Bringing it Home

Bringing it home, our new blog series, is the start of a new, challenging adventure, both for this blog and our personal lives. We’ll be sharing a more personal view of our lives as we renovate our newly purchased home (closing is scheduled for mid December, fingers- crossed).

Three states and 4 moves later…

In 2008, we were happily living in Rutland, Vermont, in a wonderful old Victorian house with a view of the mountains, when the bottom fell out of the economy and changed our lives forever. After struggling for a few years to find work and sell our house, we finally landed new jobs and moved to the coast of Maine. We sold our house and a large portion of our belongings and moved into the first of our rental homes. Four years and 4 rental homes later, we find our selves in Harrisburg, the state capital of Pennsylvania, about to embark on another crazy adventure. We’re buying and renovating a home in the midtown neighborhood of the city.

Dreaming and binge watching HGTV….

We like the little house we’re renting and our landlord is really nice, but we’ve been itching to find another place to make our own. I’ve always wanted to be able to ride my bike or walk to work and my husband misses doing home reno/repair projects. This summer we spent a lot of time walking and driving around different neighborhoods in Harrisburg checking out the vibe and the houses we saw listed online, we usually ended up in midtown.

One of my coworkers recommended a Realtor who was wonderful to work with. She was spot on! Ray Davis is now our realtor and he has been truly amazing. Patient and responsive to my many text messages and emails, he’s always willing to talk and always looking out for our best interests. If you are looking to buy a house in the Harrisburg area give him a call, he knows his stuff!

Are we crazy ?

After looking at a few houses and many hours spent searching online, we put in an offer over Labor day weekend for the house we wanted. The house has been sitting vacant for 2 years and was neglected for quite some time. It’s a neat old place with lots of character, and since it’s the last home on the row, it has an abundance of natural light and access to a cute little backyard from a side street.

After some back and forth with the seller, we finally had an agreement and needed to start the crazy roller coaster ride of getting the inspections and appraisals completed. Since the house needs a lot of work, we decided to use the FHA 203K streamline mortgage program. This will allow us to borrow the money for renovation, bundled in with our mortgage. The process to get this type of loan is longer and more complicated but it’s a good option if you don’t have down money, or endless funds for renovation…we didn’t have either. It does require finding a lender and contractor who are familiar with and willing to work with this type of loan. We’re using HomeBridge Financial and The Renovation Co.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – or as we like to call it  “Potential”

Home inspections are like mini soap operas, you go in with excited anticipation for a glimpse into the hidden secrets of the house, expecting a little drama, but hoping and praying no major skeletons will be found in the closet. We found a bit of both during our inspection. Mike Biechler of the The Inspection Center, a very nice guy and good home inspector, spent several hours checking out the house and giving us the good and not so good news about what we would need to repair to qualify for the FHA loan.

The good news was, the house had good ‘bones’ and he didn’t think we were too crazy for taking on the renovations. The bad news, well that’s a pretty long list with photos (heavy sigh). The more he found wrong, the more deflated we became realizing that our renovation budget would be going towards things like new (historically approved) siding, heat, hot water, and a new electric line, instead of a dreamy new kitchen and updated bathrooms.

Here’s what he found – a list of repairs not uncommon for an older home that’s been neglected. Some items listed came from the appraiser who decided he wanted to add on to our ‘to do’ list and make sure we had no money left in the budget – thanks, buddy! Sarcastic comments are my own, I consider them a result of the stress we’re under, but you can think of them as helpful tips in case you decide to go down this same path. 🙂

1. point and repair 2 of the three chimneys (expensive for something no one will ever see…perhaps Santa will appreciate it)
2. remove and replace fake (gross) brick siding with James Hardie cement fiber board siding (costs more than both of our cars combined- but we are in a historic area of town so ugh there goes the kitchen fund)
3. replace rotted wood on front porch
4. replace existing non-functioning oil furnace with gas fired hot water boiler and new electric hot water heater (will be nice to have heat and hot water, fingers crossed that the many radiators in the house still work)
5. replace electric service cable, meter base and panel (boring but necessary)
6. cover asbestos pipes in basement (same as above)
7. scrape and paint peeling paint on exterior
8. fix, replace or refinish several interior floors (we had planned to do this later but mister appraiser decided we should do it now or he wouldn’t approve our loan…gee, he’s swell, hope he comes over and helps with the installation)
9. remove wallpaper and paint interior walls (another fun addition from the appraiser, he wants us to paint the walls and since I refuse to paint over walls covered with several layers of wallpaper, guess what I’ll be doing all winter?)
10. repair hole in kitchen ceiling – (gee really? I kind of like the exposed pipe look – not!)
11. clean house (no duh! this one really gets my goat – the house is empty and yes dusty and a bit dirty but come on, dude! we are moving into the house, so of course we are going to clean it – so why force us to PAY someone to do this?) Note: if your appraiser notes items in his appraisal you  must add that work onto your contractors bid for the FHA loan

Ok, enough of the yucky news – back to the good stuff. Even with a long list of repairs and several delayed closing dates, and an appraisal that came in way lower than the sale price, we have persevered, and are marching towards a new settlement date of December 11, 2015. Our lives feel like they are on hold right now, and we still have a bunch of hurdles to got over before we finally get in the house, but we are almost there. So close…

If you are up for the adventure, sign up and follow our blog, we’ll be sharing all the crazy ups and downs of renovating an old house, while working full time and on a very, very tight budget. Our plan is to share before and after shots and relay progress on the work that we and our contractor are doing. We’ve got big ideas and a small budget so will be making the most of the vintage, antique and cast off junk we find. It’s exciting and terrifying all at the same time. We can’t wait to get started.

Next Up…sealing the deal and a house tour! (we’ll be able to share photos of the house once it’s officially ours)