Welcome Home

We are beyond delighted to be posting our first blog entry on our new house blog! We finally closed on the house at the very end of June, after four long months of paperwork and bureaucratic you-know-what. It's been a couple months since then, and we've been distracted by contractors, moving, and starting to settle in.

We thought we'd start with the story of how we found the house.  Ben found it late February/early March on Redfin.com while poking around one snowy afternoon.  It's not far from where Ben has been living with his parents -- actually, it's about 1/2 mile from their house. It was an amazing price for the location, so we drove by on the way to a walk. We didn't get a good look (someone was outside at the house next door and we didn't want to look creepy), so I suggested we drive by again on our way home. This time, we parked and talked to a neighbor cleaning snow off her car. We learned that the house had indeed been on the market for a long time, and we saw the sign in the door indicated it was a HUD REO. When we looked that up back at home and found some additional listings for the property, we learned that this means it's owned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (which happens when they foreclose on someone with an FHA loan).

During the next week, until we could schedule a viewing with our favorite local real estate agent (Carrie Simpson!), I also learned that I could definitely get a mortgage. (I'd never tried before, and it was liberating and scary!) We toured the house with Carrie, Gayle (Ben's mom), and Frank (Ben's step-dad), and fell in love. It was clearly not winterized properly, and though it wasn't trashed, it was a little rough around the edges. It's also a pretty small lot. But we didn't care. It's extremely well sited on the lot and seems well built. Even though the house itself is old and some of the more recent updates are worn, we love how it's designed and what it offers to us in terms of location. We're young and energetic, and believed we were prepared to do the work necessary to get the house and then work on the house itself.

From the beginning of March right through June, we did paperwork, more paperwork, waited, sent more paperwork, etc. etc. etc. The peculiarities of a very old property, a HUD-owned property, and our FHA 203(k) Streamline loan made for a lot of details to sort out. We had a lot of help along the way, and we appreciated it!

At one point, due to just one person using the term "shared driveway" on one document (the appraisal), we had to go through a couple weeks of getting someone authoritative to explain to the bank that it's just not shared (it abuts) and that's why there is no shared driveway agreement to be found in any records for this 161+-year-old house.

And finally, we got word that we were clear to close. We closed on June 29. Ben managed to document the surprisingly fast closing (37 minutes!) for posterity.

Grabbing a quick lunch at the great Irish pub near the closing lawyer's office. I'm nervous!

I sign like crazy and laugh at the hilariously quirky HUD guy (whose name I never got) as Carrie looks on.

Closing is done -- we're officially homeowners!

Toby checks out the mudroom, complete with second row seating from the minivan and Ben's shoes. It's like we already live here!

I wax poetic about the mudroom's kitschy light fixtures.

Celebratory wine and cheese, courtesy of dear friend Caroline and the nearby Whole Foods Market.

Frank stops by to check things out -- he hadn't been inside the house since the first weekend in March, whereas we've been through it several times with contractors and such during the loan process. I'm thinking about whether we want to paint the ceilings or not. We don't. The wood paneling is enough to deal with!

16 Morse, from the street, with apple tree in bloom (early May)

That's all for now. We've got our work cut out for us as the contractors finish up the plumbing/heating work and we finish painting and moving and unpacking and flooring the master bedroom. Our next posts will document the sanding and painting of various dark wood paneling in multiple rooms and other improvements we've made already.

We can't wait to show you our new home! Please comment and share ideas, helpful tips, or whatever else.