We made the BIG mistake of buying a house that needs some work...and the longer we have lived in it, the more work we are finding...!!! 
: We have lived here 2 1/2 years. At the time, the mortgage was cheaper than what we would have rented a 3 br for (this house is 4)
It is a 50-60 yr old 1 1/2 story. We have done the roof, the attic insulation, have done some painting ourselves (trust me every square inch needs it), regraded the soil, and replaced the furnace, hot water tank, and put in an air conditioner. We have unfortunatley found extensive mold in the basement in the perimeter (more than the corner behind some boxes we had originally seen...funny what you see when you pull a lower edge of wall off!) The grade of the soil towards the house is what I think the mold comes from.
It needs windows, wall insulation, new flooring, and for the siding to be finished (only 2/3 of it is sided). Plus, some cosmetic things like the bathroom done by the previous owner and a sloppy job at that....things like seeing where they mudded the drywall and didn't sand very well. I am more worried about bigger things like the insulation/windows though. Also, we have to take care of the basement. The kitchen sucks but I have painted the cupboards, and it is the least of my worries. In getting some quotes (haven't done for the basement yet) we are looking at least 20,000.00 work for this house there are 17 windows in it and those alone will be 10-12 000.0.
Don't ask me WHY we bought it...I am scratching my head to this day.
I AM SO DONE WITH THIS HOUSE!!!! Dh has big dreams of moving across the country to the Yukon where we lived 12 years ago. (As do I...we lived in the NWT actually just prior to this move and only came here so dh could go to paramedic school....which he failed and we now pay 125.oo per mo to a "lifelong learning plan"/RRSP which was our "student loan" and how it was funded...we have to replenish that RRSP each year or we get taxed on what we fall short) If we left, we would owe the power company the remaining loan for the furnace, etc that is left to be paid off. (it's added to the power bill every month). Plus, a real estate agent/lawyer, plus what ever loss we take. The market here has NOT plummeted at all, in fact is rising while the rest of Canada is taking a slight dip. I am hoping we could finish painting top to bottom, repair the affected basement walls, and if someone wants to buy a house that needs the windows, siding, and insulation and new floors then so be it. I would be happy getting what we have left owing on the house, then taking the loss pf all the other fees on a credit line or something.
Sis and I were discussing this. I have a visa bill (should be paid off in the next few months...it was stupid to put stuff on it, but we have it locked in the safety deposit box now....we pay the bare minimum on the line of credit till the visa is paid off and sock a fixed amount on the visa plus anything extra outside of our very detailed budget goes on it), and the amount we paid on the credit line was the same as we made for our vehicle payment so was quite manageable (it is a combo of two vehicles one bought for dh schooling and one almost paid off so we don't actually have a vehicle payment on top of this, some of dh's school expenses, and a previous credit card all rolled into one....23,000.00 total My goal was to have one payment, paid in 3-5 years and till we were dumb enough to have more cc expenses we were putting 5-600.00 per month on it. ). We have good credit, both have secure jobs especially me, and have 2 months expenses saved up although I would like that to be 6, plus some funds in savings like "vehicle maitenance funds", etc. Sis's point is that maybe we should just move and take the loss, and be happy at our new location, instead of sinking a major amount into a house and not be guarenteed of getting it back. With then market the way it is here, I think I MAY be able to get back what I owe on the mortgage so we wouldn't have as big a loss as what it would cost in the end to fix this place. Then, it would be renting for a year or so, and off to realize dh's dream. At least that is what we hope in the ideal world.
Aaaagh. I am so confused about all this. What do you do when you feel trapped???? Like in a house you know you have NO hope of ever fixing, and in a place/town you don't want to live?
