How We Ended Up Buying a 1918 “Handsome House”
We weren’t looking to buy a house. Desire for more square footage and wanting to eventually move to the ‘burbs was there, but I was not ready to give up on my city life yet. If anything, I was just casually watching way too much HGTV and confidently thinking, Oh yeah, I could totally handle a fixer-upper. (It’s very easy to be brave from your couch.)
And then our realtor sent us this listing.
A 1918 historical home in New Jersey, built with handmade bricks imported from England and once described in local historical documents as a “handsome house.” I mean… how do you not click on that?
Our realtor actually said it was his dream project. It had been sitting on the market for a while without any serious offers at that point, as it may have looked too daunting to many (bidding war later ensued once we were serious).
From the listing photos, it looked charming — classic old English Manor exterior, beautiful brickwork, tons of character. What those photos did not show:
- A retaining wall that was falling apart
- Gutters that had seen better decades
- Landscaping that had fully entered jungle territory
- An interior that hadn’t been meaningfully updated in… at least 50 years
The kitchen especially felt like a time capsule.
Objectively? It needed a lot of work.
But the second we saw it in person, none of that really scared us off. The hand-made brick from England. The details in millwork. The history. The fact that it had been standing there since 1918. You just can’t recreate that kind of character.
Home purchase was far from my immediate plan. Instead, I walked through once and immediately fell in love.
Perfectly imperfect, ready to place my final touch and make the place my home.
This blog is where I’m sharing our home renovation journey — the good decisions, the questionable ones, the surprises hiding behind walls, and everything we learn along the way. I’m not a contractor or a designer. Just someone who fell in love with an old English brick house and decided to take the leap.
If you love historic homes, fixer-uppers, and watching someone figure it out as they go… welcome.
