Comments on: Three Years Ago: A House Hunting History

By: Kendrick

Kendrick — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:19:20 +0000

Love your house hunting story and your House is beautiful and has really inspired me to get motivated on our house. We are right close by in Stratford Hills. My boyfriend and I looked at maybe 20 houses before we found one that we loved and when the counter offer was too high we were heart broken. I checked the house constantly to see if the price dropped and even would do a drive by every now and then. We loved the neighborhood so much I was hoping another house would pop up on the market and the whole time we kept an eye on the house across the street from the one we had made an offer on. It was a bit different then the others in the neighborhood and had a big wooded lot to one side. Then one day I was checking houses oneline and saw it! It had been put on the market that day. Pictures showed exactly what we wanted. It had an open floor plan 2 full bathrooms and a huge finished walk out basement! It even had a media room! We looked at it the next day and made an offer which was accepted right away and was $28k less then the offer we made on the house across the street. We ended up closing on the house the same week I moved my salon to Carytown. So we had two moves in one week! We had a lot of painting to do because the basement was all primer. I offered our house for an engagment party 2 months later so we had to do all the painting fast! The party was a hit and the house looked good for having just moved in. Things have slowed down and now and we need to redo the master bedroom and our backyard is more then a challenge. We have a muddy and rocky slope full or weeds! Perfect yard to win a backyard makeover! :-)

By: Alicia

Alicia — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:28:44 +0000

I am SO addicted to your blog…OMG! I’ve got more reading to do…u guys ROCK!

By: kelly

kelly — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:34:09 +0000

what a sweet story! (and i like the brick painting picture.)

i usually take forever to decide on a property, (you can read about me purchasing my first house here: http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com/2009/09/our-first-home.html), but believe it or not, i’ve bought a number of places site unseen. not nearly as much fun, though!

love your little pad.

kelly
http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com

By: YoungHouseLove

YoungHouseLove — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:24:35 +0000

Hey Donita,

You’re cracking us up with your “famous” comment. Back when we started this blog (and our big house makeover) we were just two people talking about our adventures in home improvement. And slowly more and more people started to drop in to see what was going on at our house. We grew and worked hard to expand a bit (add a shop, offer decorating services, even hunt down weekly giveaways) and the result was this wonderful career and passion that keeps us up at night (we often scribble new ideas for posts and features on a bedside pad in the middle of the night). We’re endlessly grateful to those who care enough to drop by and see what we’re up to, so thanks for reading everyone!

xo,
s

By: Donita

Donita — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:43:44 +0000

I LOVE YOUR HOUSE. Thank you for sharing. You kids did a great job of making it your home. I have gotten sooooo many ideas from you *the closets in the master, what a great idea for a small room (which we have)*. I am so envious/jealous that you found your dream home so quickly. You give me hope though. We have lived/rented here in Wa state for 15 1/2 years. I do not like it here, so have rebelled against buying, however, after seeing your videos, I am now considering, our own little fixer upper. We are not just starting out though, we have been married 33 1/2 years, have two grown/married/with family, children.
Thank you for giving me the hope/push to start looking for our own home. I LOVE YOUR IDEAS.
One question…..were you famous before starting the reno on your home, or after? ;-)

By: Julie H

Julie H — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:44:51 +0000

What a great house hunting story! Ours was not too different, but started off with selling our previous little 2 bedroom bungalow that my husband had purchased before we met. Listed that on a Monday, had an offer Wednesday night, and a signed contract that Thursday. Closing was 3 weeks later. Suddenly realized “oh crap, we need to find a house!”, after thinking we’d have plenty of time to look while ours sat on the market. Went through about 6 houses with our realtor that Saturday, hated them all. Went through one I loved, told husband we were putting in an offer. Husband called realtor, realtor said “ok, but lets go look at a few more tomorrow, JUST IN CASE”. Went to look at a couple more on Sunday, second one we went through was our dream house. I had seen it online, but passed it over because it was so dated (had not been updated in the 40+ years since it was built), but going through we realized what great bones it had. Submitted an offer Sunday night, after a few back and forths with the seller, had a signed contract by that Thursday. Whew!

So, less than two weeks from listing our old house to having a contract on our current house. Not bad! I had most of the rooms painted, but now after finding your blog and being re-inspired, have decided that they all need to be painted again, much to the chagrin of my husband :)

By: YoungHouseLove

YoungHouseLove — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:34:48 +0000

Hey Sandy,

We might have a few more pictures of the living room when it’s green back in our archives (you can search by date in the top right hand corner of the blog) and as for the color, it’s no longer available through Glidden but a similar color would be Benjamin Moore’s Light Pistachio.

Hope it helps!

xo,
s

By: Sandy Cruz

Sandy Cruz — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:57:42 +0000

I was just wondering if you had more pictures of your living room when it was painted green and if you don’t mind me asking…what color is that? I love love love your house.

By: Amy E.

Amy E. — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:18:02 +0000

Our story is a long one that flowed more like a movie script than real life. It starts out with the usual set up, young couple looking for their first home. Then there’s the good twist: we can afford new construction! The buildup: 3 months of waiting before any progress is made, then 5 more months til completion. The problem: appraisal after completion is almost $40k LESS than what the contract states! what to do??!! The scene where everything seems like it’s going to fall apart: the builder will not come down on price so we have to walk away from more then 8 months of waiting and planning. The glimmer of hope: found a good looking house on our first day of the second round of house hunting. The holy chorus signing in the background light at the end of the tunnel ending: we found a house with better location, an established backyard pool and foliage, better use of space in the floorplan, turnkey, and a smaller price tag!
End result: one happy couple! Read more details here: http://tabbfamily.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/house-hunting/

By: Mallory

Mallory — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:39:08 +0000

My husband and I had nearly closed sale on a pricey, fancy, brand new condo near the university I attended at the time. Our real-estate agent urged us to tour a few more condos to be sure it was “the one.” She is a genius because we ended up falling in love with a 10 year old condo in a beautiful, quiet, neighborhood which is far closer to the university that I ended up transferring to. Our current digs are bigger, and less expensive than the first place we wanted. It was a DIY match made in heaven! We are really happy that we chose somewhere that we felt comfortable making our own. If we had gone with the brand new condo we would have felt guilty painting over the freshly painted walls and changing the decorator’s color scheme.