house hunting

[aslant]

marika took me to see three houses in three hours, and though it's totally overwhelming it was also fun and inspiring. houses are such strange creatures. like a shell built to house something not quite me, and i have to figure out how i'll make it work.

#1 white craftsman

the first house is a craftsman with some additions. it's not my favorite part of town -- across from the back side of a boat yard, plus one block away from a big busy road. addition in the back is carpeted and not very pretty, but okay. the kitchen was stranded in the middle of the house and i didn't like that -- like a place where one person can stand comfortably. small bedroom on the main near a huge bathroom, perfect for a child's room. office/library room off the main living room. upstairs, an amazing attic covered in built-in cupboards, closets, large dressers, even a desk that folds down from the wall. huge basement space with a bathroom and a non-code shower, space enough for a huge work room or letterpress room.

#2 green princess house

second house is an odd one, again with the weird additions. hard to see from the front because it has only a tiny strip of a front yard, and everything is fenced in, for the apparently massive dog whose muddy paw prints we saw at chest height on the front door. but otherwise surrounded by a huge yard, including a hot tub (they might not leave it, it's not in the listing), grape vines, berries, raised garden beds. weird small "master" on the main floor, tiled addition in the back, huge back porch. upstairs two good kids' bedrooms, cute desk lookouts on the yard, plus a jack and jill bathroom. lots of weird angles and corners to this house. we would need a giant lawn mower. cramped unfinished basement with just enough space for the water heater and furnace. very cool space for a gardener and a dog, but i don't think it's for us.

#3 oatfield victorian

this is the victorian that i fell in love with yesterday, the one that's a little outside of our price range but is just gorgeous. complete period details inside, since the same family lived in it for over 45 years. it needs a lot of work, including some intensive love to the yard to make it not such a leafpit, a good paint job, new windows, possibly a new electrical system (!!!), other fixes too numerous to list. you can see some of the hideous paint from the pictures. currently it's filled with the dead mrs goss's things, including beds full of teddy bears and assorted room full of catholic icons and things like that, so i didn't photograph all the bedrooms.

but with all its detractions, this is also sort of the house of my dreams. i've always wanted to restore an old house, and this one is livable. the large rambling victorian with history, with quirks and tall ceilings. the house to fill with books. restoring the gardens. large studies upstairs for kirk and i. a room for the letterpress. a house for writing in. roaming cats, a house with mystery. a big dinner party. that kind of house.

just for laughs, here is the partial list of things i wrote down that the victorian needs:

- new (historic) windows (if we want to get on the registry)
- new electric system
- new sink, stove, fridge
- new back deck, rotting
- leaf removal, tree trimming, landscaping
- two outbuildings torn down (crappy chicken house, weird shed)
- needs a front fence
- curtains for all the windows
- tear out fake wall in upstairs bedroom with porch
- repaint pink room
- rip out closet in pink room / turn back to butler's pantry
- exterior paint
- conservation/replacement of front gingerbread details
- redo upstairs porch, probably rotting
- new roof, hopefully will fix water damage in porch room
- downstairs porch swing, remove, fix or replace
- new kitchen cabinets
- better lighting fixtures for most rooms
- rip out hideous wallpaper in bedrooms
- rip out crappy lattice on back porch
- restore pocket doors in front living room (one is missing?)
- probably needs a new furnace and water heater
- exterior siding is asbestos, ha ha ha, that will need replacing
- would look great with a carriage house out back, as long as i'm dreaming


so possibly we would be great fools to buy this house. but maybe we'd also be great fools to pass it up. a historic house that will only increase in value as we work on it. it will be a money pit, a labor of love. but it's a house with a story in its bones. i feel incredibly young when i think about it, though we are probably about the same age as the goss family when they bought it. but also, the house is old and wants love and i don't know if i'm up to the task.

Comments

[ex-mthrtong.livejournal.com]

That last place does look dreamy. Could y'all do a lot of the repairs yourselves?

