What we bought

This was our new home in June of 2003 in all its Green and White glory. Even the roof was green and complimented the metal awnings so well. This color scheme extended to the garage and "summer house", which was nothing more than a glorified shed. Here is a hint people, just because the old owner liked hanging out in there during the summers of the 60's and 70's does not qualify a large shed to be called a summer house. Very mis-leading to a buyer perusing the MLS listings.

Some of the highlights that can be seen in this picture are our lovely lawn ornament of a railroad crossing pole, the rotted roof where one could stick your hand through to the outside and our gorgeous metal awnings that made the most wonderful tink tink tink tink sounds when it rained. I don't mean to go off on a negative tangent, because clearly anyone can see the house has visible challenges and we still bought it.

Not only did we willingly buy the house, but we were excited to do so! This was going to be our project and place where we could call home forever. The house had plenty of room for a us and then a family, with a great yard and a garage that could protect my boyfriend's precious 1967 Mustang.

I look back on the last six years in the house and smile. How far we've gone and how much I've learned from this house... its been a big part in a wonderful chapter in my life, one that I'm ready to close soon for the next one to begin.

House Hunting...

After the first house burned down, we moved back to the drawing board and started the search with even more intensity. The budget was still low. Really low.

One night the boyfriend approached me with what he called the perfect listing. He couldn’t figure out why the house had been on the market for so long. A quick drive by cleared that question right up. The house was in a bad state of disrepair that was not evident from the blurry realor listing and also not pictured was the fact that a rail road track ran right through the driveway.

While loving trains as a kid, the boyfriend wasn’t so thrilled with the idea of having a train run through his driveway. But the price was right and this house came with a two car garage. So a walk through was arranged. The owner was home and that always makes me really uncomfortable when I’m visiting a potential house to buy. Note to self, do whatever it takes to not be home when people are coming for a walk through.

Painfully outdated does not even begin to describe this house. It wasn’t just the old wallpaper all over the ceilings, or the “brand new” kitchen installed in 1968- the house was on the borderline of a decline to the point of no return. It was quite clear that all the basic maintenance of the house had been ignored for about twenty years and if a new owners didn’t decide to fix everything and just live in it status quo, that in another decade the house would be slated for a tear down.

However this house had a lot of charm and great potential to be our home. The town was great and the neighborhood looked loads better than the last one. We decided to take on the challenge of bringing the house back to livable conditions. What a couple of suckers for charm and potential we are!

My boyfriend inked the mortgage papers.
(and amazingly the house did not burst into flames)

The start of the hunt

If I was really smart I would have started this blog about 6 years ago when my then boyfriend, future fiancé and now husband started his search for a new house. Guess I'm just a little behind the times...

Way back, over six years ago, Pete started the search for his first single family home. He was on, what some might consider, the tiniest budget ever for NJ. I'm not really sure if the boyfriend was actually looking for a handyman’s special or if it just evolved to that point after realizing those homes were the only ones available in the required price range. In a show of solidarity and because I love driving around aimlessly I accompanied him all over creation during those weeks doing the all important drive bys of any potential houses.

After countless “no” properties Pete seemed to have found a house in an especially crappy section of an especially crappy South Jersey town. Who gives a poop about the town, the house was cheap! Really cheap and it had a driveway which was on our short list of must haves. We did a walk through and with the puppy tucked in my arms we examined every aspect of the house.

Everything was painfully outdated, but the bones of the house were there for us to fix up. We could see ourselves living there, fixing it up before we moved on. It was the perfect lets not keep living in our college townhouse where people try to throw kegs onto your roof solution. The yard was small but cute and bursting with potential, even with the railroad tracks running through them.

No less than an hour after Pete signed the papers for our Realtor calls. The house was on fire and was currently burning down. No joke. Call it divine intervention or call it insurance fraud that was never proven. That house was just not meant to be.

So our search started all over again.