On Monday we shared some pretty big news about a house that we bought! You guys blew us away in the comments. We were so worried that you’d be mad that we did this without bringing you along in the process, but your excitement is only making us more excited!
We promised today that we’d come back with the story of our house hunting process — but we actually weren’t completely honest with you on Monday. It really isn’t our story to tell….
Tiny Bloggers here! Thanks, Sage and Naomi, for letting us take over your blog to share our story! We’re so excited about our new home but, frankly, also pretty terrified. This place is a major fixer upper (we’ll be back soon with the full “before” house tour). Wait until you see all the peeling wallpaper! Plus the floors need refinishing, there’s no plumbing, and half the roof is missing. We’ve literally never taken on a project of this size before.
We didn’t set out planning to buy a fixer upper. We were just looking for a nice, affordable home for our growing family. Aiden is an active kid, and we need more space for him to play (seriously, where do the small house people keep all the toys?!) and a yard for him to run around in. And Madison has been sleeping in a crib in our bedroom for far too long — it would be better for all of us if we could set up a nursery for her. But we had a lot of trouble finding the right house in our price range.
We want to be really honest about finances, so we don’t mind sharing our budget. The maximum mortgage we were approved for was $100, but those payments would be really high for our tiny salaries, so we set our budget at $80. We were mostly looking on craigslist – which is a pretty sketchy place to find real estate, for sure, but it’s the primary market for houses of our size.
But, MAN, the real estate market is tough these days! For example, this place is pretty much our dream home, but was far out of our price range at $400.
Look at that floor plan! Enough room for both kids to have their own room, a great master suite, AND an office/craft room. And, even though it seems to be built on a cliff, it has so much curb appeal… and just imagine the view from that height!
I mean, tiny bloggers can dream, but we have to be realistic about our means. Plus a house that size would probably cost an additional $2 a month just to heat through the winter, so I’m sure we dodged a bullet.
Unfortunately, even reasonable places were out of our price range. This is the kind of place that we thought we’d be able to get — cute and in a good neighborhood, move-in ready (just needing some fresh paint), and just big enough for us to each have our own space (if we finished the attic).
But $150!? That is nearly twice our budget! We saw a lot like this in this price range, and were getting pretty discouraged.
We were so discouraged that we almost jumped on this place when we saw it come on the market:
At only $30 it was WELL within our price range. But we would have compromised too many of our “must-haves.” For example, it didn’t have a bathroom, which is something that we think is pretty important for our family.
It was also very shiny.
Some people like the the 70s-glam vibe, but it just isn’t our style! We’re way more into the shabby-chic, MCM, chevron, sheepskin, vintage eclectic look, and that would have really clashed with a house of this style. I’m not sure we could ever have been happy here.
And, I know it seems vain, but even though the exterior is really ornate and some people would probably love it, it isn’t my style. It also seemed to be in a questionable neighborhood — I mean, our neighbor would have been a pot!
And then, there is the one that got away. Totally within our budget, and such a cute house! Just look at the curb appeal, and colonial details, like shutters and multi-pane windows.
You can definitely tell this place was from the 70s (just look at that wall paper!) but it was great quality with a lot of architectural interest and a lay-out that was two rooms deep — which is pretty uncommon for tiny houses.
It also had the unique ability to bring in a lot of natural light with its lift-up roof — so quirky and fun!
You better believe that we made an aggressive offer! But unfortunately others must have seen the same potential that we did, because this place was off the market fast. We were so bummed we didn’t get it. But I guess that happens a lot!
At this point we’d been house hunting for days, so we were pretty discouraged. But then we found it!
It’s the sort of place that we totally wouldn’t have appreciated if we saw it on our first day of house hunting. But by Week 2 (okay maybe I’m exaggerating, but it definitely felt like a week!) we had a much better sense of what was out there at our price point — you live and learn, I guess! It’s got a lot of space for our family and even though it needs a lot of work, at only half of our budget we can afford to make the changes that we need. It’s definitely overwhelming, but it gives us the chance to customize something just for us, which is also pretty exciting!
Even though we can hardly wait for you to see it in all of its 1950s glory, we won’t share too much now and will wait to do a full “before” post. We have SO many ideas for how to make this a unique and special place for our family. I’m excited to see if we’ll be able to salvage the original wood floors, and we may even keep some of the wallpaper!
Home buying is definitely a stressful process, and this was a roller-coaster. There were whole hours when we were convinced we’d never find the right place for us — but after a tough two weeks, we’re finally home. Thanks for letting us share our story with you, and we can’t wait to be back with more soon!
– Tiny Bloggers
P.S. We’re sorry for cruelly tricking you all, but we needed a “we’ve been keeping a big secret” post in order to feel like real DIY bloggers. Thank you for all your encouraging and supportive words, though we hope next time someone will speak up and tell us we’d be absolutely crazy to add a gut-job fixer upper to our lives right now…I mean do none of you care about our sanity? Anyway, we hope you’ll forgive us and keep reading Plaster & Disaster. Oh, and to our astute commenter who noted that the stairs don’t appear attached to the wall, you’re right: they’re most definitely not. Those tiny bloggers really have their hands full with this one.
