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| The Money Pit...The Dream House |
Sure, it was only the second house we looked at during our house hunt, but when you know you know, right? Darling Husband (DH) knew it, I wanted to run. It was like being on a first date-- you have nervous conversation, it's a bit awkward, you don't really get his jokes or when you should laugh. The nervous conversation were the damaged 70 year old plaster walls. The awkwardness was the 1950s kitchen that had been spray painted to give it the "updated" look that was promised on the listing ad. The jokes were the bathrooms that didn't drain or had leaked and left a soggy ceiling on the first floor. I swear, 6mths in DH and I fear falling through the floor/ceiling while in the shower. Sure I'm not afraid of getting my hands a bit dirty, but this, a 'Holmes on Homes inspection' would have labeled this 4bd, 2 bth colonial unlivable, a tear down, a "run for the hills don't you buy this house".
At first we listened to common sense and toured 8 more houses. But! Every time we toured another house it just wasn't Olin. Bad neighborhood, 2bds instead of 3, too small, too "new", a flip. Olin just crept in and stuck itself onto us. Sure, the first date wasn't the best. It's a little older than we'd wanted, a bit rough around the edges, it could lose a few pounds, but there was something about Olin that made us want a second and third date, and eventually a commitment.
After 3 rounds of price negotiations, me throwing a hissy fit because I thought DH was unrealistic with price negotiations, we got our HOUSE! At the end of the emotional roller coaster of negotiations we were super impressed that we shaved 22K off the asking price.
The honeymoon stage lasted about 5 minutes, just in time to discover the leaky roof our home inspector missed...
