It's our primary residence since 2013. I want to make it sell worthy by Spring 2016 because husband can't find the high paying job he got qualified for in our area. I'm staying behind to finish up some classes and the house.
Bought for 51.5k with 20% down @3.5% 15 year term. It's a fixer upper, built 1920, 1 BR 1 Bath 1900 sqft. Half of that footage is on the first floor, the other half in a completely unfinished basement. I want to make it a 4 BR 2 Bath.
Why do I think I will come out at least even (on materials) on this endeavor:
- Comps in the neighborhood for 4BR2B are from 80-110k.
- I'm already renting out the first floor to in laws to offset costs.
- I'll be volunteering at Habitat for Humanity to learn my skills, although I've already hung drywall.
- Willing to do all work myself with carpentry/electrician inclined boyfriend.
- a whole 18 months to do this.
Why do I even bother if I'm only going to come out even? Well, this house sat on the market as is for almost two years before the old lady off loaded it to me at a very low price. It'd been in her family since it's creation and it was part of an estate she was trying to sell of her mothers. She just wanted to leave and go live with her son. However, during her parent's illness she'd done things like make a 2BR into a 1BR- so most people didn't bother looking at it, as this is a family neighborhood. The kitchen and only bathroom are tiny and she also never bothered clearing the place of all knickknacks and extra furniture. The hallway was barn yard red. I don't even think they listed the basement sq footage, just that it had one. The only thing she did right was the nice landscaping. I think she received awful advice from her friend the "real estate agent," and I offered 16k under asked price for all the issues as well as the fact that I didn't want to spend more than 50k on any house (reluctant buyer)
I'm glad I did though. I then spent 5k in Waterproofing the basement she
"didn't know" flooded after every big rain. The AC died within a month and, as I was not MMM at the time, bought an entirely new one. With another $500+ to miscellaneous tools, paint, and a small reno in the bathroom to add a towel closet, I feel I've sank about 10k into this house at this point. And I haven't even gotten to the stuff that will actually give me some return on my money. But I know if I leave it as is, it will sit on the market far longer than we want it to. We don't have a hot market, so I expect to list in February 2016 and off load by late summer 2016 if I do everything right.
So that brings me to the reason I am posting. I know I need to make some phone calls about permits and what kind of build plans they want submitted, cuz obviously I want everything above board with the local government so I can hike the price up come sell time without an inspector telling me to rip everything out again.
Furnace:The basement has one third of the space above ground. I want to put two fire escape egress windows in on one side for the two bedrooms. I was going to jack and jill a bathroom between these two rooms due to Furnace placement. But, We're going to have to replace and add on more pipes/tubes of the HVAC system to include the basement and to reduce their ridiculous size. If we are already tearing down the tubing and re routing it so it doesn't hang in your face, how difficult is it to move a furnace? I at least want to give it a 180 degree turn so that I can make it more accessible to the living space rather than cramped in the bathroom.
Stairs:These stairs aren't to code and they certainly aren't inviting you to think about the basement as another living space. There current placement is in the kitchen, eating up what I consider to be valuable kitchen space as well as making it impossible to move any but medium sized furniture down here. In their current position, it makes the kitchen an awkward L shape and opening the dishwasher or oven door takes up the entire work space. But I don't know where they would move TO. I've thought of flipping the location so that there is a wide safe staircase taking up some of the living space to the left of the front door???
basement Ceiling Height: Is grandfathered in but I still want to keep "saving vertical space" at the forefront of my mind. It varies from 7'.3"-7'9". I'm pondering leaving the the joists exposed and stained to a very light wooden color with a layer of insulation/drywall in between so you stop seeing the flooring of the first floor.
Dead Chimney: I want to demo this, but need to come up with other venting methods for the water heater.
First Floor: I'm intent on nixing the hallway entirely, extending the tiny bathroom into medium bathroom territory. But if I do that, the bedrooms doors will be straight off the first floor living space just as the basement bedrooms will be. In my head, it looks kind of weird, but there's no doubt that
the hallway just wastes space.
No Master Suite: My plan doesn't have a suite. With only two bedrooms and one bathroom per floor, I don't think it can happen. Who knows how that'll hurt the numbers, but a third bathroom just won't go anywhere. This is kind of a working class neighborhood so I think "looks nice" and "has enough rooms for the kids in an orderly sensible fashion" will go a long way.
Honestly, sometimes I feel like I've watched too much HGTV.
I've attached the current floor plan of the basement.
I'll be digging around for the first floor plan and attaching in a bit. May have to make one from scratch. Have attached the current first floor plan. Should help with stairs choice. Also added current vision of what first floor could be with comments made thus far.Any input gladly appreciated!