Round Two (or three...or four...)

Hey! Remember me? We're back on (off?) the blogging wagon now that we've got some good news to report.  In the weeks since the deal fell through on our house and the rain was melting all the snow in Anchorage, we got a ton more rain and more bad news.  Here's a recap of the last few weeks: 

We put in an offer on our second choice house right after we backed out of the deal on the first one, but things fell apart quickly.  The sellers weren't using a realtor and were horrible communicators.  We got a hint that the couple was getting divorced which complicated everything further and we finally got fed up and walked away.  It seemed like the right choice when we saw new things coming on the market and we had plenty of time to move because we knew our landlords would have no issues letting us stay past our lease if needed.  About a week later we found another house that we loved.  It was in West Anchorage, which was a totally new area of town for us that we hadn't considered before and it was even historic by Alaska standards as it was built BEFORE the 1964 earthquake!  Even though it was old, it had a beautiful yard, it was recently updated and move-in ready, the price was great, and!  The best part by far - A 10 minute commute to work!  We put an offer in the day after it went on the market.  We found out within a day that we were in competition and we offered to beat the other offer and accommodate any terms they wanted - flexible closing date, whatever - but sadly they ended up going with the LOWER offer that was made after ours.  We (including our realtor and the seller's realtor) were flabbergasted.  The same day the deal fell through, our landlords emailed us to let us know that they're planning to put the house on the market as soon as our lease is up, which means that the move-out date was no longer flexible for us.  

We looked at some new houses - some scary, some fine, but all too expensive, and we talked about our options.  Do we find another rental? Do we spend $50,000 more to expand our options (not appealing)?  Finally Andy suggested that we have our totally awesome realtor go back to house number 2 - the one with the flaky sellers that we walked away from - and present a final offer.  Our realtor, bless his heart, spent ninety minutes sitting at the dining room table with the sellers explaining the terms of our offer, their requirements as sellers under the law, and the kind of things we would ask for after the inspection (health and safety only, we'll take care of the rest).  Finally, they agreed! We had a signed contract! Also, he confirmed that they are getting divorced and that it's not exactly civil between the two of them, so we still have an uphill battle, but he broke through the communication issues and they do seem motivated to get rid of the house.  So...yay! On to the home inspection!  

I brought my camera of course.  

Isn't it cute?  It's about 1900 sf, built on a hillside, so it looks like one story from the front, two from the back.  Also, in other happy news, as you can see, the snow came back!!  

We hired our same home inspector from the nightmare house.  He said this house made him feel good.  This was happy news.  Also - note the even snow coverage on the roof and (you can't see it) it has excellent ventilation into the crawlspace.  This is a good thing.  

When you walk in the front door, you are immediately confronted with the living room and some horrible paint, which we will be changing.  

The big windows make it light and bright and we LOVE the wood burning fireplace.  There's even a little cubby next to it to store extra wood, which Andy will be chopping and hauling inside all winter of course.

Here's a look back at the front door to give you a better idea of the layout:

Immediately next to the fireplace is the dining area which is connected to the kitchen.  You also walk out to the deck from here, which is probably the best part of the house.

UPDATE - Our realtor sent me the secret MLS listing so I could steal some pictures of the deck.  I didn't take this myself, hence the missing snow.

I love that it's real wood.  Also, it's south facing so it should be warm all summer!


Here's the kitchen.  It will not be blue for long.

Back at the front door, here's the view toward the bedrooms.  The first door is a huge pantry/storage closet, the second is the main upstairs bathroom, and the third is the master bedroom (there is another bedroom directly across from the master).

The full bath:

Master bedroom.  We love the big window.

Good-sized closets:

Master bathroom - no bathtub, but at least it's in the room and has a shower.  Kind of unusual for a house built in '82.  Here's the shower:

Here's the other bedroom on the main floor.  We call it the princess room.  Even the ceiling fan is pink!

The room is really large - I think maybe the same size as the master - and has an awesome closet.

Seriously! Check out this closet! Maybe this will be my room...

The view back from the bedrooms:

There's more house downstairs:

After you get to the bottom of the stairs and go down a small hallway, you see the living room.  Awesome built ins, but they won't fit our ginormous tv.  We may have to get creative with this one.  

Bad light on this picture, but you can see that, to the left of the built ins, there's access to the backyard.

Downstairs there's also a bedroom, which is small but totally usable.

The bedroom has a nice built-in desk and closet, too.  (sorry for not closing the doors...)

We also "discovered" this little room under the stairs. It curves back under the stairs and provides TONS of storage.  This is definitely where we'll be keeping the camping gear, too.

And a full bathroom downstairs - with a super sweet vintage 1982 jetted tub.  Party!

What we really love about the house is the yard.  It's on .40 acres and has tons of trees.  The way the house is situated, you don't really see the neighbors' houses outside.  It even has a little fenced-in garden with raised beds already built!  I'm planning on putting my greenhouse, when I eventually get it, just to the left of the garden.

The house has a cute little swingset with a slide, which you all are invited to check out when you come to visit, and a HUGE storage shed.  All the storage in the house makes up for the fact that there's only a one car garage...thankfully we only have one car.

Here are some more outside photos from the MLS listing:

Only one car garage, but it's a deep garage, so there's plenty of storage space.  Also a workbench. 

 The yard in the summer:

 It was great to see the house again and remember why we liked it so much.  There are a couple of items they need to fix and we're looking at having to get a new boiler and hot water heater in the near future, but we should be able to get some financial assistance from the Alaska energy audit program to help defray most of the cost, which is awesome.  The water heater is especially crucial since it's ORIGINAL to the house (yep - THIRTY ONE YEARS OLD).  Our home inspector said it was the oldest functioning water heater he's ever seen.  Not sure that's a good thing.  So...fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly for us from here on...and fingers crossed that the water heater either explodes before we close so they have to fix it, or it makes it until we are able to get the auditor out so we can qualify for the funds.

I'll leave you with one of the highlights of the tour.  I considered putting him in my purse and taking him home with me, but I think Fro would have some issues with that:

THE CAT HAS A GOATEE!

  If all goes to plan we'll have the keys in just about a month!