We bought a dump
On August 1, 2022, Sara and I gained possession 3 acres of land (a 1.5 acre plot where our current home resides and the 1.5 acre plot next door), a house, and a 24’x40′ pole barn. Within our family, we affectionately call this home The House Over Yonder (THOY for short). We originally thought we’d put $10,000 or so into the house, rent it for a few years and then tear it down and build our dream home. Life doesn’t always go as planned!
Before we even bought the house, we knew it had problems, because we knew the homeowner–a family member. In fact, we’re the 4th couple in the family to own the property. The last couple to own it did little to no maintenance on the home in a little over 20 years of ownership. At the first walk through, we made a list of fixes that we knew it needed and started putting together estimates. Given time, we could probably do a lot of it ourselves. Then, we had a contractor walk through with us a few weeks later and give us his estimate–$58,000 just to make it livable again. That doesn’t include any upgrades or additions. His list included:
- Level the home – the center of the home had fallen 2″. ($7,000)
- Replace the front “bow” window – $4,000 (including replacing the front wall of the home)
- Replace rear-sliding glass door – $2,000
- Replace all flooring and walls in not one but BOTH bathrooms – $10-$15,000
- Replace flooring in mud room
- New furnace and central air (Heat exchanger on furnace was cracked) – $8,000
- Replace two more exterior doors ($2,000 ea)
- Replace 4 bad windows ($2,000 ea)
After seeing his list, we decided to just pull the trigger and fix/remodel this house into our forever home. As of 9/26/2023, we’ve now been working on the home for 14 months and are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in 2 months. With a lot of work and plenty of prayers, we hope to move in and celebrate our first Thanksgiving in our forever home this year!
