Task 1: Removing the carpeting and laminate flooring

The first night we had the house we came in with bug bombs, set them off and left.  Just to be safe – remember the house had been empty for quite a long time.

Day two of owning our first home was the day the fun started.  Our first task to remove all carpeting, linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom and laminate in the laundry room.  Our time was limited we wanted the floors done before we moved in.

The first step was to score the carpet with a box knife that way it could be easily ripped out and removed.

The underlayment was left underneath.  I was able to rip that up by hand.

The best part?  You guessed it – pulling up all the tack strips and staples. *eye roll*  Luckily I have a great family who were more then happy to help.

But look at those awesome floors taking shape!

And look at all the trash that came out of the house.

It took a few days to get it all done.  But man was it worth it.  Tearing out the (used to be) white carpets in the downstairs and the (groovy baby) red shag carpets upstairs helped make the house feel more like ours and got rid of a lot of the old house/crazy cat lady odors we inherited.

One happy and excited couple.

GOGO Gadget!

That’s right, we had our home inspection this afternoon!  It went… okay.  We are still moving ahead but there were a few curve balls thrown our way.

The first problems were electrical.  The plugs in the kitchen are not GFI protected but after further investigation they are at the breaker (I didn’t even know that was possible).  The bathrooms are not grounded so there will be a little work there for safety reasons.  The rest of the house has two prong outlets, so no ground anywhere.  We will have to run a few dedicated lines in order for surge protectors to work. 

The next set of problems was plumbing.  The water lines are all galvanized steel that are getting close to the end of their life span.  That is something I’d like to get fixed before winter.  I would rather not ignore this problem and have something go wrong this winter. 

Everything else was cosmetic.  The upstairs was once a separate apartment and has an extra electrical service up there.  That will make life easier if we ever decide to add an extra air conditioner to cool the space.  The AC is 22 years old, but it’s still running good.  No insulation in the second floor.  The second story deck needs some sturdy-ing up.  The fireplace needs to be re-tuckpointed.  New sump pump and basement needs sealed and cleaned.  Aluminum siding needs some TLC.  Plaster has effervescence in the living room. 

All and all: nothing major, just a good sized honey do list.  We will have the report tomorrow to actually go through, this was all from memory. 

Are we brave, or just crazy, or maybe a little of both?

 xoxo – Manda

Woo-Hoo!

I will post more updates later, but it looks like our offer was APPROVED! *Some major excitable dancing going on over here*

There were other offers on the property so we went ahead and offered $56,000.  Neither one of us wanted to lose out over $1000.

We are on our way right now to add $250 more to the earnest money.  Having a total of $500 was one of the contingences of our offer being accepted, but that’s not a big deal.  After that we have to get all the inspectors and appraiser in, if all goes well we will close on August 16^th.

A late birthday present to Wolfy and in plenty of time to set up our backyard as the perfect backdrop for our wedding.

 xoxo – Manda

*more jumping and squealing*

The Third House

After looking at four houses, we made our mind up.  The Third House is the one we hope to make ours.  This morning we called the realtor to tell her of our intentions. 

The house is priced at $54,900 and is a foreclosure.  Great news!  However we have to come in with our strongest offer we can (or wish to).  Foreclosures like this don’t happen very much around here and most of them aren’t even close to this good of condition or price, which means there is a lot of competition.  Monday when we hope to make our offer so will several other people.  We are going in strong with an offer of $55,000 and hopefully try to get our bank to agree to close in three weeks instead of four.

Which brings us to another interesting point, our loan is for the multi-family home that we first looked at.  So Monday first thing we have to get ahold of the bank to change the loan.  Hopefully it will be okay, as the plan is to ask for less ($50,000).

