money pit

Yesterday, I got this phone call from someone wanting to take a survey about what I feel are the qualities Governor Crist should be looking for in a judge, or something like that.  Except the guy pronounced "Crist" like "Christ."  Seriously?  I mean, don't they include a pronunciation guide or something?  This guy didn't sound like he was too enthused by the whole thing, though.  I didn't correct him, I just said, "I don't feel like answering these questions right now."  He was like, "Ok, bye."

Now, let me preface this next part with the following:  We are not now looking for a house or seriously thinking of moving.

So, it is a habit of mine to obsessively search Zillow.  What?  You don't know what Zillow is?  Well, let me be the first to tell you, it is a website that lists houses for sale in your area, complete with price, square footage, a picture, address, and even a link to the listing agent's site if that applies.  I am not sure if it lists all houses for sale, or just the ones people advertise on Zillow.  Anyway, I found this really cool house on a small lake in the middle of town here.  I went to look at it today (one of the perks of having a real estate agent for a mom).  It is vacant, so the kids were able to chase each other, screaming, around the house while we wandered.  The house is so cool, and I would go for it in a heartbeat if it weren't $60,000 overpriced.  It would actually be worth $220,000 they are asking if they: 

1. Cleaned the place.  And I mean hire someone to really clean it well.  The only house I have ever seen that was comparably filthy was ours when we looked at it for the first time.  Some of you (Ben & Megan) saw it when we moved in.  It was pretty gross.  This one was worse.  One shower had hardcore mildew on the tile (but not the grout, oddly enough) and the other still had soap in the soap dish.  Who moves out of a house and thinks, "Oh, I'll just leave my half used up soap here for the next guy."

2.  Painted the interior.  The walls were disgusting.  Some were bad colors, others were just dirty.  Why don't people do this?  It is one thing if the wall paint is in good condition, but these walls were gross.  If the walls had a fresh coat of white paint on them, I think I could even excuse the mismatched flooring (a combination of really nice tile, that broken orange and brown tile, hideous dark green faux marble vinyl tile, and something that could perhaps be cork, but it was so dirty there was really no way to tell).  This place was definitely a rental.

However, anyone that knows me knows I love a good fixer-upper.  I mean, I have already thought of a bunch of things to do to it.  And I have hundreds of questions swimming through my head (I wonder if there's terrazzo under that vinyl?  Could we put a pool in the backyard?  That wasn't a popcorn ceiling in the living room, was it?  Could we get bunk beds in that back bedroom?)  The style of the house is very me,  and the lot is amazing.  I mean, it is on a LAKE!  The main drawback is that the bedrooms are really small.  One is even smaller than Malcolm's current bedroom.  I actually walked into it and thought, "This must be a storage room because it is way too small to be a bedroom."  What I liked most, though, is that the kitchen and bathrooms had not been redone.  They are in vintage condition.  And really not that bad of shape.  But, I like that.  Most people would want to tear them all out and start all over.  Me, well, I wouldn't even tear down the sixties wallpaper in the kitchen.  It is really hard to find an older house that does not have an eighties bathroom renovation with dusty rose laminate cabinets and watercolor flower borders,  or granite countertops and a behemoth stainless steel refrigerator in the kitchen.  I like to keep as authentic as possible.  And this place is authentic.

I guess I'll stop here.  This is not my decorating blog, after all.