Tag Archives: House

Our Game Plan for Our New Home!

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If you have been following our housing journey thus far you will know that it has been nothing shy of a roller coaster. BUT I am super happy to announce that we do in fact have a house! We closed and are waiting for the final things to happen. We officially own the house on June 30th however we won’t be moving until the following week or so. We want to be able to hopefully hook up internet on a day that my dad is off and he can check a few things.

The house we bough is straight from the 70’s. There is wallpaper in some rooms not completely but there is some which we will be removing thank god. And on top of it there would be some shag carpet that has got to go. Cosmetic wise there is not a whole lot. It is a split entry, 3 bedroom upstairs, downstairs has a place we can easily make a 4th bedroom for when our kids get older and want their own space. It also has a living room upstairs and downstairs it also has a rec room. We will eventually open up the space a lot more but for now the focus will be a lot of the upstairs. I will be taking the opportunity to be paint the entire house first upstairs and then downstairs. And the flooring my dad will be able to help us as well too. That will be huge save on money as we will just buy the flooring and he will help us when he is off for a day. This shouldn’t take too long but these simple fixes will also be nice to make the place our own. I already have colors picked out for them, my boyfriend is basically giving me all the freedom in terms of paint colors. Right now it has pale yellow in the kitchen, as well as white walls everywhere and a super retro bathroom also too.

Now on to the major things. The bigger things that we needed to have done was number one electrical. The electrical is dated for sure. Hopefully we can find a reliable person to check it out after we do our 2 week quarantine. This is a bigger issue we need to have fixed. The inspection had said there was an outlet in the bathroom that was humming. Due to being dated and for whatever reason. There is also a few plugs like one in the hallway that doesn’t have power to it. We need to address these in case something were to happen. Hopefully it won’t be too expensive however this was a huge thing that we need to address immediately before it becomes a bigger issue.

Next is there is a few cracks in the foundation. They are about or under a centimeter. I’m not entirely sure as I never received the reports (Boyfriend handles this thankfully!) and they also need to be checked. Whether they be repaired and see what happens. What we do know is that they are not leaking which is a huge thing. If they were leaking that could be a lot more problems for us in terms of mold or what not. But the fact that it is not leaking is great though the cracks being the size they are is a reason we want them addressed quickly. We do not want to have to worry about leaking in the future or if they were to get worse. The fact is a home over 40ish years old having cracks is not abnormal. It’s just taking care of them before they become un-fixable.

Lastly there is just figuring out the home and what not. Most of the things we would like to do is cosmetic. And once we get some of the bigger issues done we would also like to do things in terms of creating a backyard oasis. The good thing is behind our home is forest to there is not going to be any one building behind thankfully. We would like to get a fenced in yard as soon as possible whenever that might be. Not the entire yard but some of it so that the dog and kids can play safely. We also would like to have a gate towards the back to be able to explore and what not when the time comes too. This year we will probably get a quote and see what happens with the other two issues before doing the fence. Just because it might be pricey. We will be doing it in metal due to the price of lumber and so hopefully that is the cheaper alternative.

Overall we do want to get things like a swing set, an above ground pool, build a fire pit hopefully this year also. A fire pit will probably only cost a few hundred bucks for the bricks as we would like to build it. This is more of a nice relaxation spot for us when we have a bit of downtime to sit by the fire and relax and hang out in the cool air while roasting marshmallows or eating hot dogs too. Not to mention smores also! This will be a nice change and since we haven’t really ever had our own nice fire pit before this will be a good thing we both are looking forward to. We also would like to kind of map out the yard though to plan a bit where everything will go from the pool, to the hot tub eventually (Boyfriend would like one of those not me!) and then the fire pit and swings. The home is on septic so finding out the pipes and things will be huge in planning the backyard but I believe we have plenty of space to figure this out though.

Overall I know there will be some work to be done but this is our forever home and we couldn’t be happier. With the market the way it is there could have been a lot worse things happening in terms of housing and any house unless built under the last 5 years will have some sort of problems. It just is how much are you willing to do to it? Not to mention, if we were to pay more for a home with the same problems it might have been super skimped on trying to upgrade it and make it our own.

