Hawaii Nesties
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Home-owning Nesties
DH and I started looking at houses and it's making me want to scream!! So just some questions to those of you made that huge decision of buying a home...
How much work were you anticipating to put into your house when you bought it?
How much of that work have you done? How long did it take?
What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc)
Any advice for new house hunters? I'll post this on the house board as well.
Thanks!
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Re: Home-owning Nesties
How exciting Chika!
Wow, do I know exactly what you are going through, we were looking for about a year for our house and I kept telling Ian that we would know when it was the one... sometimes I didn't believe myself to be honest, I never felt that "the one" vibe until we found THE one
It was a long process but we kept looking and didn't settle, there were many times we almost put an offer in because we thought that was the best we could find... we were so wrong. Anyway, I'll answer your questions below.
How much work were you anticipating to put into your house when you bought it? Hmm, the kitchen was reno'd but some of the appliances are original - fridge and stove. Our house was built in 1991 so things aren't that old. It also had fresh paint, expect for the bedroom (ugh). We knew there would be maintenance but did not know our furnace would conk out just months after moving in - it was $9000 to replace it and the home inspector made no mention of it :/How much of that work have you done? How long did it take? We replaced the carpets in the living room, dining room and both sets of stairs. We painted our hallway, guest bath and master bedroom so far. Carpets we replaced early on and we just painted our bedroom in October. Just things that make a house a home really.What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc) Definitely location, we loved the house, it just felt like home right away, plus the view was a nice bonus. Also the quiet neighborhood and a great place to raise a family, close to schools, rec centre, groceries, bank, etc.
Any advice for new house hunters? Don't give up!I love Hawaii!
Tara & Ian . 4/24/2008 . The Kahala Planning . Married
Thanks, Tara & Hanyi!
Tara, yes it is very exciting. The possibility of having a home waiting for me when this immigration nightmare is over is a lovely thought. It would just be so nice to have one place as home, not 2 on different sides of the border
I guess my question is, how do you know you love a fixer-upper home? It's easy to fall in love with one that's all pretty and sprarkly, but when it's got 70's linoleum and other dated features, how do you know?
Hanyi, Brian sounds very handy! Lucky you! I think Lachlan could be good at that stuff if he learned, though. I really hope you guys can get a great return on the NV house when the market is better for selling! The kitchen counter at this house was okay. Just a very plain laminate which I could live with.
Another question. Are/were you against buying an old house? By old, I mean one that built in the early 1900's. Is that just asking for disaster?
How much of that work have you done? How long did it take?We had to take wallpaper down in two rooms and paint the kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway and nursery. We hired a guy, who does a great job for a good price and it was done in 3 days. That's the only thing we did.What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc)LOCATION!!!!! We are walking distance to the Metro and downtown/shops/restaurants. We are also in a nice neighborhood where kids can play in the street. And we are in a GREAT school district.. The house is a white brick colonial with a red door, so cute. It has the main elements we were looking for: 3 bedrooms on the second level, at least 2 full baths (it has 2.5 ba), finished basement, nice enough kitchen, back yard, back patio or porch, dining room. When we saw this house had all the elements we wanted and was in a great location, we jumped. We put in a high offer immediately and beat out everyone else.Another question. Are/were you against buying an old house? By old, I mean one that built in the early 1900's. Is that just asking for disaster?
Well... Our house was built in the 1940s! Its charming. A lot of things have been replaced already tho. New windows. Nice hardwood floors, new appliances in the kitchen and new-ish bathrooms, nice fireplace... ALL of the houses in Bethesda are old, so there wasn't really anything we could do about that. If we wanted a NEW home, we would have had to move FAR away from the city! If the house is refurbished or modernized, there is no problem. Just get a good inspection!
Malia & Dave & Alexa
Happily married since 2-17-08! Three since 9-9-09!
