Ittybittybungalow

We finally closed on Wednesday, March 24th. I and I took Thursday and Friday off to begin the nesting process. Thanks to the remarkable efforts of all my friends and family I was able to get a huge amount of work finished!

Closing went well. I got to keep almost all the extra money I saved that I thought I was going to have to bring to closing. The only extra money I had to spend was 366.00 for the extra heating oil that was left in the tank when the seller moved out. Then through some kind of mumbo jumbo I don’t understand I got about 150.00 back from the seller at closing so I really only spent about 150.00 of that money.We were also able to get another 2,000.00 removed from the mortgage because of some extra grant money left over, thanks to the fantastic help of Legal Aid. Also, the mortgage payment wound up being really great, only thirty dollars more a month than I spent on rent at my first apartment, taxes, insurance and PMI included. Win!

Now, I would like to just stop for a minute and give a plug for The Legal Aid Society of Rochester. They were recommended to me by Neighborworks when I took my First Time Homeowner’s classes. They were fantastic! I felt like the lady who represented me really did a phenomenal job and I would highly recommend them to anyone else. Thier fee was also VERY reasonable. So if there are any Legal Aid peeps out there reading this THANK YOU!

A second shout out goes to the First Home Club. This was the grant that made it all possible. I’m really glad I did my research and found out about this grant. It covered all my closing costs and the down payment. The only money that I paied out-of-pocket to move in was for a bank appraisal wich was about 300.00, a home inspection again about 300.00 and the 300.00 (technically 150.00ish) for the heating oil in the tank. The grant which was about 7,500 covered the rest. Thank you First Home Club.

Moving on to moving in, this place was filthy. I mean dis-custing. So I spent all day on Thursday and Friday scrubbing it. Everything was washed top to bottom the walls and the ceilings and light fixtures. Once that was complete I had lots of friends over on Thursday night for some wine and casual house tours. Friday evening my friend John came to help me move in all of my big stuff  and a school friend , Emily took the before shots of the house which was another big help, because I wouldn’t have been able to do either of these tasks myself.

Once I was in we started painting and organizing. I’m going to leave off here. When I get the before and after pictures I’ll publish all about that in a separate post.

we have a closing date!

Thursday, March 24th.

Thank goodness, considering the current state of affairs:

I feel like the Joads en route to California.

I’ve done a lot of blogging and I haven’ posted any interior shots of the house yet. Here are the pictures of IBB from the real estate listing.

This is the front porch. Yeah, its pink AND it has red carpet. Clearly, changes are in order.  The storm windows are fantastic. I love the three over one design. All of the porch windows are removable, so those will be coming out as soon as the snow melts. There are few things I dislike as much as an enclosed front porch, it just doesn’t seem neighborly. Under that awful red carpet are great wooden planks. I think I’ll put in a new porch light and once the aluminum siding is torn off and the orignal clapboard exposed I’ll paint the whole house. Porch included.

In this picture you’re standing in the dinning room and looking into the living room. One of the great things about IBB is that a lot of the woodwork is still unpainted. In both the living and dinning room there is also crown molding. These rooms are going to be the Benjamin Moore Nantucket Fog color which is a blue/gray.  The Jorun rug goes into the living room with my existing gray couch and love seat  . I’m also going to make vintage style roller shapes with scalloped edges to replace the binds and then hand the Robert Allen drapes over the top. They’ll be something like this:

Here is a second shot of the living room. In  this picture you can see where the old fireplace used to be. A long-term goal of IBB will be to replace that. In the meantime. I’ll put the TV between the two little windows and place the couches around it.

 This next picture is of the second bedroom. The shelves will be removed and reused in the garage. This room gets the Martha Stewart Fig color and the trim in the room will be Martha Stewart Picket Fence because the woodwork is already painted. Roller shades for the windows and fresh cream colored drapes. My roommate can figure out the rest.

This last image is of the second floor. Eventually, I mean a LONGtime from now this will be the master bedroom. I’ll add some dormer windows and a bathroom somehow. Between now and then it’s going to be storage.

And there they are. All the pictures I have of the house as of now. You can see the kitchen in the Kitchen Talk post from last week and I have no pictures of the master bedroom or the bathroom.

So here she is, meet Ittybittybunglow. Closing is in three weeks and we are all very excited. but we have a lot of work ahead of us. Ittybittybungalow needs a huge amount of TLC. So what do you need to know about her? Here’s the rundown:

864 square feet
Unfinished attic
Semifinished basement (office and a darkroom)
Livingroom
Dinning Room
2 Bedroom
1 Bathroom
and a kitchen.
Built in 1930

What can you look forward to? I will be chronicling my attempts as a first time homeowner on a budget to restore and update this house to the ittybittybungalow charmer that I know it can be DIY style.