I guess the title of this post is a little misleading because Buddy isn’t
actually buying the home, we are but it was Buddy’s sniff of approval that
sealed the deal. I think I’m getting ahead of myself here so maybe I should
just back track a little and give you a general idea of what’s been going on.
After months of feeling trapped, things have really taken off. It’s been a
crazy busy time lately and the past week or so things have amped up even more. After
almost 4 months of showing our house, we finally got a great offer. The problem
is an offer is almost a tease...the carrot at the end of the stick...so close
and yet so far! The problem, if you can
call it that, is that with an offer comes the waiting to have the conditions removed
and fingers crossed that everything proceeds without a hitch. So for 10 days we
waited, not-so-patiently on my part, for the buyers to remove their conditions.
Officially they had until the 31st of March but with a closing date
of April 27th, every day that went by was one fewer day we would
have to find a home. By the middle of last week I received a phone call from
the buyer confirming that he had secured the financing and the conditions were
met. All that was left was to put that on paper to make it official. Those two
days waiting for the paperwork were the worst yet.
You see, it wasn’t until I received word that the conditions were met
that I allowed myself to hope that we were finally getting out of here. It
wasn’t until then that I allowed myself to even look for houses. Scott and I
both started our on-line search but there really wasn’t much out there, at
least not in our price range and not in the area we were determined to live. We
talked about Plan B – what to do if we couldn’t find a house but had to move
out of this one. Once we had a plan in place to prevent homelessness, we
continued our house search with a renewed sense of excitement.
I found a cute little cottage style home that had been partly renovated
and was on a large acreage of wooded land. The only problem, aside from the
fact that there already was a conditional offer in place, was that it was very
close to the highway and across the road from an auto mechanic shop. Oh, and
the only bathroom was upstairs but the master bedroom was on the main floor.
Not perfect especially in the middle of the night when my evening tea gets me
up. Oh well, on to the next one. Wait a minute...there isn’t anything else.
Yikes.
And then it happened. Things began to fall into place. Bit by bit, little
by little. It started when Scott found a couple of houses in the St. Margarets
Bay area and although they were at the top end of our price range and I thought
they were probably too large for us and too hard to heat, he seemed convinced
that these places were worth considering.
He was actually brainstorming ideas of how we could make the finances
work, that’s how certain he was. I had
trouble sleeping that night and ended up being awake for many hours, pondering
the price, the location, looking at pictures of those places, over and over. By
morning I was pretty certain that one of them was the house for us. Scott sure
was surprised when I told him I had changed my mind. Why he was surprised I’m
not really sure because I change my mind a lot so you would think he would be
used to me by now. Thank goodness for his patience.
For those of you who know me, besides the fact that I change my mind a
lot and I hate waiting, you would also know that once I decide something I like
to act on it. I’m not one for pondering and moving slowly (which is something I
should probably work on...one of these days) so I suggested seeing the house
sooner rather than later. For Scott it was all moving way to fast but real estate
is like that; when it’s hot, it’s hot!
I had previously connected with a couple of realtors in the Halifax area and
had started a relationship with one in particular who had agreed to work with
us in finding and purchasing our next home. After determining that we wanted to
see the property right away, I called him to ask about a showing. Wouldn’t you
know it, this was the one weekend he was going away! The problem was I had a gut feeling that this
house would not last long on the market. I was worried about waiting for 5 days
until he returned and was free to show us the place. Scott and I discussed whether we should wait or
go ahead without him. We felt that he had given us a lot of his time and that
we had a verbal commitment to him so it wasn’t a simple decision.
I called the seller’s realtor to
get a sense of whether there was a lot of interest on the property and found
that there had already been an offer within the first week of listing. Fortunately
(for us not them) the offer fell through so the house was back on the market
and already had two showings scheduled for Saturday. The realtor expected the
house would be sold by the end of the day. That’s when we made the decision to move
quickly regardless of our realtor being away. I booked a showing for early
Saturday morning so we would be the first people through. If it was the right
house for us, I did not want to lose it.
