My 1914 Bungalow

During the spring of 2017, I was working on The Harris Home which was right beside the cutest little bungalow that had seen better days. I'm always on the look-out for investment properties, especially in Hampton Heights, so I knew the property had gone through the foreclosure process and would soon be up for sale. So, I watched and waited until one day I noticed a crew clearing out the house. After convincing them to let me take a peek inside, I was immediately smitten. Even with all of the trash and bad smells, severely outdated kitchen and bathroom, really strange lay-out, and with a back porch where the ceiling was literally falling in, I knew I wanted this house.

At the time, I had only been in my (then) current home for a little under two years, so I really had no intentions of moving again so quickly. However, by the time I got to the back of the house and saw the jungle of a very large back yard, I knew this was going to be my next home. Here's why...

1. First, I loved the back yard and the size of the lot. Working in the yard is like therapy for me and I always like to have room for my dogs to run and play. Even with the overgrown lot, I could see the potential. Immediately I had the back yard cleared and then seeded, added a fence for the dogs, and then had a new concrete parking pad poured in front of the garage. Over the next few years I worked on landscaping, updating the exterior of the garage to match the main house, and converted a small storage building into my office. I spend the most amount of time out in the back yard.

2. Second, even though the back porch was completely dilapidated as in the ceiling was literally falling in, it held the perfect location for a great screened-in porch along the back of the house. I love screened porches and had never had the opportunity to add one to any of my previous personal homes so this was a big selling point for me.   

3. And last but not least, I knew it would be a smart financial decision. Because it was a foreclosure, I was able to purchase the house at a really low price and because I didn't go completely overboard during the renovation, and have done a lot of the work myself, it has turned out to be a good investment. In an effort to make this the last stop for a while (I've been known to house hop over the years), I did go ahead and make a couple of upgrades including adding stairs and plumbing to the spacious attic with plans on converting it to livable space down the road, and built a new addition to the back of the house where the screened porch and master bedroom are now.  I typically don't add on new square footage to my houses.

The trade-off in doing a lot of the work on my own, along with the help of family from time to time, is that it took longer to complete. I work on my own home in between other projects so that's just how it goes. I purchased the house in May of 2017, immediately started on renovations with the help of a few contractors, and moved in on December 1, 2017.  At the time of move in I had all of the necessities: one working bathroom, heat/air, refinished hardwood floors, a refrigerator, and a fenced in back yard for the dogs. Everything else is optional for me. And so I worked on the rest of the house over time. 

The house is essentially completed but if I'm being honest, the rush of trying to get in so fast caused some steps to be skipped with those problems showing up now so as I look to 2024 and celebrate the house's 110th birthday, I have new projects scheduled.  Some are repairs, others just little tweaks, and a few complete makeovers as my style has changed.  And let's be honest, I'll always have a project, or two, in the works pretty much always because that's just what I do.  But I can say that this is hands down my favorite house and renovation project.

But of course, I always say that.