: We have lived here 2 1/2 years. At the time, the mortgage was cheaper than what we would have rented a 3 br for (this house is 4)It is a 50-60 yr old 1 1/2 story. We have done the roof, the attic insulation, have done some painting ourselves (trust me every square inch needs it), regraded the soil, and replaced the furnace, hot water tank, and put in an air conditioner. We have unfortunatley found extensive mold in the basement in the perimeter (more than the corner behind some boxes we had originally seen...funny what you see when you pull a lower edge of wall off!) The grade of the soil towards the house is what I think the mold comes from.
It needs windows, wall insulation, new flooring, and for the siding to be finished (only 2/3 of it is sided). Plus, some cosmetic things like the bathroom done by the previous owner and a sloppy job at that....things like seeing where they mudded the drywall and didn't sand very well. I am more worried about bigger things like the insulation/windows though. Also, we have to take care of the basement. The kitchen sucks but I have painted the cupboards, and it is the least of my worries. In getting some quotes (haven't done for the basement yet) we are looking at least 20,000.00 work for this house there are 17 windows in it and those alone will be 10-12 000.0.
Don't ask me WHY we bought it...I am scratching my head to this day.
I AM SO DONE WITH THIS HOUSE!!!! Dh has big dreams of moving across the country to the Yukon where we lived 12 years ago. (As do I...we lived in the NWT actually just prior to this move and only came here so dh could go to paramedic school....which he failed and we now pay 125.oo per mo to a "lifelong learning plan"/RRSP which was our "student loan" and how it was funded...we have to replenish that RRSP each year or we get taxed on what we fall short) If we left, we would owe the power company the remaining loan for the furnace, etc that is left to be paid off. (it's added to the power bill every month). Plus, a real estate agent/lawyer, plus what ever loss we take. The market here has NOT plummeted at all, in fact is rising while the rest of Canada is taking a slight dip. I am hoping we could finish painting top to bottom, repair the affected basement walls, and if someone wants to buy a house that needs the windows, siding, and insulation and new floors then so be it. I would be happy getting what we have left owing on the house, then taking the loss pf all the other fees on a credit line or something.
Sis and I were discussing this. I have a visa bill (should be paid off in the next few months...it was stupid to put stuff on it, but we have it locked in the safety deposit box now....we pay the bare minimum on the line of credit till the visa is paid off and sock a fixed amount on the visa plus anything extra outside of our very detailed budget goes on it), and the amount we paid on the credit line was the same as we made for our vehicle payment so was quite manageable (it is a combo of two vehicles one bought for dh schooling and one almost paid off so we don't actually have a vehicle payment on top of this, some of dh's school expenses, and a previous credit card all rolled into one....23,000.00 total My goal was to have one payment, paid in 3-5 years and till we were dumb enough to have more cc expenses we were putting 5-600.00 per month on it. ). We have good credit, both have secure jobs especially me, and have 2 months expenses saved up although I would like that to be 6, plus some funds in savings like "vehicle maitenance funds", etc. Sis's point is that maybe we should just move and take the loss, and be happy at our new location, instead of sinking a major amount into a house and not be guarenteed of getting it back. With then market the way it is here, I think I MAY be able to get back what I owe on the mortgage so we wouldn't have as big a loss as what it would cost in the end to fix this place. Then, it would be renting for a year or so, and off to realize dh's dream. At least that is what we hope in the ideal world.
Aaaagh. I am so confused about all this. What do you do when you feel trapped???? Like in a house you know you have NO hope of ever fixing, and in a place/town you don't want to live?
... Three years later, and we are still paying the mortgages for two houses. The only offer we got on that house was for waaaay less than what we owed on it, but looking back I wish we would have sold it for that- at least then we wouldn't still be paying insurance and taxes on it year after year.
. I cannot replace those things that are "curb appeal" like the siding, the windows and the flooring (laminate poorly installed and lifting, lino in my kitchen with duct tape in one place, and ORIGINAL probably 50 yr old lino in my bedroom upstairs). Also, I don't know how much 40+ year old wood cupboards are going to appeal to people, (although I majorly sanded, replaced knobs and handles and painted).
At least you tried. 
