When I'm disheartened... I turn to retail...

The whole point of this house and this web site, is to detail how we bought and renovated a house using Craigslist and other unconventional/non retail options.  I have found that I get disheartened after days and weeks of looking for something and finding that people on Craigslist and at estate sales (garage sales and other miscellaneous ways) sell items for the same price as new.  Why wouldn't I buy a new fridge with a warranty vs a refrigerator that is 6 years old and from someone's garage?  It's hard to justify.

Today, we went cabinet shopping and rehab store shopping.  We went to Cabinets To Go and found some great cabinets.  The guy in the store was very friendly.  They had several kitchen options on display.  Their standard kitchen is dovetailed drawers and has a lot of great features.  Price-wise, they end up being comparable with Ikea.  I think they are cheaper than Home Depot and Lowes based on what I priced out.  We really liked this one cabinet, the guy even gave us a sample door to hold on to and compare colors and quality as we shopped around.  He priced out the kitchen and mocked up a design in just a few minutes for us.  Now we have that print out to compare and use as we continue to shop around.

Why look at new cabinets when I found that one for $500?  Well, the guy emailed me that he had several offers and even an offer above asking price.  That's that.  Those cabinets are gone.  I'm sad (disheartened).  Mike is feeling the push to find cabinets because we have essentially 30 days to get the house to a point where we can live in it.  A kitchen is a huge part of that.

The reality is, we could get an Oak kitchen for free if we wanted but neither one of us likes the grain.  I looked into painting and it's a huge process to paint it to the level where you can't see the grain.  I'm picky about the grain.

If you're looking for a Craigslist kitchen and are on a budget, you probably shouldn't be as picky as Mike and I are.

I'll post about the rehab stores in another posting...  Happy Kitchen Shopping everyone.

Bummed and anxious!

I didn't sleep all night.  I found an incredible kitchen on Craigslist but I had ignored the postings for 3 hours and just know that this deal was too great of one to have me be the first to contact him.  The deal was for an entire kitchen (color similar to what we want) for $500!  It is amazing and I'm so excited and know that these cabinets would work.  So, I was up all night or half asleep all night thinking about the kitchen and hoping and wishing we got it.  Oh, and the amazing part - they are throwing in the bathroom vanities for two different rooms too!  It's incredible steal of a deal.  I'm tempted to offer extra but think I'll stick with this for now.  HOPING!

Floor Planning Program - Free Online

I just found a new floor plan program that I absolutely love!  It's easy to do all the rooms in a house.  It's easy to transition between a 2D and 3D view.  I built this model and a sample laundry room layout in under 5 minutes.  I absolutely love this new program!  Check it out at http://www.floorplanner.com.

Consumer Reviews on Tools & Everything

In shopping for tools, it's important to read reviews and understand what you need.  For example, one of the best compound sliding miter saws is $1300!  But for the basic home DIYer - do you really need a $1300 miter saw?

I signed up for Consumer Reports.  I'm actually surprised by that they don't have that much information on everything I'm looking at.  Haven't they been around for years?  They should have reviews of everything!  I go to Consumerreports.org first and then I Google reviews.  You can also go to Amazon.com and read the reviews on their site.

For Miter Saws, the best site for reviews was http://www.consumersearch.com/.

What sites do you use for reviews?

Prep: Flooring samples

I am torn about what direction we should go for flooring.  Mike has allergies and I have a dog.  So, how do we keep the house allergy-free?  No Carpet is the answer.  Beyond that, there are a couple directions we can go.
1.  Laminate flooring
2. Wood floors
3. Tile
4.  Hybrid of the answers above (Cork, bamboo)

Laminate is a great direction because of price and durability. Wood Floors are tempting for resale.  Tile is a choice I choose only if I can get the "wood tile" that I saw in a friend's house. Hybrids are great because they are great for the environment but they are expensive.  Can I justify the almost double cost when we're trying to save every penny we can?



I've Googled and Craigslisted to search for options and found an option to get 5 free samples sent to the house without a credit card required.  So go through ebates - sign up with this link.  Search for Builddirect and then you will get back 2% of anything you pay for at that site.  Builddirect.com is the site that has the free samples.  What do you have to lose?

