Pearl Street Slideshow
Well, we took the plunge and made an offer on the yellow house. Here are some pictures of the place. (You can click on any of the pictures for a bigger version.) The seller has until the 10th to respond to our offer. The seller’s name is Buffi Bloom, how cool is that?
January 5th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I love it - it’s perfect! It’s small and funky and perfect!! I’m sending all kinds of smooth and positive energy for the rest of the process.
January 6th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I like it too. I think it would be a good idea (cost effective) to take out the bathroom and laundry room and incorporate that into the new garage. I’m curious to know what you find out about that rust. My concern would be that there is a corresponding mold problem that has been hidden with paint. You want to make absolutely sure that is not the case. Are you hiring a building inspector to come? I really like those doors that you like too. What does the ad mean that it is in “an improving” neighborhood?
January 6th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Yes, we are definitely going to have it inspected. There’s just too much that we don’t know about. I don’t know anything about the foundation, or the roof, or a million other things. I will remember to ask about the mold when the inspector is there. We also think that taking out the bathroom and laundry room is a good idea, but we’re a little overwhelmed by taking on such a big project right away after we move in. I think what we’re going to do is draw out a grand master plan, where the kitchen connects to the fancy new bathroom. On the other side of the bathroom is a door to the extra room, and on the other side of that is the garage. Then instead of tackling the whole thing at once, we’ll just get the permit to make an unattached garage in the spot where it fits in the master plan. Our financing will allow us 6 months to finish that. Then we’ll tackle the next project, which would be to take out the bathroom and create the connecting pieces (new bath and extra room) to connect the garage to the rest of the house.
It’s around the corner from the “bad part” of town (to whatever extent that there is one…there’s not exactly a ghetto in Centralia, but it is a crank town…sorta like Nampa). A coworker of Preston lives two doors down and he says that the “other side of the tracks” a few blocks away can get a little hairy sometimes. I assume that this part of town is being bought up by people like us and fixed up. Most of the places have already been fixed up. I think they call it “gentrification”
January 7th, 2007 at 8:06 am
I’m confused why you wouldn’t get a permit for an attached garage?
January 7th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Also, I hope your offer is contingent upon the results from the inspection…..? You don’t want to commit to buying and then have the inspector come back with a costly report.
January 7th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
It’s not really about not wanting to get a permit for an attached garage, it’s just that we’re trying to break it down into manageable chunks. Our home improvement loan requires that the work be done within 6 months. We’re just a little intimidated to jump into a completely new bathroom, rec room, deck, and garage all at once with virtually no experience. Preston helped frame the family cabin when he was a teenager, and I, ummm…..have used a hammer before. That’s about the extent of our experience, so we are thinking that we should be able to handle a nice rectangular garage as a first step, and then see where we stand for the rest of it.
Our offer is definitely contingent upon the inspection. In fact, we haven’t even handed over any earnest money yet. If the inspection comes out okay, then we’ll put down earnest money (only $500 since the purchase price is so low). If the inspection comes back with stuff that we feel like we can’t tackle, we walk away. After that, the bank will have their appraisal done. If the bank decides that they won’t finance it, we can still back out and get our earnest money back. If we go all the way through the appraisal, and the bank agrees to finance it, and at the last minute we decide to back out, even though everything is according to the agreement, we would still only lose our earnest money (the $500), and of course, we’d be out the cost of the inspection (around $300 to $400). At no point are we obligated to buy the house until we actually close on it.