It’s gettin’ real peeps! It seems everything has aligned and in one week’s time I will officially be a homeowner – a first time homeowner to boot!
Felix and I have been keeping house chat on the down low since there were many ways the deal could have fallen through from when we had our offer accepted. But we’ve gotten the clear to close from all parties and per my Realtor when I asked him what would prevent us from closing at this point he responded back with:
Things that would prevent close:
Nuclear attack
Tsunami (south side only)
Left wing radical arson at propertyIf you clear the financing, and the bank gives you the “clear to close”, the scenarios are too seldom to even get into. Just don’t lose your job this month or make any major purchases.
So as long as I don’t quit my job or buy a Porsche with my credit card… I should be all good.
Here’s the 1885 Hyde Park house we’re purchasing (pending south side Tsunami) in one week’s time:
It doesn’t look like the prettiest house on the block, but I’m hoping that with time (and money allowing) we can get it looking back like it once did when it was built:
Why yes, I did manage to find an original line drawing of the house from 1885! heh I’m a clever researcher that way…
Isn’t that original drawing so much better than what it currently looks like?! I think so.
Felix and I are headed to home-remodel territory in such a short time. I don’t think I talk about my history very much on here but I grew up in a constant work-in-progress house that was built in 1910. I never had air conditioning and I never had a shower growing up. It’s an amazing house though:
I couldn’t find any recent images of the exterior, but this was taken a few Christmases ago.
I’m no stranger to brushing my teeth at the kitchen sink or doing dishes in the bathroom sink. But I’m fairly certain this is going to be a whole new deal actually being the homeowner since it’s been a good 10 years since I’ve acclimated myself to renting & not having to fix anything, ever.
I officially started packing up stuff this past weekend too.
So much is happening so fast….
In short, this news will impact so many things, both on the blog and off! I want to say we know what we’re doing – but we such newbies that it’s most likely a very naive statement so let’s just say: I don’t think we fully comprehend what we’re getting ourselves into but we’ll learn. heh
We do know the first thing we’re going to tackle (and by us I mean trained professionals) is the electrical, some plumbing, and the furnace – so that things are livable. After that we’ll be seeing how much $$$ we have left over and then do things accordingly.
I’m going to be working on my knitting projects, like always, and for the next month I’m hoping to find time between packing boxes to wrap up some of my WIP sewing projects – but we’ll see how that goes.
Once we officially move – things are going to be spotty on the site since I don’t know if I’ll have a computer or internet or even my sewing machine. Not to mention – all I’ll probably have time for is working on – thinking about – dreaming about house remodeling.
I’m sad to move out of Logan Square – my home for nearly 6 years. But I’m also excited/nervous to start this new chapter aka adventure with Felix.
Any good advice for a newbie homeowner???
I’ve read though all of your great-wonderful-happy comments & THANK YOU so sooo much! Felix went and read them all too, bwt. The one thing I kept reading over and over is not to rush. This one piece of advice was the thing I took to heart most.
You see, when we were last walking through the house with my dad (hvac genius), he was asking about all sorts of things we hadn’t though about yet, such as knocking down walls, placement of such and such… This left Felix and I were feeling like we had to have all the answers immediately and we felt a great amount of pressure to make these decisions. We don’t know what we want quite yet and after reading through what you guys had to say – I now feel alright about this. Felix and I are going to take it down a notch and let the house tell us what it wants/needs!
We’re now planning on NOT making any major decisions until we move in since we don’t want to be in such haste that we regret major changes later down the line.
Thank you so much; you guys truly rock! :)
In: House Adventures
Comments (41)