Baby Blog
We're starting to look too and DH and I are not on the same page about how much DIY we want to do. I am cool with paint, refinishing floors, etc. But I don't want to do new windows, roof, electric, plumbing, etc. He feels we can save $20-30K buy getting a fixer upper and DIY...but my point is yes, the homes are $30-40K CHEAPER but then you have to spend all of your money and time DIYing and we're going to have a new baby and I don't want to do it.
I'd rather get the home that's $30-40K more and have it be move-in ready. We paint some decorator colors, hang curtains and move in...that's it!
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
Wow, chika, that's exciting! I wish you guys the best of luck. House hunting can be stressful, so keep that in mind when you guys bicker about the gold fixtures.
All I remember is that all the details from the different houses started to blend together, so take good notes and maybe even pictures that you can file with your notes.
I'll split this into 2 parts since I owned before I met MH.
Part 1 - Bachelorette Pad (ha ha ha):
How much work were you anticipating to put into your house when you bought it?
As a single chick, zero. I bought a new townhouse b/c I didn't have the time or inclination to do any remodel work. I did end up doing some personalization, like painting and tiling a backsplash over the stove, but that was it (did help when I sold).
How much of that work have you done? How long did it take?
See above - the painting projects were usually just day projects; I think the tile work took a couple days b/c things had to dry.
What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc)
Location, no association fees (condo VS townhouse), it was new
Part 2 (Family Home):
How much work were you anticipating to put into your house when you bought it?
Read and learn, ha ha. Our house was built in 1974, so not too old, but definitely looked dated. MH fell in love. I was not too thrilled considering if we wanted to update the house we'd have to redo the floors (e.g. go hardwood instead of carpet), redo the bathrooms (they were like dungeons), possibly re-do the kitchen (although it had been remodeled in the 80s). MH was all gung ho about DIY, so we bought. When we started working on the house, we realized 1) we had no idea what to do or what we were doing and 2) neither of us was that motivated. So we saved a bunch of money (in this economy, we did not want to take out any more loans) and hired a remodel construction crew instead. We're 1/2 way done with the remodel and I cannot wait b/c it will look fantastic (I get a walk-in closet AND a huge shower!). But would I have done this differently - yes. I would have insisted we find a house the not only met our needs (size, location, property/yard) but also didn't need as much work or any work at all. But our current house has great bones, is in a great neighborhood, we both have awesome commutes to work (his is ~10 min, mine is about ~20), and they just finished a brand new spanking elementary school nearby. I guess our lesson learned was, when it comes to DIY your house, look at your lifestyle and see if doing house work fits. I had friends that re-did their entire house - it's beautiful but it was also 1 full year of 24-7 working on the house. MH and I prefer to go hiking with the dog so we're paying people to do the work.
How much of that work have you done? How long did it take?
Oh, I guess I answered that above
.
What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc)
Ditto **arrow up**
Wow, novella, sorry. I wish you the best of luck and I hope it's not too stressful.
Exciting! Where are you looking?
How much work were you anticipating to put into your house when you bought it? nothing other than small things. We started out looking at homes about 20-30k cheaper and quickly realized we didn't want any big projects . I was also drawn to older homes (1930's and below) so buying one that had new electrical and plumbing/septic, etc was important. We didn't expect to find a house that had been completely remodeled so perfectly in my tastes (no carpet except in basement, grey kitchen w/ white cabinets and aqua accents in the bathroom!!) with such high quality work.
Our house could use A LOT of landscaping but it's not top priority for us.
For example, MH is the PR for an estate that is selling a house a few streets down from us. I think it is the CUTEST house and very similar to ours - hardwoods, arched doorways, large basement (although that ones is not fully finished). But it needs all new electrical and has some plumbing problems and needs updating in the bathrooms and major kitchen renovation. The people that are trying to buying it are planning to immediately put in 80k and seem to be planning to do some of work themselves and it will be months before it's move in ready. That makes their "great deal" only about 15k less than our purchase price. The headache and time that involves is probably worth the extra 15k to me - especially considering how often things run over budget.
