May 29^th, 2002

I got the house!

The mortgage broker ordered the new appraisal with her preferred appraiser and it came out much better. I was able to spend ten days prior to the appraisal cleaning up the bad apartment and getting it ready. I killed myself doing it but it seems to have paid off. Not only did I get the house but the apartment is that much closer to being rented. I don’t actually make enough money in a month to pay for the house so renting the two apartments is crucial.

It is odd in a way that some of what I see as the best aspects about the house have already come back to bite me in the butt. I wanted a house that was as close to original as possible but still a “fixer-upper”. This house has a lot of that. Because it was a rental for so long the house has had very little done to it over the last 107 years. A lot of times you see these old houses that were remodeled (a.k.a. remuddled) in the 50s or 60s and they were butchered. People would “modernize” the house and take out a lot of the character. This house really has only been worked on once and that was back in the 20s.

On the down side is the fact that the infrastructure of the house has not changed a lot. Things like plumbing, wiring, and natural gas lines are all old and in need of upgrading. These are red flags for insurers. It is going to cost more than twice as much as I estimated to insure the house. Since I had to pay the whole years insurance in advance I now have very little money (no money actually) to get things started. It stings a little but I’ll get through it some how.

Even with these problems, it is a fair trade in my mind. I plan on making the needed upgrades over the next couple of years so the insurance premiums will come down eventually. In the meantime I get a house that has not been “remuddled”. My dream would be to modernize the things you don’t see – plumbing, wiring, etc – while restoring the things you can see back to their original state. I would love to make this house look exactly like it did in 1895. The only difference would be the addition of phone lines, electrical outlets, and a high-speed internet connection in every room.

The appraisal also cleared up a question of the size of the house. The owner originally told me the house was 4200 square feet. It is a big house but it didn’t seem that big. When the appraisal was done I found out that the house was listed at 3400 square feet and the two apartments over the carriage house had a total of 1300 square feet for a grand total of 4700 square feet of living space. He must have been trying to give me the total square footage for both buildings. Either way it is still a lot more space than I will ever need. I am thinking about taking on a housemate. It is not something I really want to do but the extra income would be nice. Maybe next year I’ll do it if money gets tight.

I was able to follow the appraiser around while he did his thing. It was only the second time I been on the inside of the house. It is nice, and has a lot of nice features, but it does need a lot of work. I guess I was viewing it with rose colored glasses the first time I looked at it. It is rougher in places than I remember, the views aren’t as nice, and it needs more work than I remember. Don’t get me wrong, I love the house. I say this mainly so you won’t be expecting too much when you come up. Just bare in mind that the house is a bit of a fixer-upper.

Speaking of you coming up, I am living in the main house now. I’ve got a lot of work to do this month to get the apartments ready. If you and Teha wanted to come up at the end of July that would be ok I guess. I think next Spring would be better, though. By that time I will have the yard and the inside of the house cleaned up and I hope to have much of the asbestos off. I think you will be able to appreciate the house more. I’ll leave it up to you. If you want to come in July you will be welcomed.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve really been asking myself why I’m doing this. I could have taken my money a bought a cheap Condo somewhere, or maybe just kept it in the bank and rented. Someone told me I was experiencing “buyer’s remorse”, worrying about whether I’m making the right decision. Maybe that has something to do with it, I don’t know. Sometimes I feel kind of selfish buying such a big house for myself. One of the reasons I started shopping for a big house was because of some of the troubles I ran into selling my old home because the rooms were so small and the lack of storage space. I defiantly don’t have that problem now. Now though, after going through the process of selling one house and buying another I doubt I’m going to be selling this house any time soon. I just hope I’m happy with the place a year from now. If nothing else it should be a good investment.

I don’t know why I like these old houses so much. Sometimes I look at these old Victorians with their weird roof lines, odd floor plans, and all of the Ginger Bread and I think to myself, “What the hell were they thinking when they built these things?”. I think the first house I saw like this was “Old Man Beangle’s” house. That was the old house in the woods near our home on Cedarbrake. That house used to scare the hell out of me. Then when I moved to Santa Cruz I saw a lot of Victorians really for the first time. They were all fixed up nice and the upper crust of society lived in them. I just fell in love with the architecture. I never thought in my life I would own a house like this. Most of the people who’ve lived here all their lives still see these houses as piles of old junk. Bunch of fools.