Austin and I have lived in our new house for three months now, and it’s already hardly recognizable from the house we toured in October. It was built in 1900, has a half-acre backyard, is located in a historical neighborhood in Des Moines, IA and was a steal of a price because it needed a […]

Austin and I have lived in our new house for three months now, and it’s already hardly recognizable from the house we toured in October. It was built in 1900, has a half-acre backyard, is located in a historical neighborhood in Des Moines, IA and was a steal of a price because it needed a lot of improvements. It sat on the market for five months, which is unheard of in such a competitive real estate market like Des Moines’. We are so thankful no one else saw the potential in this home (or wanted to take on quite this much work) because we were able to buy the worst house — for now — on our favorite street in town way under value. We weren’t looking for houses when this one randomly came up on our radar. The pictures in the listing were awful and nondescript, but there was one picture of three dark wood doors on a single wall that instantly hooked me. I figured if there was this much character on one wall, the house had to offer more than what was being shown online. After seeing that the foundation was perfect and that all walls were square, we couldn’t believe it hadn’t been snatched up — even with bright orange and green wa...