Da Stairs

Stairs and more Stairs

So this is the front entry. Nice HUGE door that needs the glass repaired and replaced. That molding on the side of the stairs is hand done and is in great shape. The entry way is super wide and it is hard to get everything into a single shot. The top on the banister will have to be replaced and the stairs are in shaky shape. 

The second floor is just amazing with the winding wood that we will refinish and the stairs leading up to the third floor. The two rooms in the back are the two second floor bathrooms. You can also see in the distance the widows on top of the doors that were used to circulate air.

Going up to the 2nd floor there is a bit of ceiling repair work to be done. The best part is the wooden molding that is still intact in the home that will be refinished and saved. There are a couple of spindles missing but they have them. 

We have a servant's stairs that leads to the kitchen. We need some more lighting in here for sure. The walls need love (lots and lots of love). The wood is in great shape though. 

This is an interesting room. This is peering out of the kitchen to the sun-room. It has a bathroom on the left and a weird closed in area that they used for a closet. They covered it in beadboard which doesn't make sense for the house as a whole. There is no other beadboard anywhere and it clashes with the high end wall paper on the walls. At least it has an overhead light. I forgot to see if it works. 

To the right is the main hall that leads to the front door. We will probably the closet a coat closet with a pantry since it is right next to the kitchen. 

A room with a view, and an escape hatch

Sun-room

We haven't even made it off the first floor yet and this room connects via a common wall to the parlor. It has an amazing amount of space and really good light with a door to the backyard. The wall paper is a toss up to keep (yea right) and the floors need new wood. This was on the addition side to the house so we aren't sure if under the plastic tile there would be hard wood flooring. This room needs insulation badly from underneath in the garage area so they just closed the door and called it the cold room. The radiator is also not working in here. #stufftofix

The overhead light that is plugged into the wall has got to go. Bring in some overhead lighting! 

The other really cool feature to this room is the original doors and handles that exist. The rooms also have a window above the door (not pictured) that you could use to vent air throughout the house while the doors are closed. At one time this house was an amazing engineering feat.

Needs:
Outlets
Overhead light
wood floor
Paint walls
Radiator repair
refinish doors

The can

The first floor bathroom

Well the good thing is the space is nice and maybe the toilet we could keep. Sink counter is also salvageable (maybe). The wallpaper and floors are total guts. The electric needs upgrading and the storage is awful. 

They took out the bathtub that used to be here and turned it into a weird closet in the hall. We will keep the closet but divide it into a coat closet on one side and a pantry on the other. This room need help. Anyone want that curtain? #yeesh

The cooking room

Kitchen 

And now the real work begins. Where do we start. First this was an addition to the house. The original home in the 1870s probably had the kitchen and out house seperate from the main house. This latter addition would have been around 1910ish when indoor plumbing was starting to come around for the wealthy. The floor is laminate tile (gone). The cabinets are gone. Look the kitchen is a gut. The doors are amazing and the light is unreal in this room. 

Funny story. The women who lives there now is running her washer which is leaking through this hole to the kitchen sink below. I think we might need to fix that. 

We need to do something with this corner. Not a ton of space in here for counters and upper cabinets. 

So not sure if the orange wall paper'd box on the top of the cabinets are anything useful. Would love to blow that out to get bigger uppers in there and use the height of the room for storage 

Back door has issues. Don't we all? 

Fridge is going in this hole which we will blow out to accommodate a bigger fridge. 

Another angle before I show you our rendered idea. 

We wanted to take advantage of the space we had and a true island won't work. We are going to try an open galley concept. Restore the wood floors and create an open eating area right off the back door. 3 spots hit this area and 9 additional LED lights with undermount lighting under the top cabinets.

This is a nice view while you are cooking. 

Another view of the traffic flow. The triangle is intact with only the fridge in the flow of traffic. The prep and cooking area get direct access to the fridge which is hidden flush with the wall on the right. Additional storage is provided on the backside of the connected island. The island countertop will extend on the left all the way to the wall but couldn't get the rendering to let me do it. Also the eating space will be standard bar height rising above the cooking surface so people don't burn themselves. - hello children.

Four feet of space will accommodate two people cooking or partying it up. 

Da Eatin Room

Now the real work begins. From the pano view you can see the library on the left and the kitchen entry on the right. The right of the fire place has water damage from the chimney that wasn't flashed properly. Flash your chimney people, it will save you lots of water damage later. If you don't use it, please just lop it off the roofline, it will save you later. Large space and fixable floors. wallpaper has to go. Debating on putting up wall paper or painting. 

Oh that chair rail - not legit. Dun gone.

Need to see if the light is original. If so, it's staying. 

Entry way needs work. 

I don't think they kept live chickens in the room but we won't. Chicken wire gone, glass coming. 

Work to be done:

Add lighting to the butler's pantry

redo floors

remove wall paper

repair corner

Paint

Add outlets

The Library

So the Library is where my area of the house can be claimed. Amazing space that leads to the dining room on the right and the front of the house on the left. It has folding doors and ready to be restored hardwood floors. This room will not be painted but restored to the original wood trim colors. 

See that period detail boys... that's money. Please ignore the brown painted trim that will be quickly removed with stripper. 

We are going to restore this shameful original bi-fold door.That's isn't glass, its plastic. Yup. Got to go. 

nice built in desk next to the fireplace that doesn't work. Cute little corner. 

Another shot of the door. 

A non-pano of the room with the floor more defined. This space is just huge. Good think I have enough books to stock it. 

