What are we doing? We always play it safe. We don't take risks. Then this happened.
After making the decision to try to make the move back to our home town, we would casually browse the real estate sites to see what was on the market. There were actually lots of big beautiful modern homes and some older mid century homes that needed updating on the market. With the mission to downsize from our current, comfortable, beautiful home and move into a smaller move in ready home, not many of those we had been seeing fit the bill. We said we would only move if the right home in the right location suddenly appeared.
In December 2017, I spotted a very old fixer upper come up for sale. The pictures online were quite scarey so I just let it be, thinking someone else would snatch it up and we would continue our search for a home or plot of land to build on. After the Christmas holidays, we decided to drive by the old house out of curiosity. Again, it was scarey looking and Dan said "No Way!" or "Hell No!". It wasn't a project for us. We have no skills to repair a 100 year old house.
About a month passed by after that first old house drive by. After discussing it with friends and family, we began to see the potential of the house and the value of the land, which is just a couple hundreds yards from the historic River Road. We decided to call the owners and just take a closer look. It this point we were pretty much convinced that our only option would be to tear down the old house and rebuild on the property. We showed up at the house and met the current owner who was now living in Texas. The house had been empty for five years and exterior still terrified us. But once we walked inside the home, I think we both fell in love with the old house. All of it's original features were still in tact including hard wood floors, tongue and groove cypress walls and ceilings, and six french doors with transoms. It was literally a blank canvas since it is double shotgun style house with rooms that could be anything you want them to be. And so the research and decision making began.
At this point, we decided we needed a professional to check out the property to see if the structure was sound and whether or not repairs and renovations were possible. Our contractor gave the house a thumbs up! The house has good bones and is actually pretty sound. Everything else can be repaired or added. After much thought and prayer, we decided to make an offer on the house!
And so it begins. We close on house next week!
Now we also begin the process of getting our current home ready to put on the market and making plans for the new 'old' house and property. Much to do!
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