I guess you could say we met our house on a blind date.
Summer 2012:
We had been interested in buying a four bed two bath 1910 American foursquare that was wonderfully placed directly across the street from our great friends the Potucks. After touring it with my construction guru dad we learned it had some structural issues that even the cute tree lined brick paved street could not make up for. This was September and we were both first year teachers plus my husband coaches basketball. There were so many open-ended questions about buying a house yet we were so ready to move out of our tiny little rental. After talking to the owner of the house about how we didn’t feel this foursquare was for us, he suggested we look at another house he had just bought at a sheriff’s sale and was getting ready to flip.
So on a hot September afternoon, I some how convinced my husband to go look at this house we knew nothing about on the spur of the moment. Knowing now how this story ends I wish I would have taken pictures of the house at this time because it was crazy and would make for some unbelievable before and after pictures. However I do remember a few things from this visit. I remember that the basement was so full of “stuff” (the people who had lost it to foreclose were mild hoarders) that you couldn’t even make it down the steps and that there was wallpaper in almost every room. We drove six blocks to a yellow house with a white picked fence. I remember walking of the stairs to the second floor and had this flash-forward to Christmas with garland and bows wrapped around it. Each room was painted a different shade of neon paint colors to the point I thought I might get a migraine. Then we walked into the upstairs sunroom off of the middle bedroom, it’s like a tree house in the city and I was completely smitten! My most vivid memory of this day was sitting on the back porch looking out into the fenced in back yard where my husband and the homeowner were talking. Sitting there in my red shorts and my toe nails painted to match, I was completely consumed by thoughts of gardening in that yard, hosting family dinners and living 2 blocks from a downtown we love. When I caught Trev’s eye without the homeowner looking I mouthed, “We are going to buy this house!” He did respond but I knew and the house knew, it was all over.
Being the smart money guy he is my husband threw on the house buying brakes until after the holidays.That following January we found another little 2 bedroom foursquare that had hardwood floors buried under stained carpet and a canary yellow kitchen that hadn’t changed since it was put in the same year WWII ended. While I wasn’t sure about no garage and very tiny non-private backyard we still put an offer on it. This fell through and I knew….the house with the white picket fence was still the one. We went back and looked through the now cleaned out and freshly painted house. It already felt like it was ours.
“A Chaque oiseau, son nid est beau. To every bird, its own nest is beautiful. ”
Winter 2013:
Four weeks of emailing with the owner who had not even listed it yet and we were sitting at a round table signing papers. If you have gone through the home buying process you understand the amount of paper signing that is involved. March 25th was a Monday morning and the first day of our spring break. We signed papers, said lots of prayers and then walked through our front door, so surreal! Our plan was to start sanding the hardwood floor that day so we went out to lunch to celebrate before the work began. I remember sitting at one of our favorite little diners in town hardly able to eat I was so excited thinking how God's timing is so perfect.
The sanding we thought would take a week or two tops ended about a month later. In that first week we sanded for what felt like 12 hours a day. Through some trial and error we realized the orbital (vibrating) sanders were not going to cut it on these floors and hand to get a belt sander. We also gutted and put back the upstairs bathroom during this week as well. We lived off of coffee, pizza and all the sawdust we were unintentionally absorbing. When you sand 2,000 sq. ft. of hardwood you find sawdust in places you never planed to have sawdust.
My brother and his wife and their goldendoodle Hickory came to help. You know those moments that you are certain you will remember forever? I think one of those for me is sitting in the dinning room on an upside down 5-gallon bucket eating pizza with them and trev. All four of us covered in sawdust and dirt, our masks hanging around our neck and Hickory chasing all the squirrels around the backyard.That was one of the first meals ever at our house and one of my favorites. The whole week we had off school for spring break it never got past low 50’s but it never rained either. It was that spring weather that makes you realize it is getting close to summer because you feel the temperature drop when the sun goes down and it has that smell in the air when things are starting thaw out and grow. That week a few flowers started to show up in the flowerbed getting my want to be farmer self very excited for the months to come.
"That was one of the first means ever at our house
and one of my favorites."
The process of sanding the floors was simple when we got it figured out and the hardest part was just the time it took. Nicole Curtis on DIY’s Rehab Addict puts unrealistic thoughts in my mind, come to find out it takes more than a 30 minute show to get these floors updated! We sanded and swept and sanded and sanded and blew a few breakers then did more sanding. If you have ever been around someone sanding hardwood floors you know it is very loud. At times I felt like the whole house was vibrating. I remember at one point leaning up against the wall to rest and thinking the house must think we are crazy making this much noise and ruckus! Yet it all well so well and came out so beautiful, secretly I like to think the house smiled at us as we sanded, gutted and polished and felt loved again.
If our house had a baby book one thing Trev would put in to remember would be the first soft surface! We worked so many hours that first month to get the floors done so we could move in. For that entire time the only thing to sit on besides the floor was buckets and sanders. After a great trip to Ikea with our friends we finally started bringing in furniture. Trev set up a leather chair and lamp from Ikea and declared it the first soft surface of the house! We did a happy dance.
“...but in a throw away world, I’m a sucker for something made to last. Something that will stand up to father time and punch him right in the mouth. Something I can count on forever, thats what I’m talking about.”