Oh yeah, And before I forget, Yes! I will be adding a section for home renovations to this blog so you can see what is being done in terms of before and after’s. I will also be posting these on pinterest as a lot of our inspiration has also come from there. Plus with a home so dated, why not share the progress as well with everyone!

Have you ever done major home renovations?
What was some of your biggest challenges for it?

Let me know in the comments below so I hopefully don’t make the same mistakes!

– Stacey

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3 Private Home Buying Tips + The downside of private home sales

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If you are unfamiliar with the stream, you will have noticed that Wednesday last week I was given the new that our dream was dashed.

My boyfriend and I are moving back home to Nova Scotia in the coming months and to say we are stressed about a house to buy is an understatement. The reasoning for this is because there has been a minor boom happening there. This is where people from Ontario are buying all the homes as soon as they come up however they are putting it sometimes 20k – 100k above asking price. I think we are prematurely becoming stressed since we wont get our official message of moving til mid April, with hopefully moving in July.

Here is where the story begins. My best friend since grade 6, her parents were selling their house. Well, thinking about it anyways. We had discussed a price. And agreed. For a while they were worried about my boyfriend and I backing out of the deal and leaving them with things. We hyped it up, there was multiple confirmations about this. There were many things happening and nearing the point where we would have an actual agreement written up so that they could sign and it would be a done deal (Obviously confirming we get out message to move as well as an inspection doesn’t have something crazy with it either!). They didn’t want to go public as they were not comfortable with having so many people through their home, they wanted to save money on agent fees since they are also expensive and take a HUGE chunk of the profits too.

Then, their son told them if they were to go public with this sale. He said they could get more money if they went public and welp, long story short. They did. They informed us on Wednesday evening AFTER we had confirmed again that same day. To the point that if my boyfriend had of gotten his lawyer to write up this agreement then he would have been out of money.

Doing a private sale was never something we wanted to do. We did this as a favor for them. However we were screwed. Before people start coming at this, “But of course if they could make more money blah blah blah”. We never denied that they could probably make more money if they were to go public with the sale. We told them that if they wanted to go that route they could. However the multiple confirmations and moments they could have told us they were having different thoughts was far too many to count. We aren’t upset at the fact that they told us they wanted to go with an agent. We are upset at the fact that we were strung along for 3 weeks this promise of a house which never was going to happen. To say we are devastated is an understatement.

That being said. Here is my tips for you if you are considering having a private sale or buying of a home.

1) Get it in WRITING! – One thing we didn’t do quick enough was get everything in writing. The day they called to back out of the verbal agreement was the day we were talking with lawyers to draw up a purchase agreement. Had we have had something in writing then maybe they would have been stuck in what they agreed to however that was our mistake for trusting someone I had known for over 18 years through my friend.

2) Have a back out clause. If you are going the private route make sure that you have a back out clause. Had they have come back to use and wanted to re-negotiate a deal with us. Which they had not done first (Mind you we could have also offered them a bit more then what they wanted to if they had even asked us..But they choose not to.) we would have for sure put something in the new contract in regards to them that if they were to back out they would have owed us something of financial security for wasting our time with them.

3) And I know.. This may come as a wasted point. But DO NOT GET EXCITED UNTIL EVERYTHING IS FINALIZED! My boyfriend and I continuously reminded one another not to get excited, this isn’t for sure, don’t get your hopes up and all that stuff. However as time passed we got more and more excited because there was the confirmations along the way. No more of that for us. It is a very difficult lesson to learn and we are still feeling the loss of this house. Sure nothing was set in stone but that didn’t make anything less real. We got our hopes up in a world that could use a little bit more. And we are the ones who are feeling this loss.

If anything, I hope by reading this you learn from our mistakes. Now we are on the hunt and keeping our eyes peeled on the house of our dreams. We may be looking far too early for when we are able to move. However you really have to keep your eyes on what houses are selling, what prices they are going for, and when are they going up for sale. We have all the criteria we would like to have it’s just catching one that we can put an offer in at the right time without having it go up tens of thousands of dollars and it quickly becomes out of our price range too.

And a friendly reminder, You really don’t know someone for any amount of years. Money changes people. Even ones you thought that you knew. And before letting your heart get broken and back to square one again, remember that you have to look out for number one. YOU.

Do you have any moving horror stories?
Anything you wish you could have done differently when buying a home whether publicly or privately?
Let me know in the comments below!

