This is Part 2 of my 2014 year in review.
Home
With my change in jobs, I ended up commuting from North Boulder to downtown Denver which was a much longer commute than I was use to. But to be fair, I lived 7-10 minutes away from LifePics and so for years was spoiled with being able to go home for lunch, play with my dog, take a nap, and then head back into work. So the hour plus commute was a big change.
Right after I accepted the job at Wayin (but still at LifePics), out of the blue my old realtor called me to see if I’d be interested in selling my North Boulder condo. I had owned that little (30 year old) 1 bedroom condo for around 5 years, and had outgrew the space. The realtor informed me that the market in Boulder was going so fast, with such little inventory out there I could sell my condo at a decent profit. I was skeptical, I had bought my condo at the high point right before the housing bubble burst, and so for most of the time I owned the condo I was actually underwater. Most similar condos in my complex had sold for 30-40K less than what I had bought it for. When they suggested to put it on the market for 50K above what I had paid for it, I thought it was impossible, but I decided to roll the dice and give it a chance.
It took me every day for a month (all while starting a new job) to pack up and put all of my geeky things into storage to get my condo “show ready”. Sadly my pup had to go live with my parents during this time, but that ended up being helpful now that I was working in Denver and couldn’t come home a lunch to take care of her.
I had a lot of people see my condo, and even had an offer the first few days of it being on the market. I was overjoyed, even though the offer wasn’t much more than what I had bought the place for. But then the offer fell through. It took another few weeks before the next offer came in, for just a little less than the (outrageous) listing price. However, the buyer wanted it in less than 30 days, and so I started packing up the rest of my things to put into storage. And so in mid April, I said goodbye to my first home, and moved into my parents basement with just a bag full of clothes and my computer, with everything else going into storage. (I actually remember watching the beautiful Blood Moon at 2 in the morning while I was moving items out of my house.)
At the same time I accepted the offer on my condo, I started hunting for my own new place. I wanted to move closer to my new job, but didn’t want to buy a house and have to take care of maintenance and a yard. I also didn’t know Colorado well outside of Boulder and Longmont and so I went on an epic quest to find the perfect place to live. I think the first weekend out I saw 20 places. The second weekend another 20. Things and areas just started to blur together. We drove up and down the front range, from Aurora, Erie, Centennial, Thornton, DTC, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, Westminster, Denver proper, and wherever else we drove…I lost track.
If it was in my price range and was for sale between March and May of this year, I saw it. I learned how to spot the tell tale signs of water leaks, of thin walls, of foundation issues. I became an expert at seeing the angles of photos and being able to tell when they were stretching the photo to make rooms seem bigger, or hide the painful negatives of a unit. There were some where we drove up and didn’t even go inside. And then there were some I fell instantly in love with. And slowly my “max” price kept creeping up and up.
There was this one neighborhood I found that I loved. I had seen a unit, and when we put an offer in, it was already under contract. That was a common thread during this dark and crazy period. The market is so hot right now that units would go under contract within hours of being put on the market. But I loved this neighborhood and so kept an eye out. I had this app that would instantly notify me of new listings based on my given parameters. There were so many times I’d have to leave work early, hop on a bus, and have my realtor pick up me so we could rush over to see a just listed unit in my dream neighborhood. My life became commuting to my new job, working, and looking at new listings.
I got into many bidding wars, and watched as my “max price” went higher and higher. My banker said I could afford it, and I thought about getting (multiple) roommates to help cover the ever increasing costs. In hindsight, my max went almost 70K more than I had initially been willing to spend. And in some bidding wars I just went higher and higher…knowing I wouldn’t win, but not wanting to let go without a fight. House hunting (and temporarily living with you parents) makes you crazy. Finally after putting in offers on over 10 units, I won one! I had gotten to see the unit and made an offer on it after it had been listed ONLY ONE HOUR.
