When my husband Jordan and I first got engaged in 2007, we
bought a charming historic home that we absolutely loved. It had a curved staircase in the entry, ballroom windows, original wood work, beautiful hardwood floors (hiding under the disgusting carpet); not to mention the wrought iron fence and the brick patio shaded by a magnolia tree. Granted, it was a diamond-in-the-rough... It was on one of the
busiest streets in town, it was dirty, it was dated and it had a funky smell. But, we got it for a steal! We planned to pour our blood, sweat and tears into its
transformation, then enjoy the fruits of our labor by having a practically new home to move into once we married. With LOADS of help from my family, and with my dad's vast jack-of-all-trades knowledge, we jumped in feet first on this project. We ripped out the filthy carpets and refinished the hardwood. We repaired and replaced the ruined plumbing. We pulled down old plaster to expose beautiful brick chimneys. Jordan made and installed custom crowne molding. He created a built-in shelf in the skeleton of a shattered window. My mom and I painted every room and searched craigslist, garage sales and flea markets for the perfect furniture and decor for a home built in the 1890s. My aunts even spent a few days helping us with yard work. Their notorious green thumbs tamed the grapevines, rosebushes and red bud trees. Jordan, my parents, my brother and I (and Madison, of course!) spent countless hours working on that house.
Although we jumped in enthusiastically, our
hopes were repetitively deflated… We had one issue after another with this
house: neighborhood wide sewer problems, resulting in plumbing problems and an
even funkier smell. The furnace went out, someone stole sections of our wrought iron fence, the basement flooded, we had neighbors move in who completely
trashed their house (the mess often drifted into the edges of our yard). We
both lost our jobs, which meant we had plenty of time to work on the house, but
no money for materials. All of this in addition to a steep and sudden decline
in neighborhood property values due to our small town’s largest factory
shutdown and subsequent foreclosures.
Finally, after 3 years of working on the home, we were finally finished, but we had come to realization that although we loved the house, we absolutely hated its location. We decided to
sell it. We had offer the first day it was on the market! Although it was much lower than we were hoping for, we jumped at the opportunity to sell the asap and move on to the next project. Unfortunately the potential buyer didn't bother to get pre-approved before they made an offer. They promised they could get the money, though. They just needed one more week. Then one more. Then one more... We were led on for over 6 months while our potential buyer struggled
for financing and our out of town realtor advised against pursuing other
buyers (ie: he didn't want to spend money on advertising or drive the half hour from his office every time someone wanted to see it).
Newly-wed, out of work and broke, we moved in with my parents. The
house sat empty and began to deteriorate… Fed up, we fired that realtor and
began damage control projects on a house that had sat empty for way too long. We had to fix plumbing again and replace almost all of our electrical wiring; Someone had broken in and stolen all of our copper plumbing and electrical wire (presumably the same nice folks who stole sections of our fence). We had to remove an outdoor closet and build an enclosed back porch, because when we called to have the electricity turned back on, the city inspector conveniently noticed that our breaker box was illegally located in a closet (strike 1) which was on the back porch (strike 2) that was only partially enclosed (strike 3). And countless other equally ridiculous projects that I have subconsciously forced myself to forget.
When we were finished, we contacted a local agent. He said he was proud to sell the prettiest house on the block. This time, the house sat on the market for less than
a week! We received a full-price offer! We worked our tails off to get the home to pass the USDA loan
regulations, and the closing took place right on schedule.
I think the whole family was happy to say: “Goodbye. And good riddance!”
And the hunt for the new house began....
A handful of our house projects
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| The ballroom windows and Jordan's built-in. The lighting is bad in this photo, the walls were not lime green! |
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| The "selling point" of the house for me. The curved stair case. |
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| This window just needed some TLC. My design on the window frame, Jordan's execution. |
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| The house was full of unique features like this little curved wall. This door was the color of orange sherbet when we bought the house. |
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| We exposed the brick in the dining room and Jordan built the wood surround. Notice the transom windows? So pretty... |
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| This was such a pretty room. I was so sad that the previous owner painted the woodwork, but it ended up looking pretty good with a fresh coat of white paint with fresh tan walls. |
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| We built this closet in the study so we could sell the house as a 3 bedroom. |
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| Jordan built this mantle in the master bedroom. This was another one of the rooms that had painted woodwork, so I faux finished it. |
