Today the texture guys arrived right at 8 am to get started on the walls and ceilings of the house. The ceilings were a light popcorn that we are covering with a more updated knockdown texture. Thankfully they will not have to scrape off the old texture as it was not very thick. That certainly saved us on labor charges. They weren't able to get the entire house done today so they will be returning at noon tomorrow to finish the job. Having them at the house with every room taped off meant a free day for me! I took full advantage of it since as soon as they're done I will be a painting maniac.
Since I don't have any real updates for the house today, I thought I'd do a "looking back" post remembering our last house and what a wild ride that was. For those who are interested, read on! Warning, it's a bit long. :)
When we first got married (six years ago in May), Daniel already owned a townhouse. It was a great place for us to start off our marriage. We lived there for two years before selling it in April 2010. At the beginning of April, we were looking at houses every weekend. I was working one Saturday morning when Daniel emailed me three properties he had set up appointments for us to go look at. Nothing looked that great to me, but he was particularly excited about an older brick two-story he'd found. I didn't understand his eagerness but agreed to check it out with him after I got off at noon.
We drove to the house and turned down the street to find an odd sight. The pavement was new and the street was lined with lots for sale. There was one new ranch at the very end of the cul-de-sac and the house we were going to look at sat halfway down the street up on a hill.
"Where's the driveway?" I asked as we parked in the street waiting for the realtor. The curb ran in front of the property with no break to drive up the drive marked only by well-worn tire treads to the concrete pad outside the garage. This indeed was an interesting house. Once the realtor arrived we climbed up the "driveway" and went in through the peeling double front door. The house had been unoccupied for a while. Walking in was not at all what I was expecting. It was covered in large floral wallpaper from floor to ceiling in most of the rooms. But there was something about it. It felt right. We ventured upstairs and entered the master bedroom. As soon as I saw the master bath, I knew. "This is it Daniel," I said and the look on his face told me he felt the same. We drove straight to the realtor's office and signed an offer letter right then. We had found our house.
 |
| When we first took possession, the grass was about two feet high! |
So we put our offer in and waited to hear back. Our offer was the first on the property as it had only been listed a day. The owner accepted within two weeks, but now came the hard part - the bank. Would the bank agree to take our offer at such a high loss to their books? We decided this house was worth waiting for to find out. So we moved in with Daniel's parents to wait for a decision from the bank. Our house was sold and the new buyer took possession in the beginning of May.
One Monday in May, Daniel got a phone call. The bank accepted our offer, even though higher offers had come in from other buyers. Apparently this bank believed in first come first serve. We were elated! One caveat - they wanted to close at the end of the week. Fortunately we had already been pre-approved so paperwork was already in motion. However, before the mortgage company would sign a loan with us they wanted certain things done including turning the water back on (the house had been winterized in 2008), repairing the deck, putting in a driveway and filling in a woodchuck hole next to the house. Of course the current owner was not going to lift a finger to do these things so it was all on us.
Our mortgage broker was amazing! She lined everything up faster than I could have imagined and had people out at the house fulfilling each request. We put in a gravel driveway, screwed down some loose deck boards, had a pest company catch the woodchuck and turned the water back on. To our dismay, the house had not been winterized soon enough. A pipe had burst and it rained into the kitchen when the water was turned back on. No problem, the plumbing company could fix that.
It was Thursday (we were set to close Friday) and I was headed to the house with my cleaning supplies bucket. I was too excited to wait until closing when I knew I could get in now and start cleaning. The plumbers had just fixed the burst pipe and were pulling out when I got there. I drove up the new gravel drive to see Daniel coming out of the house. He was locking the door behind him when he got a phone call. His face fell and I knew something wasn't right.
Here we were the day before closing and the mortgage company had discovered a $50,000 tax lien against the property. We were devastated. What did this mean for us? We had just spent $1200 on a house that didn't belong to us and we find out we can't close the deal?! We were told they were going to try to find a way around it. We would just have to wait and see. I was incredibly disappointed but determined it would work out.
I went to the internet, looking for answers as to how we could work around this. I researched a loophole that had been created in the tax laws due to the recent housing crisis. I'm sure I'm lacking legal terminology here, but basically if a house was being sold for less than the mortgage amount to prevent foreclosure (i.e. a short sale) and the tax lien was secondary to the mortgage lien, then the tax lien could be released from the property to allow it to be sold while the lien was held against the debtor. This seemed to fit our situation perfectly. I talked to our agent who went to the mortgage holding bank. They said they would attempt to get the lien released on those grounds. Success!
Two weeks later the bank decided that the tax lien is not their problem. They were not going to try to have it released. The only way we could buy the house is if we were to pay off the $50,000 ourselves. Um, no thanks. Again, we were devastated.
Two more weeks later and they called to say they have filed the paperwork to request for the lien to be released. Talk about getting yanked around - these people couldn't make up their minds! So they filed the paperwork and the lien was released. We closed on the house on July 31st with immediate possession. It was truly a miracle that we got the house after all we had gone through. We knew God had helped us.
We decided to work on the house before moving in since an empty house is much easier to work with. We tore down wallpaper, repaired the damaged walls and painted some of the rooms. Daniel put new tile floors in all the bathrooms. Many things we decided we could live with for now as we were eager to move in. You can see pictures of the house here on Flickr as it was during the time the work was getting done and after. Later updates missing from the photos - concrete driveway, large rock retaining wall along drive, landscaping updates, shed built, all carpet on 1st and 2nd floor replaced and the nursery update in a Paris theme for Maria.
After we moved into the house in September, the city dropped another bombshell on us. The house was built on a well and a septic system. Since we were inside city limits, wells were not permitted and septic tanks were only allowed until they needed repaired (at which time you would have to hook up to city sewer). At the same time, we found out that for our mortgage, the septic tank had to be inspected before they would file the documents. So technically we were living in a house that we didn't own on paper, although they were conveniently still collecting our monthly mortgage payments. Funny how that works.
To save money, the septic inspection company told us we could dig up our own septic tank. Naturally it wasn't marked and since the land had been split up, it wasn't even on our plot anymore. A family from our church came out on a hot Saturday in September to help us dig up the septic tank. Derrick and his son Jude helped Daniel outside while his wife Lynette and daughter Faith (the now teens in the previous post) helped me inside the house. They were out there over an hour digging holes with no progress on finding the tank. Derrick decided it was time to ask for help. He went over to a tree to take a break in the shade and prayed, "Lord, we really need your help finding this tank. Please guide my shovel." He went back into the yard and sunk his shovel into the ground... and hit concrete. God always cares, even about the small things like a septic tank hidden in the yard.
After that we struck a deal with the contracting company who now owned and was trying to sell the empty lots after the bankruptcy of the original contractor. Since our septic tank was on one of their plots (not exactly a nice selling point), they would give us a substantial price break to hook us up to city water and city sewer, per the city's requirement. However we did stick it to the city just a little bit by keeping our outside spigots hooked up to the well to water our yard. Free irrigation for life!
We did many more upgrades and enhancements to the house, too many to count. The one I am probably most proud of is the beautiful fireplace upgrade Daniel did in the basement. Again, there are pictures here on Flickr if you'd like to take a peek.
We had many adventures in that house and built three years of wonderful memories. It was the house we had our first child in and it will always be close to my heart. Our dreams and visions may have caused us to move on, but a piece of my heart will always be in the walls of that home. It's a part of me now. I hope to pour a bit of myself into each home we work on together as a family. A home is a special thing - something I never want to take for granted. We are thankful for the opportunity we have to build a home together.
Keep dreaming - I know we will!
No comments:
Post a Comment