Moved into the house two years ago today...and busted ass trying to turn an old house built in 1881 to look presentable for todays standards...I still have a lot of work to do, but for what I've got done so far...it's coming along great.
First the yard... I've cut down a lot of trees, had to get a contractor to come in a do some work...which I got conned by, and I've waited for the grass to grow back and trim everything. Got a majority of the junk cleaned up, and it shows...I got one more tree to cut, then it's all done. I did have a bad back...so doing a lot of this work almost killed me, or it took longer to do since I couldn't really lift anything...and I even built a retaining wall...that took 14-15 bricks a day to do...since I don't have a truck and carted them home a little at a time. hehe.
Then built a garage from the inside out...all thats left is to reside the exterior, and install a door. Got a new driveway installed...
Stripped the kitchen....still not done.
Replastered and painted the dining room.
Cleared out a majority of the basement, I still have a small wall to take down, and remove and junk an oil tank...then I can mortar the walls, and paint it up, and maybe tile the floor. I hope to make a snazzy office and a rec room/bar down there. I converted to a gas furnace and removed the old huge oil furnace...that almost killed me.
and the major things left to do is to get the house re-sided, replace the roof, get new windows and doors, strip the interior and insulate, then drywall everything, remake the hardwood floors, and dress it up a little.
I'll prolly refinance again in the spring or just get a home equity loan for $50Ks, and just hire a contractor to do the major stuff. I bought the house for $164,000, I have a mortgage at 137,000 right now, and the last appraisal done last January put the house at $190,000...and the guy told me if I didn't do anything to the house...then it would increase yearly at 15%...but I have done a lot...I'd guesstimate it's prolly worth around $225,000 by now. 14 more years of mortgage payments when I'm 48, it'll be payed off.
And also over the last two years...I've done walter's swap, Steve's swap, the red Z's swap and rebuild, rebuilt a little on the white Z, built up a motor for my CRX (which is ready to get swapped in) and got a lot of other minor maintenance done to my cars and a few buddies cars...plus working as much overtime at work as I can.
Pics...
First the yard... I've cut down a lot of trees, had to get a contractor to come in a do some work...which I got conned by, and I've waited for the grass to grow back and trim everything. Got a majority of the junk cleaned up, and it shows...I got one more tree to cut, then it's all done. I did have a bad back...so doing a lot of this work almost killed me, or it took longer to do since I couldn't really lift anything...and I even built a retaining wall...that took 14-15 bricks a day to do...since I don't have a truck and carted them home a little at a time. hehe.
Then built a garage from the inside out...all thats left is to reside the exterior, and install a door. Got a new driveway installed...
Stripped the kitchen....still not done.
Replastered and painted the dining room.
Cleared out a majority of the basement, I still have a small wall to take down, and remove and junk an oil tank...then I can mortar the walls, and paint it up, and maybe tile the floor. I hope to make a snazzy office and a rec room/bar down there. I converted to a gas furnace and removed the old huge oil furnace...that almost killed me.
and the major things left to do is to get the house re-sided, replace the roof, get new windows and doors, strip the interior and insulate, then drywall everything, remake the hardwood floors, and dress it up a little.
I'll prolly refinance again in the spring or just get a home equity loan for $50Ks, and just hire a contractor to do the major stuff. I bought the house for $164,000, I have a mortgage at 137,000 right now, and the last appraisal done last January put the house at $190,000...and the guy told me if I didn't do anything to the house...then it would increase yearly at 15%...but I have done a lot...I'd guesstimate it's prolly worth around $225,000 by now. 14 more years of mortgage payments when I'm 48, it'll be payed off.
And also over the last two years...I've done walter's swap, Steve's swap, the red Z's swap and rebuild, rebuilt a little on the white Z, built up a motor for my CRX (which is ready to get swapped in) and got a lot of other minor maintenance done to my cars and a few buddies cars...plus working as much overtime at work as I can.
Pics...