Outdoor Spaces

Like anyone looking for their ideal home, we had many requirements that needed to be met in order for us to purchase a fixer upper.  These requirements were necessary for the kind of life we wanted to have, and for the future we were planning.  As many of you know we are animal lovers, and we want to have kids one day.  Therefore, we needed a home large enough to house all our animals, and our future family.  We also wanted a house with a little land so we had privacy, room to breathe, and space to have a small barn for a couple of horses.  We also weren't always keen on staying in upstate NY, but the most important thing that kept CNY our home was being close to family.  Since this was already so important to us, we wanted a home that was close to our families.  Lucky for us, our families were already pretty close to each other.  I also longed to have an old home with lots of character that needed a little work for us to make it our own.  This may not seem like an overly extravagant wish list, but we struggled because of our limited mortgage budget and our specific loan type (USDA).  We knew going into it that we would need a fixer upper in order to get the size we wanted at the price we could afford, but that the house needed to be in good enough shape to pass a USDA inspection.  That is harder than it sounds.  

​

Many of the properties we looked at hit a lot of items on our list, but they also presented at least one huge deal-breaker.  One house we found we lovingly called the "Lemon Cupcake House" because the siding was painted bright yellow.  The first time we went to see it with our realtor, we loved it.  It was a good size at 2,400 sqft., it was built in the early 1800's and had all of the original molding still in place, it had a two stall garage with a concrete floor, and it sat on 11 acres.  We must have had our rose colored glasses on, because when we excitedly asked our parents to come take a look with us on our second viewing, we suddenly saw all the flaws.  The whole house had been newly painted, but the paint was over top of old, peeling wall-paper on the inside, and wooden siding in poor condition on the outside.  The basement had an old sump pump that hadn't been working properly so there was a river running through the middle of the floor.  The concrete patio and floors in the garage were all cracked and dangerous, and the only heat source for the second floor was hot air rising from the bottom floor up through open vents in the floor.  This house was definitely a no-go.  

​

The next house we loved was farther away from our families than we wanted, but it had almost 7 acres, was a good size, and had all that old house character I loved.  It was the middle of winter and took weeks before the long driveway was plowed for us to see it, but we were so excited when the day of the viewing arrived.  We knew the second we walked through the front door this house was not going to work.  The whole first floor had drop ceiling (you never know what is hiding in there!), and the only bathroom was the size of a closet off the kitchen.  Many of the walls were crooked and crumbling, and the floors were so uneven I was feeling dizzy walking through the rooms.  On the second floor, none of the bedrooms had proper closets and instead had open holes in the wall with a sheet hanging over the opening.  When we walked into the basement, the whole stairwell was covered in black mold, and upon reaching the basement we found 20-30 jacks holding the house up between a crumbling foundation.  This house was a health hazard, and kinda creepy.

​

We looked at a handful of other houses that were either too small, too far away, too close to a concert venue, or even some that were too dirty and creepy.  When we finally set up a viewing for what would become our home, we were feeling pretty defeated.  The listing only had exterior pictures, which seemed like a red flag, and there were very little details listed about the house at all.  Since we had no other leads, we decided to give it a try.  We were beyond pleasantly surprised, as this house hit every item on our wish list and more.  It was a good size at 2,700 sqft, it had good bones and would pass an inspection, it came with 6.5 acres to accommodate horses and give us some space, and it even had a bunch of outbuildings.  It came with a three stall garage, so Jeff was ecstatic.  There was also a large gazebo and shed, both with poured concrete floors.  On the back side of the garage, the roof had been built out to add a room for storage, and a little gardening shed.  I was so excited to start a garden and eat our own veggies!  Finally, there was a chicken coop with four different rooms.  I had never wanted chickens before, in fact I hated the idea, but now that we had all this space and were trying to live more independently, I had warmed to the idea.

​

Like the house, every outbuilding needed some work.  Also like the house, I was and am excited to get to work!  Click on one of the links below to see pictures and more details of each project.