July 13, 2007Hi everybody, this is the start of a journal on a restoration of 1920 two story American four square home in Kings Mountain, NC that we purchased in July 2007. The house was a foreclosure and needs a lot of TLC along with a lot of cash.
My two daughters have named the house Zelda as they made the connection that Zelda Fitzgerald, of Great Gatsby fame, is often called the "Queen of the 20's" and our house was built in the year of 1920. We believe that with a lot of work and time this house will be returned to a queen.
A word of warning when purchasing a foreclosed home. This is our eleventh house to purchase but is was our first foreclosure. The whole process was horrific as we were forced to deal directly with the bank that held the mortgage. The bank prolonged the closing and was constantly trying to recoup money during the whole process after our purchase price had been accepted. Beware when dealing with a bank that is losing a large sum on a foreclosed property.
I plan to make bimonthly entries (no promises) in the blog that will chart the on going sagas of our work on Zelda. So far in the first week after closing, we have obtained a building/restoration permit, had a temporary electrical pole installed, in the process of obtaining quotes for installing piers to level the sagging floors and have made arrangements for the delivery of a disposal dumpster, which has arrived.
We plan do the majority of the work ourselves but will hire professionals for certain jobs if the price is right.The temporay electrical pole for construction power was finally approved.
We currently have no electricity or gas utilities as Zelda was vacant for over six months and the city requires a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) in order for the permanent utilities to be turned back on. Guess what, we don't have a CO. We did pay the deposit for the permanent utilities which would allow us to at least have running water. Mission accomplished as we have running water. With all the leaks we have running water all through the house. We did manage to stop most of the leaks but we currently have the water turned off. First item you need to purchase for a fix it old home is a water valve key. This allows you to turn on/off the main water valve. Make the $8 dollar investment.
Next week we plan to start ripping out the first floor ceiling to determine all load bearing walls and to reinforce the second story floor. Also, all the carpeting, vinyl and other flooring will be removed and introduced to the dumpster. Expect that that we will remove the flooring to install the piers and blocks to jack up the floor.
Currently we are excited about the restoration process and have planned that it will take about one year to finish. Our current plan is to finish the kitchen and one downstairs bathroom and obtain the CO within three months. Feel free to check back on our progress and the level of enthusiasm (up or down) as we proceed.
We must make substantial progress before college football season starts as my husband is a graduate, season ticket holder and rabid fan of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. No work will be done on weekends during home football games and the progress of the restoration will be low when the Vols are on TV. Does this sound familiar?
Hey I know what you mean, I never seem to get any work done on Sundays when Nascar's on :)
ReplyDeleteyou've got a great looking house, I dont know if you've done any renovations before but you can expect it to take AT LEAST twice as long and double the money as you planned. I didn't think my house would take longer than 2 months when we bought it, that was well over a year ago and I'm still not done.