Ups & Downs of House Hunting

Sorry it has been awhile since I've posted anything. I figured it was time to start discussing one of my biggest addictions. House Hunting. Almost once a day during the week and at least once on the weekends I will be on Realtor.com, Hud.gov and Homepath.com (Fannie Mae's website) looking for a house. At the beginning of the year I fell in love with this house. It is a 1,300 sq ft 1850 colonial with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths.

I saw all the potential with it. 

 - Wide plank hardwood floors

 - First Floor open floor plan

 - Vaulted ceilings in the dining room

My husband saw everything wrong with it.

 - Stone basement walls that weep moisture

 - Needed an all new kitchen

 - Hardly any yard 

 - The list goes on...

So we brought in my mother's contractor to see what he thought of the place and how much it would cost to get it fixed up. So then reality hit. He said we were looking at $40k-$60k. Not in the budget. Remember that wonderful open floor plan, yeah the previous owner's made that by removing supports they shouldn't have. That weepy wet basement - not included in the cost listed above. It would stay weepy and wet unless we paid a lot more for a waterproofing system. So needless to say my dream home was out of the question. So I moved on. OK I kinda moved on. Someone else bought it and is fixing it up. I still refer to it as my house when I drive by. They painted it green, how could they get rid of the beautiful yellow.

My newest favorite is this beautiful little 1910 ranch with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. I was even repainting the rooms using Photoshop. She is about 1,200 square feet and comes with a different set of problems.

The second bedroom doesn't have a closet so it shouldn't really be a bedroom. The bathroom is completely remodeled, so that is a plus. Most of the issues are outside and in the basement. The home needs all the major repairs - Roof, Windows, and Boiler. The basement is one scary place. The only entrance is from the exterior through a bulkhead. It is a combination between a basement and a crawlspace. I'm only 5' 6" and I have to stoop. The floor is dirt and the walls are stone. It had a water issue because one of the other exterior issues is the are missing and damaged gutters and downspouts. Also the sump pump was not installed properly. Because of the dirt and the moisture and the house being empty the basement is dripping wet. Someone thought it was a good idea to try to insulate the basement ceiling, which is the floor of the first level. Well now that insulation is soaking wet and moldy. Well my contractor liked this house better than the first. We were looking at only $20k-$25k to make this home livable. Hubby thinks it is too small and we'll out grow it too fast and then not be able to resell it. And when I almost got close to talking him into it after the price fell a few times now it looks like someone else beat me to it. The listing was removed on Thursday. So back to the drawing board I go.

3-De♦sign

Welcome to Our Life in Design. I've created this blog to document 3 types of Design in my husband's and my life.

De·sign
(verb) - To create, fashion, execute or construct according to plan.
(noun) - An outline, sketch, or plan, as of the form and structure of a work of art, an edifice, or a machine to be executed or constructed.

1) Our Life - This is the our biggest Design. It's on-going. Andrew, my husband, and I have been married for 1 year and 5 months. We currently have been renting an apartment for 2 and half years.

  

Kitchen - looking toward Living Room

Kitchen standing in Living Room

 

 Living Room - Bedroom and office doors

Dining Room - Door to deck

  

Master Bedroom

Doesn't it look so nice. Yeah these pictures were taken when first started moving in. There was a lot more room before we moved all our stuff in. I'd show you current pictures but I don't think we know each other well enough for me to show you the disaster that is my apartment. There are some things we love about our apartment but we need something bigger and something that is ours. Also it is freezing cold in the winter and burning hot in the summer. Did I mention it is the 3rd floor apartment in an old house. We've started the search for our first house and plan to share our journey to home ownership with you all here.

2) Home Design - Our search for home ownership will lead us to the second type of Design. Decorating our new home and discovering our personal and couple styles.

3) Graphic Design - Both the Hubby and I work in marketing and graphic design. I also plan to start a freelance graphic design business to help supplement our current income. And maybe one day if I'm lucky it can be a full-time work from home position, especially once there are little ones in the house. (And no I don't mean the cats - Tasha and Brady)

I should probably warn you. So far this post has maintained a very informative and professional appearance. However, Andrew and I are self-proclaimed dorks and you never know what kind of randomness either of us will come out with. So now you have been warned about the craziness the may occur in future posts.

Kala :)