Chapter 3 in the Daisy wants a Home series.
I found a piece of shit. And I fell in love. For under $30,000 its going to be mine.
Seriously, its trashed. Its a small house built in 1932 that is considered "Lapel." It has busted out windows, graffiti, 1970s carpet, and looks like it may have been the site of a Hollywood Horror B Movie. But it has plaster walls, tons of windows, interesting staircase, a huge kitchen, a great brick fireplace, arched doorways inside...
What am I thinking? Well, besides the fact that its cheap and in bad shape, the structure appears quite sound. It is a "fixer upper" in the truest sense of the term.
So...All my Saturday mornings zoning out on the couch to TLC is finally going to pay off. I get to go in and completely remodel this house to MY liking. This has been the problem I've had with the house we have now, even though I love it, its someone else's personality that is being reflected in the designs. I'd never have chosen brass and glass around my fireplace; I like things more rustic and artsy. I'd have never chosen white berber carpet. I like hardwood with earthy color (brick red, burnt orange, browns, gold) throw rugs. I like interesting architechture, mosaics on the backsplash in the kitchen (and one of my best friends is an artist specializing in mosaics, so she's going to have some creative touch in my home, too, she just doesn't know it yet.) that kind of thing. And I'm going to do it.
So...if anyone here has ever bought a property "as is" that is a foreclosure, I'd appreciate any stories, good or bad, or advice...anything you can give
GET AN INSPECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!
I plan on it.
Not sure how that works...do I pay for that up front out of pocket, or do I order one and pay for it if/when we close?
Since its as is...Id say you pay for it out of your own pocket up front...with the investment properties Ive worked on, thats how we have done it. (We've actually had the inspection done out of pocket before we make the formal offer)
I'm sure its not too terribly different where you live vs. Indiana, but how much would you say that on average those cost?
how large is the house?
Lead based paint and asbestos comes to mind. Be careful you may end up with hazardous waste to dispose of, and that ain't cheap. Plus it is called hazardous for a reason, as it is hazardous to the environment and to your health if not handled correctly. Home remodling is not fun in paper suits and dust masks. Sometimes you get what you pay for! :eek:
Not trying to take th efun out of it, I just don't want you to make a mistake. Some things may need to handled professionally. I deal with some of this on a daily basis professionally and the same hazards are in the home.
The house is approximately 1500 square feet. It sits on .73 acres next to farmland...
I know that this is a big project. We plan to take on some of it ourselves, but with the money that we'll be saving, we'll be able to more than afford to contract the hard stuff (and the hazardous stuff) to professionals. I'm good for painting, flooring, and cabinetry...
Id guess you could have one done for 300-400 tops.
That's kind of what I was thinking...not bad.
Here is the picture from the internet. I can't get the pictures I took uploaded off my phone to put on here :rant:
(http://www.buyindianaforeclosures.com/photo/kinnethah2593e1c3d3288d97471b90116050ab389eone.jpeg)
Note: the house isn't supposed to be yellow. Some crackhead decided that they were going to "paint" the house. You can see they did a shitty job.
Also, there are 3 small bedrooms upstairs. I would put those dormer windows in the house, so that the bedrooms would have more windows. The biggest problem is because of the steep slant of the roof, the bedrooms have low ceilings up there, and I don't know how I'll get bunkbeds in there.
It's very cute, Daisy! And certainly seems to have a lot of potential by your description...with that much property, you can always expand later on when the time is right (and change the pitch of that roof!). Can you take the bunkbeds apart? or will the little guys be too unhappy with that??!?
Wow...how exciting! Have you already put an offer on it???
Hopefully this works:
Downstairs, minus the long mudroom that goes out the kitchen to the garage.
(http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n251/lindiana612/HouseLower.jpg)
Upstairs, keep in mind the steeply sloping roof:
(http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n251/lindiana612/Houseupper.jpg)
Note, too, that I want to add dorm windows in the front upstairs so that there is more natural light upstairs. There is one in the back, at the top of the landing of the stairs (You can almost see it in my drawing). The stairs have a rail that go around them in the hall so its is sort of loft-like. The trim is all dark wood on a white stucco-ish wall covering. The upper bedroom 2 will be combined into bedroom 1 or 3, not sure which, but because its no bigger than a walk in closet, in reality.
Oh and it has arched doorways inside. That was my favorite thing. I didn' mark windows in the master bedroom because, well, I forgot, but there are 4. One in front, one in back, and 2 on the side.
nice! I can see its potential...
is there a bath upstairs?
No but that big closet seems not to have much of a purpose. I was thinking half bath, since there will be 2 full baths down stairs...
Heck, I'm offering something like $27,000 for it. I plan on sinking at least $75,000 in repairs over the next year or so. I just want to get it livable first. Then I'll start my major projects like dorm windows upstairs, new bathroom upstairs.
