Since my wife died last year I have been writing reflections of our life together, including our dwelling decisions. Some decisions went better than others. Instead of buying the house in the pic. below, we bought a 1958 ranch tract house in the burbs.
(https://i650.photobucket.com/albums/uu224/poppy3640/002-40.jpg)
When we looked at this house in 1970, it was on the market for $18,000. It is in an exclusive neighborhood of Cincinnati on a dead end street next to a large hill top park.
This house was all original 40 years ago including the big farm type porcelain sink in the kitchen, pocket doors, beveled glass doors, side lights, and windows, huge octapus gravity furnace in the basement, 2 staircases to the second floor, original tile in the bathroom, 2 car garage in the back, and 2 finished rooms on the third floor.
This house would sell for about $400,000 today. d*
Hind sight is pretty good, but if we had lived in and then sold this house when we retired, we could have been rich in many respects. Oh well, such is life. I told the kids that maybe they were better off having lived in a middle class neighborhood rather then the uppity area this house sits. ;)
Well, can't change the past. ;) I know, even at 35 I look at more poor housing decisions...like that modular home we put in 13 years ago on 5 acres that would have been ideal for the house I would love to build now. d*
You never know. I lived in a similar looking neighborhood in Buffalo, NY in 1980. It is now known as the crack neighborhood.
Poppy that is where the old saying comes into play. "Hindsight is 20/20". I just think of all the rent money that went down the drain throughout the years. I guess I am just a slow learner. But not knowing from one day to the next whether I would be transfered frequently that just seemed logical at the time. d*
We bought into a nice neighbourhood in Toronto 10 years ago. It was a house with walkout basement, ground floor and second floor. It had an apartment on each of the 3 floors. The whole place was electric baseboard heating. It didn't have curb appeal. All other single family houses were quickly selling but no one wanted this.
We had a tour and I noticed the odd layout for the apartments but then realized that if the certain walls were removed; the ground floor & 2nd floor would be a well laid out 4 bedroom house. The walls I wanted to remove were built without electrical or plumbing in them. And they weren't taped & filled; just wood trim to hide the joints.
We bought it for slightly under listing price. We moved into the basement while keeping the tenants above. While in the basement we saved money for our wedding. After 2 years we asked the tenants to move out and we renovated the whole house ourselves and installed a furnace and ductwork. It was easy to renovate because we always had a least one functional washroom and kitchen. after we moved upstairs, we rented out the basement.
That was my best financial move ever! We love the people around, the area and the schools. And the house would sell for $500,000 more than what we put in.
Well guys and gals, if the truth be told, I didn't exactly tell the whole story. It is true that we looked at that 4 square and it is equally true where it is located. The fact is that someone else had already placed an offer to buy before we saw it and the law/rule then was that it was off the market and we should not have been shown the house in the first place. ::)
It was just a story of what might have been that we kept alive as a lesson to ourselves and our kids that timing is everything and that patience is needed when making major decisions like that.
We really had no reason to rush into a home purchase at the time, but it was so easy to find a move-in-ready house in the burbs and a work buddy of mine lived in that suburb and encouraged us to look there.
Ken, I understand what you're saying about city neighborhoods, but our risk was extremely low had we found a house in the right part of that area, which this house was in. We just didn't have the patience to keep looking.
The pic. below is of a house 2 doors away from the subject one that is currently on the market for $314, 900. It is a much smaller house even though it has been added to and upgraded quite a bit.
(https://i650.photobucket.com/albums/uu224/poppy3640/wellston.jpg)
And then 2 more doors up at the end of the street next to the park is a mansion. The area around this park and near this little street has $500,000 to $1,000,000 houses. It has always been one of the most stable neighborhoods in the city. For you baseball fans, Jonny Bench lives there.
Here is another view that shows a glimse of the garage and a better view of the beveled glass front door and side lights.
(https://i650.photobucket.com/albums/uu224/poppy3640/001-46.jpg)
Rover, I was writing my post when yours came in. That's the kind of story I like to hear from young folks (assuming you were young at the time). You did what was smart that others couldn't see. Congrats. [cool]
Your story reminds me of some of the episodes I've seen on HGTV that come out of the north country.
Your example would make for a good build story on this site, if you have lots of pics. :P
Poppy,
I'm sure you didn't know how correct you are !!!!!
We were young-ish when we bought. Me 35, my wife 30. Now we are 10 years older with 3 yrs & 7 months to be mortgage free. We had so much energy to renovate before we had kids. Now its tough to have time to just wash the walls.
Here is the funny part. My wife, Sharon Grech, is a guest on a local morning TV program, called CityLine. She is on air approx once a month showing various paint related projects. She has been using most of our house reno projects on air. Unfortunately, we don't get any financial help from the network. But when her shoot dates approach, I have to have everything 100% complete. She is fantastic with style and colours.
My starter house in 1973 cost 23,500
sold it in 1982 for 36,000
bought the second house in 1980 for $110,000
sold for $215,000 in 2000 -- that was a great place on an acre with 22 old oak trees
we added on and remodeled the bathroom floors it was finally 'done' in 1999 when we divorced
current house is a money pit --- new air conditioner, new well pump, redone septic, remodel baths, remodel kitchen, rip out carpet, painit exterior, --almost done must be time to move d*
my new wife and I are hoping to get the 'cottage' done this year in Wisconsin
Starting with this
(https://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g135/Crockette/IMG_0382.jpg)
We are planning to end up with this (new front door is about where the large windows are next to the step ladder)
(https://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g135/Crockette/IMG_5074.jpg)
back
(https://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g135/Crockette/IMG_5077.jpg)
garage end with work shop
(https://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g135/Crockette/IMG_5076.jpg)
Nice looking project there, Windpower. I like how you kept the flavor of the hip roof. [cool]
thank you, Poppy
It is going to be an interesting year