This post is loooong overdue. Better late than never, right? We’re coming up on the one year anniversary of closing on our house, and with relaunching my site and aiming to blog more about our home progress- it felt like starting at the beginning was the right move. Last year in January (in our naive, pre-covid mental state), Dillon and I were on the house hunt. I wanted a house built in 1920 or older that boasted a ton of character. I was hoping for 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and the quirkier the details, the better. My sights were set on a pretty, old victorian that could be our forever home with some years of elbow grease. Dillon’s list was that the house was livable while making renovations slowly, a decent size yard for a dog and a 2+ car garage.
The first house I thought I loved was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath Victorian with a wrap around porch in Kenosha that was wonky to say the least. The bathrooms were closets, the electrical work looked questionable, there was virtually no yard, and here’s the big one- the upstairs ceilings were only 7 feet tall. That’s right, 11 foot downstairs ceilings, 7 foot upstairs ceilings. My 6-foot-four husband couldn’t even raise his arms in the air. I didn’t love the neighborhood. Still, at the time, I thought because this was the only house we had seen in our price range beside a bunch of 1970 ranches, we should put in an offer. Dillon talked me out of it and I hate to admit that he was so right. Dillon-1, Amanda-0. So, the search continued. While I stayed somewhat-silently salty.
We then fell in love with a house online in Racine that seemed to be a perfect mix of both of us. It was built in 1910, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms with a semi-finished basement, had a beautiful grand staircase, big bay windows and original hardwood floors. Here’s the big one- it had a 2 story, 5 car garage that was wired for a car lift (Dillon is a mechanic). It was also right on the fourth of July parade route. From the photos, we were smitten. We were already planning our 4th of July cook out and I had a mood board going for the house. Just as we were booking a showing for it, it was mysteriously taken off the market. And we were devastated. My cousin, who was our relator, tracked down the sellers address and left voicemails and notes at their door to please return our calls because we were interested in buying, with no response. Then, I happened to open the realtor app 3 weeks later at the same exact time it was re-listed. I sent it to my cousin and said BOOK THIS ASAP PLEASE. Dillon and I chatted about pricing, the pros and cons that we saw based on the photos and we came to the conclusion that although we obviously needed to look in person, this was our house. We had an offer in mind and prepared to put it in the next day at the showing. I was going to be coming from work and had 2 hours total to get back. Last minute, I saw a house pop up on the realtor app that had no photos and a brief description. It was a 5 bedroom house built in 1872 that was in the historic district of Racine and fell within our price range. In my eyes, it was too good to be true. I sent it over to my cousin and said “How about your throw in a showing to this one right after the other one, I’m sure it’s going to be a hot mess in that area for that price with no photos. But, we’ll probably put in an offer on the other and not even get there anyways.”
We walked through what we had built up in our heads to be our perfect home, and within 2 minutes I was thinking to myself “I can’t live here.” I didn’t like the neighborhood. I didn’t like pulling up to the house from the back alley. I hated the layout of the bedrooms. I hated that most of the character had been stripped out of the house over the years. I hated that our entire backyard was a garage. And I especially hated the fact that whoever refinished the floors ran the sander the wrong direction and completely destroyed them. (Even as a graphic designer, I’m not sure what photoshop wizardry they had performed in the listing photos to hide that). Dillon was love struck by the garage, but other than that also wasn’t sold. I felt so defeated, and was like UGH okay let’s head to this junky house and then start over (still having seen no photos or any idea of what it looked like).
We pulled down the historic brick road, driving past all of the beautiful, quirky victorians and I was like “whoa, this could be my neighborhood??”. Things were looking up. When I pulled up and saw the wrap around porch in my head I was screaming, but externally was keeping it together because I kept picturing the inside completely falling apart. Then, I opened the front door to be greeted with a spiral staircase, original French doors and the most remarkably intricate parquet floors I had ever seen. My jaw dropped, and my cousin actually yelled out loud ‘WHOA! This house is WAY better!”. From there, I walked around starry eyed as we made our way from room to room, screaming every time there was a detail like our clawfoot tub and sloped upstairs ceilings. There was an antique accordion in the circle-shaped front hall closet that they noted gets passed down with the house. Like what! This is what my dreams were made of. I had only left myself about 20 minutes to walk through and get back to work, so there was no time to get detail-oriented. Most closets went left unopened, the layout was a blur to me and I had no idea if the giant slab of side yard next us fell within our property line or not (surprise- it did!). There was an entire sunken in garden that I didn’t even know was there because of the snow on the ground. I kept asking for Dillon and my cousin to point out things that were wrong because I was in love and didn’t want to be impractical about it, and they were like- uhhh, we got nothin. So, after the whirlwind walk through, Dillon and I quickly decided we were on the same page and asked my cousin to write up our offer. $1,000 over asking and we were the first people who had walked through the house. We were determined to get it.