How much of that work have you done? How long did it take? I repainted 2 rooms b/c I didn't love the light green color. I also spent some time painting the baseboards white to match the white doors/window sills/cabinets. We moved a light fixture and installed dimmers everywhere.
Outside we built a garden, purchased a shed, and planted a few more trees and shrubs. Oh and put in a large dusk to dawn light by where we park our cars because the nearest street light is kind of far away.
all of those minor things were done w/in the first year. I still have some things I would like to change (light fixtures) but it's hard to justify when everything is fine just like it is.
What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc) everything. I wanted an old house, I love the cottage look, the rest of the homes on the street are cute, the quality of the remodel, the large lot, and we wanted to be w/in walking distance of some stuff. We are about a mile away from a couple a cute restaurants, one of our favorite bars, a grocery and coffee shop.
Any advice for new house hunters? I'll post this on the house board as well. I agree with pp - find a good agent! We started with one on the recommendation of many of our friends, but we just never "clicked" with him. He called us kids (I know we are kind of young, but WTH? so annoying) and kept showing us homes that he thought we should like - the typical new, small lot, suburb type development that would supposedly have lots of "kids" our age to be friends with. It was SOOO odd since we told him our top priorities were: unique old home, in town, w/ a big yard.
At a random open house we found an energetic agent that was about our age and decided to ask her to send us some potentials. In less than a week she had showed us at least 3 we would really have considered.
How much of that work have you done? How long did it take? Still much to be done. We have moved all of the walls & floorplan. They just started wiring & plumbing everything. The act of sale was Sept 18. We are hoping to be in by Mardi Gras (Feb 16 this year), but I think that maybe too optimistic, hopefully we will be in by mid-March. So entire project hopefully no more than 6 months. What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc) Location! We knew what area of the city we wanted to live in so we just looked there. A lot of the properties were out of our price range, but we found a few that were do-able & we put in offers. We lost two, but got this one.
Oh wow! Very helpful. Thanks, Nesties!
The thing we love about the house is the location. It's a nice neighbourhood, close to DH's work and lots of shops, bus lines, etc. It's priced quite low (it's been on the market for a looong time-180+ days?) for the neighbourhood, and so the price definitely had us interested. It has a huge kitchen with decent appliances (maybe from the 80's or 90's?).
Things we don't like are the small bedrooms, only 1 bathroom, possible asbestos ceiling tiles (we'd have to pay to have that checked and removed, the seller won't do it), and I don't like that it's 1 floor with an unfinished basement. I do feel like I have to compromise in order to find a home within our budget.
A lot of my friends are advising me to wait. We might just try and get an inspection to see if the electrical, plumbing, furnace (even though that didn't help poor Tara and Ian!) are OK...
Thanks again! I really like reading your experiences!
I would probably say wait as well, if it isn't exactly what you need and want. Sacrifices might have to be made but that seems like a lot, only 1 bathroom will get to you after a while
Asbestos is NOT fun either 
In the end go with your gut feeling and if it feels right you'll buy it. Our inspector was highly recommend to us but yet he didn't red flag the furnace 
, just ask questions and more questions and you should be just fine.
I love Hawaii!
Tara & Ian . 4/24/2008 . The Kahala Planning . Married
Ditto Tara's sentiments. Don't buy a home unless you love it. I did that with our current home. Location is great, but I hate the floor plan. Given the housing market (and the fact that we have 1 kid in high school and another starting high school next year), we'll be here for awhile so I have to suck it up. There are always sacrifices that you make, particularly when you and your spouse have different desires. For us, MH wanted a pool and I wanted a big bath tub. We have the pool, but no tub.
All in all, I like the house, but I LOOOOOOOVED my bachelorette pad so much better. It was heartbreaking to sell. If I had to do it all over again, we would have kept looking. This is the 3rd home I've owed and I like it the least of all 3, I'm sad to say.
How exciting!!! To answer your questions...
