Finding it can be tricky, time consuming and tough. But when you do find the right space, make an offer and it gets accepted, the real fun can begin. The criteria we use for "Is this the right space?" is "Does our stuff fit?" followed by location, location, location. If all the stuff doesn't fit, the question becomes "What can we do to make it work?" After going through many homes in varying states of disrepair (and strangely, lots of rundown places with poop on the floor), we accidentally stumbled upon a tiny 1908 Kansas City Shirtwaist bungalow that some of our stuff fit in, but it did have an attic of unused space that could be transformed to fit the rest of the stuff. Our realtor discovered that it was a HUD house with an offer on it, which had started the clock ticking. We literally had to have our best and final offer in by midnight the day we ran across this property. Not a lot of time to think, so we took the plunge. The next morning, we awoke to the news that we were the new proud owners of a house in the Historic Northeast neighborhood, walking distance from parks and the gorgeous Kansas City Museum. And it is quite the beauty.
Doesn't that inspire you to want to tap into your inner Martha Stewart?!?! Actually, we were inspired to gut the entire space, add stairs and a second floor with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and open up the main floor. The existing bathroom will become a half bath under the staircase.
As painful as it will be to lose the swan and the ruffle (?!), this amazing room will become a stairwell. The second small bedroom next to this stunning bathroom will become the dining room. We will leave the larger bedroom on the first floor, but the filthy Missoni-inspired carpeting will have to go!
Why?! you ask, would anyone in their right mind want to take this mess on? Well, it does have some redeeming qualities like the oak trim and doors, a pretty original window, stone foundation, hardwood floors being preserved under a mosaic of ugly sticky tiles, and a floorplan we can work with. Also, it was empty, so we didn't have to haul out a house full of abandoned belongings from the previous hoarder.
As we work on the space, I will be updating our progress here, but for now--time to get a dumpster and starting tearing it up!