What kind of flooring would you choose?

Angie's List

Have you seen the commercials for Angie's List?  We decided to sign up for it - but only when we found a good deal.  Groupon had a deal yesterday (and I'm sure they will again) for a $20 annual membership.  If you are purchasing something from Groupon.  Go to ebates first.  You'll get a percentage back (around 2-3%) later.  Our last ebates check was about $20.  We watch our pennies with our online purchases - and this is one way to save just a little bit more.  So sign up!  It's worth getting a few cents back here and there.  I even reserved my Avis rental car in March and was recently notified that I'll get about $14.00 back for that trip.  Yeah!  I love FREE Money!!!  

Blog to check out: The Handmade Home

The Nate Berkus show had a blogger on his site to feature her home in "house proud".  You can check out her site at thehandmadehome.net.  

She had a great idea of using free driftwood to make a star.  Nate suggested putting these on bookcases.  The original idea is at WestEnd for about $59.00 each.  So, get some cardboard backing, make a shape and get some driftwood or sticks and glue away!  It's a great organic addition to your home.

Kitchen Design Planning

One of the big projects we will do first in the house is replace the kitchen.  Right now, it's a galley kitchen with an entrance from the hallway and a pass through from the living room to the laundry room.  We want to knock out the wall between the living room and the kitchen.  At one point we discussed knocking out the wall to the laundry room but we also need to put a 2nd bathroom up somewhere and the laundry area is the best place for that.

My husband told me last night, as he was mapping out the kitchen plan/option that our courtship would have gone like this:
Friend setting us up for dinner, "he is a marriage and family therapist AND he worked as a cabinet designer."
Me:  "Yes".

Well, it took us a little longer than that but we really are a perfect match - I've wanted to buy a fixer upper for a long time and I have a husband who will encourage my desires and dreams.  But it's great to have someone who understands spacing and all of that.

So in a small space, we're trying to fit a large stainless steel french door refrigerator (with bottom freezer) and everything else - AND make it feel spacious.  So, what are our options?

My husband drew this last night:

I would like to make the island have cabinets on more than one side.  My husband thinks it's large enough as a 3 foot width island.  

The issue we have with this kitchen is ALL the appliances are on one wall.  Should we move the sink or stove to the island?  Can we put a TALL pantry across from the fridge?  Does it face the fridge or the island?  These are all things we have to explore.

I started searching pictures on HGTV and found the following image that is something I want to explore:

I am wondering if our cabinets can wrap around towards the laundry room and we put a door out there?  I don't know.  It's something to explore.  The side where the sink is - wouldn't be a wall but an island and open to the living room.

Thoughts?  

I found the following kitchen planning sites that help with layouts:

http://www.floorplanskitchen.com/

http://www.floorplanskitchen.com/kitchen-layouts/galley-kitchens/

http://www.floorplanskitchen.com/kitchen-layouts/kitchen-plans-with-peninsulas/

http://homerenovations.about.com/od/kitchens/a/artkitchendesig.htm

http://www.kitchens.com/Design/Layouts/Common-Layouts.aspx

http://www.floorplanskitchen.com/kitchen-layouts/island-kitchen-layouts/

The best tools for actually playing with layout (and Free) are:

1. MY DECO 3D ROOM PLANNER

I really liked this site and playing around with seeing the room from an aerial view (2D) and being able to see it from a 3D view.  I was even able to put french doors at the other side of the room where we currently have windows.  It's fun to play with options. My complaint with the program is the options for cabinets in the kitchen were sparse.  Some of the refrigerators and appliances didn't show up in 3D view.  Also, there was no way to make the finishes of the "cabinets" match.

2. HOMESTYLER Don't be intimidated by the fact that the creator of this is Autocad - what the professionals use.  This is a user-friendly option.  I created this in 5 minutes.  I had a couple cabinets get "stuck".  I'm not sure why I couldn't get them to move past the far left corner.  So, a couple issues but overall would be a good space planning program to use.  The 3D and the cabinet/appliance options seem to be flashier than My Deco.  Definitely try this program.

