My SO and I gained a lot of useful tidbits from this subreddit/community, so wanted to try and return the favor.

I'm going to just spill out a bunch of information that I can remember off-hand.

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Location: Aurora, Colorado

Home purchase price: $400,000 @ 5.5% interest rate - we did buy points. I put 5% down. Went with Guild Mortgage as the lender (very fast, streamlined process. Impressed with them.)

~1,800 square feet. Bi-level (which is different from split-level, I learned.)

Our real estate agent was Dallas Dyer. She works for Redfin, at the moment. Follow the agent, not the company. Absolutely incredible agent - kind and honest, and provided a ton of advice on repairs and possibilities for a house. Connections to electrician and construction contractors (for foundation repair) were critical in the decision to go with the house. She called the contractors as soon as we asked how much she thought the foundation settling repair could be, and got me an accurate estimate in minutes.

The Bad

The house was carpeted throughout (besides kitchen, dining, and bath rooms). Pets had the run of the house - carpets were filthy, and house smelled of urine. Feces and stains mashed into the carpet. Corners of rooms were particularly bad - pets clearly liked using the corners to relieve themselves. Baseboard all throughout the home was destined for trash (soaked through and reeked), as well as much of the trim around doors and closets.

Drywall crumbling away in the urine soaked corners, as well as random holes in the drywall in various rooms. Mysterious stains on walls and ceilings.

The central AC does not cool.

The Good

The central AC does heat; so winter was fine.

The previous homeowner wanted out of the house. They agreed to concessions for some of the big ticket repairs.

The settling did not cause structural problems, yet. Repair is done by drilling/inserting big metal shafts into the ground next to the house to act as piers, and then big brackets secure the house to the piers. The installation of the 4 piers came to about $12,000. The previous owner conceded to paying for it.

Replacement of the main electrical panel/load center was paid for by the previous owner. ~$4,000. The panel was an old brand/model that is infamous for catching fire (Federal Pacific brand). There were no other electrical issues.

There were no plumbing issues.

The roof does not need any work, yet. Shingles were replaced around 3 years ago. Roof structure is still solid.

There are no pest/infestation issues.

The neighborhood is great. Easy bicycling paths to the grocery store, a lot of nearby restaurants/food that I like, a few minutes from Home Depot (this is very valuable to me, it turns out), easy access to major highways/roads. Comparable houses in the neighborhood can easily reach ~$550k.

The Lucky

My SO and I are DINKs - Dual-Income, No Kids. And we both have remote, work-from-home jobs. I am a Software Developer, she is a Product Owner. We are both in good physical health. We have the time and energy for manual labor after work.

We purchased the house in the Fall, so the incoming Winter and implied slow-down in people house-shopping may have played a part in the previous owner's decision to concede items and move forward.

Despite the soaking of the carpet, the plywood subfloor is still sturdy and fine. It smelled horrid in many places, and visibly stained, but any warping was manageable.

The attic has enough room for me to maneuver around - it's not a tiny crawlspace. I hate walking in blown-in fiberglass insulation, but the attic is not a huge mess - no pests/infestations, no massive ball of disorganized wiring.

The Useful

There are products you can use to help neutralize and cover smells - "Odorcide 210 Concentrate", Kilz Restoration Interior Primer, and good ol' hydrogen peroxide and alcohol. We rolled/painted all the sub-floor with Kilz Restoration primer. The primer's smell lasts a long time, so be ready to open windows and ventilate for days; but it did play a huge part in sealing away the constant smell of urine. The Odorcide worked wonders in the worst areas - it's a spray that countered the urine smell and left behind a pleasant almond scent. The hydrogen peroxide and alcohol is used to kill mold.

Flooring technology is incredible - laminate vinyl planks (LVP) are super easy to work with and install. It's tedious, but does not require any special, expensive tools. Wood laminate planks can be cheaper in material cost, and are also easy to install, but you have to get out the saw every time you need to cut/trim it; making wood laminate planks significantly more time-consuming and annoying (but we did use wood laminate for our entire upstairs. We are using LVP in the basement).

Good tools can be expensive as a front-loaded cost, but Facebook Marketplace/OfferUp/Craigslist/eBay help a ton to minimize the expense.

"Thumbtack" is an app that helps me find contractors/workers for jobs I can't/won't do (like tree-trimming).

"Ductless mini-split"/heat pump air conditioning units work incredibly well, and are DIYable (the pre-charged units. You'll need a vacuum pump.). Running conduit and power from the main panel to the outside unit/compressor was the most annoying part.

Our west-facing windows are blasted by the sun in the afternoon, and it causes the house to heat up significantly. I bought window film from buydecorativefilm.com and Amazon and installed it. It had a surprisingly large effect - feeling like it cut the heat coming through the window by half or more. Combined with some simple cellular shades, the heat from the sun is now under control.

My most-watched YouTube channels:

• Home RenoVision DIY (covers pretty much anything and everything)
• The Engineering Mindset (especially how wiring/electrical works in the USA)
• The DIY HVAC Guy (The videos where performs an entire HVAC unit replacement and explains everything is incredibly useful)
• LRN2DIY (The "DIY Mini Split Install" video in particular)
• This Old House (more commercial and like traditional television shows, but the videos are great for getting a brief overview of a project)
• So That's How You Do That! (pretty much where I learned how to install laminate planks)

Currently

The upstairs has been our living space these past 10 months. It's okay and liveable upstairs. We've hosted a few friends and family, and it's turned out okay. I tell them what to expect, and they've been understanding.

We are just now beginning work on installing flooring into the basement.

There is still no baseboard; we will leave that near the end, after painting is done.

Getting the temperature under control and the flooring done upstairs was a huge comfort milestone. We sleep well now, and don't have to step carefully around the floor as much, which has allowed us to be much happier and confident with our decision on the house.