No, not in the insidious way.
I think it is fairly normal for people to stalk the house they are trying to get (please tell me it is...). I have driven by twice since it is on the way home from the market. And I keep looking at it online.
This morning, however, when I began my stalker routine, the (my!) house is gone. Gone from Redfin. Missing from Zillow. 401'd on BayAreaHomes. I did find it on a couple other sites though after my mini heart attack. The status changed from 'Active' to 'Pending With Release'. As a first time home-buyer, I have no idea what this means. I'm waiting for Pete's reply email with the answer. From what I can gather though, it's a good thing and just means they aren't going to accept other offers on it. Can I get a woot woot!!
Today marks one week since we submitted to the seller. They accepted on Monday of this week, and I hope they have forwarded our offer to the bank by now (this is a short sale home, like almost all the homes that are currently on the market in our area).
Sitting on pins and needles for a full week sucketh.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The De Solo House
Do you think talking about something too much jinxes your chances of it happening for you? If so, you are probably going to think I have royally effed myself with this post. Good thing I don't believe in all that hooey (... much). I mentioned the De Solo house in my last post.
As soon as I saw this Linda Mar rancher pop up on Redfin, I knew we had to go see it. Who cares that the listing clearly states, "needs a little TLC" and that it is a, "great starter home for the handy person." I can be handy! I can give it some luffs! Right guys?? None of you know how truly lazy I am, so you can go ahead and agree with me just to make me feel better.
Honestly, I am handy and creative. If I put my mind to something, I will do a great job of making it (whatever 'it' may be) happen. I get tons of really great ideas, constantly. Sometimes I even write them down. The bad thing is only 20% or so ever comes to fruition. Despite knowing this about myself, and in the face of the dire warning of NEEDS WORK insert flashing skull and crossbones here, there was something that I couldn't pass up.
The thing that really drew me to this place is the location. To the rear of the house is part of the San Pedro Valley County Park and San Pedro Creek! So not only is there privacy, we will still have deer, coyote and raccoons visiting the backyard, and there is NO chance anyone can build behind this place. Heaven!
Here is a lovely overhead map of the general area:
When we first drove by, it was being shown to another couple, apparently for the second time. This fact has not left my mind during the last week since seeing it. I feel like these people are just around the proverbial corner about to strike with a better offer than what we were able to throw down. They haven't yet, but the fear is there.
We came back an hour later and were able to go in. The first thing that struck a chord was that the front porch area has been enclosed and converted into a mudroom. A mudroom! How charming is that?! It is small to be sure, but that is something I have always wanted. You can see it (and the diminutiveness of it) in this picture. The white door and small window represent the length of the room in it's entirety.
The layout of the house is the typical Linda Mar ranch style home. If you have been in one, you have been in them all. The only thing that varies is the amount of updating (if any) that has been done. In essence, all the listings read like this:
So, what has been done on this one? The bathroom is a full remodel. It's terrific! Pedestal sink. Floor to ceiling ceramic tile. A shower over a new tub. And it is all in pristine white so you can do just about anything with it decorating wise.
They added central heat and got rid of the wall heaters. They also got rid of the fireplace in the process and forgot to plaster over and repaint the room it came from, but that is just aesthetics and nothing a little elbow grease can't fix. It also left an ugly scar on the side of the house. So, it probably will need to be painted soon.
And nothing else.
In fact, I am quite sure some of the upgrades that have been done have ended up as bigger messes then when it was started.
They added new cabinets to the tiny kitchen. I think they added new cabinets twice. I say this because there are three distinct, non-fitting, and very greasy, styles of cabinets rather haphazardly placed in odd places. They did vent the gas stove though, which is a big plus. There is a wall in the kitchen dividing it from the dining area that I am itching to have down. It will be high on the "makeover" list and will open this place up like nobodies business.
There seems to be new copper plumbing from what we were able to see in the garage. I imagine this went in when the bathroom was redone. We have to wait for an inspector on that though.
