upstairs... basically it was a death trap of sorts. Our hearts were broken (not to mention on another go around we realized the downstairs bedrooms were so small- we'd hardly fit our bed and dressers) but there was obvious no way that we could live here. It seems somewhere between 1920, when the house was built and Saturday, there was a large weight-bearing wall that must have been moved- which is why the upstairs was sloping. If we had truly been in love with that house- for real, I think we could have fixed it, but after all the other semi-minor repairs added up and then the not-so-thrilling details ( I won't bore you with) we decided Saturday night to call it quits. We canceled the real inspection and retracted our offer. Besides the seller was not at a point where she would take any less for it, so we felt it wasn't fair for us to have to take a 203K mortgage out in order to fix a place- that the bedrooms would still be just as small when we were finished! UGh!
So onward & upward. Today we have plans to look at some other properties. Hazel came down with yet another cold and now I have it too. Feeling totally run down and I think our spirits were a little shot this weekend.
Hazel is saying so many amazing things these days- I try to remember everything like polaroids in my brain. I love this kid, even though I have been a miserable mama for the last few days with this cold. She's even reaching the 3rd shelf of many of her books. Getting so big. xo
5 comments:
I should say this isn't the house.. although this house is amazing.
As heartbreaking as it can be to realize that the house you thought was "the house" wasn't... you will be twice as full of joy when you DO find "the house". :)
I wish you nothing but luck on your journey. I will be following along! I hope you'll follow me too, if you like my blog.
Sadie@
nelliebugs-swaps.blogspot.com
Oh I'm so sad for you and your family. Little set backs like that are never fun to accept. But it just wasn't meant to be. Soon you'll find the most amazing house ever, and before we know it, you'll be posting pictures of your first Christmas there :)
When DH and decided to start looking we found "the house" right away, but couldn't get anyone to show it to us. We finally had to contract a realtor who showed us every house in the neighborhood and well above our stated price range but not "the house" so on the second saturday we told him to pull over the car and DH and I got out. He asked what we were doing and we said getting out of this runaway train. We explained that he was obviously not the realtor for us, because he couldn't be bothered to listen to us. All he cared about was adding up his commission. He then drove us back to his office and I continued calling "the house" until I finally got someone. When I went in I had reservations, I could see all the little improvements that needed to be done (by my Dad and me). 2 Days later DH went back with me and we made an offer. My father went back to check out the structure and the roof (because if either of those was an issue then it meant we couldn't buy it).
10 years later (this is our 10th year in the house) we are still working on the little projects, but it is our home.
You will find your home, this was just a house.
I've been there. I get totally excited about a potential house and then something falls through (needs new floors, someone else has put an offer in on it, foundation work, etc). I figure the house for me will present itself in due time. For now, I rent.
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