3. IKEA HOME PLANNER and IKEA KITCHEN PLANNER

We went to Ikea last week and were able to pick up their kitchen catalog.  They have a lot of options and really are an economical way to go for quickly updating a kitchen.  We might go this route.  I shy away from Ikea products that look like they are from Ikea - I probably shouldn't.  It's a very useful store!

For additional program options - check out this blog posting at Freshome.

Inspection

I've created an Open Project with a list of all the tasks the inspector said we should do to bring our house up to code.  This doesn't have all the smaller steps that lead up to the bigger things he found.  There are 140 tasks.  I called the task sheet "future dream home" because this home will be a dream when we are done.  I am confident of that.  At the same time - it hits you hard how many tasks there are!  Some good news and bad news came out of the inspection. 1.  The good news is the oil furnace has already been updated to Natural gas.  The funny thing is the Gas furnace has a sign on it, "Leased by Washington Gas".  It's 20 years old so we're thinking it is paid for by now but we did question the seller about this and asked them to make sure it is purchased.  2.  The bad news is the electrical panel has to be updated and none of the plugs are grounded.  Some of them have the neutral wires switched - so we have a huge job to do there.  We'll need to rip out walls to open it up and make it easier for the electrician to update the house.  My brother-in-law said that he can do the electricity in the room - once the electrician gets the wires there.  So, that is a huge project.  The other big project we need to do is update the heating system to remove all the baseboard heating.  This will require ducting.  Luckily, we have easy access to the crawl space and basement to add bulkheads to and had the ducting.  After the inspection, we measured and measured and I took a few pictures.  Our nieces and nephew were there to help measure too - so it was a little chaotic but great to have the extra opinions to weigh our options.  It's also really generous of them that they are even offering to help us update the house so much.  We have a lot of work today but I'm confident it's all things we can do.  The question is how much $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Our inspector was great!  If you're looking for a good inspector in the Seattle area, I was impressed by Pillar to Post.  He spent a good amount of time inspecting.  He took pictures of every issue and area of the home.  He highlighted recommended fixes for everything and printed out everything in a binder for us to have for a reference.  It's that binder that I used to build our "open Project" file.  He was very helpful in answering our questions and we still feel like our house is overall, a SOLID home.  The home inspection package included the following:

The Package

The Home inspection report will be presented to you in a three ring binder that contains:

• The report
• Seasonal maintenance checklist
• Cost and repair estimate guide
• Tags to mark major shut-off valves
• Home filing system to track future repairs

We discovered we can see the Tacoma Dome from one of our windows in the living room, so we have a "view".  Once we fix up the house and tear out dead bushes and fix the yard, we will have a great place to hang out.  Someday, I'll want to add a patio deck around the house.  We don't have much space for a yard, but who wants a soggy, muddy yard in Seattle anyway???  So, we're okay not having a huge yard.

What you want to look for in an inspector:
1.  Licensed inspectors are good - but check out the requirements to be licensed.  In the state of Washington, if you weren't licensed before a certain year, you had to go through special training.  Ask what training and background your inspector has.  Some states don't require any training (New Mexico as of 2012 doesn't).
2. Look for an inspector associated with a national organization.  Ours was affiliated with Pillar to Post.  I'd be happy to send you his name and contact info, just email me if you are in the Seattle area and want a reference.
3.  Interview the inspector. Don't be shy. Here's what to ask (Copied from MSN - link below)

• Talk to me. First, the inspector should make time to talk to you and answer your questions, Turner says. What should you listen for? "Hesitation," Turner replies. "If he's professional, the answers should roll right off his tongue."
  
• Let's see the résumé. Ask about the inspector’s credentials and experience. Generally speaking, "You should have had a hammer in your hand at some point in your background to have a good grasp of construction," Turner says. Does the inspector have a professional bio that you can look at?
  
