My Money Pit--I Want Your Advice

[~Daisy~]

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

[Gryphon]

GET AN INSPECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!

[~Daisy~]

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?

[Gryphon]

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)

[~Daisy~]

I'm sure its not too terribly different where you live vs. Indiana, but how much would you say that on average those cost?

[Gryphon]

how large is the house?

[Mr442]

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!

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.

[~Daisy~]

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...

[Gryphon]

Id guess you could have one done for 300-400 tops.

[~Daisy~]

That's kind of what I was thinking...not bad.

[~Daisy~]

Here is the picture from the internet. I can't get the pictures I took uploaded off my phone to put on here 



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.

[~Daisy~]

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.

[Sunny]

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???

[~Daisy~]

Hopefully this works:

Downstairs, minus the long mudroom that goes out the kitchen to the garage.




Upstairs, keep in mind the steeply sloping roof:





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.

[~Daisy~]

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.