Last Friday the dogs and I drove to FL to be there for my daughter's baby shower. The shower was a lot of fun. Her friends are truly terrific young women, and her MiL and SiL were there too. I haven't seen them since the wedding, so that was nice. Girlmama really made out, baby loot-wise. Even better, it was all truly useful stuff, like diapers and socks and a bathtub and baby wash and lotions and washcloths, plus of course cute outfits. The nursery already looked like Babies R Us exploded before the shower, and now it's just ridiculous. This child is equipped for the next six months and beyond.
So I drove down on Friday, the shower was on Saturday, and then I started house hunting. I knew exactly where I wanted to be and exactly how much I could spend, and in that Zip Code, keeping it below $100K and also finding something nice was not going to be easy. I emailed an agent, and she left me a voicemail saying that one of the places I wanted to check out would be an open house on Sunday! That made it easy - Girlmama and I stopped by. It's maybe 5 minutes from their/my house, so we popped in. Cute as a button, nicely decorated, but too small. The agent was so nice, we talked and I said I knew exactly what I wanted to see, so we got together to see them.
They Had Issues. There were "people who didn't know how to remove wallpaper tore up the drywall and then just painted (sloppily) over it" issues, bad taste in decor permanently attached as fixtures issues, and serious things like cracked tile in the shower floor (in more than one) and OMG the entire place is carpeted in a dull brown sculpted horror AND has clashing Art Deco stuff affixed to the walls, and we ran a mental tally of fix-up costs vs. price, and it was Discouraging. The bargain price doesn't look so bargain when you need to drop 7 or 10 grand before moving in and taking a shower.
The Orlando area isn't the forest of For Sale signs it was a couple of years ago, and my part of town was never as badly hit as the rest. The inventory has dropped quite a bit, and there weren't that many to choose from to start with. Two went under contract between the time I looked at them online and set an appointment to see them. There are plenty of fixer-upper Investor Special apartment-to-condo conversion units to be had and they drag down the average price for everybody, but the community I wanted has always been stable and owner occupied and never became a sea of foreclosure sales.
The last one we saw was by far the best of the lot. It's immaculate though dated. The look of the place reminded me very much of the house I sold after my mother passed away, and sure enough, it's an estate situation. The Greatest Generation really liked white walls and cream carpet and pastel furnishings in their retirement condos - spotless, pristine, sterile, and nothing much had been updated since they moved in two decades ago. The carpet looks like nearly new and had obviously been replaced in the last few years, but is the same creamy white that was popular 20 years ago. The heat/air and hot water heater have been replaced. Original kitchen, but it's the upgrade from the standard for those condos. Still dated, but I can replace the hardware on the cabinets and paint the walls and change the look completely for now, and update it when I am ready.
I was able to look past the Grandma's Retirement Condo image and see what I could do with it, and the mental tally of bringing it into this century wasn't bad at all. Window treatments and light fixtures immediately. Paint - oh, damn, very soon. Then when the immaculate nearly white carpet is no longer so immaculate, it'll be time for hardwood floors. Repaint the fireplace facing, which is, of course, cream. (I swear, no color at all!) When that's done, the place will be unrecognizable from its current Vanillablah state.
I love the room dimensions and the bones. It's built of concrete, you can't hear the neighbors, it's spacious with vaulted ceilings and a garage, and a balcony that overlooks the golf course, and I'm getting it for less than it sold for new in 1988. I think there's some sort of closure here. I loved my parents' place, I always itched to decorate it and loved the community. I sort of hated to sell it, but I didn't ever want to live on that side of the state where I had no ties, personally or professionally.
This is on my turf, it's nearly as big as the house Girl and husband are living in, and I can use the money from the sale of my mother's house to freaking pay cash for it. Prices here have stabilized - okay, I'm realistic, I know they will quiver a bit up and down for the foreseeable future and won't appreciate anytime soon, but once the inventory was absorbed the crashing prices settled down, and I'm in this for the long haul. The house is there for Girlmama and Son-in-Law and baby as long as they want/need to be there. When/if they decide to move, I'll decide then if I'll keep it as a rental property or sell it.
