New Beginnings

We finally closed on Spotswood House!! Here’s the empty house to prove it.

It felt like it took forever to get this off the books, or maybe it was the 45-day close we agreed to. I would not advise going that route if at all possible. On top of that, the closing was delayed by 3 days. But, we got our proceeds check and we are rolling it into a new house. We are under contract on a house in Tallahassee, FL! I thought the DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) housing market was super hot but Tallahassee was crazy too. This is the first time ever we are paying over list for a house. We were 1 of 5 offers the first day the house went on the market. Our hefty down payment and the fact we weren’t a first-time home buyer secured the deal. Which I want to talk about for a second. You keep hearing about interest rates being super low, lowest ever, blah, blah, blah. Well, we couldn’t qualify for the lowest rates because mortgage lenders punish you if you finance under $100K. Even though you have great credit and a massive down payment, you aren’t worth it to a mortgage company because they won’t make “any money” off of your loan. How infuriating is that to hear?! So, I told the lender, “all the more reason to pay cash next time!!” That’s the goal, cash for a house. Might take a couple more remodels but we’ll get there.

I’m guessing you want to see the new house? Believe me, I want to see it too! I was still in Virginia when the house came on the market. I saw the listing on realtor.com, sent it to Adam, and told him to go tour it that night. It had our two non-negotiables – an in-ground pool and two-car garage. Bonus, there was a detached workshop for Adam (he was very happy). In addition, the major ticket items were taken care of – fairly new roof and HVAC. The inside will take an entire remodel but, hey, that’s what we do. Another bonus for me is it is brick on three sides with hardi-board on the back. I love the look of brick ranchers. I guess they remind me of my neighborhood growing up. The house was built in 1979, another plus for us. I love older houses! There is one major downside to the house, SEPTIC!!!! I promised I would never own a home with septic EVER again but here we are. We did the septic inspection and everything came back A-OK so hopefully we won’t have any problems. Fixing septic is a big ticket item! Oh, another thing I forgot to mention, the house is on 1/2 an acre. What the hell is it with us finding houses on huge lots? I am not looking forward to cutting that grass in Florida heat!

Here’s a photo of the front exterior.

It even has an “L” for Lindsey 🙂 We’re talking about changing the paint on the front door, shutters, and trim. Also, we want to chunk out the columns and give them a more craftsman look.

Here’s the pool!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And another one…

I cannot wait to jump in the pool. I will be in that thing everyday. I’m so excited!

I won’t share any interior photos because it will all get changed anyway. The first thing to go will be the carpet, everywhere. We are thinking about doing a wood-look tile in a herringbone pattern, kinda like this.

We are definitely going to try to keep this remodel manageable cost wise because our end goal is to sell it in a couple years. And we probably don’t have as much wiggle room to make a big profit. I’m excited for this weekend, we’re going floor and cabinet shopping. Yay, so much fun! I’ll be back soon with more updates.