3 months later, and we may finally be closing

Three months of anything is a lot, but three months of trying to buy a house is overload. It's like a full time job in itself. There is the walk-through, the inspections, the scavenger list of things that the bank demands, in my case a whole other list of repairs that need to be completed (one day i will write about the funny, and ridiculous adventure that was), the endless amount of phone calls and emails between lawyers, bankers, appraisers, sellers and buyers... and on top of that- the MONEY, you need a lot of it. 

In between there are dreams of pink vintage bathroom decor, grey and chartreuse dining rooms, tearing down walls to open up space, and refinishing old wooden stairs... that's what makes it worth the time and effort and emotional drain. 

There is a laundry list of  things that need doing... a new boiler, new flooring, a new fridge, a new window,  and framing, drywalling and finishing 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room... oh yea, and paint, paint, paint.

We are now only three days away from our closing, and it feels unreal. After so many set backs (mortgage mandated home repairs, sellers with cold feet zero brains but good intentions, banks that move in slow motion) it appears we may actually be on the verge of owning this 160 year old brick fixer-upper. When you think about it like that, it almost sounds like a bad idea... hopefully all these setbacks weren't omens to run away.  I firmly believe that after lots of hard work and a good deal of money, this will be our dream house; or in the very least, a home we can build a family in... and a pink vintage bathroom.

We found our demolished dream house, but that was the easy part

We found a house we loved, it seemed perfect... then we had the inspection and realized that after weeks of emotional investment into this house, it wasn't going to happen. The foundation was literally washing away with each rainfall and going to cost thousands of dollars to repair. This was a blessing in disguise, it sent us back into the housing market.

The next day, honestly, the very next day my father caught wind of a house newly for sale on my favorite street, and about $20,000 cheaper than the first house. We spoke to the owner and set up a walk-through for the next Saturday. It was nice downstairs... but destroyed upstairs. It was completely gutted. A renovation started but never completed. A mixture of procrastination, divorce and debt had caused the seller to give up on his dreams of renovation forever. Being the psychos we are, we loved it. We could see the potential in this pile of bricks and drywall and immediately knew we had to have it.

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Now that we found the house, well rather the shell of a house, that we know will one day be our dream home we can begin the process of obtaining funding. I have excellent credit and 20% down, so you may think this will be an easy feat. Unfortunately, when a house is half finished, or half destroyed, the bank is hesitant to give you any money at all towards the purchase.  At the low price of $105,000, it seems silly for the bank to argue with us; they give away more money than that to less deserving people, with less deserving credit all the time. Its not the people the banks are concerned with though, it's the property. If I was buying a house at the very top of my price point, that i could barely afford, with monthly payments that will require me to take on a boiled rice diet and have no furniture, they would gladly give me money. But because i am fiscally responsibly, and i know my limits, because i am buying a house that will allow to me to maintain my lifestyle (albeit this lifestyle will now include a new hobby of home repair) they are weary to fork over the dough. But i am already this far in, I am determined to obtain funding.

After a home inspection (it went ok... the house is 160 years old after all), the bank assessment, and no less than a thousand emails, we now know exactly where we stand... the bank wants us to repair two bedrooms upstairs and build a wall to separate the rest of the house into an attic/expansion area. For this we are grateful. Believe it or not, this is a great deal. After this the house will be labeled a 3 bedroom instead of a one bedroom, which is all the bank seems to care about.

We are going to create an agreement between the seller and ourselves to protect any investment we make in this house (i know it's crazy to make repairs to a house you don't own, but i'm not stupid!). Once the lawyers draw this up, we all have to sign it... which is always a painful process. 

2 weeks 'til we can begin repairs!