I'd love to introduce you all to our most recent project (I'm sorry it's taken so long, we've been a little preoccupied...). This house is what I like to call the "three trees house" and yes, I give names to the houses we fix up...
We purchased this house from three sisters who were selling it for their mom who has Alzheimers. Their father passed away in the spring. This was the house that these three sisters moved into during middle school and high school. It holds a lot of family memories. One of those memories is the time when the girls each planted a small pine tree in the backyard. Those three pine trees are now over 40 years old and they stand tall and strong along our back fence.
We fell in love with this house the first time we viewed it.
We sold our last house, Oak Ct. in the middle of August. I remember that day vividly because I was a wreck, to say the least.
Here's the whole God story.
Two or three weeks before closing on Oak Ct. we pulled out of our contract on a house (let's call it the knife house since the son who lived downstairs though it would be a great idea to display all his knives on the ground for house showings. Imagine my shock when Silas went for the shiny pointy things...) we had really liked. It was in Columbine Knolls, a neighborhood we saw great potential in for fixing and flipping and a neighborhood we wanted to settle down in because of the large yards, mature trees and the proximity to our church, CCU, bike trails, downtown, etc. After being under contract for a few weeks and performing a very in depth inspection we were told by the owner's realtor that they actually had a lean on their house. With all the pressures of life and us having to move out of Oak Ct. in just a few weeks we decided with great disappointment to cut our loses. We then signed a 3 months lease on an apartment. We didn't want to get stuck in a month to month situation in a VRBO, etc. while we may have had to wait longer than expected as they cleared their lean.
But before we pulled out of that contract, on the day we had the inspection, an inspection that I thought was going poorly (some structural questions), I decided to drive around the block. On the street right behind the knife house was a house that had a for sale by owner sign out front. I immediately sent an inquiry to the email address from my iphone. It was a cute little ranch with two beautiful trees outside and I was captivated! Gwen quickly e-mailed me back and graciously let me know that they were already under contract. I asked if she would e-mail us if anything came up and she said yes.
So, we began searching for houses again with our lovely realtor and friend Alisa Lewis. I must mention that when we began looking for a house I sensed the Lord impressing upon my heart not to settle. I had learned in prior months before that while studying Genesis that settling hurts everybody ( Eve, Abraham, Jacob - just to name a few). We needed to cling to God on this roller coaster and not make any hasty decisions. So, we searched high and low. For me, searching for real estate is all intensive heart and mind consuming. I don't know when to stop. When we were looking for a house it was all I thought about and it consumed me and honestly, I hated every moment! I hated who it turned me into. I never put down my iphone or ipad. I drove around potential neighborhoods almost every day with the boys. I e-mailed Alisa two to three times a day and texted. The market was so competitive that when houses were listed that morning we had to be there by that afternoon. I hated it. Alisa was gracious :)
Thankfully the Lord heard our cries - we felt engulfed and needed out. Gwen e-mailed. The contract fell through and she asked if we'd like to see the house. The beautiful ranch. We took the boys over and tried our best to charm her because we knew she'd get many offers on a house that had great potential. We put in the minimum offer because it's all we could afford and we trusted God. Gwen took a week to go through all received offers and called us back, she had decided to go with another family. Again, we were so disappointed.
Closing on Oak Ct. was just days away. We were one week settled into our apartment and decided to low ball an offer back to the sellers of the knife house we backed out on. It was still listed. They counter offered and Nathan and I hesitated. We really didn't think the house was worth it. That very next morning we were closing on Oak Ct. During closing we talked with Alisa and she advised us to go with the counter offer, we felt a peace about it and decided, yeah, we would. She went ahead and contacted their realtor and minutes after the closing he texted back to say that they were under contract, the knife house was gone. I was disappointed. The devastation hit when we realized that there was very little available out there for us, we had three months to find a house, close on it, fix it up and move in and the walls on our world were closing in on us. We started talking about moving to another state with cheaper land value. Give up the flipping idea. Leave the family we had created here, in Colorado. It seemed that everything was pointing us in that direction and I cried. A lot. If it was what God had for us I'd walk in it but I was sad that we would leave Colorado. Nathan, my rational, reasonable, reassuring and patient husband said "we'll give it 45 days, half of this lease, then we'll fly out to X state and start looking". I like to just figure things out so that evening I had already highlighted 10 or so houses on Realtor.com in X city and then went to sleep.