I emailed our realtor (yes while he was supposed to be on vacation) to
explain the action we had taken as this was going to essentially cut him out
from receiving any commission. He was very understanding and went ahead and made
a referral for us to a colleague of his so we would have representation. I
booked a hotel room for Friday night and we planned on leaving right after
Scott was finished volunteering at the Elite 10 curling bonspiel. I spent a
tense day waiting for the final confirmation that the buyers had in fact
removed the conditions of sale of this house. Without that, we were not free to
put an offer on any house so our trip would be for nothing. It came down to the
wire and we received email confirmation from the buyer’s lawyer at 2:30 pm
Friday as we were set to leave at 4 pm. Talk about cutting it close!
We arrived at our Halifax hotel around 7 pm, checked into our room and
enjoyed a dinner of meatball (vegan of course) subs and a nice cold beer.
That’s when things got ugly. The pool was at the end of our hallway and it was
open until 11 pm so there were people and kids up and down the hall for the
entire evening: loud, laughing, screaming, running kids! After the pool closed,
there was a party happening at the end of the hall in the meeting room with
loud obnoxious drunks roaming in and out, slamming doors, laughing, and
carrying on. How dare they have fun?! All kidding aside, it was a miserable
experience and I don’t think either of us got a wink of sleep. I called the
front desk at 2:45 am to ask about their noise policy or lack of one. The front
desk was only 4 doors down from us so I don’t know why he sounded so surprised
that I complained about the excessive noise. It can’t have been a surprise to
him. Eventually the party seemed to have dispersed in time for the housekeeping
staff to start work. We both felt like dirt when 7 a.m. came and we had to get
up...note I say ‘get up’ not ‘wake up’. We managed to get on the road about 20
minutes later than we would have liked but considering we were semi conscious,
I think we did not too badly.
When we arrived at the house, my stomach sank. I was so sure this was
going to be the house for us but that first impression was very disappointing. There
was nothing that I could see that didn’t need cleaning, painting or repair. What
a mess - door handles broken, door frames scratched and dinged, screens bent,
no closet doors in the bedrooms, the front closet door is falling off its track
and can't even be opened although they were opening it because it has scratched
the flooring there, lights don't work, old kitchen cupboards, even the shower
head is missing!
Funny thing though - the longer we were there, the more things I started
to see that I liked. Oh I know it’s going to be a ton of hard work, elbow
grease and some money but as I looked around I started to notice that it checked
off 26 ½ of my 28 items on my dream
list. Twenty six and a half you ask? Well one of the items was a second
bathroom and the plumbing is already in downstairs for a second bathroom so I
count that as a half point. Some of the
other things on my list were: a new septic system (last year), a newer roof, an
area for wine-making and stained glass work, lots of windows, a large backyard
with good views (actually a view of the ocean through the trees), a big deck
for sitting out in the summer, a driveway large enough to accommodate the
trailer and both vehicles, newer windows, front foyer, 3 bedrooms, great
location...well as you can see my list went on and on.
The true test was getting Buddy’s approval. We brought him in from the
car and let him explore. He sniffed out everything and seemed very much at home
with the place. He wasn’t nervous or anxious, no peeing, no barking. Buddy can
be a sensitive little guy. He notices things, gets a little apprehensive about
changes so we wanted to see his reaction to the place he might just be spending
the rest of his life. It was fun really to watch him explore. Once the place
got the Buddy Seal of Approval, it was pretty clear that we would be putting in
an offer. And thank goodness we went with our gut and made the effort to be the
first people in. Turns out the other people who viewed the house after us also wanted
to put in an offer but ours had already been accepted. Timing really is
everything!
I’ve always thought of myself as a bit of a vagabond but I have to say
that selling and buying houses twice in less than a year has really made me
long for stability and a place to put down roots. I am hoping that this will be
our home for many years to come. Despite the fact that this house is a mess,
the potential is there. After all, it’s not that I haven’t renovated and
decorated before. Many times! At least this time we plan on staying. 22 Downie
Drive might not be perfect (yet), but it’s perfect for us.
