MY HOME RENOVATION

Adding New Life to an Old Home...

When my husband and I decided that we wanted a single-family home near the city, sizeable yard, garage, walkable/near metro AND within budget! We knew we were crazy, lol. Yes, finding our wish list near DC for under $1M would be tough but we knew there was always a possibility.

After 4-months of scouring the area, we came across our 1930's fixer-upper! After touring the house, my first impression of the house left something to be desired. After comparing it against our wish list the house checked almost all of our boxes and we knew it wouldn't be available for long. So we pounced!

The yay's:

5 bedrooms (we wanted at least 3)

1st floor bathroom - major plus in the city, most older homes don't have a bath on the 1st floor

En suite for the master bedroom

Shared one car garage w/ a parking pad (we just wanted a garage)

Very Walkable - close to metro, grocery store, restaurants and of course a brewery :)

Easy access to beltway since I drive to work and coach near and far

Great Neighborhood

The nay's:

No central HVAC

Radiated Heat (which I've grown to like)

Outdated bathrooms (with the exception of the attic bathroom)

Tin roof - literally :) The previous owner used aluminum asphalt paint to the roof to extend it's life and man was it shiny

Original wood windows

Floors REALLY needed to be refinished

Doors had to be returned to original form including new door knobs

Walls needed to be prepped and painted

Unfinished basement with older furnace and heating unit (both would need to be replaced)

Incomplete and rusted fence

Cracked foundation under portico

Exposed wiring in garage

Now, looking at this list one could say the nay's outweighed the yay's. Who in their right mind would invest in this place?!? Well, my response...the house has great bones. Most of the fixes aren't that complex and my husband and I along with the help of my parents (yup I like to put my family to work :) could handle them all, no sweat. Again we knew this was a great buy especially b/c the area comps and square footage supported the argument. After assessing our pros and cons we put in our offer and got it accepted yay! Or so we thought. One little thing I didn't realize would impact buying a fixer upper and wanting to start work right away, funds and this union called marriage. My husband and I got hitched 3 months later...yikes!!!

“You never really know a person until you lived through a renovation together"

After 3 months of renovation, I wanted to clobber my then fiancé. Thankfully I didn't and we were able to get married, but geez was it tough.