That next morning Gwen called our realtor. Her offer wasn't producing paperwork and she was sick of the boomerang that selling her parent's house felt like. She told Alisa that if she had our offer, on paper, in her hands by the next morning she'd accept it. GET OUT! God is very gracious to me, he never lets me wallow in my self pity for long... He blew us out of the water. We got the house we wanted, one better than the house we backed out of, for the price we could afford, no more. We closed 45 days later and started working. How great is God? I love looking back at this and remembering what He did! He is the ultimate provider.
Now, here's probably what you're reading this blog for. To see pictures of this amazing house I keep telling you about. Well, let me give you a disclaimer. Unless you have a mind like my husband and I, you're going to be shocked that we wanted this house. Keep in mind, Nathan and I wanted to fix a house up. We like like putting ourselves through misery... No really, it's an adventure and it's so worth it in the end!
Here it is! What we've devoted most of our time to since September:
Front door and coat closet.
Entry room.
Basement stairs on the left, hallway to four bedrooms and two bathrooms in the middle, entry door to the right.
More entry room.
Looking into the house from the entry door. Entry room on right and dinning room in front.
Dinning room. Yes, those curtains do match the flowered wallpaper.
Kitchen in front. Yes, those are saloon doors to the right... A little added touch on your venture into the kitchen from the dinning room.
Bay window in kitchen looking out into the backyard.
Kitchen.
To the right of the fridge is an opening into the family room.
This carpet was really hard to part from! There was a wet bar off to the left of the family room. Yes, a wet bar and no, we didn't keep it. You can see a bit of the hallway to the 1/2 bath, laundry and garage to the right.
This is the boys playroom that will eventually be their room.
The hallway to all of the rooms.
The boy's current bedroom. I despise that wallpaper. It took me a good week to get it all off. Yes, those curtains match too...
The boys bathroom/guest bath.
I actually got someone to pick up that bathtub and haul it off for free! Thank you avocado green...
This bathroom's wallpaper broke Nathan down. I don't think I've ever seen him so frustrated and discouraged. Little did we know our drywall guy could just go right over it... Good to know for next time!
Yes, the wall paper is on that outlet cover.
Here's another very modern light switch cover :)
The master bedroom and again, the curtains match that wallpaper strip above.
We turned this room into Nathan's office. My favorite part about this room was that even the curtains matched the wood paneling! It's just too good.
Half bath.
Laundry room. Thank you orange and yellow. You're the best!
This is my favorite part of the house - the beautiful back yard! There are pear, plum and apple trees as well as raspberry bushes in the back. I look forward to watching the boys climb the trees. There isn't a fence to the left, there never has been which is so odd in this day and age but I really think that said something about the kind of community there was here 40 years ago. I wish it was still that way.
The back side of the deck.
We demolished as much as possible and built up as much as possible before moving in the weekend after Thanksgiving. We'll send out some of those pictures later. Leaving you in anticipation!
There's also a completely unfinished basement below that is half the size of the main level. It's getting a lot of use by the boys during the winter.
Many people have asked if we are going to "flip" this one too. We think so but aren't exactly sure. We really like this house and we love the neighborhood so it'll be very hard to leave. Our plan all along though is to sell it and leverage the money we make and put it towards the boys tuition for the school we would love to send them to. God knows what two years will bring! Maybe we wont be able to sell it? Maybe we'll win the lottery?
Love to you all!
-Libby
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