Tuesday, July 5, 2011

New house


Today I made an offer on an old house in Pulaski, TN. It's really adorable; built around 1900 with an addition made within the last 20 years or so. It only has 5 rooms, kitchen (updated), living room (to be converted to bedroom), dining room (to be converted to living room), bedroom #2 and bedroom #3 (to be converted to den). It has good bones, but needs a lot of work. The yard is horribly overgrown (the picture is from the real estate listing and is a couple of years old), the future living room walls are spongy and dark red, the carpets are old and smelly, the wood floors could stand to be refinished, the deck (back and side) needs a fresh coat of paint, the fireplaces are sealed up (so God only knows what condition they're in), the roof (metal, probably original) is rusty with paint peeling off. But it is adorable.

If the contract goes through, I'll go to a local auction toward the end of this month and see about buying a few pieces of furniture. It pretty much sucks up all my money, so repairs will not all take place at once. As soon as the weather permits, we'll tackle the yard and do some serious pruning and chopping. If the roof is ok for awhile, the next project is replacing the spongy dark red walls in the future living room with sheet rock and replacing carpeting where there is NOT hardwood floors underneath. At the same time, the bathroom floor needs to be replaced. Then we rest awhile and recover from all the costs.

I offered really low (not my fault - Consumer Report said to always offer 20% less than asking price) so I will not be surprised by a counter offer. Can't wait to hear.

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