Fixer-upper

Things move quickly around here-it’s hard to keep up with everything!  CP left early Saturday morning and made it safely to my parents house that night. 

Then yesterday CP went to check out an open house.  You see, my dad has been checking out listings ever since we started talking about moving (yes, even before CP got the job offer!).  Needless to say, he has steered us towards a few houses and is convinced that this house is THE house for us.  The online pictures had us interested, but the house also looked a little rundown and outdated.

Sure enough, the pictures didn’t lie.  The seller has lived in the house about 50 years and hasn’t updated it in a very, very long time.  He has clearly “fixed” the house himself for a while- including one odd “fix” in the basement- an old ironing board that is currently holding up duct work!  Every single room needs updating- including bumping out the kitchen wall (currently the kitchen is TINY), and redoing both of the bathrooms (read= EXPENSIVE).  Even the landscaping is overgrown.

But CP and my dad both see potential in the house.  Sure it is a MAJOR fixer-upper, but it is only a few blocks from the train station that I could take downtown to work.  It is in a very nice neighborhood with two parks (including a town pool) only a few blocks away and great schools.  If we fixed up the house and updated it the neighborhood would definitely hold the value.

Before CP left we discussed the fact that he may have to buy a house without me seeing it first.  While that scares me, I trust CP (and my dad).  So CP, my dad, and our realtor are scheduled to see the house tonight.  My dad has already drawn up plans on how to bump out the kitchen, how to add a fourth bedroom and a third bathroom (if he didn’t become a lawyer he would have become an architect)- which obviously won’t be happening any time soon for money reasons.  We hope to be in this house for years on end- not just two years like every other place we have lived in which means technically we should have plenty of time to fix up the house.

Depending on how it goes tonight, we may be putting an offer in to the first house that CP looks at in the Chicago area….  SCARY!