But the back yard just makes me SQUEE in delight. There is a huge deck (fake wood *sadface*) that already has a gas and a water line running to it. It looks like they had an outdoor bar/sink at some point (you can see the fading on the deck) which they took out. There is also a hot tub. We aren't sure if they plan on taking it with them, but regardless, we know there is electricity running to the spot.
There is a large shed that has electricity running to it that looks like it was converted into a workshop. The door was locked so I couldn't really get in there to see.
Beyond the deck and workshop area the yard is terraced thrice. The bottom level I think has some grass and is about 3-4 deep. The next level up is only 2-3 feet deep but has lovely bricks which enables raised bed planting (can you say tomato plants). The final level is a good 20 feet deep and is grass all the way to the back fence. There is a gate in the fence in back so that you can exit the yard and go down to the creek :) I see planting rosemary along the back fence on the outside.
Thank Google maps for the overhead! It is easier to show the backyard then try to describe it. Apparently, a picture is worth 214 words (yes, I counted):
Once we hear whether or not the bank accepts the offer, I'll go back and take better pictures. I would have taken them the first time we visited, but the people who own this place have left it half packed and filthy. The house belonged to their father who passed away recently, and it looks like they are taking their sweet time getting all his stuff out. The De Solo house has been on the market for 84 days now and they still haven't gotten it cleaned up. Eric and I have a feeling that they are going to end up leaving a lot of junk there.
Everything except the appliances. Did I mention none are included?
As soon as I saw this Linda Mar rancher pop up on Redfin, I knew we had to go see it. Who cares that the listing clearly states, "needs a little TLC" and that it is a, "great starter home for the handy person." I can be handy! I can give it some luffs! Right guys?? None of you know how truly lazy I am, so you can go ahead and agree with me just to make me feel better.
Honestly, I am handy and creative. If I put my mind to something, I will do a great job of making it (whatever 'it' may be) happen. I get tons of really great ideas, constantly. Sometimes I even write them down. The bad thing is only 20% or so ever comes to fruition. Despite knowing this about myself, and in the face of the dire warning of NEEDS WORK insert flashing skull and crossbones here, there was something that I couldn't pass up.
The thing that really drew me to this place is the location. To the rear of the house is part of the San Pedro Valley County Park and San Pedro Creek! So not only is there privacy, we will still have deer, coyote and raccoons visiting the backyard, and there is NO chance anyone can build behind this place. Heaven!
Here is a lovely overhead map of the general area:
When we first drove by, it was being shown to another couple, apparently for the second time. This fact has not left my mind during the last week since seeing it. I feel like these people are just around the proverbial corner about to strike with a better offer than what we were able to throw down. They haven't yet, but the fear is there.
We came back an hour later and were able to go in. The first thing that struck a chord was that the front porch area has been enclosed and converted into a mudroom. A mudroom! How charming is that?! It is small to be sure, but that is something I have always wanted. You can see it (and the diminutiveness of it) in this picture. The white door and small window represent the length of the room in it's entirety.
| BEDS: | 3 |
| BATHS: | 1 |
| SQ. FT.: | 1,040 |
| PROPERTY TYPE: | Attached Single Family |
| STORIES: | 1 |
So, what has been done on this one? The bathroom is a full remodel. It's terrific! Pedestal sink. Floor to ceiling ceramic tile. A shower over a new tub. And it is all in pristine white so you can do just about anything with it decorating wise.
They added central heat and got rid of the wall heaters. They also got rid of the fireplace in the process and forgot to plaster over and repaint the room it came from, but that is just aesthetics and nothing a little elbow grease can't fix. It also left an ugly scar on the side of the house. So, it probably will need to be painted soon.
And nothing else.
In fact, I am quite sure some of the upgrades that have been done have ended up as bigger messes then when it was started.
