Guys. I’ve been a little MIA because life has been wonderfully hectic and crazy. We bought a house! EKKKK! It’s still very surreal so someone come pinch me. Here is a quick summary of what we spent all. of. our. money. on. (Part of me is still in shock!)
All of the photos are from the MLS listing – I’ll post separately with a full walk-through and different angles.
What did we buy?
We bought a 2 story + basement semi-detached home in the Woodlawn Heights section of the Bronx. The house has a backyard, perfect for Jackson, and lots of space and potential. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath with gorgeous high ceilings (maybe 10’+), lots of natural light, original woodwork on the staircase and trims, original ceiling details, and enough space for us. I don’t know if it will be a “forever home” because who knows what our family will look like in 5, 10 years but it is a home we can use well for the next 7-10 years. The basement is unfinished but spacious and we hope to transform it into offices and an open entertaining space.
What condition is the house in?
Honestly, it’s much better than we thought. During our property inspection we made sure every rock was unturned and are really satisfied with our purchase. The house is dated cosmetically and needs several upgrades but was excellently maintained by the same family for the last 44 years.
The sellers just installed new windows and new siding on the house (within the last year), installed a central heating and cooling system which is especially rare for older houses, and redid the roof within the last 5 years.
Did we buy a fixer-upper?
You bet. The neighborhoods we were considering – Morris Park, Pelham Gardens, Pelham Parkway, Woodlawn Heights – are older neighborhoods with older homes. All the houses we toured and listings we saw were for houses that need cosmetic work; even “updated” homes would not meet our aesthetic and what we’re looking for. And most importantly, duh: we cannot afford a turn-key home in these neighborhoods; turn-key would have pushed us a little over budget by, like, several hundred thousand dollars. No biggie.
The house style is very much 1970s. Almost every wall is covered in either wood paneling or wallpaper (multiple patterns and colors!). The floors are carpeted – several layers deep – with what we hope are original hardwood floors underneath.
What’s next?
Well we have to be out of our current apartment by July 31st – which is really just 2 weeks away. In a perfect world we would be like 75% packed and all that but in reality all we did was go to Home Depot and pick up the boxes and tape. I’ve packed 5 boxes in the last 3 weeks… soooo that gives you an idea of how productive we’re being. I think part of me didn’t want to start until the contract was signed and now that it is I FEEL A FIRE TO GET GOING! Don’t worry, we’ll be out by the 31st.
We will be moving our stuff to the basement of the new place and will be living in one of the bedrooms while we renovate.
Yes, I just said we’re going to live there during the renovation. Crazy, right?
To help mitigate some of the craziness of living there during demo, Mike and some friends of ours, are going to be in the house the next 2 weeks demo-ing and ripping out everything that we’re trashing. This means when we move in in August all of the dust would have settled and we’ll be putting things UP not ripping things DOWN. Much better conditions to live in, right?I’ll ***try*** to blog about our home in real-time but I also want to be realistic and enjoy the course of the renovation. I have some ideas and inspiration but know that we are not gonna be able to build our dream home and that we have a tight budget,
Inspiration posts / hopes / must-haves all coming soon!
Until then, feast your eyes on all that wood paneling and marble contact paper – let me know what you think in the comments below. (Don’t hold back, I can take it lol)
New time home owner (ekk!),
th
Leave a Reply