This Old House.
After graduating from nursing school and finally obtaining an income,
Keith and I decided to buy a house. (Keith is Brittany dad and my second spouse)
We shopped around quite a bit, in fact one day we were out looking when we noticed a realtor putting a sign up on a BIG mustard yellow house.
This house sat in the middle of a cull-d-sac, was sitting on higher ground then the other three homes, (an important thing in a state where it rains 10 months out of the year) and best of all there was .75 acres of land with it…don’t sound like much here in Alaska but in a state where 0 lot lines are built just to fit the people in…..75 was a gold mine.
The price…
Well the house was on the market for $89,000, yes that’s right….not even 100 grand…houses are cheaper out there, but this was a steal….
The Catch
Here is what was selling for $89,000
A large mustard yellow tri-level home. Entering the home you could go up the stairs, down the stairs, or to the right and down a step into the garage…thus a “tri-level”. So lets start with the huge black wooden door….two gold textured windows the height of the door mark the entry way. The entry way floor is cluttered with coats boots and shoes. You can tell the linoleum is green, not just any green but the sterile green they use for hospital scrubs. The linoleum is rolling up from all the corners and chunks are missing from the middle….no biggy it’s only a 5x3 foot entry way…cheap fix… So let’s go up first…the walls of the entry way pictate the story of Christopher Columbus…..maps and the three ships, are printed on the paneling . Wow how 70’s huh…..well the carpet on the stairs is non-existent; except for a stray scrap stubbornly hanging on to the nail...many animals and children I suppose. Okay so it needs carpet…but…coming to the top of the short staircase you are in an open room with a huge front window….Mt Rainier is the feature of the day (the sun was actually out.) A inlaid wood stove occupied the center of the main wall…this stove looked like you’re average wood stove…but it was four feet deep…..you did not have to chop up the wood after the fire was going….this stove heated the entire house, we usually always had to have a window open it got so hot. The home was filthy…the owners obviously did not care…..you could not see the walls or carpet due to the junk. You could tell however that it would be HUGE one their shit was out of it. So on to the bedrooms…there were three upstairs…the master had its own full bathroom. Mind you it was painted Pepto Bismal pink with blue carpet... okay beat the green carpet in Brittanys room or the orange in the other one….so it was decorated in the 70’s, just means I only have one coat of paint on the walls…plenty room for more…another full bathroom in the hallway…may have been remodeled…but still pink….So the kitchen and the dinning room occupied the remaining space upstairs..1800 square feel of living space and this is just the first floor… the kitchen was a mess…someone had purchased shelving from the local K-Mart’s going out of business sale and decided to remodel the kitchen themselves…of course this is something we did not pay close attention to and did not notice that not one cupboard was large enough to hold a standard drinking glass upright. Made unpacking a BITCH. And the kitchen a priority….but on the walk through you saw a beautiful black and white kitchen….the sink was a corner sink and beautiful…not to practical but quite beautiful….they had dropped the ceiling down to accommodate the lighting…not sure what their plan was there but we assumed that was the only real issue we had to deal with in the kitchen. Off the dinning room was a large deck leading to the wooded back yard…most of the property was in the back…..the fence was intact and obviously the neighbors had kids for mine to play with….Down stairs was unfinished…it had a large room with a fire place…the laundry room and another full bath…plus what would eventually be three more bedrooms with some paint and carpet….one needed sheet rock….So we saw space and potential….we made the offer….they accepted….FHA made them put on a new roof, paint and carpet. We closed on December 23, 1999. that night I longed for a hot shower…going into my own bathroom…NO KIDS hehehe…I turn on the water and step into the shower…it's cold…I turn to adjust the knob and the water stops coming….I hear shrieks coming from the downstairs…Josh was on the pot….it appears the pipe in the wall that the shower is hooked to BROKE….the water inside the wall made the ceiling in the bathroom below soggy, collapse and poof Josh is no longer on the pot……he is taking MY shower….damn kids. So the night mare began…..renovations were not cheap….time was not available and know how was lacking.
10 days and counting….I hope I am not in for a repeat…… |
