The Lakeside Cottage: A Love Story
Editor’s Note:In order to give the reader a real sense of the “before” of this cottage, I need to rely on photos taken prior to my fancy DSLR camera days. The photos contained in this post will be a quality lower than typical.-CP
The lakeside cottage was entirely out of my price range.
The first time I laid eyes on the listing for it in December 2009, I fell in love. It was everything I had dreamed about in a house: it had age (built in 1955), sat on a nice chunk of land (one acre), and gave waterfront access without the potential of flooding (lake frontage).
But there was a problem. I was fairly positive that I didn’t make enough as a teacher to land that house. Also, my lack of credit history meant securing a mortgage would be difficult.
I stalked the listing for the next five months, already jealous of the person who would acquire my dream home.
In that five-month period, the seller of the property dropped the listing $10,000. While it was still out of my price range, it signaled to me that there wasn’t much interest in the property. Though I certainly didn’t have enough for a down payment, I knew the first-time homebuyer tax credit system expired soon. Those two ingredients gave me the crazy notion that I might actually be able to afford the cottage.
On a whim, I called the cottage’s listing real estate agent to book an appointment to view the home. I was still sure I couldn’t afford it, but I was just too fascinated by the house to walk away.
Our tour was both everything I dreamed about. And a little scary. The interior of the house was just as charming as the exterior. Original Florida pine hardwood floors existed throughout. Floor-to-ceiling tongue and groove paneling made up the walls and ceiling. It had all the quirks of a 1955 build: crooked door and window frames, a single usable bathroom with another very strange bathroom buried in the utility room, bedrooms that led into other bedrooms without a connecting hallway. But it also had some real issues: nearly original electrical wiring, nearly original galvanized piping in half the home, a drain field in serious need of replacement, and a roof that would need to be replaced within five to ten years after purchase. It was going to be enough just to purchase the home. The maintenance and work required upon purchase freaked me out.
But I’ve never been one to dabble long-term in reality. I’m a dreamer. It’s where I live my best, happiest, and most naive life. All I could think about after that home tour was how badly I wanted that house, scary problems and all.
I scheduled a follow-up meeting with the real estate agent for more information.
It turned out, the estate of the original owner was the seller. In an attempt to offload it quickly, they had owner-financed it to a local man and his wife who ran into legal trouble and out of money, so the estate had taken it back over. In short, they sounded desperate to sell, which got my wheels turning.
On a whim, and without speaking to my husband (my then-boyfriend), I told the real estate agent to draw up an offer. And then I did the most offensive thing one could possibly do in a real estate transaction: I low-balled the heck out of them. I offered them $45,000 under the current asking price (remember, it had only come down $10,000 since being listed). Having no real estate experience, I wasn’t aware I had potentially insulted this family enough to close off any further discussions with me. The real estate agent tried to tell me my offer was too low, but she went along with my scheme. And thank goodness she did.
While the estate refused my first offer, they countered back with an offer $20,000 more than my offer. I countered them in the middle: $10,000 up from my original offer and down from their offer…and they accepted.
At 24 years old, I was one step closer to owning my dream home. And for $45,000 less than the original listing price. The loan underwriting process was arduous, and in order to secure the loan and the tax credit, closing had to happen very quickly.
My mortgage company required some repairs prior to underwriting the loan. For starters, termites had previously had a heyday on the garage structure. We had to build an engineer-approved support wall on the side most eaten. Admittedly, we did that quickly and on the cheap just to get into the house. That hastily-built wall and the garage still stand. In addition to the garage wall, we had to install skirting around the house to keep out unwanted creatures from underneath the house. Also, we had to install new soffits around the underside of the roof.
On June 30, 2010, I officially closed on the cottage.
The cottage originally had a front porch and a back porch enclosed with vintage sliding windows. The original owner never installed central air conditioning. One of the fixes the owner-financed couple made to the home was to run central air conditioning and close in those two porches to make useable house space. We decided early on to make our living room in the back of the house, facing the lake.
The cottage also featured an additional living room with a fireplace. We discovered some years later that the owner-financed couple laid bricks over the original brick fireplace, somewhat compromising the structure. While the fireplace is a focal point of the room, we don’t use it for safety reasons. We hope our budget allows us to restore it in the near future.
A formal dining room and the tiniest kitchen I’ve ever seen, complete with original 1955 cabinetry and countertops, rounded out the space. The original front porch, connected to the kitchen, became a large seating and breakfast area.
The cottage has three bedrooms, so we were thankful to have space to grow our family.
The last surprise of the cottage is that the owner-finance couple also opened up part of the attic to create a loft. While it’s usable space, it stays incredibly hot up there. We’ve never used it for more than storage, though I have grand plans of making it a homework area/playroom once we can figure out how to keep from melting.
The downside to my dream is what it costs to insure the house. Finding homeowner’s insurance in Florida is already a struggle with the ever-looming threat of hurricanes. It’s exponentially more difficult to ensure old homes. We do have insurance, but we pay out the nose for it. I’m hopeful that continuing structural improvements to the home causes our insurance to go down.
While I adore the house, it’s the lake views that give me life. I look out my living room windows, and I’m greeted with views of Florida unstained by tourism or development. This is Old Florida, home to oak trees hung with Spanish moss dancing in the wind standing in sharp contrast to sable palms.
Most mornings I have to pinch myself when I remember that this is my life.
While we’ve worked hard in the last eight years within our very limited amount of time together and in between our demanding jobs to make a host of changes around here, our to-do list is still a mile long. As our lives are entering a phase that will give us the space and time to work on our home, we’re excited to get to work on several projects that have been on the backburner.
I created this blog to chronicle that journey. I hope you come along on this adventure with us.
