Our new journey began one day when Ryan’s mom mentioned that
our church had a house for sale. I wasn’t even aware that they owned a home,
but Ryan was able to fill me in and we went for a little drive to check it out.
From the outside, it looked like everything we’ve ever wanted as far as
location and land size. We came home and looked at the listing online; it was
at that time that we realized it was going to be a big (HUGE!) project, but
those pictures did not turn us away. Long story short, we met with a Deacon
after church one day and checked it out.
Ever since that day, our hearts have been set on this home. Since the
home hadn’t been lived in for 25 years AND was built in 1880, it was going to
need a lot of work and clearly was not going to be livable anytime soon. Ryan
and his dad walked around in the basement and looked and looked….and looked all
around the house and foundation for any foreseeable unfixable (or highly
expensive) problems. After the foundation (have I mentioned, STONE foundation?)
checked out okay, we decided to speak with our realtor (The wonderful Tad Braner) about putting our house
on the market and to pick his brain for possibilities on how to make the home
our own. Before we knew it, our house was on the market and we accepted an
offer just a few days later (God is GOOD!) . We also found out that our bank
offered a construction loan and after a few meetings with the banker and
collecting quotes on EVERYTHING we would need to complete the renovation
(including the septic system, appliances, etc), we were approved for a big
enough loan to cover all of those expenses including the cost of the house. Since
the home was not in livable condition, there is no way we could get an actual
mortgage loan and we of course could not afford to pay cash. We decided to keep
the loan at a rate that we would be able to afford and still have plenty of
wiggle room. Therefore, we knew there would be out of pocket expenses as well.
Thankfully, Ryan had renovated our current home and we will be getting a profit
from that to put towards a down payment and into our savings for any unforeseeable
surprises that may come up during the renovation process. Many have inquired
about where we will be living during our renovation. Ryan’s parents have been
kind enough to allow us to live with them until we can get the house in livable
condition. This will also give us plenty of time without utilities and a mortgage to save for all of those decorations I have picked out! =) Since we will be taking out a construction loan, we have just one
year to get this entire project done (thank goodness for Ryan’s summer break). At
this time, we are still unsure of when this will all start taking place. We do know that the day we close, the buyer of
our house will receive possession and we will receive possession of our future
home. We have been told that closing can
be anywhere between 45-90 days once all of the paperwork is complete; most likely
45 days. We will begin packing this weekend and our future home will be appraised
hopefully within the next two weeks. From our understanding, they will appraise
the house based on what it will be worth once the construction process is done
(based on our quotes and what we have told them we plan to do) and that may
help us when it comes to our loan expense. Our progress will also be monitored
by the bank during the renovation, to make sure everything is up to par and
being done the right way. Ryan has worked especially hard on this entire
process so far. He has a binder with every bit of paperwork and every quote
that we have received, it’s quite impressive how organized he is (I must take
note!). We (mostly Ryan and his dad) will be doing around 95% of the work on
this house. We have someone else lined up to put in the septic system (hopefully
before winter) and Window World will be installing our new windows. Ryan will
do electric and drywall, along with many other things. Ryan’s dad has HVAC experience and will be
helping us with the installation of the A/C. Luckily, the furnace is still in
pretty good shape (the house has been used for church purposes and had a few
updates over the years) and the house has a fairly new roof, so that will be
one less thing on the list. We will post again once we know more information of
when our grand adventure will begin.
Another angle of the front of the house. This porch is also in great shape.
The brick addition is newer than the rest of the house. We plan to keep the brick and the porch is in great shape. Depending on our budget, we will either recycle and replace the aluminum siding or paint it. We are also thinking of tearing out the concrete in front and planting grass here.
We plan to add a deck onto this side of the house that wraps around part of the back in front of these trees (in the far future). Part of the two acres includes a small portion of the bean field. Our septic will take up much of that area and grass will be planted there after that is in.
The house from across the street. I see lots of leave raking and washing bird poop off of car windows in our future. Ha!
Along with the garage, this old horse barn will eventually be renovated. This will serve as a workshop/mancave :)
