Hello again!

Well, once again it's been far too long and things have been happening!  I am proud to announce that after touring 111 houses and putting offers on 5 of them, we are now under contract at long last!  Offer #5 reached mutual acceptance May 25th and we are knee-deep in the negotiation process.  First, the good:  we LOVE this house.  It's only three short miles from downtown Seattle in the lovely neighborhood of Beacon Hill, right across the street from a large park and a 10-minute bike ride to the light rail station, public library, and grocery store.  It's a safe, diverse, established neighborhood full of well-tended houses.  The house was built in 1927 and much of the original character is intact.  The doors, trim, and moldings are mahogany, the fireplace surround is marble, there is beautiful Art Deco tile in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, and there's a laundry chute in the hallway.  This house has a butler's pantry, built-in cabinets in the living room, a telephone alcove, and an attic space big enough to remodel into a master suite with vaulted ceilings.  The lot is level and mostly fenced,  there's a garage and a carport, and there are several mature fruit trees and rhododendrons in the yard.

Now the bad and the ugly:  the current owners have neglected almost all routine maintenance for at least the last ten years.  The roof is an eyesore.  Mr. Mac was able to stick his hand through it and wave at us from the attic.  The gutters and downspouts are completely clogged and improperly positioned, directing water right down towards the foundation.  The flashing around the front porch and under the beautiful picture windows is detaching from the house, letting water in by the gallon.  The oil furnace was last serviced in 2003.  The electrical system is a convoluted nest of knob-and-tube wiring, spliced copper, and lamp cord.  There are several active plumbing leaks, including one so bad that the floor joists under the shower may need to be replaced.  The basement ceiling has water spots and must be replaced.  All of these are simple problems that, had they been addressed promptly, would have cost the owners a minimum amount of money and time to fix.  Instead, they chose to ignore them and now they won't be making any money on the sale of the home that they've lived in for 35 years.

Fortunately, most or all of the moisture issues will be solved by fixing the roof and plumbing leaks.  As our fantastic home inspector Reis put it, "...anything can be fixed, it's just a matter of how much and who pays."  Today we're compiling our list of repair requests, price reductions, and buyer credits.  We'll see whether the sellers are willing to comply or whether we walk away and continue our search.  The suspense is killing me!