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(Date Posted:12/20/2006 17:55:01)
Hi all,Well, the contract has been accepted and signed but I guess it won't be a sure thing until we close.I've lived in a tiny condo for 2 1/2 years (you may recall that I burned the kitchen down the day after I moved in). It was perfect for one person but not for two. Literally every inch of wall space is covered with furniture, and the last straw was when DH got rid of our CD tower because we both never liked it, thus resulting in hundreds of CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes just lying around in stacks here and there. Knowing my husband, it will take much nagging to get him to come up with somewhere else to store them. When he suggested building shelves behind a door that opens flush with the wall, I realized we just couldn't live there anymore.If the value of our condo is X, we always dreamed of getting a nice big old house that is 3X (obviously a ways off). But finally I realized we could buy a cute little house near where we live now that is wellmore than twice the square footage of our condo, not including a full basement that adds half again as much space for 2X. So we could do that, especially considering that themonthly expenseof our condo has gone up considerably each year due to the condo fees and taxes and the crazy city assessor who hates us (I'm not kidding -- every year she values our place at 30% more than everyone else's and we have to fight to get it reduced).The thing is, I made the proclamation that I couldn't take it anymore and we should look at houses on Saturday. We went to some open houses on Sunday and saw a house with the general makeup we were looking for, but it was a little far from where we live now (we're still talking blocks, but ten blocks away is really too far to pop on over to the same restaurants and markets) and only had one bathroom (upstairs) as these houses built in the teens and 20's originally did.So then we saw a listing that is two blocks from where we live. It was the same price as the other house, but a better location and with many more upgrades (three bathrooms!). It's a charming detached brick row home built in the teens. The catch is that central air was put in upstairs but there's just a window unit downstairs. We thought that was crappy, but then we realized that we have lived for 2 and a half years with one window unit cooling the whole condo, so this really isn't terrible. Plus we know someone who just moved in down the block and she had the same situation and put in A/C downstairs before she moved in.Some great improvements have been done over the years (did I mention the bathrooms??!! hee hee) like knocking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and putting in a marble bar and enclosing the upstairs deck and adding a closet, but some other things are yet to be done (A/C downstairs, and adoor between two bedrooms should really be walled off and a new closet added there). Plus the appliances and counters in the kitchen could use replacement, and there are hookups but no washer/dryer.It has offstreet parking and a garage. DH is a cyclist so having a place for bike storage is really important.It had been on the market several months priced at 2.4X, but it had just recently reduced the price to 2.1X. We negotiated down to 1.9X based on the A/C thing (the listing just said central air so that was kind of misleading). And my goodness, we did it!I can't believe I suddenly decided to move in a month . . . and now we must get our condo on the market ASAP and hope we get more bites than the people selling our new house. I know it's a buyer's market, but we also have some things in our favor. Our units tend to sell fast, there's nothing else like it on the market, and thanks to the fire there's a new kitchen. I think it will all come down to how we price it.We'll seriously miss our neighbors, but part of our reasoning was that if we're two blocks away, we can have them over all the time. We'll also miss our love nest with its charm and memories, but I just couldn't take the cramped quarters anymore (less than 700 sq. feet if you were wondering).I still can't believe I made one comment about how I couldn't take the cramped quarters and now we have a new house. And we'll have two mortgages!!! Help!Plus I've realized that I hate cleaning our tiny place, so I'll definitely need to get a maid service. No way am I cleaning three bathrooms!
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--Phoenixgirl
"I am influenced at the present time by far higher considerations and by a nobler idea of duty than I ever was when I held the Evangelical belief." George Eliot
"I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating." Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country (I promise I read this before it was an Oprah book club book)
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