Post by Tumbleweed on Dec 2, 2007 16:41:10 GMT -6
Welcome to Shack to Showcase!
About 5 years ago I decided I was sick of renting and decided I didn't need to live in such a big house. It was a 4 bedroom 2 bath home. So I started looking for smaller homes I could purchase. What I found for my budget was nothing but ugly cracker box homes or homes that had major draw-backs like being right next to the interstate or having goofy floor plans. I was so discourage but kept looking. One day I was scanning the homes-for-sale ads when I noticed this huge looking home that was well below my price range. I immediately fell in love. LOL
My first question when I called about it was, "Is it as big as it looks?" They assured me it was. Now mind you I was looking to downsize but I knew I had to take a look at that house.
When we (my sister & I) drove up to the house my first thought was it looks like a haunted house. The paint was peeling in big strips with 3/4ths gone. It just looked in rough shape. Walking inside wasn't much better but I could see the potential. I knew the moment I walked in it was my house. Even looking at the attic space and seeing a dead bat, which confirmed my thoughts on "haunted house" , didn't detour me. I wanted this house!
This home turned out to be a Hud home. Yes, the home was located in a little neighborhood of beautiful homes but right on the edge of a slightly "rough" neighborhood. But I was a single gal so "location, location, location" wasn't an issue with me.
So those of you who are familiar with Hud will know they give you a list of things that need to be fixed and a time frame it has to be completed with inspections along the way. My time line was 6 months and my list was a mile long. Hud rules dictated I had to hire a contractor. This in itself was difficult so they finally suggested someone to me, I gave him a call and he agreed to be my contractor. Long story short - I guess he decided I was on the bottom of his list of things to take care. I desperately tried to find another contractor but it was impossible so I made a bit of a shady deal with this guy. He would sign off as the contractor, get paid and I'd do the actual contracting work.
What was I thinking?? I knew nothing about home repair and knew even less about how to go about lining up the plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters or what sequence I should do them in.
I had a budget of $40,000 - $20,000 of it was what Hud would loan me and the other $20,000 was what I would invest.
So I just dived right in...got on Excel and started my budget plan and what I thought should be done first, what I would attempt to do myself and who I would hire to do a job. Let's just say it was stressful and hectic and tons of hard work. I was scrambling to get everything done on top of working a "real" job for 40-50 hours a week and on the very day of the last inspection I frantically called my family in to help with the few last things on the list. And the inspector gave the O.K. Woo Hoo!
So I was the proud owner of a 3,000 plus square foot home (including a half-finished basement) with all the major issues taken care of but a lot of little things that needed done. My new list is well over a 100 things that I need to do.
So here I am now, owning a house too big for me but not wanting to give it up and a house that still needs a lot of work but not having the money to hire someone to do it. Since I will only be able to do one project at a time and have to do it myself I thought, what better way to help myself through this then to start a web-site where hopefully a lot of experts and savvy guys and gals, who know about home repair, can give those of us who are not so wise about these things, some helpful advise.
In turn, I hope to share my experiences of being a contractor, share with you the "do not do's", I learned the hard way, as well as share the things I learned to do the right way.
My goal is to make this site your one-stop place for all home related questions.
I do hope you will join and help me make this web-site grow.
About 5 years ago I decided I was sick of renting and decided I didn't need to live in such a big house. It was a 4 bedroom 2 bath home. So I started looking for smaller homes I could purchase. What I found for my budget was nothing but ugly cracker box homes or homes that had major draw-backs like being right next to the interstate or having goofy floor plans. I was so discourage but kept looking. One day I was scanning the homes-for-sale ads when I noticed this huge looking home that was well below my price range. I immediately fell in love. LOL
My first question when I called about it was, "Is it as big as it looks?" They assured me it was. Now mind you I was looking to downsize but I knew I had to take a look at that house.
When we (my sister & I) drove up to the house my first thought was it looks like a haunted house. The paint was peeling in big strips with 3/4ths gone. It just looked in rough shape. Walking inside wasn't much better but I could see the potential. I knew the moment I walked in it was my house. Even looking at the attic space and seeing a dead bat, which confirmed my thoughts on "haunted house" , didn't detour me. I wanted this house!
This home turned out to be a Hud home. Yes, the home was located in a little neighborhood of beautiful homes but right on the edge of a slightly "rough" neighborhood. But I was a single gal so "location, location, location" wasn't an issue with me.
So those of you who are familiar with Hud will know they give you a list of things that need to be fixed and a time frame it has to be completed with inspections along the way. My time line was 6 months and my list was a mile long. Hud rules dictated I had to hire a contractor. This in itself was difficult so they finally suggested someone to me, I gave him a call and he agreed to be my contractor. Long story short - I guess he decided I was on the bottom of his list of things to take care. I desperately tried to find another contractor but it was impossible so I made a bit of a shady deal with this guy. He would sign off as the contractor, get paid and I'd do the actual contracting work.
What was I thinking?? I knew nothing about home repair and knew even less about how to go about lining up the plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters or what sequence I should do them in.
I had a budget of $40,000 - $20,000 of it was what Hud would loan me and the other $20,000 was what I would invest.
So I just dived right in...got on Excel and started my budget plan and what I thought should be done first, what I would attempt to do myself and who I would hire to do a job. Let's just say it was stressful and hectic and tons of hard work. I was scrambling to get everything done on top of working a "real" job for 40-50 hours a week and on the very day of the last inspection I frantically called my family in to help with the few last things on the list. And the inspector gave the O.K. Woo Hoo!
So I was the proud owner of a 3,000 plus square foot home (including a half-finished basement) with all the major issues taken care of but a lot of little things that needed done. My new list is well over a 100 things that I need to do.
So here I am now, owning a house too big for me but not wanting to give it up and a house that still needs a lot of work but not having the money to hire someone to do it. Since I will only be able to do one project at a time and have to do it myself I thought, what better way to help myself through this then to start a web-site where hopefully a lot of experts and savvy guys and gals, who know about home repair, can give those of us who are not so wise about these things, some helpful advise.
In turn, I hope to share my experiences of being a contractor, share with you the "do not do's", I learned the hard way, as well as share the things I learned to do the right way.
My goal is to make this site your one-stop place for all home related questions.
I do hope you will join and help me make this web-site grow.
 Administrator Tumbleweed |