House Hunters, Lingwood Edition (Episode 2.3)

First, I should acknowledge that much like last year's house hunters posts, I made sure to write up each house as a viable potential contender. It wasn't so much my intent to deceive you all but rather to not give anything away. All three houses were all very serious contenders. We very nearly chose house number three so for those of you who guessed that, you weren't far off! Also, if I had posted all the facts, it would have been way too obvious. Lying by omission? Probably. Diabolical? Yes. Taking my cues from HGTV? Absolutely. I have to make it a good story! But it's all the facts and only the facts from here on out. I'm going to share a little bit more about the house we chose and the whole process in general because it’s just so darn crazy and unexpected. As Mark says, we shocked even ourselves. It's a long post, so grab a coffee and read on!

As of now, the sellers have accepted our offer and in the next couple of days the whole thing will be put in the bank's hands. If we don’t hear anything from the bank in the next forty-five days, we’ll head back out to California to start looking for a different house. If we find a different house at that point, we can withdraw our offer on the short sale. For now, we’re just hoping and assuming everything will go smoothly. We’re not fooling ourselves about potential issues with the house. In addition to the standard inspection, we’ll likely be getting a chimney inspector and getting a contractor/specialist to give us some bids on fixing the front yard. The house needs a termite inspection too. We’ll also have a contractor give us some estimates on expanding over the garage. Finally, if there’s anything the main inspector pulls up, we might pull in additional specialists such as an electrician, plumber, and potentially someone to inspect the foundation because the area is known for clay foundations. We might want to get the sewer scoped, the house checked for earthquake retrofitting, and who knows what else will pop up?

Prior to this week, Mark and I had pretty much resigned ourselves to living at least a twenty minute drive from St. Mary’s. We also thought for sure we would want a mostly move in ready house given the distance we’re buying from. Even though we had a generous budget, for the area it wasn't that much and it certainly wasn't enough to get us closer to St. Mary's. Realistically, based on the comparable home sales and the current upswing in the market, if we don’t buy this house we’re not likely to ever have another opportunity to break into the Lafayette market. Considering the low inventory, we were shocked to have so many options near campus. It is one thing to say “four minute drive” or “2 miles” or “close to work”. But when you actually drive it and get to your destination before your car warms up, it’s a whole different feeling. After checking out Lafayette more and imagining a life that involves Mark being able to come home for lunch or duck back into work after dinner, we really started putting more value on a walkable/bikeable/short drive for Mark. We actually looked at three houses that were all under a four minute drive to work. One only had 1.5 baths (and was actually only a few houses down from the one we chose) and the other house had a creepy vibe and was located next to a busy street and had a lot of street noise. There were two more houses that were a tad further out but had absolutely no back yard. We felt that if we were going to choose Lafayette, this short sale fixer was our best bet.

Location, location, location!

As far as the houses further away, even though we liked many of them, we just didn’t feel like we would be getting good value for the money. House number three, for example, would not likely appreciate very well considering its location and the fact that there were no upgrades we could do ourselves. I also really had to think about that kitchen, because no matter what we did it was never going to be nicer without encroaching on dining/living space. House number one was at the top of the budget and would have put Mark in a situation where he is facing a lifetime of an hour in the car every day and we still wouldn't have a fourth bedroom. My mom and I also looked at several houses that we just plain didn’t like. For example, we saw one house that was a tri-level and I would have to walk up two flights of steps just to get to the kitchen. Another house we saw had a nice big deck but no grass or yard space so it was eliminated. In yet another house, I could hear the BART squealing by every five minutes. A few of the houses would feed into a decent elementary school but the high school wasn’t all that great. Many had ugly popcorn ceilings, poor layouts, and bad vibes. Most importantly and hardest to articulate with pictures, none of them felt right. 60s mod, 70s ugh, and 80s huh? just didn't quite fit our style. My mom and I looked at over twenty houses and we took Mark to six.

source: www.cartoonstock.com

There is simply no getting around the fact that we chose a fixer. We see the dream and have great vision for the house, and it has great flow and character. And, it felt right. Assuming we get the house, the very nature of the house and the improvements we want to make has changed the next several years of our lives. Before we even move in, we have to get a fence up for Sadie and the house needs a total scrubbing. We also plan to refinish the hardwoods and hopefully paint the walls/ceilings before all of our stuff gets in the way. After we move in, first on the list is to fix up the master bath. Luckily we can use the main bath. Second is to put in a new kitchen. I am especially excited about the new kitchen because hardly any of the other houses had potential for a nice big new kitchen and I love to cook. At some point, we will have the front yard completely re-graded and have a new retaining wall put in. We think we can fix up the backyard ourselves, but we will want to have some experts check it out to make sure we’re not messing up the hill and to make sure we get any drainage issues addressed. Possibly the biggest and most ambitious plan we have is to expand the house into the room over the garage. Stupidly or not, we actually put in the offer without ever getting into the garage because it was locked with a separate key. There was a window into it that we peaked into and there is already an existing stairway and second story floor where there are laundry hookups. Ideally, we’ll be able to connect this space to the main house with French doors. We haven’t made any firm decisions yet but we might make that space a guest/office combo with a third bath, or potentially just make it our own master suite. Another option would be to make it more living space and move the laundry down into the bottom floor of the garage.

Possibly our biggest compromise on this house is the lack of a fourth bedroom. We so very badly wanted to be able to have a dedicated guest room, even if it was a dual purpose and combined with an office or craft space. However, in the end living in the prime location was just more important. We're hoping to create good space with the expansion over the garage, but even if we don't we'll be keeping our spaces flexible and we wants guests to feel welcome to come visit!

Something that doesn’t come across in any of the pictures is the 50s charm and family vibe of the house. Despite the fact that the house is one of the smallest we looked at, we could both so easily see ourselves growing up together in that house and raising a family there. And, from the hardwoods to the crown molding to the cute open space in the hallway that we've dubbed the atrium, the whole house is simply charming. Already, the house has made itself a new character in our story.

The characters in our story

Everyone always says that the number one rule in real estate is location. Frankly, we’ve always scoffed at that notion because so much more goes into deciding on a home purchase than location. However, as it turned out, for us we decided location really was the trump factor. The street is very quiet and several other families live in nearby houses. The neighbors across the street have two young babies and next door there is a little boy who has a turtle shaped sandbox. Around the corner there is a huge park with baseball and soccer fields. About two blocks away is the elementary school where our kids will go and a little past that is the community center and community pool. I’ll be able to go for my runs, long or short, straight from the house because the trail is just down the street and around the corner. In fact, we can ride our bikes on that trail into downtown. And, perhaps most important of all, Mark will be able to spend his time at home and not in the car commuting.

Entrance to the park by our new house
What you can't see are the kid sized cleat marks on the trail!

As you can tell, given our options we agreed that we’d rather improve the house than hope we can make do with the location. And, once the remodeling is finished, I’m confident the place is going to be awesome. After all, with Mark and I at the helm, how could it be any less?

Mark's new license plate

PS: Shout out to Kristina at http://kristinatravels.blogspot.com/ for the inspiration to add random pics/comics to my text heavy post!