[mini-trad mysteries] Pantry, Service Porch; Can YOU help?

When it came time to buy our house, I had—like most shoppers—a very keen idea of exactly what I wanted.  

• Three + bedrooms
• One + bathrooms
• Built before 1950
• Ideally! built between 1890 and 1940
• With as many original, historic details intact as possible

We found that house, too.  But it wasn’t meant to be.

Instead of my dream house, we found a home that I’ve fallen in love with despite its faults.  It has the curb appeal of a shipping container, but has some really cute little details throughout.  (Including original tile in the kitchen and the bath!)

We mopped AFTERWARDS, oops

But our strange little mini-trad also has some odd mysteries about it.  

In our kitchen is a pink and beige/off-white linoleum flooring that is not original to the house.  The house was built in 1948 and based on some snooping I did, I found evidence that the original flooring is still there under the new-ish linoleum.

In our service porch is a recessed space that we use (and the previous owners used) as a pantry.  In the floor of this pantry are two small holes up against the east wall.  Gutting from the north wall is a strip where there is no linoleum and no original flooring, but it doesn’t open up to the crawl space.  Obviously, something was there when both the original flooring and the “updated” linoleum was installed.  But what?  A washer?  A sink?  

Note the shelf supports

When looking into this recessed space, it quickly becomes clear that it was updated to be a pantry.  The shelving is unsophisticated.  Wooden boards supported by slats of wood nailed to the west and east walls.  I suspect that the “pantry” shelving was installed before the linoleum was installed, but I cannot be clear.  If it was, then whatever left its “footprint” in the floor would have likely co-existed with the shelves.  Therefore, said appliance would have to have been on the short side as the lowest shelf is only about a foot and half off the floor.  And that doesn’t make sense.

I have no clear indication when the linoleum was installed, and no clear idea when the “pantry” was converted.  But it all does leave me scratching my head, that’s for sure!

For a bit of extra mystery... Notice how in this last photo the linoleum was installed either after the water heater was replaced/added, or that the heater was lifted to install the flooring.  Weird.

Haus: Dilemmas of the MiniTrad Owner

I cannot help it.  I've been thinking a LOT about paint.

Haus, Sweet Haus

When we were in the market for our new haus, I had very definite ideas about the exact sort of haus that I wanted.  It would be old (built before 1940) and it would have a lot of charm.  Instead, we bought a house built in 1948 and with the curb appeal of a plain box.  *sigh*

(Why did we buy it, then?  The neighborhood, mostly.  But the interior features several darling details and original elements that we just adored.)

Since buying the haus, I've learned a lot more about post-war architecture.  For a start, our home is transitional, but mostly Minimal Traditional in style.  Minimal Traditional, or MiniTrad, homes were pretty much exactly what it sounds like: usually single-story homes built with very minimal details, and traditional elements.  They were often small and square, wasting almost no space on hallways.  Effective, efficient, affordable housing for our returning soldiers and their families, basically.  Our home feels a touch more transitional, though, in that its footprint is longer than most, has a large kitchen and service porch, and has a very long hallway from front to back.

Most MiniTrad homes are rather plain building on the outside.  Ours, being almost all stucco, is double drab in that it's currently painted the color of sand.  And did you spy that uninspired white accent color on white trim?  Yeah, yawn....

If there is one good thing about having a home that was built in the late 40s, it's that color was starting to be all the rage in homes.  The color palette was moving away from the earthy tones that dominate the Arts and Crafts movement, choosing instead vibrant, almost painful colors.  Folks were using color to brighten their lives and to forget about the austere war years.  Yellow was very popular in interiors.  Bright blues, and even jade, started to appear on exteriors.  The homes were small enough, that such bright colors didn't look garish.

My efforts to find a suitably historic palette have not, alas, turned up a plethora of available paint.  But I did find out that Sherwin Williams does market and offer a Historic Collection.  Worse still, they have a wonky, but addicting color visualizer tool.  (Wonky in that all attempts to save images after "painted" have thus far failed, or produced buggy images.)

Still, can you imagine how much more fun my haus would look painted gold with avocado trim?  Or jade with bright blue door?

