The Tour
This is a remodeling blog.
This is a finance blog.
This is a how-to guide.
This is a cautionary tale.
This is how I will capture what has been one of the most challenging years of my adult life, and what turned out to be one hell of an investment.
In 2020, an otherwise totally normal year in which everyone was happy and only normal numbers of people perished, my spouse and I bought a fixer-upper that the former owner's children apparently felt was a burner-downer (though the ironic level of water damage in the house would not be fully known until much, much later).
Behold:
Because the market at this point has lost half its goddamned mind.
We went to tour it because we were curious, and bored, and had spent the last 10 months of our covid seclusion together in a 600 sq/ft house working from home and figured it'd be a nice alternative to thinking about casual murder for a little bit.
My first impression: "Wow, this place smells like old beef soup."
But it had its charm, mainly this kick-ass fireplace wall:
It also had its issues...
- An obvious prior water leak in the kitchen ceiling
- Another possible water leak above the fireplace
- Heinous, stained, nasty carpeting, a different color in each room
- A bathroom with three different colors of tile and sinks that didn't turn off all the way
- Another bathroom that had been cheaply converted into a handicap-accessible roll-in, by way of butting the shower into the entryway and nailing plywood over the former sidelight.
- Mouse shit...just...so much mouse shit.
On the way out the door, we noticed those fun stone blocks that you can see through the living room doorway in the above photo, to the right of the stairs. I happened to push up on the wood tops to find that they were actually stone planters.
Okay, mid-century lovefest...you win.
Back at the 600 sq ft tiny house, we decided what the hell? We don't need to move. Let's throw a number out there and see if this works.
If only we had known.
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