A REAL Fixer Upper....

[LindseyG]

No one side is one bedroom and one side is two bedroom. Both have kitchen and living room and bathroom. We are using one of the living rooms/den as a bedroom though so technically 4 bedrooms.

 

[LaylaLop]

Just recently moved to the south from Washington and yes, the house market is ridiculously cheap!

We're renting and it's somewhat of a fixer upper but not too bad. We can't do changes too much without landlord permission but first thing before moving in is we cleaned and rented a rug doctor to deep clean carpets.

The yard had like 2 years' worth of leaves, tons of roaches/termites on plywood lying around, holes in the fence, etc. With a few hundred bucks at Lowe's we fixed up most of it and have just been waiting on leaves to dry out before we bag up most of them.

Where I was at before, a 2bd 1ba apartment cost about what I'm paying for a single family home that has 3bd, 2ba, 1 car garage, fenced yard, fireplace, vaulted living room, and no pet restrictions.

Seriously, the landlord said any domestic pets are ok and liked my dog enough to waive the pet deposit/fees.

Right now the bunnies have their own bedroom and my boyfriend has a computer/office room, then we share the bedroom.

We're paying double-rent right now for an apartment and this place but it's worth it... the other place had funnel spiders in the WALLS that would trap the roaches and eat them and leave their carcasses about. Not to mention I'm pretty sure I saw a black widow in the storage closet on the deck. And the place had a history of break-ins and the intersection that turned into the place was accidents nightly. NOT where I wanted to be.

I hope you can get the house for a good price and at the very least, it will be a good summer project!

Once we have more income we're going to work on fixing up the lawn since it's clay/dirt and looks pretty ugly!

 

[slavetoabunny]

You can live in one side and keep the other one for when you have visitors.

 

[irishbunny]

Good luck!
I love American houses, they look so cute.

 

[fuzz16]

Lindsey, thats really weird that theres not more than one bedroom on one side. Seems better off as a 4br house than a duplex honestly, but it would be nice having the ability to rent out to one person and it could cover your mortage teehee

One thing I am super worried about is bugs...small town and so no one likes newcomers. Well a bunch of people in town want the house too so rumors are flyyying...sewage in the house, tree growing from the tub. vermin and bugs all around the house (which i kinda beleive seeing the state of it being unoccupied...gross)

Most of our plumbing worries were cleared up by the city inspector, super great guy and very nice and imformatve. He even said he'd let our building permits go past 6 months on some things, like concrete you cant pour in the cold so hell let us do it next summer instead of charging another 25$ for a builder's permit.
He did say though, nothing can be added to house except going back in the yard, not to side of the yard bc the house is too close to the property line on each side.

And then the washer and dryer are in the garage which is like an old lean-too with random peices of plywood pressed against the wall haha. im gonna see about adding some insulation to keep from loosing so much heat in the house and hopefully so the washer water lines dont freezze ): otherwise the comp/craft/bun room will be the landury room.

We put in a bid..i only did 20g though. it needs about 18,500 worth of work. the estimation was made by gpa-in-law he used to build houses so i am sooo glad i have his help on this!!! I will know if HUD accepted it tomorrow, if they don't then were gonna put another bid in for 22g but idk if well go higher just bc the amount of sweat and money (more sweat) involved in the making this house suitable for living.


So I am stressed and edgy and my MIL keeps saying just don't think about it...blah. got till july 31st to close then have ONE MONTH to have it livable bc then our apartment lease ends and i dont wanna pay 800 for month-to-month.


My biggest concern, and i itch at the thought. is someone s going to have to go in the crawlspace under the house...about 2ft high. and spray killz and lime on the underside of house and bleach solution and then try to get the debris out the best we can from under the house. im already planning on what ima wear...gloves with duct taped around that and my shirt and hood with mask ect so nooothing can crawl down my pants and bite me. more worried about bugs than rabid squirrels but ya never know.

and just so everyone knows...i WILL have a house blog cause if i am spending 18g remodeling i am gonna have to show off! o...and get this...no internet company out there less than 60 a month! hopefully i can steal off his parents lol...blah. i need internet. ill go nuts.

 

[LakeCondo]

Best wishes. But goodness, what if a real outsider wanted to move into town, like someone from more than 50 miles away, maybe even someone from out of state.

 

[fuzz16]

blah..small town i get it they dont like new people cause they stir up trouble. put our bid in, i cried when we didnt get it. weve been looking for a year and the first house we get serious on is taken from us bc of 500$. sigh. maybe it wasnt meant to be...

 

[LakeCondo]

Sorry, that didn't work out. But I'm sure you'll find another that you like, & in a friendlier place.

 

[fuzz16]

Thanks. I gree up ina small town, so i get newcomers not being welcomed. Were gojng yo try and find a place still..but im still sad

 

[agnesthelion]

Oh so sorry didn't get it we had a house sell out from under us before we bought our current house now. At the time I was heartbroken and now I look at my house and love it and I am glad it happened! You'll see, it will work out. You will find one!

 

[PaGal]

Sorry it didn't work out but try and keep your chin up. We are big believers in things working out if they are meant to be. I tend to be a pessimist but this has been proven to me again and again.

We were living in the family home my hubby was raised in. To make a long story short the home he was going to buy (family home) that hubby put thousands into and the sweat to go along with it., thousands more we put in and the work we did and the family screwed us and had us hustling to find something. I was looking at places to rent if necessary but we hoped to buy. We were short on time as they were trying to force us to sign a lease that would have had m,any restrictions and would have forced negative changes such as getting rid of our dog.

We found our place. It was a short sale and took longer than it should have to buy but we got it and love it. We own a couple of acres. Only three neighbors and they are helpful and yet stay mostly to themselves. The rest is farmland.

You may yet find something even better. More room, less work or whatever would fit you. Keep looking and look at everything. The pics we first saw of our home did not do it justice and I'm sure it may have caused others to look elsewhere.

 

[fuzz16]

Im hoping we find something quickly. Theres a house in sprnghill....but its 20 min from eother parents. Which might be nice were not so reliant on them. But levis car got keyed so hes super fed up with apartments..and i have to rehome pidge if we dont get a bigger place ):

 

[LakeCondo]

I don't know if these sites will be of any interest to you, as you know the area you're looking in [& maybe "everyone" knows about the sites] but anyway:

walkscore.com is useful not for the score it gives for an area, but you can enter an address & it will list the stores, schools etc that are closest. You can also enter a 2nd address & you can get driving directions.

yelp.com lets you look up more about stores, restaurants, etc.

whitepages.com has a feature where you can find out the neighbors' names for any address& sometimes a phone number. It's not up-to-date [which would be too Big Brother anyway], but it can be useful.

 

[JadeIcing]

We live in between his parents and mine. Honestly love it. Close enough but far enough apart.

fuzz16 wrote:

Im hoping we find something quickly. Theres a house in sprnghill....but its 20 min from eother parents. Which might be nice were not so reliant on them. But levis car got keyed so hes super fed up with apartments..and i have to rehome pidge if we dont get a bigger place ):

 

[fuzz16]

Ya we have a mls finder setup for jomes within our bufget snd my agent texts me daily about houses. My sister is intrrning gor cheif of police so she can search crime rate anywhere locally

I live 10min from my mm, 30 from his parents. No w/d in the apartment so im at my parents a lot.