Houstory
Since we're all on holiday until Wednesday, this seemed like the perfect time to fill in a bit of history.
Dh and I bought our first home in a rather "transitional" neighborhood in Pleasant Hill just a couple of months after we married, using a VA loan. It was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1500 square foot ranch built in 1950 and featured a little white fence, rose bushes and fruit trees, and an overgrown jungle of a backyard.
When we first moved in, we owned almost no furniture, a pile of wedding presents, and a bunch of personal items. We rattled around in the house for years (several of the rooms were virtually empty), which wasn't a problem because we were usually out working or playing. My dh did start taming the backyard and the front beds and discovered in the process a deep love of gardening which has grown to this day. I started minor renovation projects on the interior (mostly wallpaper removal and painting, although I did completely tile the rather large kitchen floor while quite pregnant), which is something I really enjoy. Gradually, we improved the house and began filling it, first with furniture, then with children.
By the time I was pregnant with our third, we'd outgrown the house in almost every way. No more empty rooms, in fact, our two children were sharing a bedroom. The neighborhood elementary school was terribly underperforming (which for a California public school is saying something) and even of questionable safety, so we'd already started our eldest at a lovely, but pricey, little private school nearby. Dh's garden had long grown beyond the bounds of the raised beds in the garden area; during windy storms everyone was well advised to avoid the patio completely as the many pots which lived on the patio's roof cover were known to fly off when the gusts got too big.
The search was on for a bigger place to live. We narrowed our search to three desireable Walnut Creek neighborhoods. We had a tough set of criteria: 4 or more bedrooms; 2 or more bathrooms; large, level lot (very hard to find in Contra Costa County); no pool; top schools; easy commute location; and, of course, not quite enough cash.
We lost out on the first house. Multiple offers, ours over asking price by over $15K, the winner's over by $25K. Yikes.
I saw what is now our house on a Friday before the last weekend we could possibly consider making an offer on any house. I was getting ever huger by the moment. Each house we saw seemed to be more expensive, crummier, and generally less suitable than the last. This one was no exception. Much of it was virtually untouched from the time it was built in 1970. White walls and carpet, dark molding, nasty greenish yellow tile (the hue in the kitchen was particularly vivid). When I walked into the kitchen, I literally burst into tears. The aforementioned "harvest gold" tile was not only ubiquitous, but cracked and damaged. The cabinets were an ugly ugly fake wood laminate over particle board. I looked outside, though, and saw the largest flat lot we had seen to date. It backed up into a hillside covered with trees. It was quiet. I knew if I let dh see it, the house would be ours. Which, of course, is eventually what happened. And the rest, as they say, is houstory.
Dh and I bought our first home in a rather "transitional" neighborhood in Pleasant Hill just a couple of months after we married, using a VA loan. It was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1500 square foot ranch built in 1950 and featured a little white fence, rose bushes and fruit trees, and an overgrown jungle of a backyard.
When we first moved in, we owned almost no furniture, a pile of wedding presents, and a bunch of personal items. We rattled around in the house for years (several of the rooms were virtually empty), which wasn't a problem because we were usually out working or playing. My dh did start taming the backyard and the front beds and discovered in the process a deep love of gardening which has grown to this day. I started minor renovation projects on the interior (mostly wallpaper removal and painting, although I did completely tile the rather large kitchen floor while quite pregnant), which is something I really enjoy. Gradually, we improved the house and began filling it, first with furniture, then with children.
By the time I was pregnant with our third, we'd outgrown the house in almost every way. No more empty rooms, in fact, our two children were sharing a bedroom. The neighborhood elementary school was terribly underperforming (which for a California public school is saying something) and even of questionable safety, so we'd already started our eldest at a lovely, but pricey, little private school nearby. Dh's garden had long grown beyond the bounds of the raised beds in the garden area; during windy storms everyone was well advised to avoid the patio completely as the many pots which lived on the patio's roof cover were known to fly off when the gusts got too big.
The search was on for a bigger place to live. We narrowed our search to three desireable Walnut Creek neighborhoods. We had a tough set of criteria: 4 or more bedrooms; 2 or more bathrooms; large, level lot (very hard to find in Contra Costa County); no pool; top schools; easy commute location; and, of course, not quite enough cash.
We lost out on the first house. Multiple offers, ours over asking price by over $15K, the winner's over by $25K. Yikes.
I saw what is now our house on a Friday before the last weekend we could possibly consider making an offer on any house. I was getting ever huger by the moment. Each house we saw seemed to be more expensive, crummier, and generally less suitable than the last. This one was no exception. Much of it was virtually untouched from the time it was built in 1970. White walls and carpet, dark molding, nasty greenish yellow tile (the hue in the kitchen was particularly vivid). When I walked into the kitchen, I literally burst into tears. The aforementioned "harvest gold" tile was not only ubiquitous, but cracked and damaged. The cabinets were an ugly ugly fake wood laminate over particle board. I looked outside, though, and saw the largest flat lot we had seen to date. It backed up into a hillside covered with trees. It was quiet. I knew if I let dh see it, the house would be ours. Which, of course, is eventually what happened. And the rest, as they say, is houstory.
posted by MathMom | 9:38 AM
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