Inspection Week Complete!

After a trying week of home inspections and lots of negotiations, we're finally moving forward with purchasing our first home. Buying a 56 year old house that hasn't been cared for very well is a challenge and besides needing a new roof, the house also needs a whole host of other repairs that will take us a few years to complete while we renovate.

I'm nervous about the challenges ahead but buying a "fixer-upper" also has its own rewards. I'm really looking forward to giving the place all kinds of personal touches and turning it into a real home. By mid-late February we should have the keys to our first home in our hands!

Holiday Miracles Do Happen!

I got an unexpected X-mas gift this year. This afternoon our real estate agent called to let my hubby and I know that the bank had finally decided to accept our offer on the '50s custom built atomic ranch house described in the listing as an "Eichler imitation." After a month of intense negotiations that had left me feeling more than a little discouraged, we get to celebrate Christmas eve along with the purchase of our first home.

The last 6 months have been tough going and buying a short sale home proved to be a complicated process. But I think the wait and research we did was well worth the effort and really paid off in the end.

Now comes the house inspections, moving process and if all goes well settling into our new home some 40 miles away from our current one bedroom apartment that we've lived in for the past 12 years. I'm excited about moving to the beautiful Napa Valley and I look forward to experiencing all that the Valley has to offer. I know next to nothing about wine except that I like mine red but I suspect that I'll enjoy learning about Napa's number one export.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all get to experience a miracle of your own this X-mas season.

Will This Be My Home?

Top: Exterior shot
Middle: Example of what the front door looks like
Bottom: Interior shot

The past 4 months have been exciting and frustrating. While looking for a home that fits our budget we've occasionally wasted time looking at houses that we knew we could never afford. But the current housing market is unpredictable and you never know what to expect. This weekend we got an unexpected surprise.

We've had our eye on this custom built 1955 atomic ranch house for months and it suddenly dropped 40k from it's asking price. We immediately decided to make an offer on it and much to our surprise, it was excepted!

The house is the second home of a woman that actually lives in the neighborhood but it's a "short sale" which means the offer also has to be approved by the bank. At the moment we're in the beginning stages of escrow but until we get bank approval and go through inspections I'm trying to remain calm, cool and collected without getting too attached to the house since the deal could still fall apart.

The place needs a LOT of work and it will undoubtedly take us a few years to get it into tip top shape but if we do get the house I'm looking forward to the challenge of restoring it.

Helpful Links For Those On The Move

For the past few months I've been focused on moving and there are a lot of helpful sites that have been extremely useful during my search for a new home. Some of these sites will undoubtedly be familiar, but I thought I'd share a collection of links to sites that I visit on a regular basis because they might help someone else who is in the process of moving.



If you're moving to a new area you can find lots of helpful information at Sperling's Best Places. The site maintains a large database of facts about every town in America covering important topics such as health care, the economy, housing, crime rates and public transportation.

Sperling's Best Places - http://www.bestplaces.net



My husband an I only own one car and we have no intention of buying another one so having easy access to public transportation and local businesses is important to us. Walk Score is a terrific site that lets you know what shops, public parks, libraries and other places of interest are nearby and easily walkable from your home.

Walk Score - http://www.walkscore.com



Crime Report offers detailed crime reports of any area. Just type in the location you're interested in and Crime Report will create a detailed map with notes about local crimes committed within a 3-30 day time period or more.

Crime Reports - http://www.crimereports.com



Family Watchdog is very similar to Crime Report but its focus is on violent sexual crimes. Once you type in your location Family Watchdog will create a map that lets you know the location of sexual offenders in your area so you can make smart and safe decisions to protect yourself and your family.

Family Watchdog - http://www.familywatchdog.us



Want to know where you can get a good sushi meal in town? Need to find someone to help you move? Yelp is the place to go! Yelp gives locals the opportunity to review shops, businesses, restaurants, etc. If you haven't tried using Yelp yet, what are you waiting for?

Yelp - http://www.yelp.com



The Find Good Food site can help you find local, sustainable, and organic food in your area. If you're concerned about the environment, eating well and supporting local businesses I highly recommend giving the Find Good Food site a look.

Find Good Food - http://www.eatwellguide.org



Last bit not least, Floor Planner is a great site that lets you create a customizable floor plan of your house or apartment. You can use this helpful tool to plan out your room design and figure out if that new couch you just bought will fit into your new home. This valuable tool can save you a whole lot of time and money, and it's free to use!

Floor Planner - http://floorplanner.com

Adventures in House Hunting Part III.

The house hunting has not been going all that well. In the last month we've bid on two of the houses pictured below without success. After 3 months the house hunting adventure we've embarked on has worn me down, but I'm determined to not get too discouraged. There has to be a house out there for us and hopefully we'll find it.


Early '60s home with a fabulous original garage door


Cute storybook ranch house built in 1961


Mid-century modern home built in 1951


Atomic ranch house built in 1955

Adventures in House Hunting Part II.

We've agreed that we need a home with at least 1000 sq. ft. of living space and we decided to focus on trying to find a mid-century ranch house. We personally prefer the style of mid-50s and 'early '60s ranch homes, plus they tend to have more room, the ceilings are higher and the layouts are more open. But the larger size also means that they're a bit more pricey so that's limited our options.

Finding an affordable ranch home in a decent location that's safe from flooding won't be easy but we've expanded our search. Below are some examples of wonderful mid-century ranch homes in the area. Most of them need some work since they've been modified over the years. Only the last three are for sale but the first house caught my eye and I had to snap a pic of it. If it was for sale it would probably be too pricey for us.









Will one of these be my new home? Only time and bidding wars will tell!

Adventures In House Hunting Part I.

When we first started looking at homes for sale we noticed a lot of really cute mid-40s and early '50s homes that were available.

These houses were often in nice locations (which often meant out of the local "flood zone") and some still had original features. But they were also a bit pricey and very small. On average they only had about 700-800 sq. ft. of room. Occasionally the ceilings were also rather low, which was hard on my 6 ft. 5 inch husband.

The Journey Begins

Our house-hunting journey started last week after my husband and I received money from the sale of his father's home. My father-in-law owned an incredible Eichler house in Marin County in California, but after he passed away due to complications from cancer last year the family followed his wishes to sell the house and divide the money between his two sons and second wife. My husband really wanted to keep the house in the family and wished he could have purchased it, but unfortunately we just didn’t have the means to buy the Eichler home for ourselves.








Photos of my father-in-law's Eichler Home

After saying goodbye to the fabulous Eichler house we set out on our own journey to find a mid-century home that would fit our budget.

Home prices in California have dropped dramatically in the last year due to the troubled economy. In some areas prices are down as much as 75% and lower than they've been in decades. But we're not alone in our quest for a house and we're competing with many other first time home buyers right now as well as wealthy flippers in the area who are trying to build up their real estate portfolios.

One of the most disappointing aspects of our journey so far is coming across a fabulous older home with it's original kitchen and many original fixtures intact only to be outbid by someone who plans to gut the house and tear out the kitchen so they can replace it with ugly cabinets and granite counter tops.

We hope to find a mid-century home with much of it's original charm intact and restore it. We're not interested in tearing it down and replacing it with a McMansion. Unfortunately we seem to be in the minority, but we're trying not to get discouraged. We know our home is out there somewhere in some long forgotten post-war suburban development and we're determined to find it!