You know when you walk into the pet store and realize that it's puppy adoption day, and you lock eyes with an adorable little guy, and you want to rescue him and love him even though he'll cost a ton and probably tear up all your furniture? This is exactly my problem, but in my case the puppy is a house. We've been looking for our next flip for a while, and ones that only need cosmetic updates (like Clark did) are just not out there right now. So we've found a different kind of house that we really want to flip. I want to give this house a big hug and rescue it from its neglectful past and show it that old houses deserve love too. What, you've never felt the desire to give a house a hug?
This house is a beautiful 113+ year old colonial that had first been neglected, then was put through a VERY bad reno. And I mean V E R Y. They actually were kind to part of the exterior and painted and put on a new roof, but they totally butchered the rest. They took out the chimneys, heat, plumbing, ran rough electrical, put up a not-even-close-to-code deck, started closing up walls and installing (really really ugly salvaged) cabinets all without any permits. Let me repeat: they took out all the plumbing and THEN closed up walls and started to paint. If you can find some shred of logic in there, please tell me, because I can't. There is absolutely NO plumbing in the house. or electricity. or heat (or even a boiler). and a failed septic to boot. Yet I'm the crazy person who still wants to save this house.
(the picture above is from the listing... since they haven't mowed the lawn since, in reality it looks like this:)
I've been diligently getting quotes from contractors, calling the building department for info on past permits (spoiler alert: there were none), and generally trying to figure out how feasible it is to rescue this house. If I don't save this house, I have a feeling it will either be neglected for another several years then bulldozed, or be purchased by a contractor who will put in the bare minimum work to make it liveable, but make it cheap and builder-basic and not honor any of it's history. No me gusta.
Oh, and there's also a barn that I want to save out back...
...ya know, cuz I'm a crazy person.
At least they've left a ton of stuff that we could sell on Craigslist. The barn is filled with dated appliances, cheap sink vanities, old hardwoods, etc. The house is filled with cheap light fixtures (that also look cheap), tools, building supplies and more. I could probably pay for the new kitchen with just selling the stuff left over on Craigslist. If we can come to an agreement on the purchase price with the seller, I just may take on that challenge.
So, what do you think? Can I rescue the puppy house or am I just bat-sh*t nuts?