They added new cabinets to the tiny kitchen. I think they added new cabinets twice. I say this because there are three distinct, non-fitting, and very greasy, styles of cabinets rather haphazardly placed in odd places. They did vent the gas stove though, which is a big plus. There is a wall in the kitchen dividing it from the dining area that I am itching to have down. It will be high on the "makeover" list and will open this place up like nobodies business.
There seems to be new copper plumbing from what we were able to see in the garage. I imagine this went in when the bathroom was redone. We have to wait for an inspector on that though.
But the back yard just makes me SQUEE in delight. There is a huge deck (fake wood *sadface*) that already has a gas and a water line running to it. It looks like they had an outdoor bar/sink at some point (you can see the fading on the deck) which they took out. There is also a hot tub. We aren't sure if they plan on taking it with them, but regardless, we know there is electricity running to the spot.
There is a large shed that has electricity running to it that looks like it was converted into a workshop. The door was locked so I couldn't really get in there to see.
Beyond the deck and workshop area the yard is terraced thrice. The bottom level I think has some grass and is about 3-4 deep. The next level up is only 2-3 feet deep but has lovely bricks which enables raised bed planting (can you say tomato plants). The final level is a good 20 feet deep and is grass all the way to the back fence. There is a gate in the fence in back so that you can exit the yard and go down to the creek :) I see planting rosemary along the back fence on the outside.
Thank Google maps for the overhead! It is easier to show the backyard then try to describe it. Apparently, a picture is worth 214 words (yes, I counted):
Once we hear whether or not the bank accepts the offer, I'll go back and take better pictures. I would have taken them the first time we visited, but the people who own this place have left it half packed and filthy. The house belonged to their father who passed away recently, and it looks like they are taking their sweet time getting all his stuff out. The De Solo house has been on the market for 84 days now and they still haven't gotten it cleaned up. Eric and I have a feeling that they are going to end up leaving a lot of junk there.
Everything except the appliances. Did I mention none are included?
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Moana House
During this whole house hunting stage, I have been perusing Redfin like a crazy woman. I dare say I am straddling that weird border between savvy shopper and straight up compulsive web browser turned obsessive home buyer. I won't say which descriptor I am leaning more towards.
On one of our first forays out into the big scary world that is Bay Area Real Estate, I spied the house on Moana as coming on the market that very morning. In fact, our agent (the ever patient and terrific Pete Lommori) hadn't even seen it.
We walked into 6 houses that day. One of these houses was miraculous. Redone inside and out, in the neighborhood we wanted (Linda Mar) and the style of house we wanted (ranch). It was also out of our budget, but we put an offer on it anyway.
The other decent house we saw was at 415 Moana. It was a fine house. Not in the neighborhood we wanted. The backyard barely existed. It needed a fence to go up before we could move in. It hadn't been updated since 1982. But, it had good bones. And it was bigger than any of the other homes in our price range.
So in the flurry of putting the offer on the awesome house, we went ahead and threw down the offer on Moana just 'cos it was easy to do so, and, hey, it was there.
As expected, the cute house we put an offer down on was dismissed out of hand. As unexpected, the Moana offer was accepted. And thus began a crazy 6 weeks of things progressing on a house that was a fine house, but not a house we loved.
I was uneasy about this place at first. I even asked our agent to go back a second time so I could take some pictures. It wasn't as bad as I remembered it. In fact, it was sort of cute if you used a lot of imagination. The layout was really weird, which I actually liked.
And the kitchen was GINORMOUS which, in my book, is the second most important feature of a house (the first being the house itself situated in a good location, which includes a yard and some nearby wilderness). It would need some updating, but it was generally workable.
I was never 100% comfortable with this place though. There are a couple of reasons, and some I can't put my finger on. Some of my concerns included:
I just wasn't feeling it. Because of this, I kept going to Redfin to see if anything else was going to pop up. Meanwhile, in the back of my mind, I was fretting, "What if this goes all the way and we are stuck"; "Should we walk away now?"; "What if we walk away and then don't find something we want in time" (That's a whole 'nother story I am not going to blog about, but basically we are in a situation where we need to vacate our current residence, but we actually don't have a target date - we just know it is coming). It was a lot of stress.
