Sweat Equity Part 2
In case you missed it, start over at Sweat Equity Part 1.
…the catch?
This was a house that used to have lots of animals.
And lot’s of stuff.
Years and years of neglect had taken its toll. The history of this home seemed to scare enough buyers away to give us our chance to jump on it. Thankfully, between my “how hard can it be?!” denial, alongside my carpentry-as-a-passion partner, we climbed aboard and started working away.
First lesson I learned?
Young kids don’t have the vision that adults do. One thing you can take away from my experience is this: Don’t show kids their new room if it is in terrible condition. Or smells like cat pee. Or both.
They won’t “see” potential. They’ll just smell the 30 year old cat carpet, tell you they don’t want to move, and then ask to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. It’s nothing a Happy Meal won’t fix, of course.
We spent our summer of 2022 preparing for The Move In Day. We scraped almost every surface from top to bottom. We pulled away stubborn wooden paneling, finding 40 year old notes written on the wall behind it. We replaced every inch of flooring. All the while, we were packing up the old place.
I couldn’t believe the transformation as this summer unfolded.
I’m trying to make out this note- but I think the date is “2/__/77”
When it seemed like it would never end, as the piles of crap seemed only to get bigger and the list items never getting checked off, it suddenly seemed to be wrapping up.
One day, the place looked like an abandoned warehouse that had been left to decompose on its own. The next day, I was able to walk barefoot on the new floors without fear. I no longer had to ask people “did you get your tetanus shot?” before they entered.
We were finally able to move into one of our favorite neighborhoods, into our new home, just in time for the start of the school year. And by “just in time for the start of the school year”, I mean we moved the day before school started for my kid. I hope YoungFUnd has forgiven me by now.
This entire adventure almost never happened, all out of my fear of the unknown variables.
Taking a chance and moving to a new city felt like a risk. As a planner, I had plenty of concerns that could not be answered, but I decided not to let these questions stop us from moving.
What if the neighborhood isn’t as quiet as we thought?
What if I can’t find childcare for my kid when I need it?
What if my short commute got longer because of unexpected traffic patterns?
If I decided to wait for answers to all of these questions before we made our move, I would still be stuck exactly where I started.
It was time to move forward in the discomfort of the unknown “what if’s”.
Ready or not.
The Move In Day was just over 3 years ago. There are plenty of projects to go. We spent the first summer making the house decent and liveable before we moved in, which left an abundance of “big” projects ahead- bathrooms, roof, kitchen, front yard, and windows. And that’s just what’s on our list, not what may surprise us on some unsuspecting Thursday.
It’s always on a Thursday, these unsuspecting things…
Three years in, and we still haven’t had a housewarming party. It’s a joke I have with co-workers at this point:
“Yeah, any day now!”
Over these 3 years, we have learned what may be the most important lesson:
How to live in the present, with a giant to-do list hanging over our heads
It is so easy to feel as though these projects are going to take over every penny and every minute of our lives. As projects are completed, we adjust to our new “upgrade”, and then something else becomes the new “let’s just fix THIS, then …” task.
This process has provided an opportunity to practice balancing expectations and reality on a daily basis. Having “A List of Projects” can create a goal focused mentality that doesn’t stop to allow looking around and savoring the experiences on the journey. By allowing ourselves to pace out the projects, we are able to step away, keep perspective, and keep other financial goals in progress as well.
For example, one way to stay sane and keep the stress low during this 4 (okay 6) year renovation timeline is to manage the cost of the projects carefully. There are no construction loans, hard money loans, etc. when it comes to improving our home. This helps to keep our renovation process simple and at a reasonable pace.
There is also a shocking amount of items we can do ourselves.
Together, my partner and I have already built walls, upgraded bathrooms, installed recessed lighting, and built fences. Thankfully, since we plan on living in this home for a long time, we are not in a rush, and we can do our research. Watching our home slowly unfold before our eyes has been an experience we are able savor, project by project. Why rush the process? I have to live with each decision for the foreseeable future!
In case you’re wondering… YES. The tree grew around the hose reel, and now they are one piece. I wonder how many years it took for that to happen.
Buying a fixer upper for the long term is not intended to be a money making strategy for us. It did get us into a neighborhood we wanted, with a decent sized house and floor plan, for a price that didn’t burden our future. A comparable “fixed up” house in our neighborhood would have been $250,000 or so more. Every day, people are tempted to buy something (anything!) shinier, better, newer. Looking at houses is no different. A price point has to stop somewhere. By sticking to our predetermined limit during tempting times , we have a much more comfortable financial standing during this phase of our lives. Had we spread ourselves too thin, we would not be able to have the peace of mind we strive for, nor the chance to take other opportunities that may arise in our future.
Hypothetically, this house could improve our financial standing in the future if we sell it, or use the equity towards another home in the future. That does not have to be our end goal, however.
An increase in equity? Great.
An increase in the quality of our life because of our move? Experiencing life where we have always wanted to live? This is an improvement that brings value to our lives.
I took a risk by diving into a pool of unknowns, what-it’s, and oh-craps. Now I can walk out to my front lawn and have a (teeny, tiny, far-off) ocean view every day. It is my reminder of the benefits of being open to change, and taking steps to live life on my own terms.
Projects Completed:
Roof
Flooring
Ceilings Scraped
Recessed Lighting
Master Bathroom
Guest Bathroom
Guest Closet
Projects to Go:
Kitchen
Solar Panels
Front Yard Hardscape & Landscape
Windows
Stair Railing
… and whatever the hell else pops up on Thursday.
