Or a Fixer…
Or something like that!
{I originally wrote this back in August 2018 and never pushed publish. So there are a few updates to add}
On May 24th, 2018, we finally completed the American dream. We became homeowners after a 3 year journey!
You are probably expecting to see fully done amazing photos, but that’s not the case. We bought a 1976 house that was still stuck in the late 70s and could have been considered antique.
It took so long because my hubby is in an industry that is similar to Real Estate, so the market is always being watched. And I wanted a fixer and he wanted a move in ready home.
I should also add that at the start of the 3 year journey, we had just opened a local gym (neither one of us knew anything about the Gym space aside from working out in one ourselves) along with just having our baby and getting married. We did, however, find a house that we fell in love with and put an offer out, the week of our wedding, and it got declined. So 2 days before our wedding, our agent called back and said the seller was going to consider our offer because the original couple had to back out because of medical issues. So we had an up and down battle from the beginning. We go on our honeymoon excited and happy the hunt is over… Fast forward to December and closing and the bank says they won’t approve our loan……. talk about heartbroken. So we were kinda gun shy for a while and the gym was taking a TON of our funds until we decided to sell it in late 2017 allowing us to get back into the home buying game.
Anyways, we (mostly me) looked at several houses, and I’m a feelings and vibe kinda gal. And I LOVE looking at houses and the design, choices, and possibilities. So we had offers in on other homes, but they didn’t feel right or work out until this one.
(Also – if you need moral support while going through this process or just to vent and be sad about an unaccepted offer, I’m your girl.)
And our budget was as little as possible.
So, Mamma won! (Because happy wife, happy life, right?!)
Annnnnd because it sits on a 1 acre lot in the city and has a detached garage that Steve loved…
But also has horses for the neighbors, so it was a compromise for sure!
That’s one tip I have in this whole experience. Learning to compromise on what isn’t the most ideal, but not things that are absolutes for you.
We knew we wanted a big lot and house, with a good price, and the additional garage was an added bonus. The horses were not ideal, but the neighbor is older, so they won’t live there forever either.
The first few visits to the house, I thought I was in an episode of Fixer Upper – trying to bring an old house up to date. Or so I wished.
But the more we got into it and the vision and possibilities presented themselves, we knew we were going to be in a bit deeper. And longer.
Because lets be real, what you see on TV is SO FAR from the truth of how long the project actually takes. At first, it was fun and exciting. Then it was a lot. Now, it’s still a lot.
Now, 6 months later and still waiting on the permits it’s still a lot.. but we’ve made a bit of progress in areas that we wouldn’t have thought to do in the beginning and our floor plan is
going to beincredible!
But I don’t know that I’d recognize the same house if we didn’t document the journey. We’ve made 2 mortgage payments thus far, and will pay at least 2 more before we can even think about moving in.
We’ve made 7 payments thus far, and are still waiting on our building plans to be approved before we can start putting the place back together.. which could be at least 4-5 months.
And this was just the first weekend of demo!
It’s way different than from the beginning, but the vision and possibilities are becoming more of a reality, and I’ve learned so much in this part of the journey.
Huge changes right?! I will continue to update as the progress keeps going and we make decisions as to what we should do and companies we are going with so you can get ideas.
xoxo,
AJ
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