Our Next House: Part 1

So enough waiting, here is the new place. It currently is a 2000 sf, 4 bedroom 1.5 bath house with a living room, family/dining room, a multipurpose room, laundry room, and one car garage. The house was built in 1950 and was the personal home of an architect. We are still tracking down more info on the original owner. The house is slab on grade, concrete masonry unit with brick façade, and concrete shingles. It is a stout, but weird house. The initial plans are to stay within the original footprint but pretty much update everything to end up with 4 good-sized bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms.

The front view. Right now there are two front doors, one to the house and one to the laundry room. One will get eliminated.

 

The rear view. It is an odd house, single level ranch with a big southern facing sunroom.



Here is one of the huge selling features, a one acre lot. 

The sunroom has southern facing windows protected by an overhang. The ceilings in this room are tall, at least 10 feet. We have been told that the angle of the overhang prevents any direct sunlight from entering the space, we will see. 

Looking back toward the bedroom wing. The VCT tile definitely needs replacement. 

You can see through the last picture into the family/dining room and to the bedrooms. There are 3 small bedrooms and a nice sized master. The bathroom and such a weird layout that I couldn't get a good picture if I tried. There is a galley kitchen with original metal cabinets. They are in great shape and we are planning on keeping them, maybe after refinishing.

Coming next Part 2: water, water everywhere

The Longest Month

Oh man, where should I even begin?  We're under contract on our current house, which is good.  Today we officially closed on our new house.  But since our last post, life has been nothing short of a roller coaster.  We're planning on starting a new blog for the new house since we're moving off the Circle, but since that hasn't been started, I'll give you the cliff notes version of the new house saga.

But first, here's a sneak peak of the new place:

View of the back patio and overhang

 Please pay no attention to the rot.  As I already noted, this is a project house.

Back to the house-buying drama.  We got a helluva deal and had assumed everything on the financial side would be fine.  Long story short, it wasn't.  Due to some appraisal issues (again with the appraisal!) we had some financing issues and for a day or so, we weren't sure we'd be able to get the house.  While we were waiting to hear back on final approval, we got a call saying the new house had flooded.  This was on Sunday.

Flooded was an understatement.  Closing was less than 72 hours away.  We still didn't have financing secure.  Jesus Christ, we should have our own goddamn reality tv show and we haven't even gotten to the construction part!

Monday we got the final approval for the financing, Tuesday the seller's insurance agency started the claim on the water damage, and we delayed closing on Wednesday at the very last minute.  We were tying up loose ends on the water damage and wanted to make sure we were covered.  Everyone scrambled on the paperwork and we closed over lunch Thursday.  I have to say, after the last week, closing seemed very anticlimactic.

There will be more details to come and a relocation of the blog.  But we need a name for the new house and we're stuck.  It's a brick 1950s ranch on an acre.  I know somewhere in there is a clever, witty name but right now all I keep thinking is Brick S#&t House.  Any good suggestions?