The finish line is in sight

No, my son did not buy the house from Wednesday's photo. In fact, we didn't even view the property. I had contacted the realtor about it to ask if he'd check with the seller's realtor with some questions. He offered to tour the property himself, as he lives and works nearby. The photo was one of several he sent me. His comment "It's a house of horrors. Lot value only." I suspect it may have been tenanted, or alternatively the property owner passed away. One of the photos clearly showed dirty laundry on a bed, in another it appeared the toilet had not been flushed, and in one there were cracked and broken windows. The property is listed at $275,000...lot value would be around $130,000. I sincerely doubt it will sell. Oh, and it comes as-is, where-is so whoever buys it would have to deal with the contents too!

We did see a few more properties Sunday and Monday. None had what C was looking for, so the hunt continued. We saw another two properties on Wednesday. Both had been on the market for some time, but appeared to be more what he was looking for. Sigh...appearances can be deceiving. Both had badly completed DIY renos, both basements were disasters, and in the second property the front door was sticky to open, while the back door could not be opened at all. Can you imagine how much that house had shifted on it's foundation?

I went to Stitch and Chat on Wednesday, with five of us in attendance. C hasn't been there since last fall before she left for Arizona. Sadly, her mother passed away in the spring, just before she returned to Canada. She's spent the last few months clearing out her mother's 4 bedroom house. According to her, it was full of stuff. They did sell it in August and most of the possessions have been disbursed. Some to family members, some sold, donated, or tossed. 

We'll soon say so long for a few months to C and to B as they are both planning their departures for Arizona at the end of October. S is still deciding when she'll leave, as her daughter and son-in-law will be driving down to stay with her. They've just retired. That will leave I and myself - her husband R is currently undergoing treatment for cancer, so I suspect her attendance will be infrequent. Hopefully some of the ladies who dropped in last winter will return. I've no plans to travel until February at the earliest, and that is dependant on my friend S and her husband. They are scheduled to be in Yuma for a month, and I've invited myself to join them for a week if I can make it happen. Their plans, however, are up in the air at the moment so it's not a certainty.

I haven't yet booked my hotel in March for my cruise but I have flights booked. I'm planning on flying in three days ahead of the cruise...I don't a repeat of last January! Even flying in a day early, almost wasn't enough due to storms and cancellations. Of course, it takes a full day to get there from here so I'll arrive late on the first day and have two full days before I board the cruise ship. 

Of course, I can't help looking at cruises especially when a sale is offered. Princess had a 50% off, 50% deposit sale recently for certain 2023 and 2024 cruises and I've booked a 14 day British Isles cruise for late August 2024. If you've been here for long, you might remember that I had a similar cruise booked in June, 2020...we all know what happened with those plans! I e-mailed my friend J and she's offered to have me stay with her for a few days before and after the cruise. (Thanks J! I'm so looking forward to visiting with you and a return visit to the Gardens for certain.)

Because we've had such bad luck with viewing properties with the realtor, C and I took a drive on Thursday evening to look at a property. We figured there would be no point seeing the inside if the neighbourhood wasn't great or the exterior was a mess. It wasn't either of those things, so I called the realtor to ask if he could show it to us on Friday. We made arrangements to meet later in the afternoon.

On paper, the property was perfect. A decent size with three bedrooms up, a finished basement, and a large garage (which means a smaller back yard). We arrived ahead of the realtor, and spent a few minutes looking at the exterior. Shingles look good, there is a small patio out front, and a raised flower bed. 

The realtor arrived a few minutes later and we made our way in the front door. The house is about 1040 sq ft on the main level. On entry there is a closet and beyond that to the right is a decent sized living room. To the left is a large dining area with a galley style kitchen in the center. It's a bit of an odd layout, as you can reach the hall from either the living room or through the kitchen. Off the hall at the back of the house are three bedrooms and a recently renovated bathroom. One of the bedrooms is set up as a laundry room. As you'll see in the photo above (stolen from the internet) there is a ramp on the front exterior of the house so I assume the laundry set-up is for the convenience of the current owners. Back in the dining room, there is a door that leads to the side entrance and down to the basement. 

In the basement there is a den with a large closet, a living room space, a three piece bathroom with a stand-up shower, and a large storage area (which also contains the furnace, hot water heater, water softener, and built in vac). That storage area also has the hook-ups for the laundry, a set of kitchen cabinets and sink, as well as a small freezer and fridge. At some point, it would be an easy conversion to set up a separate suite in the basement for rental, though some work would be needed to update it. 

Out back of the house is a patio area and beside the garage a sadly neglected garden space. It would take some work to get that in order but I told C that would be my project. But the pièce de résistance is the garage. It is huge, the interior insulated and finished with lots of room to park two vehicles plus a space we assumed the current owner is using as a "man" cave. My son was excited about that - he could do something similar and have a space to hang out with friends. We learned later that the garage is actually rented to someone who runs a business out of the space.

The offer was written and submitted about 5:30 p.m. and shortly thereafter we learned another offer had come in. As a result, C's offer was revised a bit, and resubmitted at 6:24 p.m. His offer was accepted at 7:42 p.m., although they could have held off until morning. They even agreed to a move-in date of November 6. And btw, he paid less than the asking price of that dump from Wednesday's photo. It just goes to show that house prices are just made up numbers. 

In the meantime, there are still the conditional periods on both properties to get through. The conditions on my property are to be lifted by next Wednesday, for C the date is the following Wednesday. He'll have a busy week ahead, meeting with the mortgage broker to finalize financing and arranging for a house inspection, as well as working. 

The property isn't perfect. But it is above and beyond everything else we've looked at. The size is great, the basement is finished and would offer a space for me and allow my son his privacy, and the garage is especially a bonus. When I'm travelling, I can park the car indoors and leave it where it will be safe. There are a couple of pink walls that will need to be painted...funny, my son doesn't care for them. The back and one side fence need to be replaced/built. The back garden space is a project as it has been covered by landscape fabric and leaves and debris allowed to accumulate. It is, however, move-in ready and the work I've mentioned can either be completed over the winter or wait until spring.

Oh, one other thing - out in the front flower bed in front of the small patio on the right), are a few lilies. Back in 2018 when we were looking for my daughter's place, we found a bed of lilies out front. My mom loved lilies and had a large flower bed with numerous varieties. We always said the lilies were a sign of her approval. Apparently, it has happened again.

Today, I've got some yard work to get done. It's time to start pulling the annuals and cleaning up the containers. The house needs to be tidied a bit in anticipation of Monday's inspection. There is baseball to watch, and curling has started too (You-tube) so I'll keep myself busy. 

Have a great week ahead everyone!