Hi everyone! We purchased our first home in Northeast Minneapolis back in November of 2013, and have been documenting our progress on it ever since. Now that this blog is up and we have a landing place for our thoughts and images, we thought it made sense to start by sharing the story of how we ended up here in the first place. As this is our first post, you may find yourself asking “Who are these people anyway?” We’re still trying to figure that out ourselves, but what we know so far can be read here.
We’d been house hunting for about two months when we first saw this foreclosure pop up on our real estate app. It looked pretty rough around the edges, but really promising so we scheduled a showing the next day. We were both instantly sold on it, wrote an offer the day after the showing and began mentally moving in soon after. Sadly, national bank chains aren’t exactly quick to respond, and days turned to weeks without a word on whether our offer had been accepted. Thankfully our realtor put up with us asking countless times if he’d heard anything new, each time with the same answer of “No.” Finally after two months of no news, we got the best kind – our offer was accepted! A rushed inspection period followed, during which time we found loads of problems resulting from the house sitting vacant for over a year. We negotiated the price down with the bank to allow for the major issues to get fixed, and simultaneously made arrangements with our landlord to move out at the end of the month. Everything was lining up nicely until three days before the closing date, when we got a call from our realtor to notify us that the bank wasn’t ready to close.
With our new closing set for ten days after the original, we were temporarily homeless. We have some really great friends who offered us the spare bedroom in their basement, and we gladly accepted (Thanks, Nick & Angie Hoople!). We left half of our stuff in a box truck borrowed from my work outside Nick & Angie’s house, and the other half in the garage of the duplex we’d just moved out of. Not really ideal, but what could we do? We made the best of it by having a great week with the Hooples, cooking meals for each other, and pretending like we were in college again. Before we knew it the next (and final) closing date had arrived!
We arrived at the title company’s office for our 8:00 am closing on a Friday, and the bank’s representatives didn’t show (which we learned was pretty normal). However, it meant that after handing over our down payment check and effectively signing a 30-year lease, we still weren’t officially homeowners. We were…peeved. The title company assured us that they’d fax the documents over to the bank and that as soon as the bank had signed them, we could get the keys and start moving in. We left the title company’s office with the key code to the lock box after promising to not go in until we heard the papers were signed. In the meantime, we went back to our hosts’ house and got ready to reload the truck so we’d be ready to move right when we got the word.
Conveniently, right as I was getting the truck ready to go, the cable that supported the lift gate broke and the whole thing crashed to the street, nearly crushing my feet under 300 pounds of steel. We called my boss, who brought our company’s other truck to the rescue, and right when he arrived, our dog Taco decided to make a daring escape into the neighborhood. So there we were, two trucks parked end to end in the street, broken lift gate on the ground, and all three of us diving to the ground to snatch up Taco across a city block of front yards. Anyone who happened to be watching out their window was likely playing this as a soundtrack to the whole thing. Ten minutes of fast-motion Benny Hill zaniness later and Taco was safe inside the house again, and thank goodness too, cause she’s REALLY cute.
That head tilt: OMG <3 <3!
Anyway, after the chase we were all incredibly tired, but we still had to move everything from one truck to another so we could have a functional lift gate. In the process of shuffling everything to the second truck, Lindsey caught the buckle of a falling ratchet strap to the head, saw stars, and she somehow kept on going after what had already been a very stressful day. She would later require an ER visit for some dizzy spells as a result of the head bump, but maybe that story’s better for another day.
After we got the second truck loaded and all our stuff secured again, the stars finally aligned. Lindsey’s parents, who were coming to help us move, were about to arrive and we finally got the call that we could get into the house. A short drive later and we were breathing quasi-tearful sighs of relief, hugging Lindsey’s parents, and walking in the front door of our new house!
What followed that day and in the coming weeks/months/years will be documented with love hereafter. Our first home purchase was plenty bumpy, but we’re here now, and we’ve survived this far. We can’t wait to share our progress and learn new things both from the process and any readers who care to share their experiences with us. Thanks for joining us!
