shorts: vintageblouse: vintage
belt: vintage
shoes: steve madden
i know i've been a bit absent the past couple of days; i'll be back to commenting and posting this afternoon. things have been a bit insane at our house since saturday. bryan and i found a house that we adored, in northwest philadelphia (mount airy). we haven't been actively looking for a new home, just randomly stumbling around on trulia. as much as we love living in south philadelphia, we (especially me) have been dying for some green space and a little room between us and our neighbors. i know i really shouldn't complain because we live on such a nice block and have the sweetest neighbors but i'm starting to feel a little claustrophobic. i think that growing up in rural pennsylvania with a huge backyard, gardens, and the ability to sleep outside whenever i wanted will always stick with me. we live in a safe area but we still have bars on our back windows and have to lock the second story windows whenever we leave. it makes me sort of sad that the dogs don't have grass to run around in, and our "garden" (if you can call it that, it's more like a few pots) is constantly being ripped apart by stray cats. thus is city life, i guess.
anyway, more about the house. it's an absolutely beautiful stone colonial built in 1925. there's an in-ground pool built in 1940, and a carriage house with two bedrooms, a bath, and little kitchen. the house itself haa 6 (!!) bedrooms and 3 and a half baths. all of the original details had been kept, like the parquet floors with mahogany inlay, crown molding, chandeliers, and french doors. the listing read that the house needed a lot of TLC, but the price definitely reflected that. upon talking to the realtor the first time, we found out that there was severe mold in the basement, a section of leaking roof, and a broken oil heater. we decided to check it out anyway, and let me tell you - the problems far exceeded anything we could have imagined. the floors were badly stained by what i can only guess was an animal, and chunks of plaster were missing out of the walls. none of the bathrooms were in full working condition (the tub had several inches of stagnant water, with - i kid you not - a litterbox floating in it). all of the electrical in the entire house needed to be updated. the shutters were chipping and falling off of the house, and the back porch was collapsing. the basement was, well, just foul. i had to cover my face with my coat because the mold smell was so strong. the mold had grown almost to the ceiling!
bryan and i are fine with doing renovations; we completely renovated our kitchen a couple of summers ago and it turned out beautifully. this house was just another beast completely, and far beyond our knowledge of home repairs. we found out after we left that there was asbestos around some of the wiring, and termite damage in the floor joists. i don't know what amazes me more, that someone a) lived in those conditions until a couple of months ago or b) that the seller thought that the house was in perfectly fine condition. it makes me incredibly sad that such a gorgeous piece of history is completely destroyed because of the previous owner's neglect. we obviously told the realtor that we weren't interested, and you could tell that he knew the house was a total disaster. like i said, we're not really house-hunting, and plan to stay in our current home for another 2 years (at least). once we do move, we'd still like to stay in philadelphia (or very close by, somewhere like glenside or elkin's park), we just need a little breathing room in our next house. i feel like i'm forgetting what grass looks like!
for you homeowners, what have your experiences been like when searching new a hew house? was it smooth sailing or a rough ride?
