It actually happened . . .

Just a little over a year ago I decided I would start a Blog about my experiences buying, renovating and living in a small bungalow.  I wrote an introductory post.  I had started the process of purchasing the house over 6 months before that.  I figured I would write more once I closed on the house.

I just closed on the house last week.  That is 551 days after I signed the contract.  1.5 years.   Looking it up on the intrawebs, I see that the average from signing the contract to closing is about 45 days.  Mine took over 12 times that long. 

It was not fun. 

The first snag was Sandy, the superstorm.  She was nice enough to hit New York (where the home is located) the day before the first scheduled closing date.  She was also nice enough to only flood the house with about a foot of water – not much considering some people had water up to the ceiling of the first floor.  Sandy put a nice 4 or 5 month pause in the proceedings. 

The second snag was the mortgage.  The house is smaller than anything in the area and comparables (which are essential in determining the value of the house, and hence the willingness of a bank to lend money to a purchaser of said house for said independently verified value) were impossible to find.  The house was nonconforming in many ways.  I ended up working through 2 mortgage brokers (after the first one failed to deliver a loan the seller and I tried another who was able to get a pre-approval of sorts from another bank), months of back and forth with the bank over minutia, ups and downs as issues were brought up and worked on and solved, and finally a closing date was set.  Even then there were last minute papers to sign, details to be worked out between the seller and I, and my rate lock was expiring soon . . .  I didn’t believe it was actually happening.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see an email from the bank requesting more information.  I still have to remind myself it happened.

Now I have to do the work to get it livable.  I am excited about this part.  I’ve had a year and a half to think about what I want to do, how I want to do it, and what interesting, novel, and funky things I could do to the space to make it livable.  I have thought of the systems, the walls, the floors, the furniture, the doors, the windows, the paint, and the beach.  I am really looking forward to the beach.  It is a block away and semi-private (only for those who live in a 3 block radius around the beach).  But that will have to wait until the Spring when it will be nice enough to sit on the beach and relax without freezing. 

And it will have to wait until the house is habitable.  Right now I am working on the demolition.  On the way home from the closing I stopped by my local mega-hardware store and bought myself a crowbar and some masks.  I went to the house and started tearing out the front closet – an abomination of storage and space wasting all in one, and it covered a window in the foyer (such a fancy word for such a small house).  Pictures before and after below.  I banged and pried and pulled and hit that structure until it was no more.  I had conquered my first project in the house and I started to feel a sense that this can be done, that it will be done, and all my planning and scheming will bear fruit.  I was beginning to believe this was actually going to happen.

Once the closet was down I noticed the ceiling above the closet.  The front room, which used to be the front porch when the bungalow was first built, had old acoustic tiles covering the ceiling.  I figured there was nothing above the tiles, maybe plywood.  But in one corner of the room above where the closet had stood was an area that didn’t have any acoustic tiles.  It had old beadboard that had been painted white.  I took the edge of the tile next to this bare spot and pulled it down.  Above it there was a wonderful dark brown beadboard with great patina.  I pulled a few more down, finding a shim the tiles were attached to I pried the shim down, pulling off an entire two rows of tiles down the length of the room.  This was a pleasant surprise, the entire front room ceiling was this dark chocolate colored beadboard that used to cover the front porch.  I knew I wasn’t going to take this down.  The Foyer and my office would look great with this ceiling.  I don’t expect any more pleasant surprises (in fact I only expect unpleasant surprises from here on in) but this was a nice way to start the project.

I get the dumpster tomorrow and thenceforth the destruction begins!