The one that got away.....

[1918ColonialRevival]

While looking around the Old House Dreams site, I saw a Second Empire house my wife and I went to look at around 2006. I had interviewed for a job at nearby Fort Lee and was all set to transfer there when the funding to support the position was withdrawn and the transfer fell through. Here is the house:

https://www.oldhousedreams.com/2019/08/28/c-1882-second-empire-petersburg-va/

My wife and I had gone to look at this house the weekend before and were prepared to make an offer. Asking price at the time was $95k if I remember correctly. The house had been divided up into three or four apartments, probably in the 1940s from the materials that we saw (most of which are gone now). It's amazing how a decade and a half changes a place. There's been some "Depot Cheapo" renovations done since we saw it, but it looks like enough of the original material is still there to work with. The dining room mural and radiator with plate warmer were two things my wife fell in love with when we first went in and they are still there. A lot of the interior woodwork that is white still retained its walnut finish when we saw it.

This is the one where I can't help but wonder what might have been. Anyone else have a similar experience or story of the one that got away?

[phil]

I had a few slip by as I was shopping and the prices were going up like crazy so that first house that I sort of used as my benchmark could never be matched again.

I was all set with an offer down on one but under inspection found it had a wet basement and drainage issues. half of it was an addition on wood blocks and it had urea formaldehyde insulation. It has a "functional interior perimeter drain" that's like a drain around the house in the basement, but on the inside.

one thing I compared with my experience was that I really liked the wall phone in that house from about 1939 or so. It was in the hall as you went in and It somehow caught my eye.

funny that one may sway a decision like a house on something that's really no big deal. I found one just like it for about 50 bucks which is a pittance compared to the cost of the house. I liked the fireplace insert too but it was not vented so the inspector said it should never be used. It would make carbon monoxide. it was sanded and painted up but the nails all shone through the floor from over-sanding. The inspector pointed out that a lot of the nice moldings were not original. It had a buried oil tank and the agent basically was playing that up like a fiddle..

I think my takeaway was. "If you are shopping, look at the girl not the jewelry"

It sounds like the job changed things. It is nice to do it that way and buy near work. I went to extra cost to do that, which I couldn't really afford, but I sure love not spending so much on gas and so much of my time in the car. The trade off was traffic noise but I did some stuff to help insulate the sound and that helped somewhat. Any house decision is a trade off. unless the market is that hot I'd make any offer subject to inspection or subject to financing. give yourself a bit of time to get over the emotions and decide if it's a good decision. You can't view too many.

[Willa]

I looked at a large house that is about five blocks away from where I now live. The house was built in the early 1900's, so it is a little younger than the house I own. It was right next door to a church, and may have been the manse.

The house was in better over all condition, and had exciting features like a front and back staircase. It had five bedrooms. However - it only had one bathroom (though the plumbing for a second had been roughed in). The bathroom it did have was blighted by Home Depot type renovations. I really liked the house, but felt that it was too much house for one person. It also had a garage in poor condition that we couldn't access, and one of the church's basement meeting rooms was on level with the backyard with a large picture window. It was right on the busy street that I live close to, but not on.

In retrospect - if I had bought that house, there would have been different hassles to contend with. The area is even rougher (not good) and a few doors down are several houses cut up into cruddy apartments and rooming houses. The church next door was sold and is now a mosque, so there are prayers 5 times a day.

There would have been no gas station neighbour (extremely good) but the back yard was smaller and much less private. I think the lack of privacy in the back would have bothered me a lot. The kitchen had a recent reno, with an island and granite countertops (not to my taste but surprising in this area), which I would have had to undo.

The house also had a giant basement. I think I would have felt less safe in the house, as there were more potential access/hiding spots in relation to troubled and troublesome people.

That house listing came up about three days before the listing for the house I did buy. My realtor made an appointment to view it - but was then stricken with some intense bug so we had to cancel. Then the listing for this house appeared that night !

Sometimes I think things work out all the same. That house was more expensive - but needed less work overall. Repairing or removing the garage would have eaten up some cash. If I had bought that house I wouldn't be poisoned by gas station fumes (a real feature) but I would be constantly anxious about break-ins and worse. The house itself was surprisingly quiet despite being on a busy street - but there is a Tim Horton's close by so there would always be traffic and people hanging around. There is also a very run down building right across the street that all manner of sketchyness seems drawn to.

We looked at both houses on the same day, and they both troubled me for different reasons. I think - all things considered - that I bought the right house for my purposes - but the gas station neighbour nightmare was an unknown in the future.

I always look at the house when I go by on the bus. It was on the market for a long time. It finally got sold to a person or business entity that tried to make it work as communal offices - but the location was just all wrong for that. It came back on the market about 18 months ago - not significantly changed or more expensive than the original asking price.

[Manalto]

Before I shopped for houses in Mobile, I took a trip to Puerto Rico, thinking I would find something in that depressed housing market (2017). I have an affinity for the tropics and my Spanish isn't terrible.

Traveling around the island, nothing struck me until I looked at a house in Canovanas, a mountain town situated at the west edge of the El Yunque Rainforest. It was a medium-sized square house, pretty ordinary. What was spectacular was the 15'-wide covered patio that wrapped around the entire house. It had a low wall around the perimeter and encaustic tile floor in a beautiful, traditional pattern. Situated on the crest of a hill, there was a constant breeze and the views were stunning; you could see the Atlantic Ocean in one direction and could catch a glimpse of the Caribbean Sea in the other.

Sorely tempted, I decided against it. Puerto Rico is not the island I knew from my visits in the 1980s. It's no longer the innocent and friendly place I remembered. Crime is rampant, and buying that house would have meant leaving it unattended for months at a time. This was before Hurricane Maria struck so everyone who knew about my investigations there said I dodged a bullet but in reality it wasn't going to happen.

[Gothichome]

Colonial, that’s a good size house, there is enough work in it to keep you going for decades. But what a grand home to bring back to its former glory.
James, Puerto Rico, the Home sounds idyllic, you can sit back with your spiced rum and watch the world go by.

[awomanwithahammer]

Oh, so many! A day late, and a dollar short...

[Ober51]

I sometimes long for https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/319-Grove-St-Oradell-NJ-07649/37986399_zpid/ house, in the same town just a few blocks over. It was similar to mine, just bigger and with a very big garage. It was also more money, but it would have been doable by the time it sold a year later or so.

The worst part? Someone with our mindset did not get the house because someone knocked it down and put up a behemoth. When the owner was told that she razed a historic house, her response was, "Where are these historic houses?" My answer was, "Go out your front down, walk 10 paces forward, turn around 180 degrees, and stare at your new house. That's where it was." Imagine knocking that perfectly sound, beautiful house down?