Buy a House

We have some friends who, since we met, have been trying to convince us to buy their brother and sister-in-laws house. We always so sure and we will check it out, blah blah blah. Every month they host a dinner party and so Saturday we kept getting texts that they were all at Vic’s and MaryBeth’s. Come over, see the house. We love Marybeth, Vic is very very quiet. We honestly didnt see us having the same taste. So they text that if we came over they would all bake a baked good for the food drive I am doing, so we went.
And, there it was. Our home. Our perfect dream home. Vic bought it for about 10 grand. It had been abandoned and worn down for 40 years. He stripped it and rebuilt it. He is a contractor and does GORGEOUS patios and stone work. He redid all the counter tops, porch, etc. Marybeth walked us through the house and it was the first house we walked through we could see ourselves in. They want to put it on the market in July. We told them to call us. They want $150,000 so far and we honestly thought they would say 2-250. So, they are calling us when they are ready. We have already paid off some debt and agreed to live like college students until July to pay off the most we can.
We talk about it all the time and refer to it as “our home”. With this much time ahead to plan, how could it not work out?!

I saw this house and couldnt stop staring at it. It is I guess what you would call “so me”. I had to share it with everyone. I thought it was perfect.
It needs more herbs and flowers, but that would come.

I lived in the upper apt for 3 years in this house. My landlord sold it and I thought about buying it but was too young so passed. Now, 10 years later, its for sale. Oh my god I want this house so bad. Its a rental property and the bottom apt goes for around $1000/mo because its 3 blocks from hospital. I would take the upper again because I never felt so at home as I did in that apt. The back apt, 1 bedroom, ideal for student could get ~ $500. Thats almost the payment. I would be stuck with $200 plus utilities, water, taxes and garbage. Hell, for $1000, I could raise the rent. Ive seen what fellows and residents make. PLUS, downstairs is 3 bedroom.
So, here it is. My dream house and the happiest place I ever considered home.

http://www.gurneyrealestate.com/?select=property&addressMLS=332220

We are looking through the papers at houses in the village of Williamsville. We have decided we LOVE it there and is so us. The people P stayed with live there and I adore them too. We have all turned out to be good friends. The houses are selling for less because of economy new buyers get all of these tax breaks and incentives. I want a house. I want my own garden with herbs and vegetables and am tired of asking permission from a landlord who really doesnt care about his property anyway. I am also tired of people living beside and above us. You can hear the side ones sneeze and cough and he smokes so thats like all the time. The one above us, her mental illness is so bad she cant work, but shes a good neighbor and nice. Its just that she walks SO LOUD. I call her the elephant. Plus, for someone who doesnt work, why in gods name are you up at 6am?! Even on saturdays.
So, we are looking. I have always said you cant save for something, you could save forever and never feel ready. Maybe now is our time. We are talking about getting pre-approved to see what we can get.

There is a house that I call the castle by Delaware Park where I live. Houses are large and GORGEOUS. Lately, all of the houses across from the park have been going up for sale. I think its part of the whole foreclosure thing honestly, literally ALL of them have been put up for sale and bought in a 3 month period. The last one to go was the castle. I went online yesterday to see how much the castle goes for. All the other houses were between $500,000 and $700,000. Which anywhere else would be in the millions but we have low cost of living here. My sister’s first starter home was $150,000. Here it would have been about $70,000. So anyway, the castle is yours for only $800,000.
But beware, Pace is prepared to put down a $100 deposit.

This is it. The inside is just as amazing.

I grew up in a small town. I know it’s NY, but trust me, about 3 miles from my childhood house, there were cow farms. My parents have been trying to sell the house for over a year now. Pace has been doing dry wall work and repair work on it because my stupid step father kept ripping stuff out to try to make it sell, forgetting that he doesnt know how to fix any of it. Pace suggested that we buy it, flip it and sell it. Its appraised at $84,000 but my mom told someone she knows that if they gave her $70,000, she would take it. We can get a lot of repairs done for $15,000 because we can do the work ourselves for some of the stuff and pay someone else to redo the kitchen. Its tempting. My only reservation is that it is a small town and their neighbors are pigs who dont keep up their property. 2 of them are redoing their property, but 1 considers mowing the lawn extra work and the other has cars and parts everywhere. Plus he went behind our house and ripped down all of the woods so his kids could play. That property is not his. I told Pace to even consider it, an 8 foot privacy fence needs to go up FIRST. But honestly, I dont think anyone would pay $100,000 in a small town. I dont care how close to the water it is. This house was not good to me as a child, if we couldnt sell it, i’d set it on fire and use the insurance money to buy me favors in the big house.

I want a library. Ok, maybe not a library, but plenty of built in shelves to accomodate all of my books. A friend of mine bought an old library and he has built in shelves through the whole house. 3 floors of bookshelves. The kitchen is kind of old, but all oak. Everything, all original wood. He’s an architect so of course he can find these things, take them over and make them incredible again. I told him when his boyfriend makes him move out, and he will because its not “ours”, it’s “yours”, I want it.

one of the things I would like in my house is the bedroom has to be far away from the kitchen. We have an extremely fat cat that meows in the morning when she is hungry. Meow is a bad word….screams like she is being killed is more accurate. Also, my girlfriend loves eggbeaters and I think the smell is worse than human decomp (take my word on that. I did an internship in a morgue). It will wake me up from a sound sleep when she makes a eggbeater sandwich at 5am before work. So I want to be FAR away from the kitchen once we get a house.

apparently, $500,000 is the new $1 million. No matter how you look at it, I don’t have either. The good point of that article was that housing is now more affordable than ever. Bad new is that when the market recovers and you go to refinance your house, the appraisal will be higher and your taxes will go up…
We are really trying to get into a house this coming year. I really am tired of hearing the elephant woman, who is still the ONLY person left in the world to have dial up, walk over my head when its the weekend and I am supposed to be able to sleep past 6:30am. She doesn’t work. What the heck does she do that early in the morning besides trample through the house?!

My girlfriend went to West Point. I know, insert lesbian joke here. I do it all the time. Anyway, she receives benefits because she hurt herself doing track and field for them. She’s fine and holds a normal job, but its the good ole US of A handing out money which is one more reason we are in serious trouble. Again with the ANYWAY, she also qualifies for a VA loan. We have decided to peek around at houses and see how much we can qualify for. The rates are cheaper than national average and our credit is pretty good, though they are more leaniant which is good because for some people who have been through war, who cares about their credit score? If a person doesn’t have a home, the rest can’t fall into place. Above is a house I fell in love with. It’s no where near NY though. Too bad.