How much work were you anticipating to put into your house when you bought it? We're not renovators. Period. When I bought an apartment in the last city we lived in, we realized how much we HATED renovating. And that was just painting the entire place including ceilings - no actual demolition needed. So we knew when buying another place that anything requiring major repairs was absolutely out. Does that mean that we had to pay more to get a house that needed very, very little done to it (the previous owner had fully renovated it and luckily we share the same style)? Absolutely. Was it worth it to us? Absolutely. I know a lot of people would say we're crazy and should have bought a cheaper fixer-upper, but we would have been miserable. I'm being honest. Even now, we need two bedrooms repainted, and I'm firmly on the side of hiring a pro. I know it's only two bedrooms, but I can't help because I'm knocked up (and I haven't seen no-VOC paint on the market here) and Ben is NOT good at fiddly things like crevices.
How much of that work have you done? How long did it take? N/A for this house. The apartment was 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and a small open plan kitchen/living area. It took us oh...like a year and a half to finish painting. We got probably 80% of it done in like a month, and then were so miserable and burned out that we stopped "for a little while" which turned into a year, and the paint job was (to be honest) not so great. Mmmhmm. We're THOSE people. And now you can see why I want to hire a pro to do the bedrooms here. Obviously, if you like renovating, it's a whole other ballgame. But we hate it.
What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc). Let's see...location. It's on the side of town we were originally avoiding (my ILs live like 4 streets away lol), but it's in a good section of that part of town. Nice houses, some established and some new, lots of families. It was already renovated, which was a huge check in my book. The right number of bedrooms and bathrooms (3+2) and a big yard for our two dogs, which was a difficult thing to find - in our price range, it was tricky to find something on a large enough block that wasn't a total shack. We had to be patient. I also loved the way it makes you feel when you walk in - it's not a McMansion or model perfect, but it's very comfortable and relaxed feeling, and that's what we want. We're all about homes that are LIVED in - we buy furniture we can put our feet up on, and want a home where people immediately feel relaxed.
Any advice for new house hunters? Look. And look. And look some more. Sure, there's every possibility that you'll miss out on a house or two that you really like if you don't move fast enough. But another house WILL come along. I promise. Be patient. When you first start looking you want to buy OMGNOW!!! But use your head, not your heart or emotions. It's fine if you fall in love with a house, IF it actually meets all of your requirements. But don't do what my ILs did and fall in love with something that is so totally inappropriate for your needs that you have to spend $60k adding additions onto it etc to make it liveable for you - they've spent SO much more on that house than it's worth...
Are/were you against buying an old house? By old, I mean one that built in the early 1900's. Is that just asking for disaster? Nope! In fact, there are a LOT of old houses in my town and I was DYING to buy one. I love them. They're full of charm and personality. Ultimately we ended up buying something from the mid 1980's though, simply because we couldn't find an old house that had been properly renovated/taken care of (old houses will require many ongoing repairs, so you really want to find one that's in good structural shape, which is sometimes easier said than done - and it depends on where you live). You may also find that the floorplans don't necessarily make sense for a modern lifestyle, and (where I live at least) the rooms are often quite small, especially the bedrooms. I would still absolutely love to get one though. You just can't replicate that kind of charm.
This is a fun topic, and I enjoy reading everyone's responses. We just bought our house in April, and we were first time homebuyers. We had a very limited budget, so our criteria was kind of different. We knew we would have to sacrifice something. We ended up buying a 1952 ranch style home in a good neighborhood.
How much work were you anticipating to put into your house when you bought it?
We knew we would have to put work in, because nothing was updated. The house has a good layout, and uniqueness to it. When we were looking, we got in a little over our head thinking about renovations. The house we ended up buying, we knew we could live in immediately and slowly do updates to.
How much of that work have you done?
We have done alot, but no MAJOR projects (i.e. kitchen remodel). Painted all the rooms and the exterior (it was a horrible, ugly yellow brick with brown trim). We put in some laminate wood floors in one of the rooms. Replaced lighting fixtures and mirrors in the bathrooms. Replaced ceiling fans in most of the rooms. Blown insulation in the attic.
How long did it take?