On Wednesday, April 20th 2011 we heard back from the bank - they negotiated to a price they thought was fair but I wasn't happy with. Also on April 20th, I saw another rancher in Linda Mar come into our price range due to a price reduction. On Thursday the 21st, we went to see the rancher on De Solo (more info on this in another post since this one is getting rather tedious, no?). We put in an offer.
And thus began the most stressful weekend of my life thus far. So stressful that (TMI) my period decided to start up again after only vacating the premises 10 days prior. I got a lot of stuff done aroun dthe house though. Nervous energy will do that for ya :)
On Monday the 25th the bank on Moana came back with an agreed upon price (they were done negotiating, I wasn't quite happy, the Realtor was thrilled). Also on the 25th, the sellers accepted our offer on the De Solo house. Since this is a short sale, that is only step one of course. The bank would still need to see the paperwork and decide if THEY were going to accept the offer.
We needed to make a decision then and there. Take Moana in all it's luke-warm glory, or hope De Solo, the house and location that has made my heart go pitter-pat, would pull through eventually.
We had to go with our gut on this one.
And so we walked away from 415 Moana.
On one of our first forays out into the big scary world that is Bay Area Real Estate, I spied the house on Moana as coming on the market that very morning. In fact, our agent (the ever patient and terrific Pete Lommori) hadn't even seen it.
We walked into 6 houses that day. One of these houses was miraculous. Redone inside and out, in the neighborhood we wanted (Linda Mar) and the style of house we wanted (ranch). It was also out of our budget, but we put an offer on it anyway.
The other decent house we saw was at 415 Moana. It was a fine house. Not in the neighborhood we wanted. The backyard barely existed. It needed a fence to go up before we could move in. It hadn't been updated since 1982. But, it had good bones. And it was bigger than any of the other homes in our price range.
So in the flurry of putting the offer on the awesome house, we went ahead and threw down the offer on Moana just 'cos it was easy to do so, and, hey, it was there.
As expected, the cute house we put an offer down on was dismissed out of hand. As unexpected, the Moana offer was accepted. And thus began a crazy 6 weeks of things progressing on a house that was a fine house, but not a house we loved.
I was uneasy about this place at first. I even asked our agent to go back a second time so I could take some pictures. It wasn't as bad as I remembered it. In fact, it was sort of cute if you used a lot of imagination. The layout was really weird, which I actually liked.
I was never 100% comfortable with this place though. There are a couple of reasons, and some I can't put my finger on. Some of my concerns included:
- It was just too big for 2 people and 2 dogs.
- We didn't need 2 living rooms
- I really wanted 3 (small) bedrooms
- No wilderness near by
- All the neighbors were situated slightly above the level of the house so could easily see into the backyard / windows (I think this was the big one)
I just wasn't feeling it. Because of this, I kept going to Redfin to see if anything else was going to pop up. Meanwhile, in the back of my mind, I was fretting, "What if this goes all the way and we are stuck"; "Should we walk away now?"; "What if we walk away and then don't find something we want in time" (That's a whole 'nother story I am not going to blog about, but basically we are in a situation where we need to vacate our current residence, but we actually don't have a target date - we just know it is coming). It was a lot of stress.
On Wednesday, April 20th 2011 we heard back from the bank - they negotiated to a price they thought was fair but I wasn't happy with. Also on April 20th, I saw another rancher in Linda Mar come into our price range due to a price reduction. On Thursday the 21st, we went to see the rancher on De Solo (more info on this in another post since this one is getting rather tedious, no?). We put in an offer.
