The seedling

Gar-den /ˈgärdn/ Noun:A piece of ground, often near a house, used for growing flowers, fruit, or vegetables.

I have expanded my definition to include houses.  Do they not also grow out of a piece of ground?

This story begins a few months ago with my husband Jared's undercover search for a fixer upper near his work place.  Unknown to me, Jared hatched the plan to buy a house, found a prospective property, and began trying to convince me that this was a good idea.  Even though I wasn't a fan of the house he'd found, it fit the bill of our three requirements:

1.) It needed to be close to his work place
2.) It needed to be in our price range, and
3.) It needed to be in need of some work.

So we made a low-ball offer on a house that was foreclosed on and in need of a lot of TLC.  The two bed, two bath bungalow was in a state of disrepair that I wasn't crazy about, but Jared and I could see the potential despite the obnoxiously high price for the condition.  After a week of bidding with the bank, it was made clear to us that the bank was trying too hard to break even on the house, and we decided it would be in our best interest to not pursue that avenue anymore.

But then what?  That was the big question going around our heads after that experience.  We both agreed to keep looking in Pembroke, as it was just minutes away from Jared's work, and that anywhere else just didn't really make sense in regards to location.  We worked with a realtor who found some "comparable" properties that we looked at.  I say "comparable" because they just needed to be put out of their misery.  Though we checked them out, Jared and I agreed to steer clear of the other houses that were suggested to us (a six bedroom, four bathroom ranch that someone decided to just keep adding on to in the back clearly wasn't for us).  After deciding to call the house hunt quits for the day, we headed back through the tiny town of Pembroke to our apartment in Pooler.  That's when I saw this cute cottage...

We checked it out, and I was thrilled to discover it fit all three requirements.  Jared contacted the contractor we planned on using, and we started discussing possible renovations.  I must say, that Jared was still quite stuck on the first house, and it took a bit of convincing to get him to come around to this one.  I was feeling kind of smug when he agreed that this house was infinitely better than our first option...

Anyway, the two bedroom, bath and a half was built in 1946.  It boasts original hardwood floors, a large attic space, asbestos siding (actually not a problem unless disturbed), and an add on that added a whole extra living space, all on just under an acre of land.  I'm slightly in love with it, can you tell?

The listed price was $41,900 by owner, and we talked them down to $35,000.  Currently, we are just waiting for the bank to close, and then it's on to the renovations.  We've got a whole list of things that are going to get done to make this house livable.  Well, I'm convinced that, per one exception, it is livable right now (I'm seriously not that picky, but Jared is...a bit, hah!).

Our list of to do's for this house kind of overwhelms me, but most of it is being contracted out, so we get to sit back and watch.  For me, that's not really a problem.  For Jared, he'd much rather be in on the action, knocking down walls and sawing things in half or whatever carpenters do.

So for now, we're just waiting and dreaming of walls that we can paint and put holes in, or maybe that's just me!  Still, this is exciting, and I'm ready for a new chapter in my life with Jared, and I know he's very much excited too.  There's going to be plenty to blog about, so I'll rarely have nothing to post, I'm sure.  Stay tuned for the progress.  I'm excited to watch this house grow from seedling to mature plant in my Georgia Jardin.

"Till" next time,
Sarah