Finding the House - His Perspective

Hi, and welcome to my first post in the Fugly to Swanky Blog.

In the last post Sabrina gave her perspective on finding the house (if you haven't read Finding the House - Her Perspective, read that post first) and now for mine.

The hunt for a house began in late May, early June as Sabrina said.  It wasn't a real serious thing at first.  We knew we would need to buy a house eventually (I was living in a two bedroom apartment), but it started out as more of a fun thing to dream about.  Sabrina would send me links to houses on Zillow, we would look at the pictures, and discuss what we did or did not like about the various houses for sale.  In a way it helped us flesh out what it was we were looking for/needed in a house.  Then there was THE house...

It was a foreclosure in Woodbridge, and it had everything.  Lots of bedrooms, two car garage, nice porch, finished basement, big back yard, the list goes on and on.  And all for the rather modest price of $300,000. We decided to go look at it just for fun and fell in love, or at least I did.  We immediately went to see a man about a loan and found out that we qualified for just enough.  We called our agent and told him we wanted the house, but alas in those couple short days, the house had been bid up out of our reach.  Sabrina expected this might happen, but I was crushed.  It was prime house buying season, school was out for the summer and everyone was looking.

This happened to us a few more times before the little brick house, now affectionately nicknamed "Fugly Manor", came into our lives.  An old friend of ours was selling a house she had inherited from her grandmother and it had not yet been officially put on the market.  She was doing some work to the house before listing it and after some begging and badgering she let us come look at it.  I remember being so excited as I drove to Woodbridge, my baby by my side, to see the house for the first time.

We pulled up to the front of a modest brick house, a little shabby looking from the outside, but I tried not to let that bother me as it had not been lived in for awhile.  Nothing a couple days of yard work couldn't take care of.  We entered the house and it was quite a mess inside.  Partially due to the work going on, and partially due to years of neglect.  Two words came to mind... Money Pit...  Granted the work being done explained some of the eyesores, like the huge piles of trash and debris in the middle of the living room and basement floors, but it seemed everywhere I looked was something else that needed to be fixed or replaced.  Sabrina described me as stiff upon entering the house, which is probably about right.  I remember having my arms crossed tightly across my chest as we walked through the house, a grumpy and closed off posture, like a shut up clam.  I looked at her and gave her a firm "NO", but this did not deter her excitement.  I may have seen the visions of possibility dancing through her head if I had not been so negative and close minded.

I kept quiet for the rest of the tour of the house, reserving my feelings for when we got back in the car to drive away.  Cue the rant in 5,4,3,2.1...  "No way, we are not buying this house, what a dump, I don't care how many times we get outbid, we'll keep looking".  She started talking about potential, and her vision for what the house could be and I couldn't see any of it.  What I could see was her excitement, and how happy she was.  I began to soften just a little, "well the location is good, and the price is right, but it just looks like too much work".  Sabrina continued to try and relate her vision, but I still wasn't having it.  I stuck to my guns for about 10-15 minutes down the road before I caved.  I was still very much against buying the house, and couldn't picture a single thing she was talking about, but I didn't want to crush her excitement.  I turned to her and said "Tell me it will be OK".  She looked at me quizzically and I said again "Tell me it will be OK.  I trust you, just tell me we are doing the right thing and it will be OK".  She grabbed my hand and said "It will be OK, I promise" and I said "OK baby, we will buy the house".

Finding the House - Her Perspective

We started looking for a house at the end of May, early June.  This was not the best time to start looking.  This is when everyone is looking, therefore there was high inventory but everyone wanted said inventory.  Our budget was $300,000.  In Northern Virginia, this amount isn't going to get you much depending on where you are looking.  We looked at a foreclosure and it was awesome - everything we wanted.  It even had a wrap around porch.  Within days, the offers on this house had gone above and beyond our budget and had 18 people sending offers.  We never stood a chance.

We started looking at other houses but each time we would find a house that had just gone on the market, we would email our agent and he would tell us that it already had an offer on it.  So before we could even see any, they would be gone.  We started to get discouraged.  We didn't want to wait too long to find something because he had to be out of his apartment by the end of July and when my divorce is final, we would need a place for the kids to live.  I was also being particular as I wanted a single family home, not a townhouse.  This made our search a little more difficult.

Meanwhile, one of our mutual friends was getting a house ready for sale in the area we were looking in.  After speaking with her, it seemed this house would be a good fit for us.  She was hesitant for us to see it before they did a few things to the house - even though they were selling as is, they redid the stairs, and hung some new doors and fresh neutral paint.

I convinced our friend to let us see it before the work was done.  I knew I could look past any mess or unfinished work to see potential.  I also begged her, that if it was a good fit for us, that she would sell it to us before putting it on the market and we would pay asking price.  She agreed if we wanted it, she would sell it to us.

I was excited.  I called Mark and he agreed we would go see the house.  The minute we walked in, I could feel Mark stiffen up.  It was not in a condition he expected to see.  After seeing the top floor, he turned to me and firmly said, "No."  I was already envisioning what this house could be - I was imaging what we could do, all the Pinterest ideas I could find.  I didn't react and simply said, "Let's finish looking." 

To be fair, the huge was a huge project, I could see this.  But I also knew our budget, and I knew that if we bought this house for asking price, we were already ahead and we may also be able to add some remodeling money to our loan.  The house definitely needed a new kitchen and three new bathrooms.  The bedrooms were only the plywood subfloors and had no real flooring.  The trim all needed to be redone, the yard and backyard needed a lot of love and so one and so on.

I could see it.  I could see us there.  I could see my kids there - I could imagine happiness for us there.  I just needed to convince Mark that this was a good idea.  As we got in the car, Mark was full of doubts.  He could see that I wanted the house but he didn't.  After about 10 minutes he turned to me and said, "Tell me it will be OK.  If you tell me it will be OK, I will trust you and we will get the house."  I held his hand and said, "It will be OK, I promise."  Then he said, "OK, we will buy the house."  That is when the real journey began. 

Welcome to my House

Welcome to our blog...we decided to write a blog to share our journey in transforming a house.  Our house.  Our first house.  We were lucky to find this house in the area we wanted to live at a reasonable price.  It was sold to us as is.  Translated, this means, it was a fixer upper.  I didn't mind, I could see the potential this house had for us and for our family.  He was a bit skeptical. BUT - he trusted me and so, we bought the house.  Here, we will share it all with you.  How we found the house, how we decided to buy the house, the stages of transformation the house will undergo and the happiness we will have in this house.  We have lovingly named it Fugly Manor, but we plan on making it the Swankiest House in Marumsco Village.  We hope you enjoy following our journey and laughing and enjoying the ride.  We know we will!