The Discovery

It all started one chilly morning in November. Otto, Maggie, and I were on our daily walk...sniffing tree trunks, peeing on lawn ornaments, minding our own business, as usual. Then we saw it - a cute brick house, covered in ivy, sporting an ominous WARNING - This house has been winterized sign on the front door...a likely indication of a mortgage that hit the dust. I liked it. I didn't want to live in it, but I've always wanted to buy a house in need of TLC and fix it up....even before all those Flip this House shows popped up on TV. And this one was cute. I didn't give it a ton of thought at that point, but on our next walk (with Kate) I pointed it out to her.

I said, "I want to buy that house." She laughed at me. I knew at that point that I needed more ammunition. I knew nothing about it, just that it was cute, and based on it's location, probably affordable. I headed home and started digging online for information. I discovered that it was indeed a foreclosure - a HUD property. When I gave Kate a bit more information and asked her to go look at it, she said no. What?! Kate, who loves looking at houses, loves projects, loves taking something old/beat-up/discarded and making it into something new, something cool....and yet she said no?! "If you're serious about this, put together a proposal for me," she said. So it began...