I was so happy to be done house hunting, and my future new home had a fireplace, 3 bedrooms, granite counters everywhere, wood floors, the whole works! But when inspection day rolled around…it was weird. Firstly, there were 4 or 5 small dogs and multiple cats in the townhome roaming around. The Inspector thought that strange. And the place was a mess. It had looked amazing the day I saw it, but on inspection day it looked like the owners had left in a rush, and left it in chaos. There was food all over the counters, toilets not flushed, clothes strewn all over, and (used) dog pee pads on the floor. As we were doing the inspection upstairs…the garage door started to open. My parents were with me and we just looked at the inspector. He was in shock too, realtors tell their clients never ever be present when the inspection occurs, so why were they here? So the inspector went downstairs to find out.
The screaming answered that question for us very quickly. They had mixed up the days, and thought the inspection was the next day. I could hear the woman of the house in horror say how she was so embarrassed, that the place was a mess and she had been planning on cleaning it. I then went down and we introduced ourselves. The woman was then so happy, she thought it was fate to meet me and learn who would be owning their home. She told me about how I would need to feed the wild rabbits, and stories about the neighbors.
It was fate all right, as the owners proceeded to talk to me and my inspector they told us things we would never known. Like how the foundation is bad and had broken their gas line, and instead of reburying it, the HOA just ran the gas line ZIPPED TIED to the gutter of 6 other units garages and that it was likely not up to code. Or how the owners of the units were in lawsuits with the builder over the foundation issues AS WELL as issues with the roof (something about massive killer icicles that I would need to knock down to protect myself and my dog) and that the balconies on all units had been CONDEMNED due to someone nearly dying when the barrier gave way. I was heartbroken to learn these issues applied to ALL townhomes in this entire neighborhood. My dream neighborhood that I had spent the last 2 months in bidding wars to get a unit.
And so I backed out of the contract (much to the anger and sadness of the owners who thought we were going to be BFF). At this point I became despondent as I was back a square one. I started looking into renting…but renting near Denver is insane. My mother pressed me to see a unit in a different neighborhood I had been to before. I had kind of discounted this area as I had only seen downstairs units…and they left me with a feeling of a depressed nursing home (mainly because the first unit I saw was a recently deceased handicapped old woman’s place, and her family was trying to sell me her ancient 60’s retro furniture in addition to the condo. It weirded me out.) I almost didn’t go see the upstairs unit because I had written off the whole neighborhood. But, the unit was at my actual ideal price, and so decided to again throw the dice.
This time, I liked the unit. The upstairs had a lot of light with big windows, and this particular unit had been professional painted and had certain upgrades the other units hadn’t had. I was still on the fence as it was off a major road and so noisier than I had wanted, but I just couldn’t keep house hunting. It was putting a strain on my new job, it was hard on my parents (me living at home and me asking to see each place I was putting offers in), and my realtor was starting to get ancy as well with the whirlwind the last few months had been. So I said yes! And moved into it in mid June.
It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. During the hottest part of the summer I found out the Air Conditioner wasn’t working. I was given the option of replacing it entirely or just doing a $100 part. But I was warned, when the AC failed again, it would likely take out the Furnace too. For the 3rd time this year I rolled the dice and took a chance on the $100 part. This time…my luck didn’t hold. The AC died in spectacular fashion a month later, not only leaking and destroying the Furnace but also molding up the entire utility closet due to the leaking condensation. So I ended up replacing the AC, Furnace, and Water Heater (for good measure) which was an unexpected expense.
But beyond that little hiccup things went well. After many trips to goodwill to donate things I no longer need, and many trips to Ikea and other stores for items I “had to have”, my place looks amazing. Gone are most of my dumpster dived or craigslist-free furniture. Instead I now have furnished it with tasteful adult decor. And I used the 2nd bedroom for housing my extensive collections of books, my office, and a closet stuffed entirely full of Legos.
And now that I have my pup with me, I finally feel like I’m home.
Leave a Reply