Migonis Home: House Tour

I was in love with this house the second we drove by, it was in the perfect little neighborhood for raising a family and it seemed like a feasible project. In fact, nearly every day after we found the house I drove by it on my way home... I was smitten, large bushes and peeling paint did nothing to deter me.

But we couldn't afford it (don't you hate it when that happens?). My mom told me about friends who had written a note to the seller and ended up getting a great deal on their home. So I wrote one to give to the seller with the offer (I took out her name in certain places):

We have been looking at your house on the real estate website nearly every day since it was put on the market. We couldn’t afford your asking price so we never scheduled a showing… although we haven’t been able get your house out of our mind. The reason we came to look at the house, and have proceeded to make an offer is because it is exactly the type of house and neighborhood in which we want to raise a family. We got married about four months ago and work in the community. AJ is a seventh grade history teacher and cross-country coach at Manchester-Essex Middle School and Jen works at Gordon College as the event planner for the Development and Alumni office. We would like to start a family within the next year and a half and see ourselves staying in this house and community for a long time.

We sincerely hope we didn’t offend you with this offer, and if we did we are so sorry, we just can’t afford more than the current offer. Thank you for considering and we wish you well no matter what you decide.

AJ and Jen Migonis

Our offer was accepted the next day with the only contingency being that she wouldn't lower the price if things were found in the home inspection. This is what we had prayed would happen...we saw it as a miracle because we offered $35k less than the asking price!

Once we moved in on February 1, 2010 we took down the bushes because they were blocking all sorts of natural light. It looks very barren right now without landscaping, we would love to put a front porch on the house and don't want to waste money putting in bushes that we are going to take out this summer. Since the photo was taken we removed the shutters and painted the house Martha Stewart's Cumulus Cloud.

From our driveway leading into our back patio:

Some Stats:

1600 square feet

2 good size bedrooms, one very tiny bedroom (our nursery)

1 very small bath

a living room and a kitchen

We scheduled our House Warming Party three weeks after we moved in to make ourselves get a few projects done quickly. Here are some before and in-progress photos:

BATHROOM BEFORE

BATHROOM IN PROGRESS

We are going to completely redo the bathroom when we have the money but in the meantime, the tile and wallpaper are gone and I put peel and stick tiles over the laminate floor.

BATHROOM SOURCE LIST:

Paint: Benjamin Moore's Volanic Ash

Curtain, Shelves: Target

Bath mat: Marshalls

Shower curtain: Nautica

KITCHEN BEFORE

KITCHEN IN PROGRESS

KITCHEN SOURCE LIST

Cabinets: Home Depot, Thomasville line

Countertops: Bianca Cararra but we picked it out through Doyans Appliance in Gloucester. I went to a marble / granite warehouse in Woburn to pick it out.
Knobs and Pulls: Home Depot
Oven and Microwave: GE from Home Depot
Fridge: Maytag from Home Depot
Sink: Franke from Home Depot
Faucet: Moen from Home Depot
Stovetop: Maytag from Home Depot
Floors: Dark Walnut hardwood by Joe Floors (based around the Manchester area)
Kitchen table: Craigslist
Chairs: IKEA
Barstools: Christmas Tree Shops
Blue rug: Pottery Barn
Black rug: Target
Paint: Kitchen: Martha Stewart's Driftwood Gray and Hallway: MS's Sandpiper

LIVING ROOM BEFORE

while previous owner lived there