Originally published August 2016
Houses are like people, in that each has their own personality and quirks. When you find one whose personality and quirks work with yours, well, you fall in love. If it is a person, you marry them. And if it is a house, you call it home.
The first time I walked through the front door of the Lamson House, it was love at first sight. Sure she had been sorely neglected but you could feel the history and stories in her walls and see the beauty in her bones. In that very first minute, it felt like home. I could very much see my family living in this house. But as we walked through the house, my husband ticked off the problems we would face. The house needed painting, many of the floors and ceilings were made of asbestos, the carpets were filthy, the wood floors – while beautiful – badly needed to be refinished and repaired, the water line to the house was shot…
I stopped listening after that despite the fact that he continued to list off all that was wrong with the house. When he finished, I looked at him and simply asked him “But is it salvageable? Is this something we could do?” He smiled and said, “Of course, but it will take time.” We put a bid in as soon as we could.
While we were ready to buy the house, the universe had other plans. Our initial bid fell through due to the fact that the appraiser valued the house at significantly below what the house was selling for (and frankly, what it was worth) and no bank would take the loan. So for two more years, I pined for the Lamson House. In my mind, it was already my home. We continued to save money hoping that we could buy it someday.
Two year later, we got our second chance. And this time we were ready. No appraisal shortfall was going to stop us as we had saved enough to cover almost any problem we might face. Fortunately the appraisal this time came in much more reasonable and the closing went off without a hitch. And we got to go home. And we got to go to work restoring it to its true full potential.