The House Hunt

Gah.

 

This post is long overdue but even just pulling up these photos unearths waves of emotion that I'm not sure I care to revisit. I want the process documented, however, so here goes.

 

Well, if you want the short of it, we've put down 1.87 offers so far over the course of our 55 day search which means we're averaging about one home a month that we can see ourselves living in. Alas, I have already lost track of how many homes we've actually toured. I didn't realize at the beginning of all this that I should keep a tally on the rear view mirror of our van!!! Let's just say it's been a lot. Like maybe 20 times more than we've actually put offers on. Anyhow, as anyone who's ever bought a house before knows, there have been MANY highs and lows already and I'm pretty sure by the end of all this our prayer life will be at it's strongest!!!

 

This is the first house we fell head over heals for.   

It was in Kenmore and we both just loved it. My father-in-law keeps telling me when it's the right house, you'll walk in and "just know" and that's definitely what happened with this place. I was literally giddy and could not wipe the grin off my face as we toured. When I saw the raised beds out back, the contained blackberries, the Asian pear and apple trees and the FIG TREE, I was sold. Hook line and sinker. It definitely needed a lot of work and some major updates but the bones were right and the price was low enough that we'd have enough money to do the desired remodels. We put an offer down that afternoon with an escalation clause that brought us 14K over asking price and still were outbid. It was a tough pill to swallow and we learned quickly that we dove too deep too fast and that we need to try to keep a safer distance the next time around. Ha.   

 

The house is still pending and we've joked often whether it is wrong to pray that a buyer's financing falls through... Until the deal closes, we're watching this place like HAWKS!

 

The next wonder was this beauty just blocks away from downtown Bothell.

When it first listed, there were no pictures and I read the description and called Graham and told him "I have no idea what it looks like but I think I just found our house!" We were there touring an hour after it hit the market and sure enough, when I pulled up I about died. THAT PORCH!! It was a registered historic home built in the 1920s and moved up the hill 47 years ago. The owners were a sweet elderly couple who had been there all 47 of those years and they seemed to light up when they saw we were a young family. After giving us the grand tour (yes they walked us through the place), they sat on the front porch while we deliberated. The home had more charm than words can summarize and even more work than that. Still, the huge dining room, 12 foot ceilings and 3700 square feet were hard to pass up. After flip flopping back and forth all night, we opted to low ball them an offer the following morning, accompanied by personal letter sharing our financial constraints given our desire to purchase a home on one income. We figured if they took our crazy low offer, it'd be a miracle and sign from God that this was the place was for us.

 

We waited all day and took off for our previously-scheduled camping trip late that afternoon. We finally heard from our realtor around 4 PM and he informed us that they were still reviewing our offer but we'd hear from them shortly. He said this was good news, indicating they were giving our offer good consideration as they hadn't rejected it immediately. We were headed toward Rainier National Park and were on the brink of losing cell reception and so pulled over to discuss what we should do. We'd been having cold feet throughout the day, uncertain whether we wanted to take on a 10 year remodel project. Even with our low ball offer, we'd be at the upper end of our price limit with only a 10K cushion to repair the never-ending list of items that could break at any moment. But the house!!! Would we ever find anything with this much character in such a great location? We deliberated some more (as if we hadn't already been deliberating on our 2 hour drive so far!!) and it was Graham who finally picked up the phone and called our agent to rescind our offer.

 

I cried for the next 30 minutes as we continued on our way out of cell range and toward the campground. I knew deep down, that at the current price point, it was the right choice but I was so disappointed. We needed to say no, for the sake of our marriage and for our family. It just wouldn't be wise to put ourselves in a situation with such great financial risk. But still, man was it hard!! The house is still on the market and I'm keeping tabs on it in case they decide to lower the price significantly and if they do, we will once again have to weigh heavily whether we'd be up for such a huge project.

 

So, this more or less brings you to the present. As I said before, there are certainly highs and lows to this process but we are slowly honing in on what we do and don't like and we're getting some great interior design ideas besides! (Trying to keep it positive here!!!!)