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure. interior stuff like walls, kitchen, etc, and the yard stuff we could certainly do. but roofs, asbestos siding, windows, would all have to be contracted out. the main thing is that we could totally live in it for several years without doing any of this.

it reminded me of the waldrop house, actually. except instead of books there was catholic paraphernalia EVERYWHERE. also like an antique shop had exploded.

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

unless you know where the money is coming from, avoid that much work. you could go a long way with the first one.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

this is a really good point. we won't do work if we can't pay for it, obviously. unless we can't get homeowner's insurance with the house as it is, we could just live in it as it is.

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

I bought an enormous house somewhat like this one, from 1912. I'd make and focus on the list of Stuff You Must Do, and see if it's too long a list. I'd go over that place with an expert, foundation, wiring, roof. Furthermore, I'd be a lot more critical of the price, because an experienced buyer knows the repairs are costs... if you've postponed them, but must sell under pressure, you've just lowered your market price. I'm not convinced the third house should cost more than the other two, despite it's beauty, because it might need $50k or more in work. That's what my buyer did to the house I sold to him. $200k in work actually. So you can hold a house even if you never intend to fix serious stuff you can ignore. Just realize your offer must reflect the market value. Of course.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

actually, based on the seller's inspection report i just read today, even a price of $100k might not be low enough!

[triesticity.livejournal.com]

wow, that last one, swoon!

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i'm so hopelessly in love!

[scythrop.livejournal.com]

Oh man. As suspected, that is the sort of house I would make irrational decisions for.

Is there an seller's inspection report? What does your agent say about the local market? From what I can tell, the northeast is the only part of the country that is still overvalued. In an overvalued but obviously declining market, it seems like you can knock at least 8-10% off an initial asking price. Also, you can ask for credits during buyer's inspection, as I'm sure you know.

GOOD LUCK!

[aslant.livejournal.com]

irrational, yes exactly! oh dear.

there is an inspection we can request, though of course we will also do our own. this house has already been reduced $20,000, has been on the market quite a while. i would want to bargain down at least another 8-10k based on the ASBESTOS siding and other terrible things, like the yard, old ass windows, crappy roof. kirk noticed in one picture that the walls are plaster lathe, which means that repairing the water damaged wall would be more difficult. anyway, i think the market has come back to earth for the most part in pdx, but it could still fall further. we'll see.

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

I owned a house that had asbestos siding. Let's be honest about it: Airborne asbestos kills. But asbestos shingles are not a toxic risk. You can shingle over them later and just lock them in. They're a pretty good siding, really.

[handstil.livejournal.com]

We have asbestos right now and I was a little worried about moving my kids in here so I researched it and ya, not a real concern unless your drilling but you would be. I mean, I imagine you would have to for new electrical wiring, etc.

Another thing to consider is doing any sanding and repainting BEFORE you TTC. Lead paint dust is no bueno.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

there wouldn't be much external drilling if the electrical was updated. whatever is in the (unreachable today) basement might be another story, though.

what does TTC mean?

good call on the sanding and painting. the pink room DEFINITELY needs it. the rest of the house could possibly wait, though.

[scythrop.livejournal.com]

Um, I do know that Portland is in the northWEST, by the way.

Also, not necessarily irrational! I mean, if the price is right and you are up to the challenge...

[handstil.livejournal.com]

I have such a good feeling from that victorian. Seriously, it oozes character and warmth. I love it.
Do you have Pipu (Katie) on your list? She and her husband just restored an old house AND built new property on the lot. She is a good person to talk to about all this and she is awesome. Excuse that my internet is so slow that I can't click your profile and see if you're already friends...

I feel ROBBED that you didn't photograph the crazy religious shit. Promise me you'll exploit Mrs. Goss just a little if you go back? ;)

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i will check out pipu! thanks for the ref. i am feeling more and more confident (or is that insane?) about our ability to deal with a fixer house.

haha. i will definitely take pictures of jesus and mary next time :)

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

it's a big committment.