Rob and I are pretty spontaneous. I'm pretty sure that this all started when we woke up one morning and Rob said, "I'm tired of renting. Let's try to buy a house." Of course, I couldn't say no to that! We had been saving a bit for awhile, but we previously hadn't even known what we were saving for! It was around November 2011, and we decided that our goal was to buy a house in 2012. Then, the hunt was on..
I think that house hunting was one of my favorite things that I've ever done. Being the curious
The one thing that Rob and I knew we wanted was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home (or more) that was old and needed renovations. This was pretty easy for our real estate agent to pin point because in our town, most people want go buy new homes. :) I'm going to break down some of the houses for you... (I wish I still had pictures, but you'll just have to use your imagination)
The Pink House
This was the first house that we saw, and we were IN LOVE. We immediately put an offer in, and they counter offered. It was sad for us because their counter offer was just entirely too high. The house needed too much work for the amount that they asked. We were sad about this house falling through for a LONG time.
Pros: Location, location, LOCATION!!! It was so close to town, walking distance from the fitness studio I go to and the library. It was HUGE...and well built. It had 4 bedrooms. It had a secret upstairs spot (more on that later). The rooms were SO BIG. It had a beautiful porch. Did I mention that the location was the bomb??
Cons: EVERYTHING was pink. Outside, walls, CARPET, etc. Seriously. There was so much pink that my mind was blown. I like pink, but COME ON!!! The yard was so, so tiny. The bathrooms were carpeted. There was no central air. The upstairs room and bathroom were only accessed previously by a pull down ladder. Seriously.
In the end, we (obviously) didn't end up with this house, but we still often talk about what we would have done with this house if we would've bought it.
The Farm House
This house is actually not far from our home. We fell in love with this house, too, but we knew that it was too much work for us from the get go. It sure was beautiful, though!
Pros: The entire town could have lived with us. This house had 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. It had a living room, dining room, AND a den. It also had a backyard complete with a fenced in barn. There were so many hidden nooks and crannies - this house was a dream for hide-n-go seek! The character in this place was outrageous!
Cons: The price was too high for the amount of work needed to fix it to even become livable. The roof needed to be fixed. There was no central air (a BIG no no for South Louisiana). The electricity bill for a place that size would have been WAY too high. The upkeep of the backyard would've been too much for us to handle. The location was out of the range of where we were looking (coincidentally, we purchased a home even farther out of range).
The Psych Ward
Um...seriously. This was another GORGEOUS home that needed just too much work. We later found out that a family wanted to buy this house and brought a contractor before they put an offer. The contractor said that the foundation was so bad that it was useless. This was such a bummer because the house was BEAUTIFUL!!
Pros: This was the prettiest house we had been to (from the outside) and had the most potential (on the inside). The location was amazing. It was even on a parade route! It was another really big house where we could see ourselves raising lots of kids! This house had all original hardwood floors and SO MANY windows!
Cons: The house was previously a psych ward which gave me the creeps. The upstairs bathroom had stalls and bathrooms which might have made for some weird dinner conversation (Should this have been a pro?). This house didn't have central air either (see a pattern?). The house just needed SO MUCH WORK. Doors were ripped off (um...psych ward..). Floor boards were torn up. The rooms upstairs were not even remotely livable.
Half House/Half Double Wide
On our last day of house hunting, we drove into town to see a house RIGHT in our price range that "didn't need much work." We were getting desperate, people!! Well, they brought us to a home that was half of a double wide trailer that they built a brick home around. What?? It was the most discouraging thing ever. THIS is what we could get in our town? :(
Pros: None. We didn't like a single thing about this home. It probably would have worked for someone else, but this wasn't AT ALL what we were looking for. (Do I sound like a Debbie Downer? I felt that way.)
Cons: This house wasn't ours. It didn't look like us. It didn't feel like ours. Everything was just too small and cramped.
BUT...every story has a happy ending. From that house, we drove to the house that we now call home. It had been on the market for only a few days. Within minutes of driving up to it (with me whining the entire LONG 15 minute drive out of town, I'm sure), my mom was in tears because "This is where her grandbabies would be raised" and I was texting Em, asking her if we could still be besties if I lived far away (23 minutes to be exact). Rob and I were so excited that we put in an offer within 30 minutes of being at the house. The house was a diamond in the rough. Here are the specs on our current home:
Pros: HUGE backyard. It is on the bayouside, so we have the bayou sights and sounds every time we walk outside. It is already set up for a garden. It has a beautiful sunroom. It has a big backyard deck. There are SO MANY trees in the backyard that there is constant shade. The layout is open and perfect for hosting parties! There are built-ins! It had original hardwood floors and French doors. It was OLD and needed lots of love.
Cons: It was a little farther out of town than we would've liked. That's it. We loved EVERYTHING else!
If you made it THIS far, you are a champ! Come back to visit our blog Monday to see a BIG (very detailed) project that Em and I are working on this weekend! :)
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