Plans:

Restore the wood trim

Restore the floors

Add outlets

Add center lighting 

Fix decorative fireplace

The selling point - the Parlor

The Parlor

When I say its big. Just look at the couch. I can't even get the right side of the room with the pano on my phone. Its about 615 sqft. That's the size of some New York apartments or even one bedrooms in Cincinnati and this is our front "room". It is the most complete room in the house. It only get worse from here so let's start on the high note. The molding is molded plaster not wood. Amazing craftsmenship. Sadly the parquet floor was sold off years ago so we are debating about how to restore a wood look that is cost effective. The door on the right goes to a screened in porch. Oh and the ceilings, they are 11 feet. Measured them with a laser to confirm. #crazytall

Not a great picture and don't know if its original but it looks awesome in that room. They used to hold dances in this room back in the late 1870s.

Another shot of the mantle and seating area with a regular non pano shot. 

The room is so big it has 2 entry points in the hallway. The doors are crazy tall. 

Yup that is carpet right next to the fireplace. Good thing it doesn't work. God knows what is under the carpet that needs fixing. That's what an adventure is for. Buy the house with the mystery behind the curtain, er carpet. 

Really awesome curved moldings. Yes we are saving it all. 

 Plans:
Add ceiling recessed lighting
More outlets
Wood flooring
May change the paint color
Repair slight damage in the back corner

Before Closing

Before Closing

We must be crazy. When Katie and I uttered those words to each other over dinner after three separate trips up to Cincinnati for house hunting I think we crossed a line somewhere. Are you trying to convince yourself of the fact or are you just trying to comfort yourself by eliciting that your spouse must also be a bit insane. There is comfort in knowing you're not alone in what you are attempting to undertake. We have joked about the Money Pit (see here) and for me this is the second go round. This time however I was told the house had (read must here with my wife's eyes the deepest of red laser beams) be move in ready. Not just any move in ready mind you, VERY move in ready with our agreed upon finishes completed. 

How did we get here? 

House 1: 

Made a trip up. Made a second trip up and drove the family all night on a Friday to see it on Saturday morning. Was told there was an offer on the table and we needed to decide by 3pm. We were scheduled to see the house at 1pm. When we saw the house, the listing agent interrupted our showing with her own client even though she knew we were scheduled to be there. We made an offer. It was the highest offer and was told they would fax it back by 5:30pm. 5:15pm we get a call. The owner signed another offer. The agent pulled in another buyer so she could get double the commission and we were never allowed to counter. We had no other houses lined up to see on the trip so that was a waste. House was sitting for 183 days and went multiple offers the morning we got there. #gah

House 2:

I had flown up for a 3 day house o poluzza tour and settled on a solid choice. Stain glass, decent neighborhood, had amazing charm. Took a ton of pictures, saw the house three times and knew the modifications that needed to be done on the house to make it fly for years to come. It was on the higher end of the community and we would be break even on the house but we were committed to being apart of the change in that area. The house had been sitting for 284 days. We made an offer on Monday, Seller Counter Tuesday, Wednesday we countered and they rescinded our offer. Our agent called them and asked them what number buys the house. They supplied a number, we wrote it up with their number and... they took another offer. #gah x2. We were planning on flying up Friday to look at house 2 under contract, but we ended up booking a flight to restart our search... again. 

So that brought us to Werk Rd. It was on the previous two trips but we couldn't get in the first trip and the 2nd I just didn't have time to get to it. It only had one exterior picture (we know what that means) so it never hit the "must see and be move in ready" list. Katie and I flew up in the middle of the blizzard and looked at 9 more properties. One we had to park a block and half away because the snow was so thick the cars would have been stuck. I was just ready to pick anything. Seriously, after the last two offers gone back, I didn't care. Did it have heat, A/C and would pass an inspection - sign me up. We showed up at Werk. It was a mess. Old, nasty, and full of damage everywhere. But did it have charm. You could tell this was the house to be on the block. 3500 sqft of space on the first two floors alone. 1600sqft basement that could be finished and a loft area of 1100 sqft. No shortage of space but it needed work. Katie did not approve(see here) and was quickly moving me out of the house. Over an amazing dinner we crunched the math. It was nuts. The only one that made sense on paper was Werk. 3 were out off the bat because of neighborhoods. 3 more were too small for future family growth. 2 we were going to take a bath if we bought them which left... Werk. We went the next day with phrases like "I'm not saying we are going to get it but if we did...". We looked at it again during 5 inches of snow coming down and walking through the house with a fine comb to understand the scope of our insanity. 

We flew home. Slept on it. Put in an offer and it was accepted immediately. #scary That's when you should feel sick. It was hard to be happy. Did they know something we didn't and we were the suckers? Don't answer that - I would rather live in bliss. 

UPDATE: 3 days after the Werk Rd. house went under contract we received a call saying the buyer didn't like the inspection report of house 1 and walked away from the deal. The house was ours if we wanted it. #bangshead We politely declined. 

UPDATE 2: 2 days after the previous phone call we get a notice that house 2 is ours if we want it. It seemed the other offer was a cash offer which is why they took the lower deal (why if its less in the seller's pocket in the end I will never know) but the person backed out with cold feet. Although tempting (really, really tempting) it just didn't add up to what Werk could be after we renovated it (a lot). The numbers heavily favored Werk, bigger yard, better neighborhood, and on a dead end street. 

I don't know if we were supposed to buy this house. Some say Jesus choose this house for us. It was quite an unusual ride to get here that I can't explain really. Would God give you a scorpion if you asked for bread? Perhaps we were asking for rocks and God refused to hand them to us. They might not have been the right homes for us. This is not the house a normal person would pick. We wanted bread and just perhaps this house holds the key to that recipe.  

So that's where we are now. At this point we are supposed to close next week. Who knows at this point. If it does go through it will be yet another amazing adventure.  

Full disclosure by the numbers:

289,000 House up the street is pending for  (see here)

9 weeks after closing (yikes!) = Total time to get the job done: 

June 23rd =Move in date: