We made the decision to sell our home and downsize in the fall of 2010. For the remainder of the year, we began doing quick fix ups to make our house more sellable.
Then in January 2011, the house across the street went up.
It sold the beginning of May, just when we began finalizing things and talking to our realtor.
Then the fun began. An investor bought the house, and decided to remodel it and “flip” it.
Remodeling wasn’t the word for it.
They ripped out all landscaping, all three floors of this 3600 sq ft home, and peeled away the siding, windows, roof – well, you get the idea. Even though the structure remained, little else did.
Our house went up for sale the beginning of June, and people would come by and stare at the house across the street. I guess that made ours memorable:
“Oh yeah, the house across the street from the “meth” house.”
“Oh yeah, the house across the street from where the fire was. “
Yep, we heard it all. And with good reason.
At one point the county was brought in because they didn’t do the proper asbestos removal. The house went from a torn up mess, to a mess encased in plastic bubbling. Yep, that really brought in the offers on our home.
While it did bring us entertainment all summer long, we’ll be glad to get away from this never ending construction. Will they flip it? Only time will tell. With today’s economy and watching what they’ve put into it, we have our doubts. But we wish them luck with the chance they’ve taken.
Even though I didn’t take photos along the way – I have to share what it looks like now that we’re packing up the final boxes.
At the time we left, over four months into the process:
- No landscaping whatsoever – they tore everything down
- Still waiting for new siding and stucco and paint
- Waiting for the front porch to be lifted
- Roof still needs to be torn away and replaced
- New garage door
- And of course all of the work on the inside
…the one thing we won’t miss is the never ending banging, humming and crashing coming from across the street.
