My Historic Home!

Drum roll please!!!! Today is the day I share the details on my new (super old) house that we’ll be moving into shortly! I want to share some back story and a lot of details, but before I do, here’s an exterior photo- isn’t she a cutie?!

Back story

At the beginning of May we started working hard on finding a house. And to be honest, we should have started sooner. We thought 1.5 months would be plenty of time, but my husband and I didn’t take into account how LONG it would take to get a loan and the CRAZY housing market is in Utah.

The last time we went house hunting (10 years ago), we both had traditional jobs and so getting approved for a loan took an hour or two. This time was a whole other story! The reason that it took longer is that I am self-employed and my business is still young.

Figuring out a loan

Since my background isn’t ideal, the lender took the first year of my earnings to figure out a loan amount and it was LOW. We qualified for less a loan than when we were newlyweds making minimum wage! We started looking for houses with a TINY budget and that’s when we found out that the market in Utah is crazy.

For some reason, house prices in the area we want to live have sky rocketed. There is much more demand than supply so houses go under contract hours after they are listed. I’ve read a few articles (here’s one) about how Utah’s housing market is the craziest in the country- great….

We put an offer on a house that my sister went to see for us and were sad to find out that the owner was skeptical about the offer since we hadn’t seen it in person. Unfortunately, we were outbid on that home. We sent our realtor to a few homes, but they were tiny in terrible neighborhoods. It was discouraging and stressful!

Meanwhile, my husband and I were spending every extra minute we had searching for homes. Hours and hours were spent staring at houses online and figuring out if it was the one. We also started looking for non-conventional loans. We finally found out that we qualified for a bit of a bigger loan and settled on a few houses that we liked in our new price range over Memorial Day weekend.

Finding the one

Sadly, my husband’s sweet grandma passed away so we flew him out to Utah for the services. His grandma was 99 and the coolest lady (she did so many great things for the community, she was way ahead of her time, and was a true leader) and we’ll miss her terribly.

He looked at our favorite homes while he was in town and sent me videos.
That happened to be 2 days before we had to be moved out of our house. Can you tell how stressful this was?! My eye was twitching non-stop for days. I needed a home for our family!

We settled on a house that we both loved that checked most of the boxes- 2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, a backyard, a neighborhood that we can bike around with young families, a city we love, a historic home, and closer to family (though still farther than we’d like- that was the one compromise we made).

An offer was placed on Thursday and by Friday June 1, we were under contract!!! We’ve since done inspections and finally feel comfortable sharing more about the house! Though, to be honest, things could still fall through. I hope I’m not getting ahead of myself with sharing these, but I’m just so excited to show you!

my historic home

Here are some details- this little Victorian home was built in 1905. It is currently grey/beige colors, though we found pictures of it and it was pink a few years ago. Being a pink lover, I feel like that means something! This is by no means a perfect house (it is in ROUGH shape), but the work feels doable for us. I have so many ideas on how to transform this house and can’t wait to get started!!! The house is located north of Salt Lake City in the cutest city.

front of the house

The front of the house is cute, and I see so much potential in it! I am itching to paint the front door and shutters pink. I’d also love to add some decorative trim to bring it back to its Victorian roots. I’m looking forward to planting lots of pink flowers. I promise, this will be the cutest house on the block soon!

here she is when she was pink- 6 or 7 years ago

living room

The living room has a wood burning stove. We’ll be living in the mountains, so it might be nice to have! Though I do have some plans to update that corner. This is where our TV will go. It’s hard to tell, but this room has textured wallpaper that’ll eventually probably come down.

kitchen

The kitchen is a room I’d love to completely redo one day. We’ll live with it for a while before that happens. The hope is that we can take down the wall between the kitchen and living room for more space. There’s not a dining room, so that’ll make more space for a table in what’ll become a great room. There are cute glass doors that lead to the laundry room and a pantry/entrance to the basement wood shop.

wood shop

In the basement, there is a small wood shop/storage under the stairs. We are SUPER excited to have a place for our tools and wood scraps. This room will get a lot of use!

laundry room

Next up, the laundry room is a little scary right now too. But it has its own designated spot! I have some ideas for covering up the water heater and rearranging things a bit. Adding some personality and maybe a sink will go a long way! Plus those red walls will (obviously) be getting painted!

office

On the main level, there’s one more big room- that’ll either be an office for me!!! I am so excited to have a designated space to work! None of the closets in the house have doors for some reason, so that needs to be tackled. There’s a bump out on the top of the wall for a chimney- adding a fireplace is an option in here (though I honestly don’t see that happening).

bathrooms

There are two bathrooms on the main level. The first one has a claw foot tub- aka my dream coming true! That’ll be getting painted pink (!!!) and I have some other ideas for how to add some personality in here. I am beyond excited to soak in that tub! Outside of the bathroom there is a small butler’s pantry.

The second bathroom has a tub and shower and is located off the office. This one needs major work, but that is on the bottom of my (super long) to do list. Where the bathrooms are located isn’t ideal, but it’ll sure be nice to have two!

bonus room

Upstairs, there are three areas. The first one is an open room that might be a playroom or a family room. It is red and will be getting painted ASAP. This will be a more casual space and the views out the windows are gorgeous!

don’s room

Don’s bedroom is upstairs as well. This is another space that is in desperate need for a coat of paint (and wallpaper removal). I have a really fun idea for his room and I can’t wait to get going on this space! This’ll probably be the first room that’ll be completed since we really want Don to have a spot ready just for him.

master bedroom

The last room on the second floor is going to be the master bedroom. To be honest, the office on the first floor makes more sense as a master (since there is a bathroom right off of it), but my husband and I don’t like the idea of being so far from Don in the night. So the second floor will be for bedrooms. The views are beautiful and it feels like the right decision. Honestly, this is going to be a hard room to design, but I have ideas for making the quirks look intentional.

backyard

The backyard is large and is a bit of a mess. We’ve never done our own landscaping, so it’ll be an adventure! Mostly, we’re thrilled that the dogs and Don will have such an open place to play and explore. It honestly feels like the perfect place for a little boy to grow up. There are two out buildings in the back that are super strange, but full of possibilities. the inside of one of the out buildings. Scary!

garage

The garage is where you can see the pink color the rest of the house used to be! It is small and houses a lot of junk (like a second washer and dryer set and furnace). Again, a quirky space that we’re grateful for- it’ll be nice to have a garage for our car in the snowy winter.

So that is my new (old) house. I’d love to hear your favorite part! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments- I’m happy to answer them! We move in at the beginning of July and I am looking forward to making this home ours!
This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.