The Viewing

Well here we are, the big moment. We're finally going to get to look at this house. Now I had been through it previously during the estate sale but it was FILLED with people and FILLED with tables and tables of stuff so even though I kind of knew the layout, I wasn't sure what it would look like empty. We had looked at a number of 1950s houses already and they seemed so...cramped. I was hoping this one wouldn't and that it would tick a lot of the boxes we had.

Did I mention that the listing had exactly ONE photo? The one you see above, that's all there was. And if I may digress just a bit and address the people who take and/or post home listing photos:

      PLEASE understand how much your images (or lack thereof) influence potential home buyers. A listing with one or even no pictures will get passed by many. If you can't be bothered to show me the house I can't be bothered to show interest in the house you didn't let me look at. If you do post images, there isn't a real need for duplicates: if there is a killer landscaped yard include a photo or two but certainly not 6...or more. If there's a room with a great view show us one or two photos but certainly not 6...or more. If the house has a garage, show it. I don't mind if it is full of junk because I'd like to know how much junk I can get in there! If you mention an unfinished basement space, show me. If you mention that it has bathrooms, show them. If you take horrible photos, hire someone who knows what they're doing.

 Sorry, I'll go down a rabbit trail from time to time. It's part of my charming personality.

 The initial impression is that this is a good-sized house for 1955- 2200 square feet. It doesn't feel cramped. We enter through a sun room with louvered glass windows and into a kitchen that was remodeled sometime in the 70s we think. It has even newer appliances, stainless no less, and wood floors. There's carpet in most of the house but wood underneath. The fireplace in the living room is white stone with a 3-piece marble hearth, and a matching peninsula dividing the living/dining rooms. Big windows looking into the backyard. Not a bad start.
Newer stainless appliances (except the cook top) and good space in the kitchen are welcome sights as are the wood floors.

Nice looking fireplace, no smoke on the beautiful white stonework and big windows.

 And then we see it: the main bathroom...and that's when we laughed out loud and thought "yeah, this might be the one".
I felt the need to don my long Lone Ranger jammies, velvet slippers and a smoking jacket.
Some would say "no, no, no" but we were definitely "yes, yes, yes"!
Three nondescript bedrooms followed. Roomy enough but not anything special. The master bathroom held an equally whimsical retro appeal and we looked at each other and said "We're leaving this as it is...maybe a mechanical refreshing, but it stays" to the agent. He looked at us like we were nuts but said that people pay good money to install bathrooms like this and they're not cheap.  
The counter and sink have been replaced so the brain wonders where to find a suitable replacement to fit the era of this masterpiece of  "here's a color-coordinated toilet in your face" decorating style.
The basement has a family room (with the other fireplace), a room decorated in knotty pine paneling and orange Formica counter tops (no, I'm not kidding) and a large room suitable for storage or perhaps an exercise room (for Mrs. Rattlecan of course). It looks dry, there's a fiber-board ceiling in place and a well-kept natural gas boiler in the utility room. 
Check out those counter tops in the room we've dubbed the Knotty Pine Pub.
Back upstairs we find an upstairs laundry room and small powder room as well as a small study/den area. The attached 2-car garage is heated and in the attic is a central air unit. This is not looking too bad. A LOT of work but if you push aside the cosmetic issues this house has what we call "good bones". It's built like cars in the 50s were built and just needs some tender loving care.

One unknown we encountered is that it has these funny light switches on the wall unlike what we see today. They're mounted sideways and seem to be "momentary" switches, not the up/down on/off style commonly seen. It is a low-voltage control system and we'll talk more about it in an upcoming post. We knew it was old yet functional.

In the back yard there is also a detached garage work space that would make the perfect place to build, repair and restore stringed instruments.
It is hard to be objective about a house when there's a glorious workshop in the back like this, but I felt I was able to overcome the siren song of the structure and evaluate the house on it's own merits.

So we run through the checklist to see how it scores:
  • ranch- check
  • 3BR- check
  • 2 bath- check
  • basement- check
  • main floor laundry- check
  • fireplace- check
  • not cramped- check
  • flat lot- check
  • room for raised garden beds- check
  • in our preferred school district- check
  • separate quarters for Ruby- check
  • some workshop space- check (to the tune of 1350 sq ft)
  • within the budget- check
  • sidewalk- not so much
  • low traffic area- not so much

Then we made a mental list of what would need to be addressed if we were to spend our old-people years in it:
  • new kitchen
  • refinish the floors
  • plaster repairs
  • attic insulation
  • possible HVAC repairs
  • fireplace/chimney repairs
  • paint throughout
  • lighting upgrades
  • possible low-voltage issues
  • possible asbestos content
  • lead paint
  • window replacement
Those are some big-ticket items and you only discover the real state of the house and what kind of attention it needs with a thorough home inspection which is done...after they accept your offer. It didn't take long to decide this met enough of our criteria to make an offer, so we dropped the kids off at home (this house is only 2-3 minutes from where we currently live) and met David our realtor at his office. Within the hour our offer was off to the listing agent and we began THE WAIT until noon the next day.

In the meantime we began (honestly) wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. What if there was asbestos in the floor, walls, pipe insulation, ceiling tiles? What if it had to be totally re-wired? What if renovating a home isn't just a scaled-up version of working with guitars? 

I had a fitful night's sleep. 

At 10:30 the next morning I got the call...our girls would have to get used to living with those "hideous bathrooms" as they referred to them. Our offer had been accepted as-written. We were now under contract for a house built when Eisenhower was the President, there was only ONE McDonald's restaurant, minimum wage was $1/hour, gasoline was $0.23/gallon and James Dean was still alive. ~Mr.

Next step: the Home Inspection

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