Step 5: Transition from Buyer to Owner

           This step is a conscious shift from being an optimistic buyer to a legal owner.

           The seller showed up on closing day to sign and hand over the keys, so it’s official. Taking a risk on a house that no one else seems to want can feel like a gamble, yet I've always looked at it as a calculated risk. As owner, you’re now in position to get started and increase your odds of making this a profitable decision.

However, the wait is finally over, and it just got real. Investing in a major rehab project is exciting, but this moment of transition might make you anxious. The thing is, it’s too late, and you have too much work to do to have a panic attack.

If the plumbing and electrical systems are in working order, now is the time to get those utilities turned on. Some may prefer to make these arrangements before closing day, but even when this has been an option, I’ve waited until after the deal’s been done.   

Also, with ownership comes access to the interior. Take your pictures and video of the inside before you forget.

As the owner, you’re now entitled to anything remaining from previous inhabitants. If something good has been left behind on the outside, you can now move it indoors.  

Along with your rights, you now have responsibilities. For example, if you leave the place wide open and something were to happen, this could fall back on you, which is why you need to make the place secure. 

You can also start getting to work, and that means bringing in tools and equipment. It's obvious, but still worth pointing out, that if someone wants to get in badly enough, they will. That's why I don't recommend stocking the house with a lot of pricy tools and material on day one. I usually feel alright leaving behind equipment needed for interior cleanup and demolition, things like shovels, my sledgehammer, a wheelbarrow, ladders, and basic hand tools. 
            As far as materials in the first few days, I won’t have many until I’m through with demolition.

Congratulations! You’re no longer going to buy a house to fix-up or flip. It’s done. You’re the owner. You’re a rehabber. But if you’re an aspiring flipper, you’ll have to wait on that tag until you finish and sit on the other side of the table on closing day as a seller.

Time to get to work.

American Rehab Charleston



DIY
Series Premiere
Thursday, August 28, 2014 @ 11pm

    Are you ready for some football? I am. But, Thursday is not just the kickoff of the college season on the gridiron; it’s also the series premiere of American Rehab and they’re starting the series in South Carolina with my current project just outside of Charleston in Summerville. It's on the DIY network on Thursday @ 11pm in the middle of a block of Rehab Addict. I was on TV once while I was standing in the front row of a college basketball game, but I'm not counting that because my mom didn't get to see it and everyone wants their mom to see them on TV. Thursday is my day. No spoilers here, but the transformation was dramatic plus the entire experience was amazing fun.     

    Charleston’s oldest building, Pink House, dates back to 1712 (right there with Harvard’s Massachusetts Hall). Okay, someone has an idea that it wasn’t really finished until 1745, but I don’t want to get hung up on a difference of 33 years to detract from my point.  Like Mass. Hall, Pink House is older than the country. Wow! Charleston reveres its old buildings and it's one of the major draws for people visiting our city year after year. So because of that, I can’t think of a better place to start a new series about renovating old homes in America than The Holy City which undoubtedly loves its old buildings.

    So tune into American Rehab tomorrow and watch me get started on the Country Victorian.

American Rehab: Charleston on Facebook

American Rehab Charleston 2.015 -  August 13, 2015

Over-the-Rhine - Part 1

As much as I love resurrecting an old house, I am equally passionate about saving old buildings of any type.  Embracing the structures that have stood the test of time has value.  Look at Fenway Park in Boston.  People travel to the northeast every season to see the city, sure, but they also want to watch the Red Sox play in their aged venue.  To many, being there, in that old place, is more significant than what's happening on the field. 

I feel the same about old schools, hospitals, churches, warehouses, and most anything that was built well and has withstood time and the wrath of Mother Nature.  The way I size these things up, if it's been around longer than me, than it needs to be rehabbed if possible.  There's so much history and character in our old buildings.  Tearing them down for something new and modern is cheaper and easier, but not always better.  It seems that the older I get, the more I say this, and the stronger my feelings become. 

I live outside of Charleston, South Carolina.  One of the things that factored into my relocation decision years back was that they appreciate old buildings here like I do.  People visit historic places like Charleston, Fenway, Savannah, Georgia, and the French Quarter of New Orleans because of their age and history.  Looking at my opinion while factoring in tourist dollars helps to make my point; it is worth it to save old buildings...spending money to make money.



A great picture of the front entrance of Fenway Park (by Gary Paul Smith)
Gary's Ballpark Blog

Charleston, South Carolina



Savannah, Georgia

The French Quarter of New Orleans

The Over-the-Rhine district of Cincinnati is special to me.  It's not as well known as the areas mentioned above, but I hope that in my lifetime it will be appreciated for what it was, what it is, and what it can be.

The Over-the-Rhine district of Cincinnati

Jump to Over-the-Rhine - Part 2 (October 23, 2013)


Over-the-Rhine
History of The Over-the-Rhine



bloodsweatandpigsears@hotmail.com

        

Welcome Back Rehab Addict

As I've written plenty of times before, I like listening to sports radio while I'm working and my preference is discussions about college and pro football over anything else. 

The completion of Super Bowl XLVII marks the end of football season and the return of the DIY network to our house.  Rehab Addict Nicole Curtis and the network that broadcasts her popular show are not two things that get considered together regularly, but around here they do because of our pay television packages.  In the fall when football starts back up, we upgrade our pay channel package to include the sports channels.  I only want ESPN and ESPN2, but I have to pay for ninety-eight other channels and to make things worse, they pull DIY from our list of options as part of this upgrade.  We still get HGTV, but Rehab Addict is really a DIY show. 

