SOME OF MY PROJECTS

My First Rehab Project

I can't find photos of my first project.  It was before the advent of digital photos.  If and when I find the old-school paper photos, I'll scan a few and update this page.

The property was a half-duplex built in the 1940s.  It was "structural brick" construction, two stories with a gently sloping, almost flat roof.  It was tiny.  Three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, a kitchen, dining room, living room and foyer on the first floor.

Really, really cramped.  Very small rooms.  Unfinished basement.  Hadn't been updated in at least thirty years.  Owner died, family wanted to get rid of the house.  They were asking $115,000.  I offered $75,000.  We settled on $85,000.

I figured I could do a lot of the work myself and I hired a general contractor to handle the things outside my expertise.  I did the work evenings and weekends while holding down a full-time job.  It nearly killed me.

I had an epiphany one night at about 2AM, at the top of a ladder, steaming layers of wallpaper off the ceiling of the living room.  It's just not worth doing everything yourself.  If I took my profit divided by the number of hours I worked, I earned about $4/hour.

I opened up the floorplan, removing the wall between living room and foyer, removing the wall between dining room and kitchen, widening the doorway between living room and dining room, and turning 3 bedrooms into 2.  It felt almost livable when I was done.

I had many, many challenges and unexpected issues pop up during the project:

• I had lead paint on some woodwork
• I had to replace the roof
• I had to upgrade the entire electrical system
• I had a blocked main drain stack, causing a flood in the living room ceiling
• A couple of walls turned out to be load-bearing and couldn't be removed
• The enclosed back deck was poorly built and required major repairs
• The old siding was asbestos, so I had to reside the house with vinyl
• I had to build a 2-hour firewall in the attic between my unit and and the neighbor
• I had to re-line the chimney because it didn't meet code
• I replaced the old hot water boiler with central heat and air
• I had trouble disposing of the old heating oil tank because of hazmat issues
• I found major wood-rot in some structural members of the house
• It's nearly impossible to re-wire a house with structural brick construction
• I had to repaint my half of the garage, to meet FHA inspection for resale

In the end, it took me nearly nine months to get this project done.  I didn't make enough money to brag about but at least I didn't lose money.  And I proved that I could, in fact, manage a rehab project.

Looking back, I'd do a lot of things differently.  I would almost certainly have stayed with my original offer, which means I might not  have gotten the property.

But, as they say, hindsight's always 20-20.  And, if I hadn't gotten the experience of doing this first rehab, I might not have jumped into the next one, and the next, and --

General Information

I've decided to publish some photos and descriptions of properties that we renovated here.  Most of them were over fifty years old.  The oldest was built in the late 1700s (an actual log cabin).

With each posting in this section, I'll give you before, during, and after photos.  I'll tell you why we decided to tackle the project, where we made mistakes, and the end result.

So, check this section from time to time, to see some real-life lessons learned from our past real estate renovation projects.