Girlmama toured the condo on my second visit; she laughed about how the wallpaper in the foyer (the foyer and guest bath have tolerable wallpaper, everywhere else is white paint) made her think of "The Golden Girls." It's very light, very subtle cream, light blue and tan sort of fine lines/woven looking. Barely noticable, yet clashes with everything I own. Yup, The Golden Girls - that's when these were built. Good thing the front door is far from the living room. I'll be calling my super painter/contractor to ask her for an estimate on the very modest redecorating fixes this place will need, but I can move in with what's there and fix it up over the next year or three.
Oh, and I also sat in on the sales meeting at the local office of the real estate outfit I was with here in AVL. Nice people, very corporate rah-rah, I felt at home - but I'll talk to a couple of other offices before signing on with anybody.
So, it was a very full week, what with driving back and forth to FL, the baby shower, checking out a couple of possible brokerages for future affiliation, house hunting, writing an offer, and getting it accepted today. All while sleeping on an air mattress.
Murphy and Sophie were SOOO excited to see Layla and Dudley again, but no riots broke out. They all greeted each other as old friends, romped and shared and bickered over treats, etc. It'll be good to live nearby, but I will also be busy with my own stuff and am not going to be whatshername the MiL on Everybody Love Raymond. I have to work for a living, but I will be around for emergencies. ;-)
WOW! Things just keep going your way lately, good for you! Grandmas Retirement Condo sounds great. Don't knock white. It's the easiest color to cover:) I'm so happy things are lining up so nicely for you and hope they continue to do so. I know Girlmomma will be happy to have you back in the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteWV: colorshe
You do like your color:)
Hi Catherine,
ReplyDeleteI'm still here reading your blog and will continue to be here as long as you keep writing it! I love reading about Sophie and Murphy-- and I so admire your guts in following your heart in where you need to be. Glad you found a house with good bones even if the colors are a bit, ummm, subdued, shall we say?!
elizabeth
Househunting back in the mid 80's, walked into one place -- instant nose twitch at the ingrained smoker's 'vibe'.
ReplyDeleteThe living room walls had been 'done' in white stucco, which resulted in a fetching brown lacy overlay. This little asthmatic could not get out of there quickly enough. And they put it on the market like that?
We are house hunting again (this will be our fifth in 45 years, probably below the national average) and it will be from NSW to Victoria so most of the house hunting so far has been on the 'net. Then double check on Google maps for proximity to freeway, orientation, a sticky beak at the surrounding houses and so on. But we will be about 9 hours driving time closer to Daughter Dear.
Best of luck with it all,
Gae, in Callala Bay
Gae - the Net has totally changed the process of house hunting! Buyers aren't limited to what the know-it-all agent decides will suit them and can drive the bus on the shopping end, and decide what they want to see. (The agent comes in handy on the actually getting the deal done part - which is a lot of work, at least in the US these days.) I had told my agent that I didn't want a second floor condo (dog walking means a lot of stairs) but changed my mind after reviewing the options - and lo, this condo with stairs is adorable AND affordable, and I don't have to remodel the master bath before I can shower there. This will be my fifth buy in 32 years and the first time I've owned two properties at the same time - eeek! But it feels right.
ReplyDeleteOh, and as for "they put it on the market like that?" Oh dear, do I have stories. Smells and mold and in one memorable house in a very high end neighborhood here, ivy had forced its way in through the kitchen window and was growing indoors. A disabled furnace in the basement was replaced by an ugly contraption in the corner of the dining room. Yes, seriously, some sort of hulking half-assed heating unit in all its ugly glory in the middle of the living area. I've seen more house abuse in the last few months than I did in 30 years in FL. When you compare the pretty pictures on the internet to the reality, oh, my.
ReplyDeleteIt is so good to read that you are into a place of your own as soon as you would like. So glad it was not a nightmare or anything. You've had enough nightmares. Great news of you. And, thanks for all the snaps, too!
ReplyDeleteThe word verification is "jesses", lol! You have cut yourself loose, Girlfriend! YayYou!