P.P.S., You can follow the ongoing story of these intrepid tiny bloggers on our series page, Tiny House, Tiny Bloggers. Enjoy!
Sharing at Create It Thursday, Home Matters, Two Uses Tuesday, The Creative Gallery, and Idea Box.
“Aiden and Madison”? Oh, well played, ladies!!!
What, aren’t those unique and special names?
WTF? (Why the Face?)
OMG!
LOL!
I am laughing so hard! Well-played! And a dollhouse makeover can be just as gnarly as a real house, so … can’t type. Laughing.
Hahahaha, glad we made you laugh! That’s pretty much our goal in life.
Ha ha, this is absolutely amazing! Best internet prank in ages! And I seriously hope you do show us a before and after because that place is CUTE!
As for not trying to dissuade you from adding more insane levels of stress to your life, as someone who seems pretty much unable to avoid taking on new things even though I really do try, I get it, and I understand that other people are the same! Sometimes opportunities happen and you just have to grab them, even if it isn’t the best timing. Like my wedding this summer, at the same time as major house renovations…!
Best of luck with your mini-flip!
Thanks Anna! “Best internet prank in ages” is quite a superlative — I think I will be adding that to my resume!
Oh , just too cute .
What a hoot ..
Thanks Lynn 🙂
Great way to start my day! This is the absolute best “we’ve been keeping a big secret” post ever!
Thanks Zoe! Of course now if we ever do reveal a secret no one will believe us, but it’s a small price to pay.
Oh I am sooo gullible. I believed you two had actually done something completely insane but dared not say anything in reply to your original post. What grown child appreciates a “what?? are you crazy??” from their Mom. Can you here me sighing in relief from there? BTW….CUTE dollhouse! who gets to keep it? the first one who gets pregnant?
Yeah, you should see the email my mom sent me… trying so hard to be supportive, but also clearly thinking “you’ve lost your mind.”
I imagine we’ll sell it when we’re done like true house flippers!
Played us like a fool. You both are going to have triplets. Ha ha.
That would be quite a fate!
You two are complete scamps!
I was perplexed about the odd “we bought a house” post, but I sure didn’t see this coming.
And now I’m looking forward to the tiny reno!
🙂 We’re looking forward to a tiny reno as well, hopefully it will be a tad less back-breaking than the full scale one going on in my house right now. Although sitting on the floor and reaching inside the dollhouse is no easy feat….
Okay guys really very good. Should have used it for April 1st. My comment on your big scary news was “You are both very brave. To take on something like this when you have real jobs. . . .Can’t wait to see what you do.” If you read between the lines you will see that “to take on something like this when you have real jobs. . . . really says “are you nuts people!!! how in the he** do you think you can do this with everything else without losing your sanity”. But I’ve just been following you for a short time and don’t really know you well enough yet to say it straight out like that.
Yes, in the end the congratulations melted our hearts and made us feel like you guys have so much confidence in us — even if it’s over confidence 🙂
Would have been too obvious on April 1!
oh you little snots ha ha, you sure fooled this old woman, and i did think holy hell they will have lost their minds by the time they do this house and their own, xx
Indeed, that would be just too much! We try to challenge ourselves but not go overboard….
Well, I thought the dark floor in the first photo looked alarmingly slippery, but all the better to let Aiden and Madison roll their stiff-wheeled toys around. Hopefully you’ll take legitimate concerns like that into account with your renovation, because their tiny arms probably don’t bend.
Absolutely, we will be very thoughtful about flooring. I imagine it will need to be eco friendly as well as durable, safe, and of course amazingly unique.
Well I feel dumb. You got me. I thought the photos were surprisingly horrendous.
Sorry Ananda! They were horrible! We even edited them to be harder to make out… otherwise they would look too dollhouse 🙂
Well, at least it has electricity!
Of course we believed you were insane enough to take on a major fixer-upper! I have to restrain myself from trying to buy similar messes (fortunately my bank helps restrain me) almost as much as I have to avoid rescuing abandoned chairs.
The sad thing is… we are insane enough. It worked because it is definitely something that we’ve dreamed about together 🙂 But this will be much more manageable.
An, yes, electricity! Definitely a feature that not many of the other options had 🙂
Well, that’s what I get for falling behind in blog reading….I’m so late to the punchline!
Hope it was worth the wait!
One, you TOTALLY fooled me! Two, I’m the crazy person who would love to take on a gut-job disaster. Just yesterday I was scrolling through realtor.com drooling over all the ones that say “not safe to enter” and “sold as-is”. I guess it’s good you guys are a reasonable influence after all and not setting a bad example to further encourage my craziness. 😀
I do that too! We would love to take on a gut-job… if only it weren’t for our whole other jobs. And our actual houses. And now a doll house 🙂