How we got to where we are today...

Our house is currently being torn down, at least the front half. It is sometimes interesting to think about the many things that led you to a certain point in your life.

When we moved to California 4 years ago, we had the idea that we would rent for a year, and then if we liked it we would buy a house. We liked it, but every time our lease renewal came up, we hadn't bought a house yet, so we put it off for another year.

Then we had Wesley. Our apartment exploded with baby stuff. I had to lug my chubby infant up and down stairs every time I left the house. We had a neighbor who was a chain smoker. And we had saved a lot of money, and wanted to invest it. My best friend was buying a house, and informed me of the process. Our lease was going to be up in a few months, and we decided to just look into it to see what we could afford. So we just talked to a loan officer. Then we just got pre approved. Then we just went out looking for day to see what was out there. We fell in love with a house, but our offer wasn't accepted. Bummer, but if we found such a great house the first day, surely we would find another one.

So I began stalking the retailer site that lists houses. I checked my email at least every five minutes waiting for new listings. With the market as it was, as soon as something was listed we had to run THAT DAY to look at it and make an offer. It became my other full time job, in addition to taking care of a colicky, reflux ridden child. We put in at least 30 offers. Offered 10K or more above asking price. Had 20% down, excellent credit, etc. But every offer was beaten out by cash offers. The market was insane. And our lease was almost up and we had to either renew for a year, or be homeless.

One of our offers that was initially rejected, had some buyers fall through, and we were up. But it was on a house that we barely put an offer on because we didn't really like it. And we were putting offers on every house that wasn't falling off a cliff (literally). It was old, it was weird, and it needed a lot of work. And the owner wanted to lease it back from us for several months so he could buy another house. Feeling desperate, and knowing we had some time before escrow really started, we went forward. But with the idea that it was our backup, and we would keep looking. We looked. And got rejected. And I should have been living on Valium. And we finally came down to the wire about deciding for sure about the house.

We looked at the house again, and decided if we did this, and that, and tore out that wall, it would be a lot better. And the house was below what we could afford, so we figured we'd put the extra money into fixing it up. We went through with it. We found a temporary apartment to rent for a couple of months until we could move in. And we moved our family.

When we got the keys, we started getting bids for the work. To get a/c installed in our old house, we had to deal with asbestos ducts. To replace the carpet that was worn through, we'd also have to deal with old tiles that used asbestos glue. Oh, and that wall that we were going to tear out? Load bearing. And to move the laundry out of the kitchen to the garage we'd have to tear up the foundation in our living room to get pipes there. Cha ching cha ching.  Huh, maybe we didn't know what we were doing when we bought this house.

So we got bids, and one of the contractors was also an architect. He had some great ideas about expanding the front of our house, and moving the laundry there. And it wouldn't cost much more than simply moving the laundry to the garage. He seemed great. But alas, he was too busy to draw up the plans for us. But he had a great friend who was an architect that could do it for us.

Enter, Mr. More Prideful Than An Orthopedic Surgeon. We met with him, and told him our ideas. He drew up some plans, and we all met together to review them. Not at all what we had asked for. But our lovely contractor drew all over them and took them a different direction that we liked. However, Mr. MPTAOS did not like it. And he basically refused to have any ideas or do any more work unless we paid him more money.  After trying to design it ourselves in the midst of moving into our house and trying to get a working fridge, dryer, etc., we were done with him. We reviewed our contract, and refused to pay him more. He went crazy on us, and chewed us out over email and quit. Good riddance, but we still wanted to use our contractor. He was super embarrassed about his friend, and recommended someone else.

Enter The Turtle. He had great ideas, and promised to put us on a fast track for city approval so we could start. 3 months later we had our first design. With 3 weeks between emails, and him actually unable to find us a structural engineer like promised, and him just not having time for the project, we finally found our own structural engineer and didn't submit to the city until a year after we moved in. That's right, an entire year.  But we finally got city approval!

With me pregnant, and feeling the weight of the ticking time bomb going off in February in my stomach, we needed to get started. And then our amazing contractor lets us know that due to family issues he is super delayed on his current project, and can't do our project anymore. What?!?!? We had tried to find other contractors and been super unimpressed.

Soooo... Baby brown #2 on the way, a house we don't like and never moved into fully because it was all going to be torn up, a fridge that didn't fit the current fridge space, a year living with unpainted walls and sheets for curtains, and nasty carpet we didn't bother replacing because it was going to be torn up too.... What should we do? After having a pity party, and deciding to give up on the project I'd spent a year of my life on, we decided to go another round of bids from contractors.

The first bid to come in was over twice what we had planned on spending. More tears, wanting to give up again, and we met with more contractors.

There were 2 bids in our price range-ish. One of the guys had impressed us a lot, and we both felt really good about using him. So we went forward and signed a contract, told the other guys we weren't using them, and rejoiced that something was working out. 24 hours after the contract was signed, the contractor called and said he was sorry, but couldn't do the project for the price in the contract. What?!? More tears, more wanting to give up, we gave #2 a call. He still wanted to do the project. He has good references and now we have our 3rd contractor.

So, here we are. They started work this week. Half our house is being torn up, and we are trying to live in a pretty tiny space surrounded by dust and noise. But there is a promise of a nice house at the end. And hopefully before the bomb explodes in February. Many adventures left ahead, I am sure...