What was I thinking.

So I haven't posted in a while because my life has been the most stressful and frustrating time of my life.  Now don't get worried, all the children are fine and my hubby and I are getting along great. The priorities in life are stable.  We have been in the process of buying a home and a short sale home at that.  This would not be a reality for our family financially because of our looming student loan debt, however a related financial benefactor wanted to make an investment and we have now joined the money sucking club of home owners.    So far along the way, lots of painful learning experiences have occurred. 

      #1 Never buy a short-sale (7 months of our life we will never get back).

      #2 Never assume a contractor has the proper experience he claims too.

      #3 Never ask an under-experienced contractor to estimate repairs to determining if the house can be fixed for a certain budget.  This is impossible to do without architect plans and city guide lines, an experienced contractor would have told me this and we never would have bought this house.   

     #4 Never hire an under-experienced contractor to be in charge of major home renovations. Especially one who won't give a written contract of budget projections.

    #5 Never hire friends who say "give and take" when talking about money. 

    #6 Never hire the cheapest architect you can find, you get what u pay for and i got problems.

    #7 Never scratch big chunks of budget before a project starts. 

That is enough learning experiences for today, If I really start to ponder I get depressed.  So here are some pictures so you get a feel for whats been happening.  

This picture demonstrates the quality that this house was in.  This is a fully grown weed growing out of the rain gutter.

 This is the back "sun-room"  with a ceiling lower that the other ceilings and a lower cement floor than the rest of the house.  Imagine that room on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory that is shrinking from one side to the other.  That would be a good picture of this room.

 This is the inside of said room.

Here is a before picture of the back of the house

And the most laughable feature, an Outhouse.  Yes this is an outdoor toilet for pool guests. There is toilet and sink in there along with old pool equipment and spiders.  

The rest of the house is rather ordinary, 4 bedrooms, 1600 square feet, weird giant archway from the 70s, shell shaped sinks from the 70s, asbestos popcorn ceilings, and brown carpet that smells like old dog with a potty problem.  

During our honeymoon phase of home buying, you would have heard phrases like, "this house has a lot of potential", "great bones", "great big yard for the kids to play", and most important "this house fits the budget".  Well now the honeymoon phase is over and reality has set in.  I will be posting more regularly to update with progress reports or lack of progress as the case is currently.