We got all the painting done in a few weeks, before we actually moved in. Everything else has just mostly been weekend jobs here and there.
What made you want to buy your home? (Location, exterior/interior aesthetics, etc)
Mainly location. We knew our investment was safe in the neighborhood we bought in. There are good schools, and it's centrally located. We bought one of the cheaper homes in a higher priced area. Also, the back garage has been converted into a recording studio. My husband is a drummer, so a soundproof room seemed like a dream. In the future, we plan on turning this into a media room (for resale). Also, there is 2 bedrooms in the main house, and both are large and could easily be used as a master. Yet, the master does have a tiny bathroom. But at least it is a true 2 bed/2bath.
Any advice for new house hunters?
I would say really think about your needs versus your wants. While I love our home, it does involve alot of upkeep since it is old. We could have moved 15 minutes out of the city, and gotten something brand new, but weren't too sure about resale value in new communities. We feel like our home is a good stepping stone and investment for the next house.
Also, don't go in thinking that you are going to be doing a ton of renovations, unless you have the money to do it right away. We spent our max of what we could on the house, so we knew that as much as we want to do some projects, it won't be financially possible for a while. Yet, we still are trying to find away to replace our windows and redo the kitchen.
I agree with waiting. You can easily live with one bathroom (honestly, you can), but I can guarantee you will hate the tiny bedrooms. It is a problem with a lot of older homes, as I mentioned before, and it's one of those things where unless you genuinely enjoy small, cozy spaces, it will make you craaaaaazy. I'm not saying you need massive McMansion bedroom suites, but I can absolutely promise you that you'll get tired of cracking your knee on your bedframe in a very short time. And the asbestos ceilings...just not something I'd want to mess with.
More esponses! Hurray!
Yeah, I'm very iffy about the asbestos, too. Apparently (according to the very reliable internet) it's very common in homes built prior to 1978-ish for acoustic purposes. A lot of popcorn ceilings can have it in there, too. Supposedly (again, from the internet) it's not harmful if it's all intact and on the ceiling (whereas floors and walls are a huge no-no).
I know I am only considering this house because of the price and the solid location. There's another house I like (just based on pics, we haven't been in yet) but it's about 70k over!
I basically thought I just had to suck it up because of our very limited budget. I know DH is really worried that we're going to miss out on this house by not going for it...
I love Hawaii!
Tara & Ian . 4/24/2008 . The Kahala Planning . Married
Yeah, we are still wondering why it's been sitting for so long. And feel free to chime in any time! I love hearing about any kind of home buying experience!
I get the sense that you just started looking - is that right? If so, I can understand your DH's sense of urgency: Ben was the same way - he wanted to buy RIGHT NOW in case we missed out on something, even if it didn't tick all the boxes. There was one house that he loved, but although it was really nice, it had a really odd floorplan and I eventually talked him into looking around a bit more - and I'm SO glad that we did! And there was this gorgeous old Victorian house that I loved, but it needed a LOT of repairs (the owners had given it a lick of paint, basically, and it looked good on the surface but there were a ton of real repairs that needed to be done), and as much as I adored it, I'm really glad we didn't buy that one either!
But I can absolutely tell you this: even with a very limited budget (which we had too, so I can feel your pain!), there will be other houses. Unless you absolutely have to move right away, you have time to look and to find something that you're - rightly - not feeling certain about. And eventually you'll find one that ticks most of the boxes (I won't be overly optimistic and say all, because when you have a smaller budget you do have to compromise a thing or two), and you will be soooo happy you didn't buy the one you felt reservations about!
It's a big committment, and a bit like dating - you don't marry the first guy you meet who is kinda what you're looking for but has some red flags, just because you want to get married ASAP (well...you shouldn't, anyway, lol!). You wait and date and eventually you find THE person that you want to be with - and it doesn't mean they're perfect in every way (maybe their feet smell or they burp too much), but it does mean that you're really well suited to each other, and you're happy you waited and didn't marry that first guy.
LOL! Very well put, Lisa!