We’ve been on a mission to share more detailed information about the house. We want to share what it’s like to live here, and what we’ve learned along the way. When we started writing some other posts, we realized that the stories we wanted to tell lacked context! So, here is the story of how we came to live in Upsala:

This story begins in September 2016 when we saw a Curbed article about the house being put up for sale. We clicked through the pictures, were amazed by the history of the house, and couldn’t believe it was actually for sale!

When we first saw the article, we were in the middle of restoring another historic home in Queen Village, Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this meant that we were not in a position to purchase the house. We whined a bit (a lot), bought a lottery ticket (didn’t win) and moved on…

In December of 2016, we saw the article floating around again, and were totally shocked that the house hadn’t sold! We had finished and sold the project we were working on and were actually in a position to make an offer on the property. They fit us in for a showing for December 9th, 2016.

We were greeted by the listing agent who informed us that there were already 9 offers on the property. She explained that because the house was being sold by a non-profit, they had to accept offers for a full 3 months. At the end of that 3 month period, all offers would be considered side-by-side. We viewed the property 2 days before the deadline! The listing agent also told us that the Attorney General of Pennsylvania had to approve the final deal.

With the odds stacked against us, we decided to enjoy our time touring the house, assuming we would never see the interior again after the property sold. We fell in love with the house and left the property feeling very discouraged.

On the way home, we decided to throw our hat into the ring… We figured that if it was meant to be, they would pick us!

Once we got home, we pulled together our offer package. In addition to our offer, we were asked to document our financials and submit a letter explaining what we planned to do with the property. We worked non-stop to pull everything together and submitted our offer before the deadline. They told us they would review the offers promptly and let us know when they’d made a decision.

It was a painful few weeks of waiting, but we got the call shortly before Christmas that they had chosen us! We couldn’t believe it! It was so humbling to know that they trusted us with the preservation of this magnificent home.

The next few months seemed to drag on endlessly. Not much was required of us during that time, but the National Trust had to prepare an enormous file to send off for the Attorney General’s final review. We never saw the final package they submitted, but from what we were told, it included roughly 20 years of paperwork that documented the entire process that lead to the sale of the house.

The Attorney General approved the package in early April, and we ultimately closed on the house on April 24th, 2017. After a brief 75 year interlude, this marvelous building became a home once again.