The house

Several people have been asking us about "the house" situation, as it is slightly confusing and unorthodox. So for them, and for posterity, "let me sum up."

  At the end March our realtor gave us a call about a home that we had seen online but never pursued. It was way out of our price range so we left it alone. Well, it dropped $55,000 in an instant and we were looking at it 2 hours later. We loved it and decided to put an offer on it that night. Our offer was accepted by the seller the next day, however because it was a short sale, their bank had to approve the offer as well. We thought we were in for smooth sailing when their bank approved it in about a week or so, but we were wrong.
   The appraiser and inspector came next, and they found a lot of peeling paint, and exterior rot due to wind/rain/non pressure treated wood conditions. The bank we are getting our loan through wouldn't approve the house without these defects being repaired. So we went to the seller/their bank first to ask if they would fix it. And after a week they respond with a no. Now what!? Somewhere during this process we discovered that there is a backup offer to ours that is all cash. So the seller has no motivation to fix anything or be helpful to us, because if we fall through, he will have an "easier/cheaper" transaction with the next buyers, and won't be required to fix anything. So if we really wanted this house we would have to fix it ourselves... before we own the house, with our own money, and with no guarantee it will be ours in the end. Kinda scary.
   So we ask the seller to allow us to fix the house. And after waiting for over a week he finally tells us, yes, but we have to fix it the way he wants. And this was after he asked for all of our loan approval documents and other information he had no right to ask for. Apparently he is a mortgage broker, so he knows the lingo/procedures/loopholes, etc. He basically held our request to fix the house ransom until we complied with all his demands. Because if we can't fix the house, we can't buy the house. And then like I mentioned earlier, he required us to fix it the way he wanted because he was worried about the appraisal value. Really?! Because this is a short sale he is basically losing his home to the bank, so technically he shouldn't have much say in the matter, but that doesn't seem to stop him from controlling the situation. Ugh! Moving on.
   We were all set (paperwork wise) to close at the end of May, and the repairs were progressing on schedule. Then we got some unexpected news that hadn't even come up in all the previous dealings. The seller won't let us close before the 9th of June because his tenants don't want to move out until then. At this point I lost it. The seller has dictated the entire proceedings and I felt like our realtor wasn't really negotiation much for us. What the seller wanted the seller got, and we had to make every concession. And now, because the seller has pushed back the closing date on us, our locked interest rate will expire and we have to pay $450 to extend it. Awesome! On top of that, I had already told our landlord we would be out before June, so we had to call him up and ask for more time. Yep, feeling good!
  As of last week, Michael finally finished working on the house. There were a few hiccups along the way, and days where we saw Mike for maybe 20 minutes, but we are done. Mike calculated that around 200 man hours (between him, myself and my brother) and $1400 were invested in the project. However, one of the reasons we chose to do the repairs ourselves was because of the cost savings. We could have hired a contractor to do the repairs, but the appraiser estimated the repairs to cost $3500 (though it probably would have been more after we saw how much damage was in the front porch) and we weren't prepared to pay that. Also, we take a lot of pride in doing home renovations, and Mike had a lot of "fun" doing the project himself.
   The inspector and appraiser came back out last week and gave it a clean bill of health. So now we are just waiting to close on the 13th. Hopefully no more surprises. And I realize this post may be a bit dramatic, especially looking at it now from a calmer less in the moment perspective, but during it all, I wanted to find the seller and give him a good punch in the face. Now, we are just excited to be done with the remodel and ready to be in the house. It has been quite a challenge working on a home that you don't live in. Hauling tools back and forth every day and trying to coordinate the car. The van certainly took a hit as it was used like a truck this whole time. And the tenants weren't all together happy to see us every evening, making messes and loud noises. But we are done!!! Now I just have to pack up our stuff again. This will be 8th place we have lived in since we were married 6 years ago. I'm ready to be done moving.

Before

During

After

 There was a lot of extensive rot repair in the back of the house too, but nothing really worth taking pictures of. And we still have some trim paint work and deck sealing to do on the front but we think we like the exposed wood look. Eventually we will repaint the house, but for now, it works. :)

Some things we are really excited for

Lots of windows, natural lighting

A large bonus/office/nursery space off the master suite. The whole upper floor is just for us. (Sorry for the lame pictures, the tenants decorating style is a bit ... cluttered.)

 A large utility room that is going to be maximized for food storage, laundry room and eventually a bathroom for the basement.

 The view from our front porch. The house is across the street from a church that has a HUGE open field/baseball diamond. It is fantastic. The neighborhood is very calm, and doesn't get a lot of traffic. I'm really looking forward to that.

10 days till closing :)