If I wanted to have ESPN and DIY we'd have to jump up to an even bigger package, and this doesn't make sense for our family.  It's just a waste plus a lot of what we'd get is no good for a house with small kids.  And along with this I'm not interested in writing checks for hundreds of TV channels we won't watch any more than I like wasting time or throwing away building materials that can be salvaged.  

Rehab Addict is a show I really like sitting down for.  I love the attitude of the show and the can-do spirit of NC.  Rehab Addict features my kinds of projects and the people who watch Curtis' show are the same types of DIYers that read my blog; hands-on rehabbers or people with a dream of renovating a rundown home of their own.

Like Nicole C. I love the challenge of buying and resurrecting houses most others don't want and we consistently preach similar messages; we share a fondness for ignoring naysayers, we're big on salvaging and recycling things others send to the landfill, we each take pride in solving issues with our heads and stretching our dollars, and neither of us hesitates to roll up our sleeves to get down and dirty when we're the best person to knock out a task.  In addition, we each have our own time-tested approaches we're proud of and comfortable with.  And I think Nicole enjoys encouraging others to do what we do as much as me.

I really love to renovate run down homes and I feel like I get a little fix of my own each time I watch an episode of Rehab Addict.  It's great to see someone take on their projects the way I do, and I especially love the moments when my wife watches along and says, "Hey, that's what you always say."  

So as much as I'm sad to see the football season end, I'm glad to have the DIY Channel back. 

Appreciation for the Radio (January 26, 2012)

Rehab Addict Nicole Curtis on DIY  (April 24, 2012)

The Detached Garage at The Fire House

The Carport/Storage Building at The Fire House

Having extra space under roof in the form of a garage, carport, barn, basement, or storage building is ideal and it's even more significant on a house being renovated because of the need for space for storing or using your tools, materials, &/or equipment.  

The Fire House (Before) had originally been a 1100 square foot, three bedroom, one bath ranch.  Previous owners had transformed it into 1800 sf when they added a master suite on the back and transformed the attached one car garage into extra living space. 

  

Before.  The first pic. of the Carport/Stor.Bldg.
Not much to look at, but something I was glad to have.

When I took ownership there was a structure in the back that was a carport with a storage area.  This detached building had room to park one vehicle and an enclosed area perfect for a mower, lawn tools, yard games/toys, stuff for the beach, etc...the sort of things people pack into a garage.  It was valuable space and I was thankful to have it. 

When I finished the renovation of The Fire House (After), I decided to make some adjustments and turned the carport/storage building into a two car garage.  I framed up the walls and the opening for a large garage door then salvaged siding from the storage area.  (I made the original siding work without buying more because vinyl fades a little over time and I wanted everything to match.  Reworking what I had was a little tricky, but it was possible and I was glad to be able to make it work.) 

Once the walls were framed up, I started to prep for the 350 square foot concrete slab.  (This is where I was on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.)  

I like finishing concrete.  I learned to do this type of work during my summer breaks from college when I worked construction building glass and steel water tanks throughout the Mid-Atlantic States (Penn., WV, Maryland, Va., Ohio).  Finishing the concrete on the DG was fun, but on that day I decided that finishing 350 sq.ft./6 cubic yards by myself is my limit.  It turned out well, but that much solo wore me out and it almost got away from me.  If there's one thing you don't want to get away from you, it's concrete.  Once it's set that's it.  Fortunately, I kept control and things turned out just as I had planned...until Mother Nature had her say and my detached garage burned back down to my pretty slab of concrete.  

   

After. 
A few months later, the oak behind it got struck by lightening. 
It burned down before I got a picture with the 7' x 16' garage door.

Fire #2 at The Fire House

The Social Network and Harvard's Special Old Building

I caught a few minutes of The Social Network last night.  The film about Facebook has nothing to do with renovating old houses or anything closely related to construction, but something grabbed my attention enough that I'm still thinking about it this morning.

There's a scene in the movie where the Winklevoss Twins (played solely by actor Armie Hammer) are waiting to meet with Larry Summers, the President of Harvard.  The receptionist says, "This building is a hundred years older than the country it's in. So do be careful."  Her warning is not connected with Cameron and Tyler's meeting about Facebook or their dispute with Mark Zuckerberg, but it's part of the attitude that the people of Harvard had throughout the film.  However, it's more than attitude, it's an underlying impression that the folks that make up the Harvard community know more than those outside their circle.  In this example, the people that preceded them were wise to build Massachusetts Hall to last and mindful to leave it as it's stood for all these years.  (To be accurate, Mass. Hall of Harvard Yard is not "335 years old."  A little fact checking confirms that it's been standing since 1720, making it's age closer to 292.)

The receptionist represented in the film presumably had nothing to do with any of the decisions to save that old building, but she seemed to hold some pride about working there none-the-less (and I would too.)  To people like me, a building that's almost 300 years old is pretty cool and something to boast about.  The people of Harvard sure aren't concerned about what's cool, but they know having that old building in the middle of campus is something worthy of attention.  It is cool and I think that's why that little line was popped into the movie like it was. 

Going to the trouble of saving an old building or a run-down house is not the easiest path, but there's wisdom in this course.  In the end, having something that's been around for multiple decades (or centuries) is special, unique, and oftentimes better than an equivalent structure that's brand new.  I believe that it's worth the effort to save a decrepit building and the snooty administrative assistant of The Social Network helps make this point for me as she proudly delivers her only line of the film.

If you can save an old home, I'm here to encourage you.  It won't be simple, but if you push forward and do it right, it'll be worth your effort and diligence.  In the end, you'll be proud of yourself and what you have when your finished.