little green is the nickname of our home.

why? well because it is green and little, of course!

as of june of this year, we have officially owned our tiny abode for 1 year! huzzah!

i would like to celebrate by sharing our real estate story with you. are you ready? good. :-)

little green came on the market in october 2011. at the time, *g* was going to school and living in another province while i was working here and living in our new-build condominium.

i came across little green through a real estate website. not only was it in our price range, but it was also in the oldest, most expensive, and most desirable area of the city. while i thought that we could handle a little fixer-upper, i thought that this would be too much of a project. 

a few months passed until one day in february i called little green’s listing agent. she told us that renters were living there, and that it would take a few days to confirm a viewing with them. i said that we were going to my niece’s birthday party that evening, so if they were ready to show it that night we would come by, and if not, we would just pass on it. (normally i am not pushy about these things, but i thought what is meant to be, will be.) she called me back to confirm a time.

when we showed up to little green, it was nighttime. not a good start. another negative aspect? the renters were filthy! 

the home’s exterior had house numbers made of rusted sheet metal, and two doors that swung in opposite directions. the front step was 6 inches wide and was not nailed to the house. inside, the foyer consisted of an air mattress and and old television on a storage bin, the living room had filing cabinets blocking all of the windows and was lacking seating, and the main floor bedroom only had a bed and garbage bags as window curtains. the kitchen had a wall clock, yellow appliances that leaked blood when they were opened, and a table with no chairs. at least, i think that there was a table under that mess. i didn’t bother going into the bathroom. what i did see was covered in hair. 

the only selling feature was the upstairs loft. aside from having to use a ladder to access it, ‘g’ and i thought that it would be the most perfect master bedroom!

oh and the renters stayed during our viewing. why not?

after all of that, we loved the house. at least we loved the potential in it. it did have a newly poured and reinforced basement, new windows, a newer furnace, and many more costly updates. it really only needed cosmetic work and to be rid of those awful renters.

in the end, it was bigger, less expensive, and in a better neighbourhood than our condo, and it was a house. we put an offer in, and it was conditionally accepted.

two long and stressful months passed before our property sold. our home inspection went smoothly. however, we did somehow lose 100 sq. ft. when the inspector said that little green was actually only 650 sq. ft. instead of the advertised 750 sq. ft. …

all hiccups aside, we finally moved into our little green gem on june 1, 2012. it was wonderful, and has been wonderful ever since. it was most definitely well worth the stress, the oddities, and the wait!

next week, i will post pictures of our bathroom renovation. :-)

this is little green before we purchased it.

this is after.

we do have many more projects for the exterior. this summer we will replace the shingles and finish the trim, while next summer we will paint the entire exterior, add on a dining and mud room, and change the front yard into a rock garden!

do you have any house buying stories that you would care to share?