For those who like to hear updates on our fixer upper home purchase here ya go.
In the spring of 2012 we sold our home and were renting a house right down the street on a month to month basis. With the sale of our house we were completely debt free with money in savings. More on that here and here. For 6 months we searched high and low for a house in our price range that could accommodate equipment for our business and room for our growing family. We were agonizing over how to branch our business off and looking at house after house and several fixer uppers with two little kids in tow. Most of the fixer uppers needed a little too much fixing up for what we already had to keep up with. I wanted something decently liveable since we already had two kids and my husband wanted a good priced fixer upper with lots of potential and somewhere we could see ourselves living for awhile. I had no idea it would end up being over an hour away on the opposite side of town from where we were living and where most of our business income was but God had a plan as He always does.
In the fall of 2012 we found a house that had alot of things on our list and decided to make an offer. After much haggling back and forth and some issues with loan complications, we were finally able to sign the papers. We had decided to go ahead and purchase this home by way of loan but plan to pay it off early.
We knew that the house had some foundation work done in the past and needed some other things that we happened to have the equipment for since we own a landscape company. However you never fully know what you’re getting into until you move in and start trying to tackle projects. The back patio had sunk in and was pushing against the foundation which the previous owners had decided to just build a deck over the top of, so those two things were the first to go. There were also two large trees growing way too close to the house and sidewalk in the front and back so we cut those down. We had hoped to get our geothermal heat system installed sometime in 2013 but that was put on hold for solar panels before the rebate program ended. We were able to get a rebate for most of the cost and the rest my husband was able to trade work for. We have had no electric bill since they hooked them up in May and got our first one just this month. It was still only about 1/3 of the cost of our bill this time last year. The siding and garage doors were showing signs of rot so DH was once again able to trade out some work to get new doors installed this summer and the siding is on the list for future projects. Once again we were planning to get the geothermal heating put in this fall/winter but a recent water line break in our front yard opened a whole new can of worms. My husband decided to dig all the way down along the foundation since they were already digging for the water line. This uncovered multiple issues that needed to be tackled with the foundation, sewer lines running uphill, drainage pipes around the base of the foundation completely collapsed and full of mud and the ground under the garage floor had sunk. He decided to seal the foundation while it was already uncovered, backfill the 8ft “moat” that was now running the perimeter of the front of our house with 70tons of gravel, rerun the sewer lines at the right angle (poop does not flush uphill very well) and add a sump pump to the garage. Next on the list, unless something more pressing doesn’t happen first, will be repouring the garage floor and driveway. There has been more mud and dirt covering our yard, driveway, the kitchen floor and my boys than I’m pretty sure I’ve seen, like ever. However my consolation prize is when they finally get the new stone sidewalk and drive put it it’s gonna look purty sweet 😉 ..plus the supplier already told us he’d supply the stone for our house for an awesome deal, so it will only cost a fraction of what it would otherwise.
This week they’ve taken a little break with the outside projects and almost have the upstairs woodstove installed. We already have a woodstove downstairs and a fireplace in the living room but need something in the dining area to help the fireplace keep up. Pictures do not do it justice but here’s some anyway and hopefully I can keep you updated as they happen.
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