Both Feet

"We're crazy!" That's all we could say yesterday, and when we look over where we've been and what we've done in the past 36 hours, that's pretty much all we can say. We bought a house. That's always been in "the plan", but we were planning to spend 6 months on the process, not 6 hours! But, as the saying goes, if you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.
So here we are...from zero to house in 36 hours. Welcome to our crazy adventure!

First off, let me say that I know this type of blog has been done before, much more successfully, and by way cooler people. We hate to be copycats, but why reinvent the wheel?!? We thought this would be a fun way for family and friends to follow our progress (and pitfalls), as well as a great way for us to keep a record of this exciting time in our lives. I suspect that I (Amy) will be the main blogger, so most of these posts will be from my perspective. However, I'm hoping that Pete will guest-post occasionally.

So how did we get here? Short answer: by the grace of God. Looking back, events that were frustrating and unexpected have put us in a place where we are able to design our dream house.

For those of you with more patience, here's the longer version:
When we got married in December of 2009, we both owned houses. Trying to sell those in a down market was frustrating to say the least, but eventually we did. We broke even on one house and wrote a big check to sell the other. By May of 2010, we were renters once again, vowing that we would not buy without a large down payment the next time around. The house we were renting sold after two months, so we moved to another rental - the house we are currently living in. "The plan" was that we would start looking for a house in late winter/spring, with the hope of buying by summer 2011. My dream was to buy an undervalued foreclosure and renovate it to our tastes. Optimistically, we'd be moving into a new place in about a year.

Here's the part where God laughs:
On Tuesday, Pete sent me an MLS listing. Now, I know you're asking, "why are you looking at houses on MLS if you're not buying for six more months?" Because it's what we do.
On this particular MLS search engine, you enter a price range. When Pete searches, he uses the same price range every time, but on Tuesday, he lowered the bottom end of the range by $50,000. Bingo. The house he sent me on Tuesday was $30,000 less than what would normally be the bottom of our search, but has previously sold for what would be above the top of our search. I was intrigued, but because of some very specific financing restrictions in the listing, I knew we couldn't buy it. However, I sent it to my dad because he's often talked about wanting to "flip" a house and I thought this would be a good candidate. End of story, right?
Nope. On Tuesday night, my dad called and provided us with some financing options we hadn't thought of. I got off the phone with him, looked at the listing again, and asked Pete what he thought. We agreed that there was no harm in looking, so why not?
I e-mailed the agent on Tuesday night, went to bed, and forgot all about it...almost.
On Wednesday morning, the e-mail from the agent said that there were already three offers on the property and if we were serious, we'd need to put in our highest & best offer by 6:00 pm THAT DAY!
I called my logical, cautious better half...he was less than excited about the idea of having to pull the trigger that day. I somehow convinced him that it didn't hurt to look, and we set up an appointment to view the house at 1:00 pm. In the meantime, I contacted a contractor friend who had a lot of flipping experience and asked him to come with us to give us an idea of what we'd be getting into.
The house was a mess. At some point in it's abandonment, a toilet on the second story broke and water flooded the house. There was damage to walls, ceilings, floors, and doors. There is mold everywhere. But it was beautiful. It was our perfect size and layout. It was in the location we were shooting for. The price was unbelievable. The damage provided me with my dream of a completely renovated home. And it's walking distance to Target.
We made a few calls to secure our financing, freaked out for a bit, and sent in an offer at 4:00 pm. Today, we learned that our offer was accepted! Because of the simplicity of this transaction, there is very little chance that we will not close this deal in less than three weeks.

So here we are. We are jumping in with both feet. In less than 36 hours, our priorities and goals have changed. One of Pete's first comments to me was, "Well, that Netflix subscription was a waste." I guess there's no more time for movies.
We are staring down a boatload of work. We are preparing to open a financial vein that won't close up for at least 6 months. And we are thrilled.
I've done a full-home renovation before. My super-handy dad and I, along with dozens of others, renovated the house I bought 3 years ago. I loved that project. I loved the design, the construction, the decisions...everything. I had a lot of help on that project and am forever grateful to the family and friends who gave of their time and skills, especially my dad. But that house was my baby. There were many hours when it was just me and her and some noxious fumes. This time, however, it's our baby. It's going to be me and my best friend sharing the noxious fumes. I'm sure we will have lots of family and friends who will help, too (daddy...?), but this is our home. This is where we will be a family, hopefully for many years to come. And we can't wait to get started. Let the adventure begin!