Summer Projects

In our neighborhood, there are six houses (including ours) that were all built within months of each other back in late 2004. As is the trend these days, the builders bought a single lot, knocked down one house, and put up six. While our total yard space is still reasonable for an urban location, it's still a reminder that getting a nice chunk of land in "the city" without either being filthy rich or having to sell your children is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. I wonder how long will it be before the neighborhoods here are like those back in Brooklyn: neighbors inches apart, garages nonexistent, and total yard space just an 8 by 10 concrete slab behind your house for your dog to pace back and forth. I'm sure it won't happen in my lifetime, but it does seem to be the inevitable fate of every booming metropolis.

... that, and soaring housing costs.

3 months ago, our neighbors put their house on the market for $329,000. That's over $100,000 more than any of us paid for these houses just 2+ years ago. Needless to say, every other homeowner on the block got antsy at the prospect of six-figure profits as we watched to see what happened. V and I were admittedly tempted to make a move ourselves and cash in on this virtual "real estate lottery" but were smart enough to wait it out and see what happened. The neighbors just behind us weren't so patient though. Before we could blink three times we had back to back neighbors with their houses on the market. At that point it became comical as each one seemingly slashed prices and offered incentives to undercut the other. First the $9,000 undercut. Followed by a 1% price reduction. Followed by "Closing cost paid" incentives, followed by another price slash... V and I just watched in amusement as it looked like the two of them were pounding each other over the head with their lost profits. Granted, the current real estate market likely had more to do with those changes than anything else. As is stands, 3 months later, the market shift has had the last laugh in both cases with both houses still on the market. The lowest asking price is now $299K + CCA, and one neighbor who already moved out and bought a new house has turned their hopes towards finding a rental tenant instead.

With the asking prices so high, we started
getting things fixed up around the house

So where has that left us? Well, likely with less than a six-figure profit if we sold our house today, but definitely still enough to keep alive the notion of relocating. The problem of course is that a move in this type of market only makes sense if you are moving out of state (or at least pretty far away) since selling high means you'd have to buy high, too. In other words, barring something weird happening, we'd have to pay 50% more just to move into a house equivalent to our current one (so much for those profits). So until we're ready to either shop foreclosures (which these days aren't much of a bargain) or change our area code, it looks like we'll be staying put a little longer.

But watching our neighbors did teach me one valuable lesson: Invest in your home NOW while you can still enjoy the improvements. What a travesty it is (in my opinion anyway) to have to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars to essentially renovate your home and make it inviting, comfortable, and stunningly beautiful... for someone else to enjoy it. So went the story for our neighbors, who had the worst lawn on the block since inception, but upon putting their house on the market became avid gardeners: investing in landscaping, planting flowers, and watering their lawn almost as diligently as they used to park on it. This on top of whatever other recommendations their realtor made in order to make the house "market ready".

So with that, and much to V's delight, I made a list some weeks ago of everything that we've said we wanted to do (ha ha... "we"...) to the house at some point in time to improve our contentment with where we live. Aside from the obvious excuse that usually delays such projects (cha-ching), the other reason for aversion is typically the thought of "why invest so much time and money when we may not even be here in a year?"... but the truth is (a) we're here now!!! , and (b) time is a funny thing. My guess is that people use that excuse for months on end, and before you know it, it's been 8 years and they're still in the same house with the same white walls, unfinished basement, garage they can't use because its full of junk, rickety fence, and closet door that never really closed quite right. And then comes your real estate agent to tell you that you should invest $4000 to fix these and other things so that the next owners can be as comfortable and content as you could've been in your own house for the past eight years.

Like I said before... travesty. For me, I would reek of frustration. And so my goal (that I'm now pushing on anyone and everyone who will listen) is to get those things we always wanted to do done... and keep our house up to the best of our ability. This way, when it comes time to move, all we'll have to do is pack our stuff; knowing that our house is not only market ready, but that we enjoyed it to the max while we where there. As far as a list, here's what we came up with:

Shutters
Complete second half of closet redesign (here's the before shot)
Stretch or replace buckling carpet upstairs
Lattice to enclose back deck
Replace fence hardware
Install more pantry shelves
New patio furniture & umbrella
Recaulk bathroom sink
New wall mirror for master bath
Landscaping
Install gutters
Paint front patio
... and the 8 other things V will add to this list once she reads this entry

We do try to keep things up fairly well on a routine basis, so it's admittedly (and thankfully) not much of a list. Shutters were the one thing that V had been asking for since we moved in, so I took care of those first. And I've gotta admit that they made a huge difference. Plus once I found out how inexpensive they were, it really became absurd that we hadn't gotten them earlier. Next, I knocked out the closet organization in a weekend just to give myself a sense of accomplishment (V's half was completed some time last year). After that, I figured that I would tackle the most labor intensive job next in order to get it out the way while I still have the motivation: the landscaping. As of yesterday, I'm (dead tired but) happy to say that the landscaping is about 95% done. All that's missing is some perennials to add some color. But after working in the yard for over a week, I'm content to wait until this string of 95+ degree days (heat index 104) breaks and cooler weather prevails. As for the other to-do's, thanks to Justin, most got pushed to the back burner this summer. But now with just a few days before I head back to work I'm hustling to get as many done as possible before the tide changes. I've only completed 3 items so far (plus some odd jobs here and there not worth mentioning) and I can already say that the amount of pride that we take in our home has increased substantially. It's like every little improvement brings the house back to feeling new again. I can already see that the more we do, the more I'm not going to want to move anytime soon. But then, I felt that way after my last big project too, and so I know that the feeling will fade. Either way, considering the alternative, I guess that's a good problem to have.

Who said that you can't brush your teeth and wash your face at the same time? (smile)... But thanks to the "genius" who installed a 3 foot mirror between our double sinks, it is impossible to see more than 1/2 your face if you stand directly over either sink... which leaves V and I constantly vying for position and bumping elbows in the middle (I usually end up using the other bathroom).

The only two items that I was on the fence about (pun intended) were the gutters and the fence repair. As the two most expensive items, both of those still had me pondering, "Well, how long are we really going to be here anyway??..." And so they were at the bottom of the priority list... until it rained two nights ago and the gallons of water that poured violently from the roof undid the hours of work I spent leveling, tilling, and preparing the planting area in the front yard. And so now we have a free Home Depot consultation scheduled for a gutter price estimate, as my Martha Stewart-esque gardening efforts shall be in vain no more!! :o)

12 days until school starts, 9 items to go.

To be continued.

"I said put the tree on the LEFT side.. LEFT side!!!!"

...(what a tough supervisor).

Once I find time to do so, the rest of the landscaping project will be documented in the photo archives.