Rambo

As I opened the door it was just as I had envisioned. Although the home was meager on the exterior the interior was roomy. Well, the living room area was anyway. It had a vaulted ceiling with a lovely fireplace and plenty of light. The residence was pristine. I was sure the Beav's Mom lived here. The only changes to be made, at least that were obvious, were the bright orange shag carpeting and the aluminum windows. Even the shag wasn't really a drawback, as most likely it had preserved the wonderful treasure beneath it ….the beautiful hardwood floors. The whole house was like stepping back in time. The kitchen, although very small, was in it's original condition, stove, counters and all. The bathroom was spotless and again in it's original state. Blue fixtures and pink ceramic tile filled the space. There were three bedrooms, one of which was an addition to the house done sometime in the 60's. It also had a walk out basement, which was partly finished. There was a wonderful find down stairs...a dryer from the late 50's in perfect condition. I'd never seen that before.

My emotions took me prisoner. I wanted this house! (so did my daughter) I asked my Realtor to attempt to get it for me. She quickly phoned the listing Realtor. We knew there was an offer on the house but apparently it wasn't as secure as they thought it was. Financing was their hold-up. I had a slim chance. We quickly wrote up a back up offer (full asking price. Trust me it was a deal!). In the mean time I prayed....I prayed hard! Unfortunately or fortunately....that is yet to be seen, I lost the cute little stucco house. The other Ranglers came through just in the nick of time....damn!

I was forlorn for a couple of days but bounced back in true form and began to think about the blue post and beam I had looked through. I decided to use my memory and graph paper and draw out the interior of the home the way I'd like to change it. I really did love the blue house but the work that was involved to bring it up to snuff scared me. No, let me re-word that. It intimidated me. I know nothing about renovating. I'm the girl who uses a butter knife to unscrew a screw and anything with a bit of weight to hammer a nail into a wall. Fortunately, I am artistic and the some of things I am good at is drawing up plans and interior decorating and design. I'm also the girl who knows what she wants and goes for it! Typically once I make a decision, rarely do I renege without good reason. Pencil in hand away I went. I turned the four bedroom into a three and put in a master bathroom, complete with soaker tub. I made sure the master bathroom was above the kitchen and beside the main bathroom. I did at least understand that the plumbing in the same area would be cheaper to reno. There really wasn't a lot of rearranging to do. I would have to get some walls moved upstairs but because it's post and beam there were no interior bearing walls. The only thing that made it a bit difficult to plan was the wall of windows. Obviously I had to make sure the walls were placed between the windows...duh.

Once I finished my plan I needed a contractor to come with me to the blue house again to give me a rough estimate of what it would cost to turn this into my dream home. Luckily my daughter Megan had a friend who was in construction and worked for a renovation company. I set the visit up with my agent and met the reno company at the blue house. We were there for close to an hour and I showed them what I wanted. I told them I would look after the flooring and the kitchen...I wanted an IKEA kitchen. The estimate came back at about $50,000. I added a few more pesos onto that quote for good measure and decided to make an offer on the post and beam. I would offer the owner $29,000. below what he was asking. I thought that was fair. I had to consider what I would get for my home and have enough to reno the post and beam. The offer went in and the offer came back. The owner only shaved $4,000 off his ludicrous asking price! Not to mention he denied and inspector to come through the house. WARNING, WARNING. Who the hell denies that?! My realtor was...how do I say?....pissed! She had never in all her years had anyone deny an inspection. My first reaction was that there was some major thing was wrong with the house and he didn't want anyone to find it. When it came down to it we quickly realized he was very eccentric and apparently had a lot of guns hidden in the house. Just Perfect, I have an unrealistic, unstable Rambo type home owner to barter with. I did a counter offer of $3,000 more and an inspection! I told my agent that was my final offer. The inspection was accepted but the price wasn't. Needless to say I bowed out of the deal!

This isn't the end of the story. It's only the beginning...for some strange reason there seems to be an abundance of beginnings and meant to be’s.