Bringing Mae Flowers

My partner and I have been thinking about buying a house.

There’s a little house in the center of town that’s been left empty for nearly 30 years. The house was built in 1905, then bought by a famous beauty school in 1965. As far as the county records show the building has been empty since 1996, but is still owned by the school to this day. We realize it’s crazy to want to buy an old house that’s been neglected for decades, but there’s something about it that we feel is worth restoring.

It is in the perfect location.

The house is located a half-block from the historic business district, right between a residential house and a butcher shop. Around one corner is my favorite bookstore. Around the other (and another block down) is a great coffee shop. If you keep going, you’ll stumble across one the shops where I sell my fragrances. A block to the west is the park that hosts the weekly farmer’s market. It is the epitome of a walkable area.

We have been imaging what our lives could look like here.

We picture a cute little house with a shop in the front. We imagine sipping coffee on the front porch in the mornings before we open the shop. We see ourselves making our products and running our little shop as we please. We plan on becoming part of a community, with local residents and shops like ours. While we know there will be many new challenges to overcome, we dream of planting down roots somewhere where we can live in quiet peace.

We know that it would take a lot of work.

Assuming we can even buy the place, the house will take the better part of a year to make liveable. The roof looks good and the brickwork is in better condition than the occupied house next door, but the front door, the porch awning, and at least one window needs to be replaced. We expect that the HVAC system, plumbing, electricity all need to be brought to code- and that’s saying nothing about the state of the foundation, the walls and floors. All of this, while building and maintaining the business itself.

It’s probably all a pipe dream.

We’ve written a letter to the current owner to open the discussion of ownership, but we have low expectations of a response. On the off-chance they agree to the sale, the house may not be salvageable. Even then, there’s a the mortgage and renovation loans to consider, and whether we can afford to pay it all while also paying rent on our current apartment. Yes, we could do it but would we dare? I guess it all depends on if the current owner is willing to sell.