Yesterday, I spoke about the handyman special. In responding to some of the comments I promised to reveal the adventures in home renovation that I experienced when we purchased our current home in 2001. First some history on the road traveled to get to the purchase of our "fixer" in Thompson Ridge NY. This is the 6th house we have owned in 18 years. We have bought and lived in 4 of them. The other two were investment properties. You may ask if I was crazy to keep doing this and some days I would agree. The purchase and renovation of each of these houses was profitable for my family but it was a lot of work and often took years to complete a house. My husband was a building contractor for years and still works in construction so he had the skills needed to do major improvements. But on with this story...
My husband wanted some land around his house. We started searching in this area for something with at least 5 acres that we could afford. This was back before I was an agent so we spent a lot of time with different agents looking for the perfect new home for us. After going to see quite a few properties we came upon a listing that had almost 11 acres, great privacy, and a mess of a house. The house actually had a single wide mobile home that had been completely enclosed inside the framing of a stick built structure. It was horrible but my husband wanted it. He made me come back to it 5 times before he finally had me convinced he could make something out of it.
After we closed on the property we pulled a 26 foot travel trailer onto the land in June and moved into that with the 3 kids and the 110 lbs dog. This was supposed to be a camping adventure that would not last more than a month according to my husband. Let me tell you things were tight especially after the kids started back to school in September. Yes we had to live in that small space for more than 4 months. It still gives me nightmares.
What did we do to the house? We cut the mobile home right out of the structure and removed all but one interior structurally important wall and laid down a sub-floor. We actually walked through the house after the floor went down and drew chalk-lines where we wanted the walls to go. We had an electrician in who was appalled at the condition of the electrical wiring. It all had to be redone of course. New everything had to be ordered and installed.
It was an intense emotional and throughly exhausting experience for the whole family. As the fall started to chill I started to worry that we would not be in the house before the snow flew. My husband was working full time and many times worked all night on the house then left for work with little rest. I spent all day finishing the house staining and painting. Finally the day came when we moved out of the cramped travel trailer into our new nearly finished house in early November. That night the hose which was our water line to the trailer froze and the snow flurries came. We still had a lot to do but we beat the snow by a nose.
Am I happy to have done the renovations I have lived through? Of course I am because I would not be what I am or where I am today without having those experiences. I also know first hand how much work these projects can be and that they are not for the average home-buyer. Believe me life in a small rectangular box with 3 kids and a dog is not something I would recommend for the faint of heart.
If you are looking for a home in the Greater Hudson Valley of New York I would be happy to show you around and help you decide if a renovation project or more livable space is better for you.
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Interesting post, Paddy.
Our first home was on 22 acres. A 100 plus year old plank tenant house which was part of the main farm. High in the hills of snow country in Western New York. What a beautiful view! Across the valley, to which we had a clear and beautiful view, was the ski slop, lighted at night. How relaxing looking out as we sat in front of the fireplace. This "Beauty!" as I told my wife, only needed a little TLC, what did I know! Plank homes are just that, all plank, no studs, no plaster and lath, no insulation, just PLANK! Drywall had been installed over the plank thru the years though. When we started our remodel project we found that the plank had been wallpapered in years past.
The long and short of it, we grew with the experience and loved the finished project some five years and two children after the undertaking. If only we had had an Agent that could have, would have given us some basic information.
Maybe I should have done a post of my own!!
Experience is a GREAT teacher.
Thanks for your post, and Happy Easter.
Great Post, Thanks for the information. Keep up the great blogs. Very interesting. I enjoyed reading your blog.