We purchased our first home on Valentine’s Day, 2003. We searched for 3 days and toured about 24 homes… our home was the fourth one we saw on the first day. It was a house that I found on the local MLS site… and when we pulled up to it and realized that it wasn’t the cutesy bungalow that we were after, I remember my husband saying, “Well, we’re here, we might as well check it out”.
Here it is, our first front door, in the Houston Heights.
So… we stepped inside and fell in love. Talk about ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’! It is an English Cottage style home built in 1930 (relatively old by Houston standards) and it has soul. It is ~1600 sq ft., 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and didn’t have an inch of wasted space. The most efficient floor plan: walk in to the living room where you can look toward the back of the house into the dining room and kitchen; from the left wall of the dining room you enter a ‘hallway’, which is ~5ft wide and has built in bookshelves and cabinets… it’s effectively a room; off the front of the hallway is a large bedroom with a serious walk-in closet (more of a dressing room); the main bathroom is off the middle of the hallway and the master bedroom is off the back of the hallway; master bathroom (former bedroom) is behind the hallway off the master bedroom. Oh, and there was a small den off the right side of the living room.
It was perfect for us.
So, on Valentine’s Day, 2003, three pens and $228K later, it was ours… and so begins the dreaming, the planning, the researching…
We lived there for 5 years, and in that time we painted every surface, replaced the a/c, replaced the water heater with a tankless one, replaced all of the plumbing, replaced the circuit box, replace the front porch with a new front deck and arbor, replaced the back porch with a new back deck off the master bedroom, new roof, exterior paint job, wired most of the rooms (and the back deck) with speakers, renovated the master bathroom, built some new cabinetry in the kitchen, new stove, installed a pot-filler over the stove… it was addicting really. Our list had no end.
Eric and his brother built us a new front porch. Note the new paint and roof too!
The more we made changes to our home, the more interested I got in uncovering and preserving its history. I learned a bit at closing when the previous owner passed along some info… I researched city records, we crawled under the house to look at older ‘foundations’, we found double walls that indicated a later addition, we found dates carved in cement…
In 2008, we put the house on the market as we were relocating to Madison. It was sad to leave her (note: I’m pretty sure that anthropomorphizing your home is a sign of some sort… haven’t done that yet with the current house). I wrote a little history of the house to leave with the new owners (which I hope the new owners appreciate).
In the end, we made it our place, left our mark on it… and kept its character in tact. We’re pretty proud of how we left it – and the return we got on our investment… sold it for ~$330K.
Now we’ve bought a home in Madison, WI – which is a story worth telling (I’ll share soon). We’ve been here for 1.5 years now, and already have plans in the works for a major addition. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed with ideas about our plans: financing, contractors, green certifications, appliances, efficiency, pantries, windows, flooring, fixtures, garage doors, investments, fireplaces, workshops, landscaping, ceilings… I’ve started this blog to share my research and ideas, and to learn from your experiences too.
I wonder, how important is building and maintaining the character of your home to you? Is your home just a place you live in? Or have you made it your canvas?
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