My retirement project is done!

sawinredneck

sawinredneck

Treehouser
Joined
Mar 24, 2006
Messages
8,527
Location
Kansas
This is the house I've been working on the last three years, most of you have heard me bitch about it in one form or the other! Don't take the finished pics for granted! This house was GUTTED! Never mind the second story wasn't even there! The main floor was taken down to studs, plaster and lathe, then rocked, the only thing I didn't have a hand in was the stair case, which I hate! We lost four wall on the main floor, two headers, framed in all of the second floor, laid all of the flooring (other than carpet) custom made all the transition strips, installed all the windows and did all the trim work. The majority of the drywall and mud and tapping was contracted out, but I had a hand in some of the smaller areas.
I'm glad to be done with this thing!!!
http://www.realtor.com/realestatean...St_Rose-Hill_KS_67133_M89315-13767?source=web
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12
It's not mine, thank God! They purchased it for $60k and I've no idea what the reno cost was, but her dad and I did most of the labor. Before the crash it might have gone for $160k, but the neighborhood it's in wouldn't carry much more than that in comparable prices.
 
that price is painful, $130k for 2000 sq foot house with half an acre. Where I live is the most unaffordable housing market on the planet. Our 900 sq ft ground level condo with no yard etc etc, at the age of about 30 years, is valued at near $300k. a house like the one shown here, in a suburb about an hours drive from the big city of Vancouver with a 50 x 75' yard is in the range of $500k. A new house on a 35 x 60 lot in that same bedroom community is $600k +
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #17
Well, the (in my mind) little POS house we are in now, just under 1300sqf with a quarter acre, was $57k in '96. Now it's around $80k, two years ago we could have had around $95k out of it.
My wife got sucked in good, and I damn near did, a few years ago about buying a newer/bigger house. I had a bad feeling and flat shut it down, with a LOT of grief! But I am damn glad we aren't there now! And so is she!
Like I said, it would have been $160k in the better market, but I've seen houses on my block sell for $55-60k after being foreclosed. Last count, we had 63 foreclosures in our town of 4000 people, and climbing. Aircraft is a dying industry in this area for sure!
 
Speaking about tornadoes and the like, even multi million dollar houses are like match sticks in the face of a tsunami. Inland is good.
 
I built mine myself, hiring out only insulation, sheetrock and the brick. I roofed a house for a guy in exchange for him doing my vinyl siding. I had a hand in every phase of it, from cutting sheetrock for the hangers, toting brick for the mason, etc. I lost count, but my estimate is $55k in it, and I have just over 2000 sq. ft. My insurance company has a formula for calculating "values" and they put it at $178k, which allows for "current cost replacement". I have no idea what the housing market values are here, but folks tell me it's down. I've got ~2 acres and with the house, I probably couldn't get $200k, but I have no actual idea, as I have no intention of selling.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #20
I'd rather built from the ground up than deal with another mess like this one! It was all knob and tube wiring, plaster and lathe walls, we hauled trash can after trash can of that crap out and I've lost count of how many times we made dump runs with the trailer. Replaced all the wiring, busted out all the cast iron pipes then re-piped the entire house, got most of the main floor finished. THEN they decided they wanted to do the second floor!
It was a real PITA!
 
I recall a time when people made fortunes by renovating houses, buying and moving up. Someone with average pay could be living in a multimillion dollar house after a few years, just by buying and selling. it was pretty crazy, and I think it might have made people a bit greedy with certain expectations.
 
I've heard of that, too, Jay, but it seems to be a thing of the past, at least around here. I couldn't do it anyway, as I hate moving, and an old-timer once told me the key to it, was to buy it, move into it and live in it a few months, then sell it. Something about living in it increases the "saleability" of it, I guess. Oh, and I couldn't do it also, as I don't have the money to invest in such, and I don't like going in debt.
 
One thing it did was drive the house prices way up in a relatively short time. Any house that could be bought for speculation was soon gobbled up by people that had the ready cash or could be easily cleared for financing, and some folks had many houses for the purpose to make bread. It made it quite difficult for first time buyers to get in, folks that needed a place to live and raise families, less interested in the make a fortune scheme.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #24
On the market for a week and it's under contract already. I'm shocked it went that fast!
 
Now we get to find out what the home inspection reveals... What do you think Andy, will it pass inspection with flying colors?

I think it will!
 
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