Old Stone House

The sign has been up about 5 days, and within 24 hours of listing we had a showing. Since then, nothing. Although we have a clear game plan for this house – a bottom-line price, end-date for listing, rational motives etc., it’s still very hard to sell something that you’ve invested so much time/money/sweat into. Every time a car drives by the sign on the lawn and doesn’t slow down, we take it as a snub! The last time we sold our house (a new cookie-cutter semi) we did so in about 18 hours! The sign wasn’t up before the house was gone! However, that was 4+ years ago and the market was very different. That being said, it’s still easy to ask yourself “why hasn’t this house sold?” – even when it’s been listed less then a week – wondering if there is something wrong with it, or if you have bad taste…

(more agony and joy…)

After a heroic weekend of work, the house is basically ready to show and the sign is ordered… too bad the stress level hasn’t been reduced. We are now on-call for ‘showings’ which means that we have one hour from time of booking to have the house tidied up and ready for a potential purchaser. Not an easy feat with two small children!

(more agony and joy…)

The offer has been accepted! After much fax-jockeying we have finally agreed on a price, and the other party has accepted our conditions. Now, we have 6 weeks to sell our house. We have been making steady progress finishing project after project. It’s tempting to cut corners – hide things with paint etc., but we are well aware that any potential offer could include a home inspection, and the last thing we need is a ‘reveal’. As well, in the event we don’t sell our house in time, we wouldn’t want to have to live with low-quality work. We’ve invested too much into this house to live with substandard workmanship.

So, if you’re in the market for a 122 year-old heritage home with many upgrades/restorations – just let me know.

Cash offers accepted…

Two weeks and two offers later we are still in the running for the ‘new’ house. Our fist offer was ‘ignored’, however, our second offer was signed back. The terms the bank has offered are not to our liking – the price point is still too high. However, we view this as good news as they have accepted our condition of sale clause. This is encouraging as it means that if we can come to agree on a price there is a distinct possibility that the bank will honour this condition.

We are also encouraged that there have been no other offers on the property. There have been several dozen showings but only 2 offers. Apparently the property continues to rest at a price-point that is unattractive to most buyers. The house is ‘only’ 1800 sq feet, and needs some work, and for the advertised price this represents too large an investment. (more agony and joy…)

Since the last post we have made two offers on the house – we’re waiting for the second offer to be rejected… In the meantime we have been making a mad-dash to finish our house. Overall, our house is in great shape but almost every project is 98% complete, and it’s the last 2% that needs to be finished if we want to be able to sell. (more agony and joy…)

As mentioned in an earlier post, we’ve been taking a break from renos and writing to enjoy a much needed break, however as “an idle mind is the devil’s playground” we’ve started ‘thinking’ and we’re considering moving… (more agony and joy…)

Well, it’s been a quiet couple of months since we finished the exterior of the ugly addition. Outside of the very occasional blog entry we’ve enjoyed NOT working on the house – taking advantage of some much needed down-time. We’ve avoided looking through home renovation magazines, surfing our favourite DIY sites, and thinking about the house in general. At least until this weekend… (more agony and joy…)

Over the past few weeks Project Porchlight has been distributing compact fluorescent light bulbs to local churches, community centres etc., and offering a free 13w/60w light bulb to all families. The goal of the project is to help encourage homeowners to think green, and to save energy. Project Porchlight asserts that if every Canadian household changes only one light – their “porch light” – to a new CFL, the energy savings will be the equivalent to removing 60,000 cars from the road. (more agony and joy…)

We’ve put forth a monolithic effort these past two weeks in order to finally finish the exterior of the ‘ugly addition’. This effort was offset by crappy weather, so when you average everything out – we only accomplished a modest amount. That being said, all the siding is on, the windows are caulked and sealed, the eaves have been cleaned and repaired and every crack that can be insulated/siliconed has been filled.

I wasn’t expecting snow this ‘early’ in the season – as we’ve had little/no snow before January the past few years – and working in the cold is painful. Not only do your fingers ache from the cold, they ache as you can’t seem to stop hitting them with the hammer. As well, there’s nothing more pleasant than removing your hands from your gloves and having the sweaty palms stick to the frozen tin snips or hammer.

(more agony and joy…)

Having experienced a number of aggravations while installing the first two windows, I was thankful that I could finally install the remaining window beside the door. This window installation was going to be the most involved as it required me to rip out a section of existing wall, lay a course of cinder blocks, and frame new interior and exterior wall sections. That being said, I was relaxed about doing the work as there wasn’t going to be any surprises… And for once I was finally right!

I removed the existing window (another well planned install by the previous contractor – the casing window opened into the side gate) and cleaned out all the shims and insulation scraps that made up the rest of the wall. I discovered that much of the insulation that was in the wall had slumped between the studs – likely due to water, which further explained why this part of the house has been so cold.

(more agony and joy…)