• Got insurance? Ask whether the inspector carries “errors and omissions insurance,” says Kuhn – which is sort of like malpractice insurance for an inspector. If he doesn’t, ask why. In some states, insurance is a licensing requirement.
  
• Got a guarantee? "Do you offer a guarantee?" Kuhn suggests asking. Typically, a home inspection is good for the day of the inspection, he says – but Kuhn's firm, HouseMaster, offers a written agreement that obligates the inspector to reimburse the consumer for eligible repairs that may develop during the guarantee period, regardless of whether it was an oversight on the inspector's part or just normal wear and tear.
  
  An example: If the furnace is working fine when inspected in summer, but doesn't work when flipped on in November, the inspector's firm pays for the repair, he says. "The bottom line is that a good inspector should have no problem standing behind their inspection with a written guarantee for a reasonable amount of time after the inspection," Kuhn says.
  
• Get it in writing. Ask if the inspector puts his findings into a narrative-style report; that's what you want – not just a long checklist.
  
  
  Ask to see a sample; it's often available on the inspector's Web site. Look at it to assess whether you're comfortable with the language and can understand it. Also see that the inspector is thorough, and covers all of the areas that the organization he belongs to says he will cover in its standards of practice, Richardson says — inside, outside, chimney, heating system, etc.
  
• Invite yourself. Before hiring the inspector, ask to come along when the home is examined. "Another red flag would be if they don't want you to go on the home inspection with them," Kuhn says. A home inspection usually takes three to four hours. Unless a team is examining the home, be suspicious of anyone who tells you it will take 45 minutes.

To see the full article, go to MSN.

Your Vision is not my vision...

Well, my mom has written me twice since I sent her the link to the house.  She is scared that we're buying a "shack" that is better "leveled" than updated.

There is nothing I can say in the next 5 days.  After we have the inspection, we'll know if we want to jump into this house.  We think it has great potential for us to add value.  We'll know more Monday night.

Pending

"Pending" has been the word I've dreaded on all the houses we've lost out on.  Now, "Pending" is a word of rejoicing.  It showed up on our house listing last night!  And, the word "pending" belongs to us - NOT someone else.  YEAH!

In honor of John...

I decided to google John, the former owner, and see what I could find out about him.  The obituary is cut short unless you pay for access to it.  So, I'm limited in my knowledge.  This is what it said (if I found the right John).

JOHN L.  Obituary (Archived) Published in News First 25 of 78 words: John Passed away 12/29/2009. John was 85 years old. He spent many years as a cabinet maker and wood sculptor. John loved...(the rest is archived and you have to pay to access)

JOHN Guest Book | View 1 of 1 Entry: "John was my neighbor, always smiled, always kind, loved to garden. He was an asset to the neighborhood and will be missed."  - Ms. Brown

To be honest, the neighbor note is what gets me.  If I did find the right John - then I hope to meet Neighbor Brown someday and find out more about John.  What I know from the neighbor across the street is he had Alzheimers and no family.

To Next Steps (and no more heart break!)

"MUTUAL AGREEMENT"

Wow!  We got an answer and we have mutual agreement!  We have 5 days to have the inspection and then we'll know for sure if we have the house.  EEK!  YEAH!  I'm so excited and it's for UNDER our budget!  YEAH!  This is a miracle and prayers have been answered (said with reservations until the house is for sure ours....).

frustration & Broken Hearts

Today has been a crazy day!  I had a dentist appointment and then my first ever trainer appointment.  I ran home and could barely walk up the stairs after the workout my trainer Johnny put me through.  I changed and printed out the list of houses our Realtor was setting up for us to see.
1.  The Fire house - even though it was posted on Thursday, the sellers had already accepted an offer
2.  1/2 price house - multiple offers were already on it.  They wouldn't accept any offers contingent on an inspection.
3.  The drop house - sellers already accepted an offer
4.  The Garage Harp house - okay to see.