Alas, I think we will have to wait a bit.  While the wood trim is liable to need some touch-ups soon, our  financial priorities have limited our ability to purchase paint for the stucco.  Any ideas on how to brighten up our home with just a new color trim?

homeownership

It's been about two weeks since we closed escrow and, to be expected, we are in full-blown homeowner mode.  We've made the obligatory repeat trips to the hardware store.  We've discussed the merits of copper plumbing with others.  We've googled numerous DIY and "how to" pages on everything from dishwasher troubleshooting, to pocket-door repair.  Yeah.

It's been about two weeks since we closed escrow and we still have numerous boxes to sort through and unpack.  As we knew that our last place was only going to be transitionary (five years of transition, apparently), we stored several boxes of items that we figured we may want whenever we did get into a home.  So, here we are--with five years worth of a stored "stuff."

It's been about two weeks since we closed escrow and we've already purchased more furniture.  I've found myself doing daily searches on Craigslist for items that would be just right for our late Art Deco/early Mid-century home.  I could not pass up a beautiful secretary/cabinet.  Plus a friend was needing to offload an antique couch that is a great color for our green living room.  Now, if only I could figure out just how to arrange everything in there...

You're seeing a pattern, right?  (Any inexpensive project-organizing software suggestions?)


Some major advantages to rejoining the ranks of the house dwellers include establishing a regular laundry schedule.  (No more fighting for an open washer.)  I have also been thoroughly happy in my larger kitchen complete with deep vintage sinks that are great for hand-washing dishes.  (Yeah, remember the part where I mentioned dishwasher troubleshooting?  We're stuck hand-washing until we fix our dishwasher.)

Probably the best part of our new adventure is to see just how happy the baby is playing in his backyard.  I'm a firm believer that children should be able to scratch around in dirt, get grass stains, and enjoy plenty of fresh air.  Declan loves being outside.  I am definitely looking forward to when we get our victory garden going and he can dig and plant alongside mom and dad.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to wrap my head around all the little things around here that I can accomplish.  Goodness knows there is plenty to do!

Home Sweet Home

The secretary

Opened

I love this little detail in the kitchen.  Wooden valance?

We have a few archways like this one into the dining room.

Looking into the dining area from the living room.

Looking into the kitchen from the service porch.

Hallway

Declan helps his dad with some yard work.

real estate karma?

So, that dream house? The one that didn't sell while we were going through credit rehab? The one that I wanted so much? The one whose agent led us to believe that they really wanted our offer? The one that then--miraculously--received other offers? The one that couldn't even be bothered to counter offer us and took a different offer instead?

Yeah--that one.

It's back on the market. The offer that they thought was better than ours must've fallen through. SCHADENFREUDE!!

It worked!

Thanks, everyone, for the crossed fingers/lit candles/good joojoo.  We are over the snag, it would seem.

Our realtor, bless her, had the idea of drafting a cover letter for our next repair request in which she would outline all the things that we could be asking for, but were not.  When we made our offer on the home, we assumed that the house included a functioning dishwasher (it's broken), a functioning disposal (also broken), a standard electrical panel (it's waaay substandard) just to name a few.  We were asking that a few, relatively inexpensive repairs be made.  You know, like moving the disposal switch to somewhere that a toddler couldn't turn it on while mom's hands were in the sink.  That sort of thing.  And they were balking.

Last night, our agent emailed over a beginning draft of the letter.  It was brilliant.  Basically it laid out the fact that we want the house, but we want it to be a safe home.  It said that we understood that the sellers want to minimize their expenses.  It asked that we work together to find a happy medium.  Additionally, it laid out the information that I mentioned above--that we were basically duped about a few things about the home when we agreed upon a price.

Well, apparently when our realtor went to the save the draft, she hit the wrong button.  She sent it instead.  Oops!

But this actually turned out to be a good thing!  Their agent called her today to say that they would DOUBLE the amount of money that they had originally offered toward repairs.  SWEET!

Additionally, we've learned that our loan has been sent to the underwriters.  AND our appraisal came back and it looks good--only a handful of teensy things to be done to pass FHA.  PHEW!

I am so relieved!

so much to do

Let's talk about timing, shall we?

Apparently mine is atrocious.  Did I mention that I managed to put a bid on a dreamy home exactly when they finally received other offers, thus choosing another offer than mine?  Yeah, I think that I did.

