No Longer the Ugly House
Great News we have completed the renovations on The Ugly House and from now on it is called “No Longer the Ugly House”.
Fun fact before we completed the renovations we had 16 Applications and we were getting about 2 new applications a day as we were wrapping the project up. We got the top end of our planned rent range of $775 and if we had to do it again we could have asked for $850 without an issue. But as you have hopefully seen throughout the site we hold ourselves to a high standard and thus we honored our initial planned rental rate of $775.
Like the Work in Progress article there is good news and bad news to report as we put a bow on this property and move on to the next one.
First the good news, the neighborhood is even more desirable than we initially thought. The house is basically brand new inside and out, with new siding, new windows, new paint, new carpet, new fixtures, and a very robust and sturdy new carport. The bad news we blew out our budget which was originally 10K and raised to 14k after the first week. We ended up spending just over 20K. Most of the overage was due to all the extra items we had to undertake because we were working with the city on a daily basis.
Example: Initial Parking estimate was 1K as we planned to add swinging doors to existing garage structure – simple and straight forward. Actual cost was over 5K. First we needed to scrape the old structure, then we needed to have an electrician cap all the wires and finally we had to use plans and bill of material provided by the city to build what can only be called a “Class A” carport (The materials alone for carport were over 2K).
Another example was we needed to change out a bedroom window because it was flagged as too small. We measured it several times and it appeared to meet code but when push came to shove they were not going to remove the notice in order issues unless we changed window. Initial estimate $0 actual cost was over 2K as we needed new window and we had to put in a new header, cut siding and repaint.
The Kitchen:
I believe these are the first pictures I have shared of the inside as we hadn’t had power when the earlier pictures were taken. From this angle you can see the kitchen, nice cabinets, dishwasher, sink and stove. The pass through arch actual leads to a dining room.
The Master Bedroom:
Nothing special except lots of natural light, new carpet, new paint, and new blinds. The second bedroom is the same deal with new paint, carpet and new blinds.
Dining Room and Front Room:
From this angle you can see the dining room, the front room and the front door. Again new paint, new linoleum and don’t you just love those brand new ceiling fans.
Other shots of the House:
The first picture is the brand new window which was written about earlier. I call it the 2K window as it was an unplanned expense but required to close city issues. I am not happy about expense but I want to say I really enjoyed working with the city and the code enforcement department. They have a thankless job and I found them very nice to deal with and I am glad they do what they do. I will happily buy another house with code enforcement issues (I might pay 5K less next time but I’ll buy it).
The final shot is actually taken from the bathroom entry. You walk into a very large bathroom with a linen closet on the right, a full vanity on right with the toilet near the wall. The floor was already tiled and there is a full length mirror at the end of entry. To the left is a large tub and shower enclosure with a skylight above the tub (Which is odd I admit but it was already there and it is water tight so I saw no need to replace).
Again the project is complete, we got our expected rent, and the house is basically new inside and out. We blew out our budget but we learned a valuable lesson about working hand in hand with the city as you are either in or out with the city. So you either fully commit or you shouldn’t even start. Remember our words if you take on a house with city issues, please budget at least 5K in unplanned expenses. Learn from our experience.
Fun fact before we completed the renovations we had 16 Applications and we were getting about 2 new applications a day as we were wrapping the project up. We got the top end of our planned rent range of $775 and if we had to do it again we could have asked for $850 without an issue. But as you have hopefully seen throughout the site we hold ourselves to a high standard and thus we honored our initial planned rental rate of $775.
Like the Work in Progress article there is good news and bad news to report as we put a bow on this property and move on to the next one.
First the good news, the neighborhood is even more desirable than we initially thought. The house is basically brand new inside and out, with new siding, new windows, new paint, new carpet, new fixtures, and a very robust and sturdy new carport. The bad news we blew out our budget which was originally 10K and raised to 14k after the first week. We ended up spending just over 20K. Most of the overage was due to all the extra items we had to undertake because we were working with the city on a daily basis.
Example: Initial Parking estimate was 1K as we planned to add swinging doors to existing garage structure – simple and straight forward. Actual cost was over 5K. First we needed to scrape the old structure, then we needed to have an electrician cap all the wires and finally we had to use plans and bill of material provided by the city to build what can only be called a “Class A” carport (The materials alone for carport were over 2K).
Another example was we needed to change out a bedroom window because it was flagged as too small. We measured it several times and it appeared to meet code but when push came to shove they were not going to remove the notice in order issues unless we changed window. Initial estimate $0 actual cost was over 2K as we needed new window and we had to put in a new header, cut siding and repaint.
The Kitchen:
I believe these are the first pictures I have shared of the inside as we hadn’t had power when the earlier pictures were taken. From this angle you can see the kitchen, nice cabinets, dishwasher, sink and stove. The pass through arch actual leads to a dining room.
The Master Bedroom:
Nothing special except lots of natural light, new carpet, new paint, and new blinds. The second bedroom is the same deal with new paint, carpet and new blinds.
Dining Room and Front Room:
From this angle you can see the dining room, the front room and the front door. Again new paint, new linoleum and don’t you just love those brand new ceiling fans.
Other shots of the House:
The first picture is the brand new window which was written about earlier. I call it the 2K window as it was an unplanned expense but required to close city issues. I am not happy about expense but I want to say I really enjoyed working with the city and the code enforcement department. They have a thankless job and I found them very nice to deal with and I am glad they do what they do. I will happily buy another house with code enforcement issues (I might pay 5K less next time but I’ll buy it).
The final shot is actually taken from the bathroom entry. You walk into a very large bathroom with a linen closet on the right, a full vanity on right with the toilet near the wall. The floor was already tiled and there is a full length mirror at the end of entry. To the left is a large tub and shower enclosure with a skylight above the tub (Which is odd I admit but it was already there and it is water tight so I saw no need to replace).
Again the project is complete, we got our expected rent, and the house is basically new inside and out. We blew out our budget but we learned a valuable lesson about working hand in hand with the city as you are either in or out with the city. So you either fully commit or you shouldn’t even start. Remember our words if you take on a house with city issues, please budget at least 5K in unplanned expenses. Learn from our experience.
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