today we made an offer on a nice 1 1/2 story bungalow here in fargo. it has been on the market for almost a year and had the price drop about 9 grand since then. the seller made a pretty acceptable counter offer that looks like it will get us in the house with out any out of pocket money up front. we are allready pre approved and we just need to wait for the final approval on our mortgage app. i am so nervous right now. if all goes well we will be able to move in july 1st. this will be our first home. given the history and origins of the Bungalow it seems pretty appropriate for one to be our first home.

found this site while googling around to learn more about A&C and Craftsman style homes to pass the time.

i have always wanted to work with wood but that is sometheing that doesnt lend itself well to a rental unit lifestyle. this house has lots of opportunity to do those things. there is nothing major that needs to be done to make it livable. it is a good house. i want to make it a great house.

the house was originally a stucco finished house. not sure if it was always stucco. but at some point it was covered with steel siding and the soffets were covered so i can not see the exposed rafters. that is a shame but maybe could be fixed someday for a lot more money than i have now.

someone decided that all the trim needed to be painted. but fortunately they took very good care of the wood floors (which appear to be maple). the floor has a really nice patina that my wife and i want to keep. the archway between the dining room and living room was never finished with trim and someone ripped out the 10 inch mop boards and replaced them with some very ugly 3 inch baseboard trim. that will definately go the way of the dodo.

it was origanlly fuel oil fired furnace with hot water heat (the giant oil tank is still in a corner of the basement). it has since been converted to gas and has a new furnace. the radiators were converted to some very ugly and battered low baseboard radiators. i am trying to figure out a good way to cover them (any ideas). i also need to patch the little holes in the floor from the old radiator pipes.

the front porch has been converted to a 3 season porch and since skeeters are such a problem around here i think that will stay that way.

the attic has been finished out with a small bedroom and large sitting area. that will be the "master suite" (sans bathroom). the kids (5&7) were not thrilled when they found that out.

i hope to make the living room and dining room as period correct as possible.

my uncle could host his own woodworking/home renovation show and my father in law says i can use all his wood tools as long as i need them so all i need is the hose and some wood to work with. i cant wait!

i will post some pictures later. thanks for reading, this seems like a pretty cool place to hang out on while perusing "the internets".

--greg

here is a listing for the house:

http://www.zillow.com/homedeta...hotos/66533973_zpid/











the the house sits facing the north.

there are two bedrooms and a bathroom along the east wall on the mainfloor.

it would seem that at some point in its life the room directly off the front door used to have a door that opened from the entryway into the larger room. that door appears to have been closed up and a very narrow bookcase was put in the frame. probably happened when the family with 7 kids lived in the house.

sent in the purchase agreement tonight. now all we do is wait for the inspection and final financing approval.

What a cute house Greg! I'll bet you can't wait to get in there and start putting your own mark on it.

The first thing I'd have to do if I had that place is to paint those ((stark)) white walls! I'll bet a nice warm wall color will really make the beautiful windows stand out.

You and your wife are going to have a blast fixing up your new home!

~~ Congratulations!! ~~

quote:

Originally posted by bungalowbear:
What a cute house Greg! I'll bet you can't wait to get in there and start putting your own mark on it.

The first thing I'd have to do if I had that place is to paint those ((stark)) white walls! I'll bet a nice warm wall color will really make the beautiful windows stand out.

You and your wife are going to have a blast fixing up your new home!

~~ Congratulations!! ~~

thanks.

we are indeed bursting at the seams to get in. everything is contigent on the inspection and the final financing. i cant believe how fast things went at the beginning and now we just sit and wait.

we are shooting for a july 1st closing. since we are currently renting a souless town house we have to provide 60 days notice that we are moving out. that means august 1st will be our last rent and then we wont have our first mortgage payment untill september 1st. having 2 months to get the house totally ready will be nice.

just got done with the inspection. no major red flags, lots of "opportunities".

Well, we bought the house. now it is time for some TLC.

front porch


the garage






living room


attic/master bedroom


front porch




back yard

Congratulations on your new home. Please keep us updates with your progress and what you plan to do to it.

Best,

Goood Morning All,
First I would like to welcome bungalowbear to the Arts and Crafts Society where you will find most anything you desire to talk about on each and every forum and we hope you continue to come back as each time can be a learning experience.

Now for Greg and your new home I hope that everything went off without a hitch and you have moved in by now and since I have been in woodworking for 61 years now I would be honored to help you with advise in the restoration of your new home so feel free to email me at Ralj7@AOL.com if you should run into any problems. Covering the baseboard heaters is no problem if you would insert some pictures in your emails.

Looking forward to assist you in your reneovations in methods that will be economical but, still give the house the A&C look.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

quote:

Originally posted by Ralph Jones:
Goood Morning All,
First I would like to welcome bungalowbear to the Arts and Crafts Society where you will find most anything you desire to talk about on each and every forum and we hope you continue to come back as each time can be a learning experience.

Now for Greg and your new home I hope that everything went off without a hitch and you have moved in by now and since I have been in woodworking for 61 years now I would be honored to help you with advise in the restoration of your new home so feel free to email me at Ralj7@AOL.com if you should run into any problems. Covering the baseboard heaters is no problem if you would insert some pictures in your emails.

Looking forward to assist you in your reneovations in methods that will be economical but, still give the house the A&C look.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

thanks a lot Ralph. the offer is greatly appreciated. the house is pretty much a blank slate and i cat wait to get to work on it. we acutally have untill the end of august to finish moving in so we can take our time with paint and trim work.

the first major project (after paint) is going to be a bathroom renovation. probably not untill late july mid august.

i also want to clean up the living/dining room floor. it is maple and need some serious attention. it appears that a previous owner tried to "refinish" the floor in the dining room and did a pretty poor job with a sander and there are deep marks in the floor. they must have been done a while ago as they appear very worn down now. the rest is good just dirty.

what is the best way to clean up the maple flooring? i am not sure if they are urethane finished or just waxed. how can i tell?