Well, as I've also mentioned, we are in escrow.  Naturally, this would be happening also when we were getting ready for our annual family camping trip.  This past Tuesday, I had to meet the home inspector at our prospective home, pack for camping, fill out escrow paperwork, et cetera.  Wednesday, we left for our trip after a mad, last minute packing frenzy.  Our trusted realtor made arrangements to meet with another inspector that evening and text us with an update as my fella was busy readying our campsite.  Thursday through Sunday, we camped.  We did our best to relax and enjoy the trip, but for me at least there was that nagging sensation that we could missing something important back at home.

Well, I'm home now.  Dirty, tired, a touch dehydrated.  I'm trying to relax a bit as I know that come tomorrow, it's back into the fray of paperwork, phone calls, housework, volunteering, dog/kid wrangling, and so forth.  Phew!!  Thankfully, it should all be worth it.

Escrow checklist

As of yesterday, we have been in escrow for one full week. And what a week it has been! Disclosures, checks, phone calls, emails... We have been busy!

Escrow checklist:

Open escrow account--CHECK
Sign seller disclosure paperwork--CHECK
Sign additional "required by law" paperwork--CHECK
Schedule inspections(s)--CHECK (they're today, actually)
Set up homeowner's insurance--CHECK
Provide underwriters with copy of escrow check--CHECK
Receive perplexing requests for documentation--CHECK
Comply with said request--IN PROCESS
Inspect property--SCHEDULED FOR TODAY
Appraise property--NEEDS FOLLOW UP

In addition to all the fun of escrow, we have our annual family camping trip this week. (Boy, are we awesomely bad at timing or what?!)

Between packing for camping and packing for moving we have managed to box up as little as possible. Whoops.

Potentially grand news for the HAUSfrau

I'm a touch gobsmacked. We are officially in escrow! How the heck did that happen?!

Well, it all began about four months ago. Like a few apartment dwellers that I know, I like to browse real estate sites and daydream. During one such visit, I learned that a historic home that I'd been oogling over was on the market. Better still, it was cheap!

On a whim, I asked my fella to fill out an online pre-qualification form and lo! he pre-qual'd! A phone call later, I'd scheduled an appointment with a realtor to view the house. I couldn't believe it--we were actively shopping for a home!!

Alas, that property didn't meet our standards. Too many hasty modernizations. No garage. No parking. But we continued to look. Soon, I found the *perfect* house. Gorgeously restored craftsman bungalow. Well, almost perfect. It was pricier than we hoped, was immediately next to an apartment building, and in an "eh" neighborhood. Still--I wanted it. So, we started to out in an offer.

But then I had to go and screw everything up with a stupid credit mistake. We were out of pre-qual as quickly as we'd started.

Hope was not lost, though. The loan folks told us what to do to get back into qualification. It would take three months of rehab. During which, I just knew "my" craftsman would sell.

But it didn't. In fact, it even got cheaper. Giddy after two and a half months of rehab, I called my realtor. She phoned the seller's agent to let them know we were still interested and almost ready. Their agent was excited. Told us she couldn't wait for our offer. They'd received no offers

Two weeks passed, we eager submit our offer. And hear nothing. Day three post-offer arrives and we hear that--coincidentally, they've received other offers. One of which they decide to take over ours. They wouldn't even counter-offer us. I was crestfallen. I lost my house.

That was about a week and a half ago. Since then, we've looked at other properties and put in at least four different offers. Well, one stuck. It's on a darling post-war home in the Wrigley neighborhood of Long Beach. A picturesque neighborhood with ample parking, gorgeous trees, and many nearby conveniences. The home itself has original countertop tile in the kitchen, original tile around the bathtub--which is also original. Hardwood floors, coved ceilings, a gorgeous back patio and a fruiting avocado tree! Just to mention a few of the lovely details.

We submitted an offer yesterday, and by last night we learned that they chose ours over three others. I'm nearly in shock!

Granted, escrow can fail. There are still many factors that must line up just so, but I'm still giddy. Who knows? This ol' hausfrau could have her own historic haus by 2013!

Yes, we are still looking--just in case. I have my eye another home, but it's a long-shot. Needs work (so we'd have to qualify for a specific FHA loan), is a short sale, and a touch pricey. But it's worth a try!

Photo is of the house we're in escrow for. Isn't it darling?