How I Met My House

A post on Retro Renovation about how to list a mid-century house reminded me that I haven't written about how we acquired our house.

It still boggles my mind when I think about how our house was listed. The description was:

Unique Contemporary. Excellent space with large bedrms. and baths

and great storage. Many built-ins. Cathedral ceiling,curved

staircase,brick wall,1st floor laundry and break. room. Truly a rare

property. Needs updating,Price reflects this.

These were the only 6 pictures listed and they were all of the outside of the house. 

 

I was intrigued by the curved staircase and cathedral ceilings but because it was listed for under $200k I assumed it would be in terrible shape (we looked at a bunch of houses in this neighborhood and this was $20k cheaper than the cheapest fixer upper we had seen) so I had low expectations.

The house was 58 years old, had a partial basement (a plus since we had tornados around here), a 2 car garage (a must for my husband), 2.5 baths, and even listed an entry, breakfast room, and laundry room (how fancy!).

I should mention that our real estate agent Susan Rissover introduced us to our house- she knew this street had potential and was ready when our house came on the market. I had seen it online before she sent me the link but I didn't pay much attention to it because it didn't have any pictures of the inside.

We had been casually looking at houses with her for a few weeks but we weren't really serious about buying and had no urgency at all so I felt guilty about wasting her time. I had decided that this particular neighborhood, though desirable because it was close to my parents and had large lots and a country feel, was too expensive. We decided to focus our search elsewhere but Susan had one more house here for us to see.

The listing realtor insisted on being there when we viewed the house which made it pretty awkward. As we walked around it was hard to contain our shock and excitement (when we walked into the kitchen Susan looked at me and mouthed "Oh my God"). After seeing so many rough houses it was surreal walking through this time capsule house (even though it was super cluttered and full of stuff).

It did (and still does) need a bit of work but it was basically move in ready. The house was listed on Friday, we saw it on Monday, and we wrote up an offer on Tuesday evening. Quite a whirlwind house buying experience considering we weren't serious about buying a house at the time!

My family was quite surprised when we told them we bought a house and even more surprised when they saw it! I found and old list of things we wanted our house to have: Mid century modern design, within 30 minute drive of Reading, at least ½ acre of land, private or wooded area, 10 minute drive max to grocery store, easy access to bike paths and a park, and safe and quite neighborhood with sidewalks. We ended up with all but sidewalks!