So, if you’ve been wondering why things have been so quiet around here, it’s because we’ve been BUSY! We closed on our home at the end of July, and we’ll be moving in at the end of September. While this entire process has been exhausting and expensive, I’m so excited for the house’s potential, and can’t wait to share our renovation progress here on the blog!

Buying a House is Hard

The market in our area right now is CRAZY. We started seriously shopping for a home almost a year ago, and we were not prepared for how long the process would take. We placed several offers and lost to people willing to pay $30k over asking price, cash offers, and contractors looking for quick flips (sometimes all three). Because we were looking for a fixer-upper, we looked at several foreclosures (and bought one!), which have their own issues – difficult agents, extra closing costs, no seller’s disclosures. The whole process was oftentimes very discouraging, but we are SO happy about how it worked out in the end.

How We Found Our Home

I was browsing Zillow listings one day in June (as one does), and came across a foreclosed home that had been sitting on the market for around a month (basically equivalent to 400 years in the market in our area – NOTHING stays on the market for that long). It was overpriced, and listed just out of our budget, but we decided to take a look at it anyways. We were on vacation, so we scheduled a time to look at it after we got back. Between scheduling and the actual viewing, we noticed the sellers had dropped the price!

When we looked at the home, it was in ROUGH shape. The basement was filled with mold, most of the home was covered in stained, terrible green carpet, and the entire place smelled like 23 dogs had lived there (and never been let outside). Somehow, none of that scared us away. We saw that there were hardwoods in the bedrooms and dining room. They were majorly in need of refinishing, but beautiful nonetheless. We loved the the two-story dining room ceiling, the backyard, and the bay windows downstairs. We found the neighborhood (and the neighbors) to be pleasant and welcoming.

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After a bit of discussion, we decided to take another look (with our parents this time), and they confirmed what we were feeling – that this house could be a great opportunity for us! It had an additional bedroom and was larger in size compared to most of the homes we had been looking at. We put in an offer, negotiated a bit, and were thrilled when our offer was accepted! The only issue – they wanted to close in 3 weeks.

Inspections + Closing Costs = $$$

Since the home was a foreclosure, it had been vacant for some period of time (a year? two? three maybe?), and the sellers (a bank) didn’t know anything about the condition of the home. Enter: inspections galore! We spent a lot on inspections to hopefully prevent any large and expensive surprises. This part of the process was a whirlwind. We had 7 days to get all the utilities turned on (though we didn’t even know who the providers were), complete the inspections, and make our final decision.

We had some extra closing responsibilities because the property was a foreclosure. Thankfully, our title company and lender were great and made the process much easier for us. I spent the entire 3 weeks assuming something would fall through, up until we signed the papers. (And after, since the seller didn’t show up to closing and just told us he hid the house key at the house. It took us 20 minutes to find it, even after he told us where it was. Foreclosures are weird.)

Progress!

Now that you know the whole backstory, here’s how things are going a month into our renovations.

First, we ripped up all the carpet and aired out the house. This made a HUGE difference with the smell. We also had mold remediation and duct cleaning done professionally to make sure the house is safe before move-in. We’re ALMOST done sanding the hardwood floors. Next step is staining! We’ve made progress on the downstairs flooring, the backyard, and opening up the wall between the kitchen and dining room.

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Basically, we haven’t really finished one single project yet (#renovationlife). We’re about halfway done with about half our “pre-move-in” projects, with one month to go before moving in. We have a lot of longer-term plans, but here’s what we’re trying to accomplish before we move in (and what we’ve done do far):

• Mold remediation and duct cleaning
• Rip up all carpet, dispose
• Sand all hardwoods (we’ve been doing this all month; almost done!)
• Stain and finish all hardwoods
• Install laminate flooring in living room/downstairs bedroom
• Make both bathrooms usable (downstairs one is almost done!)
• Open up doorway between kitchen and dining room (half done)
• Tile kitchen (? maybe?)
• Paint all walls
• Clean EVERYTHING

As you can see, we have a long way to go, but we’re feeling hopeful that we can get it all done in time. Scott and I will both be taking some time off in September to make sure we have a finished(ish) house to move into! The whole “packing-up-our-entire-apartment-and-moving” thing is another story.

Well, if you’ve stuck around this long, thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more updates as we progress through this renovation!