However, on the day I found it on the web, soon after its price had dropped another $50K bringing it in to the very tip top of my search (although not necessarily price) range, I wanted to go see another place I had just found -- another multi-family, in a great location, for a reasonable price, a place I knew would either be another nightmare or would sell in just a few days. So why not see both? I'd have a little comparison. My real estate agent was away that Sunday so she arranged for a colleague with lots of experiences in old Portland multi-family buildings to show me around.
The first place was, in fact, not bad --
three flat renovated, although not fancy (no dishwashers!) apartments with gorgeous wood floors and a lovely little roof deck off the owner's unit. But there was no other outdoor space -- about a foot of grass surrounded the building -- and I'd have to put two of the units together to make it functional for Kanha and me. More important, although the location was great -- on a good block in the West End -- the building didn't excite me. When I did the mental movie of life in the house, it felt humdrum, not alive, and at this age and stage in my life, in my sixth (how alarming!) decade, my home needs to make my heart beat, either faster or more warmly, but not the same.
So we were off to the big house on the corner down near the water, on a less good block but with oodles of green around it. Actually more than green -- pinks and yellows and purples, all kinds of wild wildflowers in this little city.
From the moment we walked in I was, in fact, bowled over. We saw the commercial space first. It was dusty and unkempt but expansive and had charm, perhaps since it was the artist owners' own store for the approximately thirty years they have owned the house. It looked a little like a well-organized basement, with stacks of books on a bench and old paintings leaning against a wall -- it was hard to tell what was for sale and what wasn't. Perhaps nothing was now since there was no cash register to be seen, no prices on items. But you -- I -- could see some kind of business there.
We then headed for the owner's apartment -- a large kitchen, dining room, living room, porch, and deck on the first floor (which was in fact the second floor of the house), and three bedrooms above with a bath and a half mixed in. I can't remember many of the details because there were so many, but here are a few -- old wood cabinetry in the kitchen including a central island mixed with a black circa 2000 electric stove (which would have to be replaced for gas in my house) and hanging pots and utensils throughout, wide gray pine floors in the dining room, nooks and crannies for tables and bookcases in the living room along with a checkerboard painted floor, a green marble bathtub smack in the middle of the bathroom with a matching oversized tin sink against the wall, and (I'm skipping so much...) views throughout -- to the right toward South Portland and the Fore River and the gigantic oil storage tanks and to the left toward Portland Harbor and the marinas and the islands and in the middle to the Casco Bay Bridge to South Portland that looked more like its million dollar predecessor to me that day.
The coup de grace was when the seller's real estate agent took us up into the unfinished attic -- a future project I could see -- up the steep ladder of twenty or so steps so I could stick my head out the window. On the roof, there was a little platform, about 50-75 square feet, not yet finished (another project!, need a railing, for sure, before Kanha comes close), from which you would have the most stunning view of the entire swath of the waters of Portland, Maine -- Oh my goodness me is all I can really say.
And I thought, how can I find a way to buy this place???
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