3 others she suggested we see:
4. Yucky town
5.  She suggested we see a $130k house
6. The Traffic Town House -

Mike nixed the Yucky town one and we all agreed to meet at the Traffic town House.  The house was cool.  it was a neat setup and would be a fun project.  The problem - it was on a busy busy road.  The other problem...  it is in the town that we do not like driving too.  We've already eliminated this town multiple times.  It just feels really remote and there always seems to be traffic getting there.  As much as the house was okay and maybe it would be in our price range, when we did the math of putting 20k worth of work in it, we'd maybe break even selling the house.  There wasn't instant equity.  It also would be hard to sell because of it's location and proximity to the busy road - the seller had it on the market for almost a year.  So, the farther we drove away from the house, the more it became a definitely NO.

House #2 that we saw - the $130k house.  This house had brand new carpet.  It had the "ugliest countertops [Mike] has ever seen"  They were a fake blue marble.  The house was surprisingly okay.  The garage was a fake.  It may have had a garage door in the front, but the room had been turned into a large family room.  That was very nice!  There was only 1 bathroom with the laundry room as part of it.  But, the biggest negative for that house was it's fenced backyard backed up to the library.  AND we weren't in the best part of that town.  I wasn't opposed to the library that much at first but the more we saw that the entrance was right next door and saw the traffic flow, the less we liked it.  It was an "okay" option.

House #3 - this is the only house from our original list - after driving by 20+ houses that we were going to see.  This is the Garage Harp house.  The house is mid-century and has a lot of the original character.  It is a deferred maintenance house but it wasn't completely stripped since it wasn't a Foreclosed/bank owned home.  It actually felt like a really solid house.  It felt really good.  The Master Bedroom is huge.  Actually, the square footage isn't taking in account a closed in sun-room between the house and garage.  And the very tall basement - there's room for a great family room and a full size bedroom with a closet and window is down there.  The Kitchen is kind of galley like - but walls could be knocked out either way to make it a large great kitchen.  The yard is pretty good. There is even a fenced in area.  This house felt great.  The house also has a new roof - that's huge to me.  It was clean and old.  It has ugly green awnings over all the windows.  But it's a great house.  the garage was huge!  There's still some furniture and personal items in that house since it's an estate sale.  I'm not sure if he had family or what.  The sale has to go through Oregon.  We decided right then that we wanted to make an offer.  I am not up to losing another house.  So.... this is how we made our offer "strong".
1.  We offered asking price
2.  We stated that we would dispose of any items left in the home - thus not requiring the estate management team to empty it or do anything else to the house.
3.  We added an escalation clause.  We will pay $3000 over the highest offer up to a certain amount.

In some ways the asking price is fair based on comps.  Comps are actually all over the place - they range from 60k to 230k.  The more we talked with our Realtor, the more we feel that once this house is fixed up with a nice kitchen, updated lighting and flooring... it will definitely be worth 230k itself.  We have instant equity in this house!  The garage could be made part of the house and we have room to add another garage. It's got "charlie" areas - meaning we have ways to have space for my dog but also keep other zones allergy-free for Mike.

And here's the funny kicker - the house ends in 8. The street is an even number.  the zip code is an even number.  So is it a sign?

We sent our offer in this morning - first thing.  Now, we have to wait a couple days for Oregon to respond.  Pray that this is the house!  As my parents said after I said, "we found an awesome house" - they said, "We've heard that before..."   But they were supportive after that comment... it was a fair comment.  But I really would like this house.  It's in our budget!  It's got the projects we can do to make it a great house.  it's got character.

Oh - I am already really invested in this house....Last night I was analyzing and looking at the aerial view via Bing, the google maps satellite and street views.  As Mike said, " you've only had your heart broken 3 other times...."  so I'm hoping that I don't get a broken heart from emotionally investing in this house.  At the same time, we gave this house our strongest offer.  We can only go as far as we went.

Best of news in the next post?  I hope so!

Driving around

I created a table of houses.  I've listed the following:
1.  Picture of the house
2.  MLS #
3. Address/location
4. Foreclosure price - the price the bank bought the house back for
5. Price the house was first listed at and date
6.  Notes/ history and information that i can gather from zillow/redfin
7 The current price
8. Status: This could be that it's "active"/Pending or I've used it to add numbers to help me sort the houses by particular orders.