Property Virgins – Part II

The Fourth House (1900 sq ft):

A three bedroom, one bath with kitchen, dining room, living room, and full basement

 

 

Pros:

BIG (huge rooms and bedrooms)

Great hardwood under carpet

Huge master suite (open second floor)

Tall ceilings

Big closets

Tons of storage

Full basement could be finished (possibly)

Cons:

Small backyard

Gutters need fixed

Roof might need replaced

Needs all new windows

Has no appliances

Has been sitting for almost 2 years

Garage far away from house (on a separate half lot)

Need to replace hot water heater and maybe furnace

Verdict: It has some great potential.  It could be an amazing house, but it could be a money pit. 

xoxo – Manda

Property Virgins: To Find Our Wolf Den

No word yet on the house we put an offer in on.  The realtor says it may be a short sale, or it may not be no one has let her know anything at all yet.  So today we took time out from our projects and went to look at 3 more houses.

The first house (1274 sq ft):

A charming little one story ranch with three bedrooms, one bath, a living room, and an extra den with fireplace

 

Front room with big windows and new carpet

Once upon a time a porch now an extra living space

Pretty hardwood

Side yard

Backyard… look at the neighbors nice fence

 

Pros:

Nice size yard

Nice hardwoods

New carpet in the living room

The extra living space

The Cons:

Tiny bedrooms

Gas everything (I dislike gas with a passion, even to cook on, we just don’t get along)

One bath

Verdict: Nice, but dated.  We would have some work ahead of us (a total kitchen reno for starters), but it has great potential to be a really nice house.

The Second House (842 sq ft):

A one story bungalow with (alleged) three bedrooms, one bath, and a partial unfinished basement

Front Door (Notice the two types of foundation)

Loved the arch

“Hi Paul, hows the wife and kids?” – Can you say awkward?

Oh look, theres the rest of the window

Pros:

Red front door

Like the buttresses?

Pretty trim

Arches inside

Cons:

No parking

No appliances

Not only does it have a Jack and Jill bathroom but it also has a Jack and Jill closet

No gutters

Short basement

3^rd bedroom can never really be a bedroom, just an office

And to top it off massive foundation issues

Verdict:

Pass.

Third House (1250 sq ft):

A one and a half story foreclosure with three bedrooms (one has been converted into a laundry room), 1 ¾ baths, and unfinished basement in a good part of town

 

Front room with fireplace

Amazing kitchen; sorry for the blur, I got excited!

Upstairs… master suite

The view from the bedroom (look at that backyard!) 🙂

Pros:

Amazing kitchen (updated appliances and cabinets)

Close to a nice park

Huge, lovely back yard

Deck off the upstairs

One and three quarter bath with one being off suite of the master

Wood burning fireplace in front room

Cons:

Basement is wet (have to have an inspector look at it, most likely it is due to the sump pump not being turned on)

All carpet needs ripped out

Lots of cosmetic work

There may not be much (if any) insulation in the upstairs

Verdict: Where do we sign?

The third house was something we fell in love with and intended to make an offer on.  However, before we can do that we have another appointment to look at one more house tomorrow.  It all hangs in the balance of what tomorrow’s house looks like.

xoxo – Manda

Do I hear $58,000?

We just got back from making an offer on what will hopefully become our first place!!!

The house is listed at $64,900 and we are offering $58,000 and asking that the seller pays closing costs.  While that would be amazing we really don’t think she will agree to all that.  After watching hours of Property Virgins and shows like that we know it is better to start a little lower and work our way up.  Either way the contract says we should know by Wednesday.

We also learned a little bit more about the seller.  She is out in California and evidently a little over her head in debt.  If she doesn’t sell the property soon it is going to become a short sell.  Everyone wants to avoid that. 

In case you don’t know, a short sell is done though the bank not a person, which means they lack a sense of urgency.  Instead of taking the normal 30 days to close it can take anywhere from 60 to 90 days or even more.  That makes us hopeful that the seller will accept out offer. 

We also ran into something else we knew nothing about before today, earnest money.  We were required to give them a check for $250 to prove that we were, well, earnestly interested in this property.  Basically, the money goes in escrow and if we back out or we were unable to secure financing they (I’m not sure if this is the seller or the real estate office) get to keep it.  However, if we back out for reasons dealing with the home inspection or we are not able to come to agreement with the seller we get the money back.  If (hopefully when) the deal goes through this sum will come off our closing costs.   

 xoxo-Manda