Tyler Hunt

A lot has happened since the last house post. We ended up abandoning that house completely after the owners became very obstinate with their counteroffers. We also decided that given the choice, that College Park was our preferred neighborhood over Colonialtown. College Park has been a somewhat prestigious area for quite a number of years, while Colonialtown is just now being revitalized, which would possibly have made for a better investment opportunity, but a less appealing life in the meantime.

That being said, we found ourselves falling in love with this charming 2/1 soon after seeing it:

We moved in this past Friday, and have been loving the homeowner life ever since. It of course has its downsides, as we’ve already discovered with some plumbing issues, and lawn maintenance, but overall we really like have our own little house to call home (not to mention a garage to put all of our junk).

Last weekend when we stopped by Colonialtown and found the Spokane beauty, we also saw one other house. This one was just down the street on Georgia Boulevard. It was a FSBO, which we called about that day, but didn’t hear back on until later in the week. We set up an appointment to see it today. It’s a 3/1, built in 1949, with the original hardwood floors, on a gorgeous lot with several mature oaks.

One of best features of this house is the shuffleboard court in the front yard. Apparently the original owner of the house was a WWII veteran who took because a bit of a shuffleboard legend within the neighborhood. The neighbors would all come over on Sunday afternoons to watch him play, and try their hand at besting the reining champion.

We placed an offer on the house today, which we’re still waiting to hear back on, but if all goes well this will be our new house.

Today marks the start of our second weekend looking for a house, and armed with a list of half a dozen or so houses, we set out to explore our options once again. We traipsed about the old Orlando neighborhoods from Lake Como to Lake Sue, and came out with a few good possibilities in the Colonialtown and Audubon Park areas. The one that stuck out the most was a remodeled 3/1 off of Utah Boulevard.

We’re supposed to see another one right across from it on Georgia Boulevard tomorrow. I’ll post pictures of it then, but I’ll say right now that I’m hoping it works out because it has a shuffleboard court in the front yard.

We stopped at an open house in Colonialtown after our adventure through the MetroWest area on Saturday. The open house ended up being a bust, but we found a beautiful 1920’s home in the same neighborhood. We fell in love with it, and went through a long deliberation about the practicality of the property versus the one in Summer Lakes.

As of last night, we decided to pursue it. Alas, an offer had been made and accepted only hours before we called to let them know we were interested. We’ll still planning on placing a backup offer, however, and we’re definitely going to continue looking in the area for other houses.

A lot has happened these past few weeks. I had been starting to look for a new job when I got an IM from Daniel about a position opening at his company. I had a phone interview a few days later, and then an in-person interview soon thereafter. I got an offer the next day, which I mulled over with Melissa during the weekend and accepted on Monday. That being said, it was time to start looking for a new place to live. In Orlando.

We were very fortunate in finding someone to rent out our current house the very same night that I took the job. Rose is one of the interns from Melissa’s school, and she and her fiancé had been looking for a place to live. They’re getting married in June, so the timing worked out perfectly, and they loved the townhouse. God really has things lined up to fall perfectly into place.

This weekend we’re in Orlando again for what we thought would be apartment hunting, but as of Saturday morning has now turned into house hunting. Things are moving so quickly there’s hardly time to stop and take a breath. We looked at several houses yesterday, some new, more old, and we’ve decided that we like the location and the charm of the older neighborhoods better than the zero lot line atrocities going up in Winter Garden.

There was one house in particular that struck our fancy. It’s a 3/2 in Summer Lakes (coincidentally the same neighborhood as Daniel and Jeni) with all new tile floors, a very nice screened porch, and large backyard with a view of a little pond. We’re going to continue looking today, just to be sure there isn’t anything better out there, but there’s a good chance this might be our new house. See more photos in the gallery.

Melissa and I spent most of the day on Saturday finishing up the floor. We had ripped out all of the carpeting the weekend before, and had been slowly working our way across the room each night during the week until our final push to get it done once and for all.

Alas, there is still much molding to be installed, but the feeling of accomplishment over the floor itself is enough for now. We also took the liberty of a clean slate to rearrange our furniture, as well. I quite like the new arrangement. It somehow manages to feel roomier and homier at the same time.

Melissa and I embarked on our first home improvement project together as a married couple this past weekend. I was able to recover about 130 ft.² of laminate flooring from work a couple months back, which ended up being just enough to cover our kitchen floor, which currently has the same linoleum flooring that the builder installed six years ago.

The project has progressed very well, and despite the claims from everyone around us that it couldn’t be done, we actually managed to get through the weekend without a single fight. We’re nearly finished with the floor now, but the task of replacing all of the molding and baseboards still remains.

The photos above were taken on Saturday, at the end of the first day’s efforts. We have now completed all but two rows of the flooring, which we should be able to finish up as soon as my muscles stop aching so much.