Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Let's Make a Deal

We've decided to make an offer on The House! We went back to look at it one more time, this time with our real estate agent (who conveniently is a family member) and we still loved it. We feel that their asking price is too high, so we're making a lowball bid. The selling agent mentioned that someone else had made an offer and the owner (an investment company) countered but the buyer wasn't willing to negotiate. This is good news for us as it means that they'll be likely to be willing to negotiate with us and we're leaving some (well, lots actually) room to move around on our offer. The house has been on the market for 60 days so they may be good and ready to get rid of it. Unfortunately we have to go up to the bay area Tuesday-Thursday so we won't be able to get the paperwork in until Friday at the earliest, but I don't think this house is going to sell in the next 5 days anyway.

We also saw the most incredible Craftsman in a historic neighborhood. It was being sold by the owner and this house just made you want to cry it was so beautiful. They must have put hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours into the painstaking restoration and detail. Unfortunately (you guessed it) it wasn't even close to our price range (they were asking $798,000). If it had been even near our range, it would have sold in the first 5 minutes. Still, it was great to walk through it and see what a real restored house could be like. This house could easily have been featured in Sunset or on some television show. It was gorgeous. *sigh*

Anyway, we're keeping our options open. We intend to make an offer on the house we love (click below to see some more about it) and to continue looking around. With each house we visit we get more and more insight, and while it's still exciting I can see how it could quickly get demoralizing and frustrating. Still, I know the perfect house is out there for us and one day we'll find it.

The house we're putting on offer on is located in Pasadena, not far from Colorado Blvd., which is the very cute downtown shopping and eating district (and also the street that the Rose Parade goes down). The house is:

*Craftsman built in 1925--many original details, built ins, French doors, and windows still there and working
*2,106 sq. feet (compared to the 1,200 sq. ft. houses we've been looking at, this one is like "what would you do with all of this room?")
*4 Bedrooms--3 downstairs and 1 in a converted attic
*1.75 Bathrooms--that's 1 downstairs with shower and tub and one upstairs with just a shower (plus sink and toilet)
*Nice sized kitchen with room for an island, unfortunately no dishwasher
*Enclosed sun room off of the front bedroom (actually it would be really hard to use that "bedroom" as a bedroom--we're thinking TV room)
*Very cozy breakfast nook off of the kitchen with built in china cabinet--very cute and could be converted to a small office (or writer's nook) if we needed the other bedroom for kiddies
*California cellar just waiting for wine racks
*2+ car garage, detached but accessible from the street
*Fenced in yard with nice doggy space
*Redone landscaping, but not so overdone you'd need to hire a gardener
*Fireplace (yay!)
*Refinished hardwood floor
*Lots of renovations like new paint inside and out and new garage door(s)
*Terraced patio, perfect for that hot tub we plan to buy one day

It's a great house, so be sure to send some good karma our way.