It's been one year since we became homeowners. Our home has gone through some minor changes which I will show you with some before and after photos. I thought we would have done a lot more, but life happens.
It all started in March of 2010. We were living in a one bedroom apartment in Stevens Square that I loved. We were within walking distance of downtown, uptown, and eat street. We also had corner windows facing the park, what more could we ask for. Well the downside was we had one closet that was stuffed to the max, a leaky faucet that we told management about twice and an army of cockroaches that took over our kitchen whenever we turned on the oven.
We wanted to stay in the area so we looked for a more spacious apartment nearby. Then one morning I was getting ready for work and Scott came over, eyes bloodshot from not sleeping for days and said, "I think we should get a house. I have a great job and Minneapolis is a fun city to live in. Plus we can get the first time home-buyers credit."
I was a little surprised hearing this as he would always say, "Why do people buy houses, I'm not going to buy one until I'm 50." I had been envious of homeowners with their yards and basements and painted walls. So I thought, alright we can do this.
In order to receive the tax credit you had to purchase your home before April 30. We had a little over a month to do that. We took a first time home-buyers workshop, got approved and found a realtor. At this point we had one week to pick a house.
We were set on living in south, preferably close to where our apartment was. North Minneapolis was out of the question, until we started spending more time with Tyler and Emma. They had bought a house in 2009 and it was cute and cheap. We looked at a few in north, but I was still intent on living in south. After comparing between the two I realized the homes were in better shape and cheaper in NOMI. I fell in love with one that had lots of woodwork and retro wallpaper. We put in an offer and it was accepted.
Since we were originally planning on moving into another apartment we had already given our 60 days notice in March. We had to be moved out by Memorial weekend. That meant we had to close on our house in 30 days. The closer we got to our closing date the more stressful things became. Underwriters were quitting, paperwork wasn't getting filled out properly, and they were demanding things like our college transcripts two days before.
We didn't make it to the first closing and we had to be out of our apartment. Our realtor asked the sellers if we could move in early and they said it was okay. We were excited to be in our new house, but we couldn't do any changes to it. Our second closing date didn't work out either. At this point we were nervous and stressed. If the sale didn't go through we'd be homeless and owe the sellers 60 dollars for every day that we were in the house and it was going on over a week. We had stopped unpacking in case we did have to move out. By the third date everything was fine and we were able to close.
At the closing we got a chance to meet the owners. They had lived in the home for 65 years and had 8 children. Our house is big, but I couldn't imagine raising 8 children in it.
The first owner that built the house was a fireman or policeman. He had built the garage first and lived in there while building the main house. Our garage has a basement and plumbing. He also built I-beams in the basement, which is unusual for the time period.
And with that here is progress of what we have done with the house so far.
It all started in March of 2010. We were living in a one bedroom apartment in Stevens Square that I loved. We were within walking distance of downtown, uptown, and eat street. We also had corner windows facing the park, what more could we ask for. Well the downside was we had one closet that was stuffed to the max, a leaky faucet that we told management about twice and an army of cockroaches that took over our kitchen whenever we turned on the oven.
We wanted to stay in the area so we looked for a more spacious apartment nearby. Then one morning I was getting ready for work and Scott came over, eyes bloodshot from not sleeping for days and said, "I think we should get a house. I have a great job and Minneapolis is a fun city to live in. Plus we can get the first time home-buyers credit."
I was a little surprised hearing this as he would always say, "Why do people buy houses, I'm not going to buy one until I'm 50." I had been envious of homeowners with their yards and basements and painted walls. So I thought, alright we can do this.
In order to receive the tax credit you had to purchase your home before April 30. We had a little over a month to do that. We took a first time home-buyers workshop, got approved and found a realtor. At this point we had one week to pick a house.
We were set on living in south, preferably close to where our apartment was. North Minneapolis was out of the question, until we started spending more time with Tyler and Emma. They had bought a house in 2009 and it was cute and cheap. We looked at a few in north, but I was still intent on living in south. After comparing between the two I realized the homes were in better shape and cheaper in NOMI. I fell in love with one that had lots of woodwork and retro wallpaper. We put in an offer and it was accepted.
Since we were originally planning on moving into another apartment we had already given our 60 days notice in March. We had to be moved out by Memorial weekend. That meant we had to close on our house in 30 days. The closer we got to our closing date the more stressful things became. Underwriters were quitting, paperwork wasn't getting filled out properly, and they were demanding things like our college transcripts two days before.
We didn't make it to the first closing and we had to be out of our apartment. Our realtor asked the sellers if we could move in early and they said it was okay. We were excited to be in our new house, but we couldn't do any changes to it. Our second closing date didn't work out either. At this point we were nervous and stressed. If the sale didn't go through we'd be homeless and owe the sellers 60 dollars for every day that we were in the house and it was going on over a week. We had stopped unpacking in case we did have to move out. By the third date everything was fine and we were able to close.
At the closing we got a chance to meet the owners. They had lived in the home for 65 years and had 8 children. Our house is big, but I couldn't imagine raising 8 children in it.
The first owner that built the house was a fireman or policeman. He had built the garage first and lived in there while building the main house. Our garage has a basement and plumbing. He also built I-beams in the basement, which is unusual for the time period.
And with that here is progress of what we have done with the house so far.
Office, to be painted soon.
Main bedroom
Den/our walk-in closet
Upstairs bathroom
Stairway, to be painted soon
Dining room
Living room
Main floor bathroom
Guest room
Hallway
Sunroom
Breakfast nook
Kitchen
We don't have any before pictures of the basement. The only thing we did was put tiles in, before it was just concrete floor.
Scott recently took down the drop ceiling.
Backyard
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