House report 1

Sometime last December

Well I am not sure when I am going to actually put this up on the blog, as it is news that we're not announcing just yet! But we have found a new house! It's a long story, but in a nutshell, we're going to buy a fixer-upper.  We always knew we'd need a fixer-upper, that's the only thing that would fit our budget around here. And boy, is it a fixer-upper. It was built in 1973, and it looks like nothing has been touched or repaired since then. Actually that's not true, it has a new roof and appears to have a new heating system. But everything else is in major disrepair - random holes in the drywall all over the place, floors coming up, kitchen cabinets falling down. The roof leaked for years until it had to be replaced, so the roof is new, but inside all the ceilings are stained and discoloured.

I first saw the house when I went over to help the family of the current owners (one of whom passed away and one of whom moved to a nursing home) clear out the sewing room. The house was full of WW2 military equipment, all boxed up and piled high, from floor to ceiling. I arranged for the contents of the sewing room (a fabric stash to make anyone jealous) to be donated to the quilt guild, and when I went back a couple of days later the family had 'found' a fireplace and a piano which they didn't know existed, both of which had been covered up by the piles of boxes. The house was full! It took the family and later a team of guys with military knowledge who could identify what they were looking at several weekends to clear the garage and the house.

So here are the cons:

Empty, abandoned pool will have to be filled in or fixed (can't get a mortgage on a property with an abandoned pool)

Brick facade on the front is falling away from the house (if there's an earthquake any time soon it will fall down)

Three bathrooms - but I'm told there's only one working toilet and one working sink, allegedly not in the same room

Downstairs bathroom hasn't worked for 30 years

Master bathroom needs to be gutted

Main bathroom needs to be gutted

Kitchen is awful and needs to be gutted

50-60% of the ceilings are water damaged, stained, and need to be pulled down
It's in the wrong school district and I will be monkeying with transfers for years

And here are the pros:

It's big

It's cheap

Jeff can do it!

We're thinking that we'll just do what we have to do to get into it and then we can fix it up over time while we're living there. I've lived in a building site before, I can do it again! But there are some major things to be done before we move in. The big ones are to rip out and replace all water damaged ceilings and walls, new kitchen, new bathrooms, and do something about the pool. It's going to be a lot of work.