– Stacey

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Things We Want For Our New House!

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It comes as no surprise if you are a regular reader of the blog that I am more than excited to move back home to Nova Scotia. Mostly because we rent right now and cannot wait til we buy and have our own property again. There isn’t a whole lot on our list of demands when searching for a house but there is a few non-negotiable here. Especially where this will be our hopefully forever home and we won’t be moving again after this.

My boyfriend has one major request. That would be he either wants a garage or he wants a place to build a garage. All we had before was 2 sheds and now in our currently rental we have nothing. He wants a place he can tinker around or store his bike if he wants too. A place to put all his tools and what not too. For me it really doesn’t effect me about a garage or not but for him it is for sure a major deal breaker. If a property does not have a garage either, that will hopefully be reflected in the price. That way in the future he would be able to build one too.

For me, I am way more picky. I would like the house to have at least 1.5 bathrooms. In our old house we had a master bathroom and a half bathroom upstairs. No second shower or anything but there was a second toilet and sink which was great. If my boyfriend was getting ready for work he would be able to shave or wash his face instead of taking up the bathroom. Also if you needed to use the bathroom and someone was in the shower you would be able to do that without intruding on the person washing up. This was huge and we never really noticed the difference til we move to this rental where the bathroom is so small you can barely even move around. If you are sitting on the toilet you are only able to open the door a crack unless you turn around because there is so little space. I wouldn’t mind if we had just one shower and bath but I know for sure there best be two toilets in the new home! Along the lines I would like to also have a deep bathtub. Ultimately I would like to have a bathtub that I can lay down in and have my knees be under the water. I am not super tall so this might not be a hard task however the bathtub that we have no it gets the job done, don’t get me wrong, but I would like something that is a bit deeper. As far as jets or anything I really could care less since apparently they are a lot more pain in the butt than they are worth.

The backyard is something we are slightly both picky about. If the backyard has a fence that would be huge bonus points. We had a fenced in yard when we owned a house before and going to a house where you cannot have a fence and if you do it is a pain in the butt since you cannot take it with you when you move and you have to sell it. I would like a fenced in yard so that Sheldon can run around and enjoy the freedom. He cannot be let off a lease or he would run and run and run. So a fenced in backyard is for sure a bonus, if the yard doesn’t have one though we will just put one in so that really isnt a deal breaker.

Privacy is huge for us. our last home we lived somewhere that everyone could see in your backyard. There was no privacy what so ever and our rental home here is no different. When you stand on your back deck you can see at least 8 other homes. We do not want this. Ideally, we would like to have a house where we don’t see anyone. Total privacy but not in the sense that you have to drive to a neighbor, but just so that you don’t see them. They are close enough that if something happened you can go there but far enough that you don’t have to see them when they do things. We want it to also be a big back yard as we would like to put in a pool eventually, my spouse would love a hot tub but for me I could care less. We also want to build a nice fire pit for some entertaining hopefully when covid is over with. We want our back yard to be like a hidden oasis. I know it sounds nutty. We do not want to be house poor and forced to live just at our house but we want a space that is so nice we wont want to go anywhere else.

As far as inside goes, I would like a big kitchen. And big to us is really not what you may think. Our kitchen now in our rental is so small you can’t even stand together cooking. We want something where you can have a few people around and much more counter space as well. We went from a big open concept kitchen to this super small one and we both do not like it. So something open or even just a bigger space would be great. if it has a dining room area that would be a bonus for us but by no means a deal breaker though. And as far as bedroom I would love it to have 4+ since we would like to have 3 kids. Master bedroom would be ours and each child would have their own. However if there was a den that could be turned into a bedroom eventually that would also work out great as well too. Though I have no idea where we would be putting out computers and things though, that is all up in the air! Paint colors or flooring is not really a deal breaker either as we will be changing it if we do not like them.

Overall I feel like we are a bit more picky this time around instead of when we first bought a house. Mostly because of the fact that this will be our forever house. I will not want to move anywhere after this. I want to be here for the rest of my life tweeking and working on it so that we have a home anyone would love to be in.

What are somethings you want in your dream house?
What are your deal breakers?

Let me know in the comments below! Maybe I can add to my list too!

-StaySeeJ08