Reveal: Home Addition

The past eight months has been one of the most stress-filled, trying times I have ever experienced. It took a lot of hard work both physically and emotionally to get Tristan and I (and his girl B) to a safe harbor without damaging us in the process. The journey that took us from the condo to our new house was an interesting one.

Between April and July, everything in the house was sorted, boxed and moved to storage, leaving only the necessary items in the condo that we needed day to day. The flooring in the walk-out was removed, damage to the dry wall and floor was fixed, the condo was painted, and new carpet and baseboards were installed.

On July 3, the condo went on the market. T, B and I went out with our realtor on the 4th to look at houses. I had been in discussions with the loan officer and my realtor and understood where my price range fell. T, B and I had talked about what we wanted in a new house: a yard for the dogs, a nice kitchen, and a separate living space for the kids (basement they could make their own). I already knew that my best option would be an older home built sometime between 1960 and 1980, since most newer homes have tiny yards. 

We saw eight homes that day, none of which wowed us, although there were a couple that might have worked. Most homes built during this time frame have small rooms, and although they have the square footage we were hoping for (1900 - 2100 sf) in some the rooms were awkward and the layout uncomfortable (like the kitchen where you could either open the fridge door or exit the space, but not both at the same time . . . or the house with a murder room in the basement . . . or the house that backed onto the highway with a rocked in back yard). T was wonderful during this process: he was so humorous and lighthearted about everything we looked at, that he kept me and my realtor in stitches. 

We made plans to go out again the following Sunday, with a new list of places to look at. The second to last house we visited ended up being the house I ultimately bought. It is a bi-level with about 1000 sf upstairs and downstairs, with the largest yard we looked at anywhere, and a two car garage. We absolutely fell in love. Hard. It didn't hurt that there was Deadpool everywhere you looked in the house.

 And a life-sized Deadpool in the garage.

 

T and B posing with the Merc with a Mouth

Ultimately, Deadpool and Marvel Comics is why we ended up with the house we wanted.

By the end of the day on Sunday, we had decided to put in an offer on the bi-level house with the Deadpool memorabilia. My realtor helped me put together the offer and we submitted it. The word came back that there were more than one offer on the table and asked for a second counter offer. I was already at the top of my range, so we stood firm. When I told T, he asked if he could write a letter to the seller. I checked with my realtor and she said it couldn't hurt. T wrote the following:

Hello! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tristan XXXXX. Recently my family underwent some restructuring and some members decided not to stay. Unfortunately we have decided to move houses. This means that I’m leaving the house I grew up in. Luckily, there are upsides. Besides a direct upgrade in living quality, I’m also getting to move in with my SO. This is exciting for both of us, as it’s the next big chapter in our saga. We started our search, leading us to your wonderful home. We wanted to share our thoughts and feelings about your house.

First and foremost, we absolutely loved the clear obsession with DeadPool, and my SO is incredibly jealous of the signed autograph. Beyond all of that, we absolutely loved the house! We have been at the search for a new place, and have had a lot of different houses to look at, but out of all of them this was truly the first house that we had only positive things to say. It was easy to picture how we as a family would use the given space, and had a wonderful time imagining living there. The house accommodates every single one of our desires, and for the first time since we started looking we all agreed it was beautiful. Every little detail spoke to us. From the wonderful
Sized yard for our ever growing family of furry friends, to the beautiful view on the balconies. To the stylish wooden doors leading to each room, and the masterful layout of both bathrooms. Thank you for the privilege of letting us inside your home. We hope you don’t mind but we snagged a group photo with the nice Mercenary in the garage :)

Ps: the large black cat is an ABSOLUTE UNIT

They accepted our offer. We wrote the contract and made it contingent on the condo going under contract. 

Then we went six weeks with four viewings of the condo. We fell out of contract with the house we wanted and waited. The end of July, we finally got an offer on the condo. The house we wanted had gone under contract and then fell out again. T, B and I went out and looked at houses for two days and every house we walked through we were like "it's nice, but it's not the Deadpool house".

I finally talked to the realtor about making another offer on the house we loved. We submitted it and went back under contract.

Then the condo fell out of contract. There was a provision in the contract on our new house that released us from the contract if the condo didn't sell, but no real way to release us from the contract early. We reached out to the realtor for the house to see if they wanted to be released and the seller said no. He was willing to wait for us.

Finally, the condo went under contract again. We shuffled dates around on the new home to accommodate the change. On 10/7 the condo sold. On 10/8, I closed on the new house. We moved out of the condo on the 14, and moved into the new house on the 19th. My mom came out for two weeks and helped us get settled.

We are mostly moved in and there are pictures hung on the wall. The dogs are pretty much settled in and things are set up the way we want. So, here are some pics:

The sauna I have wanted for almost twenty years is installed in the garage.
It is a dry/steam sauna that will sit six (but fits three pretty comfortably).
I have sauna'd at least once a day since we got it hooked up. We need to figure out the flooring to keep the cold from rising from the concrete floor, but that is a minor irritant.




The front room



The other side of the front room.
The front door opens into a small entry way with a door to the garage, a set of stairs down and a set of stairs up.


The master bedroom.


The other viewpoint.
There is a walk in closet to the left of the picture.



The door and dresser.
All of the doors were upgrades to the house.



The backyard with T's new puppy, Mia.


The backyard from the deck.



The right side of the backyard.
The far corner needs to be addressed this weekend.


The straw I added, because there was no ground cover.
And the mud being tracked in was overwhelming.

The pups are enjoying being able to terrorize the neighbors.
And each other.


Dining Room table, just off the living room.



Basement for the kids


The double TV set up with a multitude of gaming options



Kitchen from the dining area


Gas stove is the bomb.


A side table I added to the kitchen.
Dog treats are kept inside.


Center island
Yes, there are some holiday decorations I have been working on.

There is a second bedroom upstairs with a nice closet, the kids have a great bedroom downstairs with lots of windows and plenty of room for their stuff. They have their own little apartment downstairs. It's been really easy to live with both of them.