We are going to rip out all of the nasty carpet downstairs and have all hardwood flooring, except for ceramic tile in the bathroom and kitchen. Probably something cheaper for the mudroom, like vinyl flooring. After all, the washer and dryer and all the muddy shoes we always have will be out there.
when you do put a bath upstairs...spliurge and make it a full...it will help your resale a lot.
Absolutely.
I vote for a 1/2 bath and a walk-in closet upstairs! Boy do I miss mine! :-\
I'm not sure if a full bath would fit...remember, space is limited because of the low sloped roof.
you can pop up a dormer. Trust me, it will be well worth it to add a full bath up there...at resale time, buyers will be saying "gosh, whoever sleeps up here has to go downstairs to shower"
Good point...
its a great house though...seems to have lots of potential.
That's what I'm hoping. I'm a nervous wreck over this...I've never taken on this kind of project before, and it just seems like its not real.
Daisy for what it is worth....about a year ago, I finished spending about 9 months to a year remodlleing my garage into 2 bedrooms and a family room......I ended up hating nearly every minute of it....It took so much time away from being with my family....I did most of the work on weekends and it really got to suck.....If I ever took on another project, I would either budget it to have it done (at least mostly) by others or I would not do it.....I missed so much time, that I could have spent with my kids, that I will never get back....at least that is the way I felt....
I hear ya...my oldest has volunteered to help.
There are some things we'll have contracted out...the roof. The windows. The added on windows. Any construction. Having the walls tested for lead paint, and if necessary that removal of paint. Aaron has a unique schedule, too. He works for 3 weeks driving to California or Washington state and back, having a day and a half off each of those weeks. The fourth week he is off for 7-9 days. He'll be able to get a lot of work done during that time he's off.
If we were just a tad closer, I'd give my husband to you...he'd LOVE to work on a project like that.
And I'm taking all the volunteers I can get...I've already roped a friend into driving up from Southern IN to pick out all of our colors and art (she's donating some of her art out of her gallery to us), hopefully a deal on windows from one of Aaron's friends in OH, and another of his friends is an architect in OH (soon NY) who will oversee any structural changes I'm going to make (the upstairs particularly).
THEN I get a drunken Paul Baylor trying to convince Aaron NOT to move...grrr.
One thing I didn't see anyone mention was a septic and well inspection if it's in the country. If the house has sat empty for any length of time it is vital that you have that done.
Good point. I am aware that it is on septic but at this stage, no one knows the condition of the system. I'm dealing with the middlemen in the Bank-Owned world.
Has there been any kind of inspection?
How about pumping it out?
Maintenance?
Not to scare you, but it can get very costly.
No, not yet...Once we have completely decided this is what we want to do I will order them.
The house we live in had sat empty for 3+ years after a divorce. Our septic tank filled up within 4 months of us moving in and we had to have it pumped out. Turns out, that the 3 years of inactivity had caused the bacteria to die off after it had dried out.
Knowing that, if I ever moved into a house that had not been recently occupied, I would have the tank pumped first thing to get a "fresh" start.
Also, some older houses had metal tanks. Those are just waiting to cave in by now and should be replaced. An inspection is definitely in order.
Our house sat vacant for awhile, too...you'd be amazed at some of the things we've been finding!!!! Things that weren't even found in a home inspection.
Quote from: SunnyInFL on January 04, 2007, 10:31:35 AM
Our house sat vacant for awhile, too...you'd be amazed at some of the things we've been finding!!!! Things that weren't even found in a home inspection.
Amen.
Been there, done that, got the ginormously expensive t-shirt!!!!!
LOL! You'd appreciate some of the things, FTW -- husband actually made a trip to the barracks one day to have them field-tested. :eek:
I can imagine.
It is better to be safe than.....you know.
Exactly.
Also makes for interesting conversation. We've told a few neighbors on our street & the faces they make are priceless!
"You found WHAT!?!? There's no way...couldn't be...I never saw them as the type...not on THIS street".
:rolleyes:
:biggrin:
Anything test positive?
BTW -- MANY comments were similar to your neighbors'. Usually for the powdered substances as opposed to herbal. Most people don't even raise an eyebrow at the green any more.
And, quite honestly, unless it got shoved in my face or was part of a more serious problem, I wasn't much interested, I have to admit.
What the hell did you find???
Yep, all 3 tested positive for crack/cocaine.
Nice. :biggrin:
Test-tubes, Daisy, for one thing...hidden behind the fireplace insert, in an upper kitchen cabinet & the back of a water-heater closet. Oh, and some wrappers that the 'rocks' apparently were transported in.
The majority of the homes on our street range in the 300-700k range....not that drug-use discriminates, by any means, just makes the potion more expensive.
And raises a few eyebrows.
Holy Shit! That's nuts!