Our House: Is A Very, Very, Very Fine House
Well, it's been almost two years since I've been back but it doesn't feel that way. A lot has been going on in my life (all of it lovely!) and I am back to share some of it with you. In order: bought a new house; got engaged; got new cat; got rid of old cat (long story!); bought two Mercedes-Benz (one new E-Class coupe and one almost vintage E-Class coupe). The coupes are a separate post all to themselves.
While doing the whole replica watch, bag, shoe and jewelry thing is certainly nice, I think you kinda have to have the outside life to match. Don't you think? But you know I'm all about not paying retail and sticking to replica goods, especially when the quality of the rep meets or exceeds the original, right? Well, I have certainly challenged myself to finesse every last dollar as if it were my last, from the purchase of the house to the contents I've started filling it with lately. I am patient and methodical with my purchases. More on that later!
I was tired of living out in the sticks of Maryland. In moving to the sticks, I'll admit, I acted precipitously and kinda childishly. Something tragic happened to a friend so I did what any "sane" person would do and moved to where I thought I would be safe. It seemed reasonable at the time, I suppose. My job allowed me to telecommute and I came down to the city at least twice a week so it worked. But whoa . . . I started to miss the amenities. Elizabeth Arden, Pazo, Charleston and whole buncha other places were calling my name (along with friends in the city and outside the city and in Virginia). I needed to be closer to civilization. I needed an actual house. So I started looking . . . And I think I did everything wrong!
This is how I first saw it:
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It was the dead of winter and the trees were naked, as you can see. And here's the story behind the house: the owner's of the house were 99 and 97 and had had the house since it was BRAND SPANKIN' NEW. They the house built in 1933 and had lived in it for 75 years, having been married the same year it was built. They lived in the house that whole time. The husband died (at 97) so the daughter, who is in her 60s, brought her mother to live with her but maintained the house the during that time, which was about a year or so before she put it on the market. She had it winterized during winter, lawn care every other week, pest control quarterly and maid service every other month! The daughter of the owner's had only really just decided to sell it when I found it and without her mother really knowing. She was feeling very, very guilty about selling and hadn't really accepted any offers made on it (there were actually several).
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This house was ALL original, except for two things: the stove and the ramp leading to the backdoor (roof doesn't count!). It had the ALL the original glass door knobs, the original windows, original interior and exterior doors, original lighting in the all public rooms, original wood flooring and original moldings everywhere. There wasn't even one hole in any of the walls for pictures because they used picture cord because they had picture railing. Even the plaster was original! And there was no way i could say no to a house with a real swinging door to the kitchen!
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The Realtor told me that she hadn't accepted any offers and that I may just be wasting my time. She told me that the daughter was in absolutely no rush to sell and wasn't really entertain offers, most being near or at her asking price. I was immediately discouraged by the whole conversation. When I say I saw the house and fell in love, I mean it. I could see, even through the naked trees, that it was like a fairy tale house! A cozy place I could spend 75 years of my life with my husband. I don't know how or why I knew this was the house for me. I just KNEW. And, really, I expected the whole process to take forever, looking at house upon house upon house in all manner of neighborhoods in the Baltimore metro area and beyond. But this house just grabbed me and wouldn't let go! And I couldn't see anyone else buying MY house. Who could love this house more than me? Who could bring it back to its former glory with as much patience as me? I was going to get this house. The odd thing about all this is that I always considered myself a condo gal, wanting as little to do with house as possible. My parents urged me to look at a single family home because they felt it could suit me better. Somebody please don't tell them they were right; I will never live it down!
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After walking the grounds (a full acre) and speaking more with the Realtor, I went home and sat down and the only thing I could, really. I wrote a long letter to the owner's daughter. I told her how much I loved the house and basically how I would care for it like her parents had for three-quarters of a century. I went into detail about how much I loved all the trees, the stove and the chicken coop (yeah, chicken coop!). The fact that her parents had kept it just as it was what I loved. They didn't knock down walls and put in particleboard doors and tacky fixtures. They realized that the house had character, style and class from day one and didn't feel the need, like so many, to "improve" the house with things that would ultimately detract from its beauty and structure. No crappy additions, no garish trim colors and no pass-through hole between the kitchen to the dining room. I mean, they resisted every single "modernization" temptation that characterized every house I'd seen ever that had been built before 1970. No orange tile, vinyl windows or polyurethane crown molding!
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I didn't expect her to so much as reply once I'd finished it and gave it to the Realtor to send to her. But she called me one afternoon and said the letter made her cry which made me cry and we ended up talking for an hour about her parents' life in the house. She said she would sell the house to me because she imagined her mother would certainly would.
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The house has proven to be one of the greatest deals I've ever gotten. I paid $230,500 for the house which was less than asking and less than the neighborhood (and I come in with equity!). If she had done the subtle updates I plan on doing at some point, she would have gotten asking and maybe a little more, no doubt about it, especially with all the original details. I really think she accepted it because she liked me. And, truth be told, I'd have paid what she was asking but I had to see if I could get a deal. Always the deal!
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I plan on writing a bit about some of the furniture I deals I've gotten and, of course, I'll do a short write up on a purchase I made from FabAAA which is something else now, God knows what. Stay tuned!
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