Playing Catch-Up: Exciting News x2!

Safe to say that I took a little bit of a hiatus from blogging about the house hunt. Oops. You probably didn't want to hear that much about it anyway. It has a tendency to be depressing, boring, a lot of build up and excitement only to result in a crushing letdown... you know, house hunting in general. The end result is a lot of good news mixed with some bad news.

Good news: We sold out house! YAY
Even better news: We sold it for our full asking price. Double YAY. Our realtor is a rockstar.

Bad news: We're renting. Bleh. In Torrance. Double bleh. It's not that we're in a totally crappy situation. Not by any means. We're just not where we want to be... and the house is old... and most of the family members (me + the dogs) are allergic to something here... and it's Torrance. But I digress, we are thrilled to have sold the house and we know that renting is only temporary. Speaking of...

Good news: We found a house!
Even better news: We have an accepted offer!!! Who-freaking-hoo. Everyone, I would like you to meet Narcissa.

Ain't she a beaut?

Here's her stats: 4 beds, 3 baths, and about 3000 square feet--half of which is permitted. Yes, about half of this house was done without permits by a longshoreman who fancies himself a contractor (oy vey). BUT, we've been working our contacts at the city, and we're pretty confident that we can get "after the fact" permits as part of our remodel plans. It won't be easy, in fact the city said it was an "arduous process," but then we could truly earn the right to name this place "Hacienda de Papeleo."

We've got our work cut out for us with this one and we're planning a full remodel. We are opening escrow today and shooting to have inspections later this week so stay tuned for that. We're probably going to have a total of 9 (!!!) inspectors at the house to have a look. It is in that same dormant slide area of Portuguese Bend, so we want to be sure we're not going to slide down the hill. Plus, we want someone with more knowledge than me (and my HGTV PhD) about construction to have a look at the unpermitted work. Lastly, my good friend Lauren is an interior designer and will be helping us to create a vision for this place. Lots of people will be milling about.

Oh, some more good news: We added one more to our cast of characters. Meet Clementine.

She's a beaut too. 

Little Clemmy joined us in September and she will add a whole new element of fun and challenges to this whole process. Hmmm... whole home remodel with an infant and a 2-year-old? Fun times.

All right, enough catching up for now, much more to come later this week as the inspection process starts. I'll try to take some more photos too.