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OK, to make a long story short, we found this Victorian two-family on the Bed Stuy-Bushwick border that we LOVE. Has almost every original detail, including the original kitchens, baths, and a speaking tube. Beautiful proportions, light, closets, you name it. (Not as fancy as a Stuyvesant Heights brownstone, but we like it.)

But then we had the inspection and found out it needs $80,000 of repairs. (Plumbing, electrical, structural, plaster. Has unknown amount of termite damage.)

We could only do it with a 301K FHA type loan.

Is this crazy talk? Altogether, it would cost about the same as buying an uglier house that did not need repairs.

(Um, except the mortgage rate would be 6.5 instead of 5 percent…)

Particularly interested to hear from anyone who has rehabbed an old house and Montrose Morris: Do all houses with original kitchens/baths — which we want — need this much work, especially plumbing, or should we keep looking?

When we turned on the water during the inspection, it started to rain. (Three fixtures sprung leaks.)

Are we getting in over our heads?