I found a good one in my neighborhood that I can sort of afford. With how rents are going up, I’d rather be locked in and have a chance of not being rent-burdened someday. Overall, it’s in good shape with a good foundation, roof, and utilities. However the current owner was going at it silly and the whole thing is covered in half-started DIY projects.
My friend who is a builder said that actually it’s in great shape, it’s just going to be a lot of work to clean up the half projects and finish up with the drywall and so on. She guessed it would be 300 hours of work for her or about 1000 for me since I have a lot more to learn. She’s offered to work together with me at a discount to teach me how to do things myself/do work-trade where I do grunt work at her sites and she does more specialized labor for me.
I think I wouldn’t mind living somewhere jank for a few years as I fixed it, but I am seeking the perspective of people who have done it before. What were your regrets and what do you wish you had known going in?
My union has been coming through for us these past years so I can afford an okay down payment and to get some good inspections.
Overall, I feel mixed. On one hand, this feels like a real chance at stability but on the other it might be saddling myself with more work than I can chew. With each year that passes, my capacity for projects and things outside work wanes and I am a bit worried about the trade-off with having such a big ongoing project and the mental load of it being always around me.
Also for reference, I am used to doing manual labor just not building trades.
So yeah.
Also I’m excited because there is a really big and easy to access attic that can become a dance hall or a jam room. Like it was enough room to have 15 people dancing comfortably up there. Granted that’s only really gonna be comfortable in the Spring and Fall months although if we get really moving the Winter could be doable.
I did with my house. I bought an absolute piece of shit for dirt prices. Was a former trap house. I roofed it. I re wired it. I re insulated it. I gutted the house down to the studs and re-rocked and insulated everything a room at a time. New paint. New siding. 80 foot of below slab tunneling for New drains and water lines. New electric panel w service capacity upgrades.
I’m still doing stuff to my house, 10 years later, but it’s minor things like removing bad Sheetrock texture, repaint, fixing appliances etc.
Bought the house for 38k. I’d have to look in my filing cabinet and spend a week tallying receipt totals but I think it was another 40-50k over the first five years. I’d work 10’s, then come home and work another 4-6 hours a day. Every week day. Then nearly all weekend, every weekend. For the first twoish years.
Everything in this home, probably 75% was put here by me. Only things original to it are portions of the framing and the slab. Everything else was me.
I don’t think I’ll undertake something like this ever again. But, it served me well. I have a construction background (10 years concrete work in my youth, career plumber for longer than I can remember now) so a lot of it was easier for me than someone without the background. I feel well prepared to tackle just about anything my home throws at me, on my own. I’m thankful for that. But I don’t wanna do it again either.