Birds have been entering the attic.
That’s my favorite sentence from the forty six page long home inspection report produced about a house I have made an offer on. Other highlights include, “The framing under the bathroom was not well installed and is sub standard.” Also, “Roof – continued.”The Kitchen section begins like this: The counters are damaged and need to be replaced. The cabinets are damaged and need to be replaced. The flooring is damaged and needs to be replaced. This flooring may contain asbestos.
When I began the house-finding adventure a couple months ago, it felt mostly hypothetical. I guess I’ll look for a house, I thought. I’ll look, and see what happens. Julie got me a little blank book and I filled it with lists. Top Five Qualities. What To Do Next. I found a broker, which was harder than I expected. She started sending me listings.
I was looking for something very particular that was basically all about location. I like my quick bike ride to work. I know that a longer ride would mean that on rainy days I’d take the bus. And my daily bike ride changes my mood and my outlook and how well I sleep at night. I have also learned, from living in two different places in Portland, that being just a few blocks from commerce significantly shifts my lifestyle for the better. I need to be able to walk to good things – things that are open after ten.
But close-in neighborhoods are more expensive, so I paraded through a series of comically awkward houses – houses so bizarre in one way or another that they were right in my price range. Tiny houses next to highways with awful floorplans. Dark houses on busy streets. Houses with ominously sloping floors.
I found one favorite, but it had an offer accepted on it just hours before I went inside. So I wrote a backup offer. Weeks went by. I looked at a few others, but given my budget and my neighborhoods, it was mostly about waiting for the right thing to get listed. I figured I could wait a while.
And then, last Monday, my backup offer got bumped into first place. For whatever reason – probably having to do with the outdated sewer or electrical or plumbing systems, or the leaking roof or the leaking oil tank, but who’s to say – the earlier buyers walked. And in the space of five days I found a lender and had an inspection and had a tank locate and got a sewer bid. And now it seems like I might be buying a house.
It could still fall apart, of course. But at this point it’s looking pretty good. And so now I’m staring at forty six pages of what I’ll be up to for the next couple years. I’m not exactly sure why I’m doing this. I guess it’s another piece in my grand experiment in staying put. I guess it’s a good way to learn about circuits. And flooring. And birds.
posted by tortaluga @ 12:06 PM
2 Comments:
Hurray for you!!
Can't wait to hear more and see pictures! Just remember that you are getting 46 pages of "character" :)
--La
Congratulations! Ah, the joys of homeownership! I'll send my HEPA respirator.
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