And thus began the most stressful weekend of my life thus far. So stressful that (TMI) my period decided to start up again after only vacating the premises 10 days prior. I got a lot of stuff done aroun dthe house though. Nervous energy will do that for ya :)
On Monday the 25th the bank on Moana came back with an agreed upon price (they were done negotiating, I wasn't quite happy, the Realtor was thrilled). Also on the 25th, the sellers accepted our offer on the De Solo house. Since this is a short sale, that is only step one of course. The bank would still need to see the paperwork and decide if THEY were going to accept the offer.
We needed to make a decision then and there. Take Moana in all it's luke-warm glory, or hope De Solo, the house and location that has made my heart go pitter-pat, would pull through eventually.
We had to go with our gut on this one.
And so we walked away from 415 Moana.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
I'm a terrible blogger
No really. I am. This is my 4th blog. I only keep up with 2 of my others, one of which is only rarely. Mostly this has to do with me not liking the bother of uploading pictures. A photographer I am not. I think I used to like taking photos, but spending a lot of time with a professional photographer in the past made me too self conscious. And so, I just don't like taking photos, and then that means I don't have anything to add to my blog posts. I am gonna be borrowing a lot of idea photos from the web on this one though, so maybe that will be enough to bring me back.
Anyway. The point of THIS blog is so that I can get the crap that is constantly circling around my head OUT. Maybe if I write it down I can rest in peace at night without as much stress, ideas, worry, images, and daydreams. This has worked for me in the past. When I write down my thoughts, it is as if I am trapping them in the (virtual) ink on the page and away from my brain.
My intention is to use this space at first just to ponder and dream about the house that we will one day get. My next post is going to detail where we are right now in the home buying process. And hopefully not jinx anything...
About the blog title: I wanted to incorporate something with words like: House, Home, Hat, Create, Decor, blah blah blah; ya know, the typical shit the adorable home making bloggers (of which I subscribe to over 30 of ...) are using to create an atmosphere of Martha Stuart meets This Old House. All those name are taken. All of them. Don't believe me? Go try to find one that isn't used. Go ahead. I'll wait here while you get right on that.
Yeah. Told ya.
Another thought was to use the house address. That's right, the house we don't have yet. So that was out.
Then I tried to find something using the make up of our family as a signifier of the way we live and who we are, a la Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. I tried Two Pups and Two People. And Two Mutts. And Two Dogs... and I gave up on that notion when they were all taken too.
Finally I landed on using our last name and the word I most often use when referring to a residence: pad. It wasn't until after I put them together that I realized how apropos the name is. We are really at the beginning here, an empty slate on which to write our history as it happens. Everything is wide open.
How exciting.
Anyway. The point of THIS blog is so that I can get the crap that is constantly circling around my head OUT. Maybe if I write it down I can rest in peace at night without as much stress, ideas, worry, images, and daydreams. This has worked for me in the past. When I write down my thoughts, it is as if I am trapping them in the (virtual) ink on the page and away from my brain.
My intention is to use this space at first just to ponder and dream about the house that we will one day get. My next post is going to detail where we are right now in the home buying process. And hopefully not jinx anything...
About the blog title: I wanted to incorporate something with words like: House, Home, Hat, Create, Decor, blah blah blah; ya know, the typical shit the adorable home making bloggers (of which I subscribe to over 30 of ...) are using to create an atmosphere of Martha Stuart meets This Old House. All those name are taken. All of them. Don't believe me? Go try to find one that isn't used. Go ahead. I'll wait here while you get right on that.
Yeah. Told ya.
Another thought was to use the house address. That's right, the house we don't have yet. So that was out.
Then I tried to find something using the make up of our family as a signifier of the way we live and who we are, a la Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. I tried Two Pups and Two People. And Two Mutts. And Two Dogs... and I gave up on that notion when they were all taken too.
Finally I landed on using our last name and the word I most often use when referring to a residence: pad. It wasn't until after I put them together that I realized how apropos the name is. We are really at the beginning here, an empty slate on which to write our history as it happens. Everything is wide open.
How exciting.
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