I went back to work and anxiously wrote an offer letter gushing over her home and how much we could see our future there. We sent it off and then, it was waiting time. That was the worst part. We had been looking for about 3 months, and at this point I had begrudgingly come around to the fact that we may have to buy a starter home without much character while we saved to buy my dream victorian. So, when this popped up and felt like the perfect amount of fixer-upper, with so much of the original detailing restored and in a neighborhood we loved, I knew I was going to be crushed if our offer wasn’t accepted. A week and a lot of sweat later, she said yes! Under the condition that we could wait a few months to close while she prepped to move to Florida. Done and done. Those few months were spent day dreaming about every room in this home and making mood board after mood board. I was SO excited.
The time came for our home inspection and the seller decided to stay home while the inspector did his thing. Dillon walked around with him, and I hung back and talked with her. She told me so many interesting stories about this house. She had bought it from a friend who was moving directly across the street after falling in love with her neighbor. They actually flipped a coin to see if they would both live in our house or the house across from us. She needed a house and the woman needed to sell and the timing just felt kismet. She told me about the original floors being laid by one of the first SC Johnson employees. The patterns in all of the rooms are different because he was practicing techniques to use in other homes (Johnson was originally a flooring company- hence “wax”). She explained that the fireplace was filled with cement after a large fire swept down our street in the early 1900s and handed me an envelope full of research she had done on the house with an original photo of the exterior from 1940. She said “this house has a mind of it’s own and it picks good people” and that’s why she chose our offer, from our letter. We hugged, I told her to stop back whenever she was in town, and it all felt really special.
We signed our closing papers literally AS the covid safer-at-home order was being announced and although we had no idea what the world had coming, we were so excited. We spent the next few weeks moving, painting and day dreaming about the plans we had. Moving from a 2 bedroom storefront apartment to a 5 bedroom victorian house was a huge adjustment, and the work we had ahead was definitely intimidating. Fast forward a year, and although I would have thought we had made a bit more progress by this time, I’m also so proud of the changes we’ve made. I see friends doing quick, affordable reno projects in their houses that they want to flip in 5 years or so and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I get jealous occasionally. But, right now, we see this house as our forever home and we’re really trying to renovate and decorate it with that in mind. We’re taking our time and letting the house evolve naturally with our budget and lifestyle. I find that when you make changes to a house too quickly, you haven’t really discovered how you’ll live in it yet and they’re often regretted. And although my brown shag carpeting still makes me cringe, I think there’s something really special about taking your time to make a home yours. It feels like I’m doing it justice. This house was a miracle for us to land (the seller sold it at the same price she had bought it for 25 years prior) and so I’m just trying to treat it like a gift and be thankful for what we have. It’s a never ending project, that’s for sure! But, it feels like my dream come true and I’m honored to own a little bit of our city’s history.
Thanks for following along with our real estate story! And if you’re in the midst of buying right now, just know I’m thinking of you. I hear it’s tough right now, hang in there! Things will fall into place eventually. I’m also sharing a gallery of “before images” of our house below. I’ll have more posts soon laying out the progress we’ve made over the past year. Instagram is great, but it feels nice to use a long form platform as an outlet again 🙂
Xo Amanda
[…] This local entrepreneur has found her place in Racine, thanks to her husband Dillon. Prior to their marriage, they lived in Kenosha, where she is from. The Martinez’s knew this was home, especially when they stumbled upon an 1872 victorian home with a curved staircase, original SC Johnson parquet floors, and clawfoot tub. Read more about their house hunting story here. […]