The house I used to live in ...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

… has been remodeled.

Prior to my current residence (a pre-WW2 apartment building) I shared a house with a couple other guys. The house was built in 1916, and was a run-down piece of crap house, but it was cheap. Believe it or not, our rent in 2012 was only $795/month. For a 3-bedroom HOUSE. And that rent was split three ways. I now live alone, and pay $595/month for a one-bedroom apartment.

Oh, there were problems with the place, especially with the wiring — when I moved in, with all of my electronics and computers … there was exactly ONE electrical outlet in my room, and I had to plug everything into that one outlet (via multiple power strips and surge protectors).

Regardless, I shared that house with another man from my church and a succession of third roomies, for 7+ years. Then we all had to move out because it turned out that our landlord (who owned the house) was taking our rent checks but not paying the mortgage on the place (he was spending the money on his mistress, and OMG, the guy was so fugly that I was astonished that he had a mistress). Our home got foreclosed out from under us. We fortunately had several months warning before we had to move out — we learned about the foreclosure in October 2011, but didn’t actually have to get out until February 2012 — and we actually got to live rent-free for our final two months, once the bank had taken over.

Anyway, I relate that to share this. The local newspaper just posted an article about that house, and the guy who bought it and remodeled it:

I commented on the article with the hope that the current owner/remodeler would let me walk through the house with him. I just want to see what he’s done. It’s a wonderful old house, in one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in my city. Like I said, the house was really run-down when I lived in it, but it looks like this guy has done a great job of restoring it.

The fourth photo in the linked article shows a bunch of people standing in my old bedroom.

2

Too bad you all didn’t think about buying the place for the $90k, esp. since I gather it’s Spokane-ish.

You still could, of course, though if it’s done with non-relatives, you’d want a partnership agreement.

3

Nah, it was a missed opportunity. My then-roommates and I were never offered the chance to buy the house. Though I wish we had been — 90k? What a great deal! Between the three of us, I suspect we could have pulled that off.

But the remodeler is now asking 270k …

4

Wow, it’s beautiful. Only $270K? Housing prices must be pretty low in Wenatchee. I haven’t been there in awhile, but it was a nice little city.

5

Also, the roommate whose name was on the lease (he was subletting to the rest of us) passed away last October.

Though I am considering asking the other former roommate if he’d like to move back into town (when we lost the house, he moved in with his son and daughter-in-law). I’ve enjoyed living by myself, but I’m getting fucking killed financially. Everything seems to be based around a two-income household, and, given that I’m an unmarried guy with no roommate (and so no second income from either a wife or roommate), I’m having to pay for everything all by myself. I need to find either a roommate or a second job.

6

The house I used to live in is gone. I went on Google Maps a while back and did a street view of it and the owners have torn down the house we lived in when I was in high school and have built an entirely brand new house.

I guess I didn’t need to paint my bedroom back then after all. :smiley:
:dubious:

7

This is the house we lived in when I was really little. I’m really surprised it’s still there, not to mention still seems well-cared for. 'cos pan around and look at the rest of the block.

8

Ditto, and I have a good job. It’s ridiculous.

Then again, I HAVE to have a washer/dryer in the apt, because I’m too old to carry my knickers around to be laundered.

9

Never mind that you could always offer to buy the house from the owner, the second you knew there was a foreclosure was the second you had the opportunity. If you think of it as “never offered the chance”, then that’s your problem right there. :slight_smile:

10

Yeesh, $270K is roughly the price I paid for my fixer upper near Boston. I’m not sure that there was anything for $90K, even at the level of decomposing shacks literally sinking into the salt marshes. Maybe once I’m retired I too will have time to restore it to pristine condition.

11

UPDATE: I spoke on the phone yesterday with the former housemate who moved in with his son and daughter-in-law. I mentioned that I had asked the real estate agent about getting a walk-through, and had been turned down. It turns out that he personally knows that real estate agent who was selling the house (and had almost been romantically involved with her many years ago). He gave her a call, and she fixed him up with the seller/remodeler, and so yesterday evening, he and I got that walk-through I wanted, with the guy who did the remodeling giving us the full tour.

WOW! The man did an absolutely amazing job with the house. I think he was encouraged when I mentioned to him that I studied architectural drafting for two years, because he went into quite a bit of detail describing exactly what he’d done to the old house, including the materials, the types of support beams, etc. For example, while I still lived there, the master bedroom had this massive hump in the floor because the half of the room that overhung the front porch was sinking, along with the front porch. He explained that he’d replaced the 1x6 lumber in the fake “pillars” that were supporting the front half of that room with proper 6x6 beams, and lifted that whole room back up and leveled the floor.

But damn, absolutely everything was incredible. After living in what that house was for more than seven years, I was very impressed with the improvements.

And, while I was speaking with this former housemate, I broached the subject of getting a place together. He’s interested! It seems that his son and daughter-in-law are expecting a second child, which means it’s going to start getting crowded in their house. And, he’s getting a little bit tired of having to drive so many miles into town. If this works out, I think that, between the two of us, we could afford a decent, MODERN apartment. I mentioned to him that, when we had to move out of that house, I actually would have liked to get a place with him, because I find him remarkably tolerable. But, I didn’t bring it up at the time, because our other housemate (the one who passed away a few months ago) had asked me, shortly before we moved out, if I wanted to get a place with him. I turned him down, explaining that I really wanted to live on my own (prior to moving in with him, I’d lived for eight years in my town’s men’s homeless shelter; so, altogether, 15 years of living with a crowd of other people). I wanted some independence for a while. So I thought that if I turned him down, and then got a place with the other guy, it would really hurt his feelings (he was easily hurt that way).

The house I grew up in is still there:

You can’t see it from Street View because subsequent owners have surrounded the whole house with view-obscuring shrubbery.

12

The remodeler bought the house for $90,000, put $120,000 into it and is now offering it at $270,000. That’s not a lot of profit for two years of work.

13

I suspect he looked at the local market, and figured that some profit was better than no profit, and priced the house accordingly.

14

Same here. The house I grew up in (age 6-12) was a beautiful old two-storey that had been divided into two apartments and we had the upstairs. Unfortunately it was owned by a slumlord and we were poor so it was not maintained. After we moved out the slumlord sold it and the buyers renovated it back into one home. When I was 24 I visited that city and knocked on the door. A man answered and I said “Please don’t think I’m weird, but I grew up in this house and I just want to say that you guys have done a beautiful job renovating it. When I lived here it was a dump.” Turned out it wasn’t him that did the work, he had just bought it recently. He let me come in and look around and we had a really nice chat.

Last summer (16 years later) I found myself in that city again so I knocked on the door. A man answered and I said “I grew up in this house…” and he goes “You were here before!” I said “YOU’RE THE SAME GUY?” he said “I’M THE SAME GUY! Come in, come in - I’m doing more renovations.” He showed me a “secret” staircase he found in what was the downstairs apartment - some houses in the olden days had a nice front staircase and also a plain back staircase (for servants, I believe.) It would have gone up through what was our linen closet. The guy and I spent an hour talking and it was wonderful to see how much he loves that house. The house is 100+ years old now.