When Husband and I bought our house over 7 years ago, we had no thoughts of children (singular or plural) or which school district the house would be located in. In fact, I can't believe we still live in this city at all. But here we are, and now that we have two small children and maybe the opportunity to adopt two more, all I think about is having enough space for our growing family and making sure that the kids go to good schools.
Husband and I want to move eventually so that we can be closer to our parents and siblings. We tried selling our house, but that didn't work out... so it's time for plan B. Set the house on fire.
Just kidding. We have four cats and if all four cats managed to miraculously survive the fire, that might raise some suspicions. That's probably not the only good reason for not setting my house on fire, but it's the only one I can think of right now.
So instead of committing arson, it's time to light a fire under my own butt and get this house fixed up as quickly as possible.Then we can rent it out, or maybe try to sell it again at a higher price (depending on the market). We have SO much work to do. Holy cow.
Husband and I tried to figure out where to start (aside from small obvious repairs that we can easily see as we walk around the house) and we decided to get a wood destroying organism inspection and make sure that the structure of the house is sound. The inspection came back pretty good. No termites! Yay! We need to replace a little bit of wood around some windows because of water damage, but nothing too crazy.
Even though it's probably totally do-able to fix those windows, we are definitely hiring a handyman. Husband and I replaced an entire window by ourselves once, and holy shit, I am never, ever, ever, ever doing that again. It is worth whatever it costs to pay someone else to deal with that crap on my behalf. I'm not talking about a pane of glass, I mean we replaced the whole window and it took us all day, about 5 trips to the home repairs supply store, and many hurt feelings. So we'll just hire a handyman.
After that, we need to replace our kitchen cabinets, about half of the flooring in the house, paint all of the walls... But I'm in it to win it. We're going to do this. It will look awesome and then right when my house is beautiful and highly functional, I will pack up all of my stuff and move far, far away.
Best of luck to you! Home projects can actually be a lot of fun. Just ask us or a certain other couple friend of yours who have all done tons of work on their houses!
ReplyDeleteOne thing to consider though, is that when you rent, the tenants will not be doing a lot of upkeep or telling you in a timely manner if something breaks or needs maintenance (especially if you live out of town). And they will not treat your stuff the way you would. So houses tend to lose market value while they are being rented out. It is a much better investment to live in the house while doing the repairs, then sell it a little while after you get to enjoy the new stuff and keep it in good shape. A lot of the homes around here end up being perpetually rented because it is so hard to sell them after several renters.
Also, it is possible that significant home repairs can out-pace the market demand and you invest more than you will get in return. So choose your projects carefully to maximize livability for your family and to do the things that are most likely to improve the appraised value. For example (not that I think this is on your list of to do items), adding a pool is always a money-losing venture. Painting is good as long as you pick a color that people want to buy (no green!) A lot of electrical and basic plumbing work can be done on your own to save money.
No matter how much you enjoy home repairs (and I'm already starting from a place of not enjoying them), trying to manage 4 small children while you make those home repairs will suck the fun right out of the whole experience. The kids aren't really old enough to help, and when they're all together they play and get curious and it just isn't an ideal situation for paintbrushes or power tools.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we aren't considering renting because we want to-- we cannot sell our house right now. Like, there's literally no way it's going to happen. So if we want to move then we have to rent it out. And if we want to rent it out we have to make some repairs, regardless of what amount they'll add to the resale value of the house. In an ideal situation we could make a few thoughful repairs, put our house back on the market, and then sell it right away for a price the bank will accept... But I don't think that's going to happen. It took us two years to get an offer that the bank rejected.
I keep reminding myself of the "bright side of things"-- at least we HAVE a house, and that sort of thing. But I do wish we weren't in this situation right now.
Kids do make projects take a lot longer. My dad's rule of thumb is that if you have two kids to help you, the project takes twice as long. So I guess it will be four times as long for you. My grandpa and grandma used to re-build homes on the weekends so they could re-sell them or rent them. They had 4 kids under age 5 when they started. Maybe you can teach each one a specific tool to use! :) I taught Andy how to use a real hammer the other day. He hammered 8 nails into our wall to mount his map. He actually lost interest after he realized I was putting him to work, and he went to play with his pretend tools on the other side of the room. haha.
ReplyDeleteI like your dad's rule! Ha!
ReplyDeleteWe've been able to get lots of smaller projects done, but for the bigger stuff, it's worth every penny to me to pay someone else to do it. I'd rather take the kids to the zoo or read them books, instead of anxiously watching them out of the corner of my eye and yelling at them not to touch things. We do most of the smaller stuff while the kids are resting during nap time, and for the mid-sized projects, Husband usually does them by himself while I wrangle the babies.
You're brave to give your two year old a hammer and encourage him to swing it at your walls. I guarantee you that we'd be patching holes if I gave Henry or Elise or Georgia a hammer.
Brave or stupid (with regard to the hammer). Time will tell. Luckily we keep the hammer in our tool box away from him when we're not using it. Yeah, we usually take turns doing the bigger projects while the other watches Andy. Or do them during naps if they are quiet projects. And we definitely need to hire people to do the more annoying or difficult projects. Then we have to spend the time keeping Andy away from the fix-it guy's hammer!
Delete