RECESSIONS ARE FOR SUCKERS!

Okay, so about 13 months ago I went in fifty-fifty with my parents on an old beat up house that needed a lot of work. Got it at a great price and thought we could fix it up, sell it and hopefully make a little money. Thought we could get it done in 6 months. Boy were we wrong. And in case you were wondering, this is what it looked like when we bought it.

And after 13 long months of hard work (and I might remind you there was a wedding, the MS150 and a few full time jobs mixed in there to spice things up), long weekends and several near death experiences, this is what she looks like today ...
Very late in the process we decided to take the vinyl siding off and take our chances on the original wood siding being in good condition. To our delight it was almost perfectly preserved under a laying of vinyl siding and another layer of composite siding. By this point though we were very tired and cranky so we hired out to our friend David Lewis the job of restoring all the wood siding and then outfitting it with its new coat of paint. Also, if you'll notice the porch looks different now. The previous owners had built a railing around the porch. But originally the house had the low wall built around the columns that you see in the updated picture. It looks so much better rebuilt the way it once was.

Upon entering the front door you would have been faced with something like this ... This picture was actually taken after I opened the wall up to find the entire old chimney still behind the wall. This doesn't look like much but that brick chimney went up into the attic and all the way to the top of the house. The fireplace was gas burning and the chimney had been out of commission for so long that a new roof had been built over the top so it was not visible from the outside. This thing was very dangerous as it rose over 25 feet from the floor of the house and leaned at an angle in the attic. I had to climb to the top of a ladder in the attic and with a sledge hammer slowly knock the bricks off so that they fell down the chimney and not through the floor of the attic/ceiling of house. Needless to say this was not an easy job. This is another picture of the fireplace area before the chimney came down.

We reused the mantle we found when we bought the house and with a little tile and wood work it finally came out like this ...

They say that kitchens and bathrooms sell houses. So we made sure we did some good work in these areas. Here is the view from the dining area into the kitchen when we got the house ...

Note the awesome tin facade on the front of the bar area. There were also 4 layers of flooring in this kitchen that had to be pulled up to get the floor back to the same level as the rest of the house. This area was completely gutted. The cabinets were taken out and that crazy bar was torn down. And this is what it looks like today ...

The bathroom in this baby was not a pretty situation. It was also completely gutted down to the studs and floor joists. After pulling up the old tile floor I found the subfloor to be completely rotted from a leak in the sink. This bathroom was completely rebuilt from the bottom up. New tub, new vanity and mirror, new tile in shower and on floor. And after it was all done it looked like this ...

The house originally had 2 bedrooms and 1 bath.  We added an additional bath and master closet to make it a 2/2.  This is the finished master bath.  

The master bedroom room looked like this ...

And now it looks like this ...

I should note that this house had either nasty carpet, rippled laminate or busted tile floors when we bought it.  Under the carpet and laminate we found the original pine floors.  Pine floors are not the best but they can be made to look pretty good with the right amount of attention.  Almost all the floors had several layers of paint which made the process of stripping the floors very difficult.  Our friend David took on this task and as you can see in the about picture he did a very good job bringing these floors back to life.

If you went out the back door a year ago this is what you would have seen.

This house along with 3 others on this street has a well in the backyard.  Unfortunately the well house was in a little bit of disrepair.  I did a little work on it and now it looks like this.

And finally the house had a very strange addition on the back.  It did not help the overall look of the house and did not provide any useable space on the inside so our first project was to tear this thing down.  During the process it looked like this.

Behind that blue wall is where the master bath and master closet were built.  And in place of that pile of rubble we built a brand new deck.  I built the base of the deck and then had to take some time off for the wedding and honeymoon.  When I got back I found the entire deck had been finished by my step dad and step brother.  They did an excellent job.  See for yourself. 

This thing was a huge project that at many times made me think, "what in the world have I done?"  I got into this for a few reasons.  First of all I like doing the work ... at least most of it ... and it was a great chance to take a project and completely transform the look of this property.  It was fun doing that.  Secondly it was a great opportunity to make money.  We bought this house for a great price, were fairly good about working with a budget and in the end we will come out making some good cash.  And thirdly ... when we bought this house I had a specific purchase in mind that I needed cash for.  So I jumped at this opportunity and when this thing sells I'm proud to say that my wife will have a completely paid for engagement ring and wedding band.  

Now there are a lot of aspects to taking on something like this and coming out in the end with some money in your pocket.  We bought it right, did good work to transform the look of the house in a way that it was marketable, we worked hard selling the house once it was finished and finally I'm proud to say (although let's not jinx it) we will be closing this week on a full price offer.  Holy crap!  We're excited and ready for that big check.