This table is just in Word but was very helpful in helping me track the houses.  As their status changed to "pending" I would just sort the table and move those houses to a different page.  I am still tracking the houses we made offers on.  If anything, I want to know what they sold for.  Maybe it's trying to rub salt into an open wound but ultimately, I still believe we will end up with the best house at the right time.  So far, it hasn't been any of the other houses.  It's okay.  It really is.  I still got depressed after losing out on the last house and I really feel like the pickings/options have slimmed down tremendously.  In fact, I'm starting to see houses that sold for $80,000 in November or January re-listed at $180,000.  It's crazy to me that there really is still a housing market out there but only for those investors with the money and the means to jump in as soon as a house is listed.  We move a little slower.

So, Saturday we drove around several houses.  I included houses in our budget that were in neighborhoods we had already x'd out.  I think a part of me wanted to see if the houses were in weird awesome pockets and they should be ones we jump on.

We compiled the following list of houses we wanted to see.
1.  The Fire House - This house foreclosed in December and then there was a fire recently.  They listed this house at $80,000.  I walked around the house - the ceiling and roof would need to be replaced in the whole house.  In fact, it was probably a total gut job.  BUT for $80,000 in the town that it was in?  The property was over .5 acres.  The more we thought about it, we could even store everything in the garage and go rent something really cheap while we slowly fixed up that house for the price it was listed.  I even looked at cheap trailers to live in or ways to build garages with a flat above for cheap.
2.  The 1/2 price house - this house was listed at 114k.  It was pending and then 3 days later, it's listed for $64,5000.
3.  The drop house - this house is listed at $156k but it's been at that price for one month.  Therefore, based on it's current schedule, it should drop 10-20k in the next 7 days.
4. The hidden Garage Harp house - this house was surprising.  It's listed as a 2 bedroom 1 bath house - 1380 square feet.  The neighborhood was great!  From the street, you can see the Port of Tacoma.  There is lots of privacy for the house even though it's a corner house.  There was a garage sale across the street.  The lady was selling a harp; my mom has always wanted a harp.  Mike told me to go talk with her.  So, I found out the harp was handmade by her son and she was selling it for $10.  I don't know if it's a good harp, it's pretty.  It needs a little work but for $10 - Mike wouldn't let me walk away without buying it.  He didn't want to hear me say 5 minutes later, "I should have bought it for $10...."
Anyway, I talked with the lady over the sale and asked her about the house.  She said a man lived there by himself for years.  He was finally moved to an Alzheimer's unit and now the house was for sale so he must have died.  She said the neighborhood was great - that the houses on either side of her were recently bought and updated/fixed-up.  As we drove around, the street has new and old houses on it.  It seems like a good neighborhood.

So that's our list for the Realtor...  We'll see what happens Monday night.  

The last couple roller coasters

Well, we chose that house with the view of the sound.  We offered asking price + $8 on the house #3.  10 days later, we found out that we didn't get the house.  It was a long depressing roller-coaster.  I know we were the first ones to offer but we offered on a Friday.  They had the weekend to get more offers.  THEN... on the Wednesday after we sent our offer, they had us sign a document acknowledging the fact that we know there are multiple offers.  5 days later - so 10 days after we submitted our offer - we lost out.  I don't know how much that house sold for but I'm sure it is a lot more than we offered.  We offered our max.  In fact, we went $20,000 OVER our budget for that house.  The irony is that if we had offered asking price on the other 2 houses, we would have won those houses.  In fact, one house has closed and I found out that it sold for $600 more than we offered.  That's how much we missed out on the Fishbowl house.

That depressed me for a little bit but at the time, we offered the max we were comfortable with for that house.  And who knows...  all the wiring and plumbing had to be fixed on that house and it was in a fishbowl.

So, waiting 10 days for the result of that latest house and traveling for work...  we haven't looked at houses for a long time.  We have a time scheduled for next Monday night with our Realtor.  I'm slowly x'ing the houses off my chart because they are changing to Pending before we can even go see them...  oh the joys of the hunt!