Out of curiosity, how many of you feel as though all of your major remodeling work around your house is complete and/or the way to want it? I've heard plenty of people say that you're never done once you're a homeowner, but I'm sure there are a few who are an exception to the rule. If you are one the few, how many years did it take to get there? Again, this is purely for discussion purposes, and to hopefully give me some more motivation:D
I had bought a small house in my dream location. Added on to both ends to make a nice big house. Gutted the old, re wired it, insulation, dry wall, carpet, tile, heating and air system, new rafters and roof, new siding and windows, land scape, poured padio and side walks. New kitchen, and was down to the floor trim . I Was building my pole barn a 30X48x10 and was ready to pour concrete, THEN it happened, My wife burnt it completly to the ground with a greese fire I had done 95% of the work myself, was wore out from doing it, and was all but done. I kid you not, I cried everytime I was in the shower for a week. I Just thank God no one got hurt or killed. I built a new home in the same spot and finished my pole barn. Things can be replaced,,so thats just what we did. Matt your place brings back alot of memories. You do excellent work my friend
Man I wish... This is our second house since I couldn't sell the house in Jacksonville, NC when we PCS'd. Bought what I could afford here with this being a second mortgage - and its a fixer upper, a HUGE fixer upper. I've never lived in a house long enough to ever get done...one of these days.
Crick.... can you send your wife up to my house up in Chicago? Sorry about the house. Matt, the one house we fixed up while we lived in it was never done.
Our house now has been a piece of work. First it was mold discovery in the basement, demo and redo. Then it was the Master bedroom and upstairs bathroom. Next is the nursery and 3rd bedroom and one day the kitchen/living room.
I bought my current home about 5 years ago. The home was built in 1982 and nothing had ever been updated prior to my purchase. I completely updated it prior to moving in 5 years ago. I am talking everything including replacing all mechanicals (furnace, AC hot water heater etc) with high efficiency models. The only thing I had not done was pull the linoleum up in a couple rooms and replace it with tile. That renovation took about a month. Then, as Mr. Crick said... It happened. The place caught on fire. I did not do any of the fire cleanup or restoration. I also did not do any of the painting, plumbing, carpet or wiring after the fire. Other than that I did the rest of it in about 1.5 months (drywall, all trim, interior and exterior doors, tile, kitchen, bathrooms etc etc). Most of that 1.5 months was spent waiting on a lot of special order material to come in. I thought I was done after the first time, just to have to do it all over again. Although, I would love to put a large den addition off of the back of the house one day. Its not that it isn't big enough already as there is plenty of room, I just want a hang out room. I am also tossing around the idea of building an extra detached garage...
We've been in our current home since '95 and we're about 75% done with the inside. Have kitchen and family room left to complete. Oh, and the stairs. The outside, once all the windows are done, needs to be resided. Same with garage and then the driveway. But, I've been so sick on working on this home that I'm ready to sell as is and move into a very new, rather small (750sqft) single floor condo. I've gotten to the point I don't have time for yard maintenance and can't stand looking at a hammer and nails anymore. All of you who've had your homes burn. We need to talk....
I've lived here 5 years and haven't even put a dent in it. Fixer upper was an understatement. This place sucked LOL. I'm slowly getting there, but its been a struggle.
Wow, Crick, I couldn't even imagine going through all of that only to have it go down in flames. I suppose, like you said, that it puts it all in perspective (no one was hurt, and things can be replaced). Thanks for the compliments, but I always have to give credit to my dad. He's teaching me a ton, and he's a huge help. Scott, also glad you and your family got out alright. Such a shame after all that work, but given your time table, you work fast! I'm going on year two of owning this home, and there hasn't been one moment where I'm not knee deep in a major project. I've done a lot, but I really have a lot more to go. Seems never ending at times.
This about sums out how our place is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yil2jWQ5Oqg Yes, I refer to it as the Money Pit as well.
I know I'm no where near being done. Since we've bought the house back in mid 2008, I've hired someone to replace the windows and the roof. I've built a shed, workbenches in the garage, tiled the laundry room floor, installed a fireplace mantle, some drainage work, and redid our walkway and landscaping. This year, I have a big to-do list. Here soon, I'm installing hardwood in the downstairs living area. I would also like to reside the house with vinyl (currently have T1-11) and build a fence for the backyard. I am ambitious and I plan on doing it all myself! :D To answer the original question....I'm getting closer.
I'm gonna have more on my hands getting this place ready to sell this spring than I would have if I was living in it. It was always a stepper home. I have plans for the "new" house. It's a nice modular, but I will be modifying it. PS MATT. You're doing damn well. I purposefully have to keep my wife from seeing your threads.
I'm done at this point. There are other things that could be done, but the home was bought with intentions of selling. We have been here for about 3 years now, and based on the top end selling prices of similar homes in the neighborhood, for us to get more than it's worth now, it will cost significantly more than what I'll get back out. I'd rather sell at a fair price vs. a top end price if it means more $$$ in our pockets when we cash out. We are instead focusing on putting our $$$ into savings and staying otherwise debt free so we can walk away from this place with some decent equity and savings to buy the next place with.
Good plan. that is what we did. We bought a house (1100 sq ft.) 10 years ago with the plan of having the kids born there and then upgrade. In the 10 years I redid the entire house, even the closets were modified. We paid 69K (HUD forclosure) and sold it for 127K. By doing most of the work myself, we put about 30K into it. Pretty good ROI for 10 years. 2010 had us move into the home of our dreams (2200 sq ft.) with everything we ever wanted, except for tons of acreage for us to hunt. However, I made a grave mistake and did not get a home inspection and I am looking at a MAJOR roof issue. it has a flat roof, big mistake in BUFFALO, and to truss it we are looking at 50-60K and to rubber roof it flat we are looking at 25-30K. I am sick about this and one day in November I got home from bowhunting and there was a huge bubble in the kitchen ceiling paint. I stuck a knife in it and got at least 3 cups of water initially and it has leaked since. Also, the drywall soaked and collapse one day (about a 2 foot by 2 foot section). To answer your question, you are never "done", but we were sitting back for the first time in the old house after about 9-10 years. Sal
Man I sure hope we will be done someday. We are going to close on a new house next Friday, and I can't think of anything it needs other than a better deck off the back den. It's certainly big enough (way too big for just 2 people), so I don't think we will be adding on. We've talked about busting a wall down that is shared between the kitchen and the 4th bedroom to make our giant dream kitchen, but that might have to come later, since that will be quite an expensive project... But since my Dad has been a contractor for 30 years, I'm sure we will find other things to customize, since the labor will be free
