Life is full of seasons. The Season of Career, The Season of Friends, The Season of Health, The Season of Weddings, The Season of Learning, The Season of Faith. I’ve embraced all these at one time or another–and each one has provided me with so many moments of happiness and growth.
Right now I’m in the Season of Extreme Busy-ness. The kids, the pregnancy, the writing career (hobby?), church, friends, family. It would be a Season of Busy-ness even if we hadn’t decided to buy an investment property that needed tons of work.
But we did just that. Yep. We bought a house that only needs our TLC (read: blood, sweat, and tears) to be a rental house
The house was a foreclosure, which means that the past owners abused it and stole strange things from it. Really strange, like the shower head. Which I completely don’t understand. Frustration with their financial crisis, sure. But were they so angry with the bank they could only vent their rage by taking plumbing hardware?
Anyway, one missing shower head is the least of the house’s problems. Those are in the form of “gardens” that have been neglected since the Clinton administration, a string of horrific “decorators” (ivy wallpaper in the kitchen? Sadly, yes), and carpet that must have seen more than one litter of puppies born and pottytrained on it.
Yech.
But the house is on a cul-de-sac in a nice neighborhood and has, as M. and I like to say when we’re feeling particularly jaunty, “good bones.”
And, as crazy as this sounds for a family elbow-deep in the Season of Busyness, we needed a hobby. Or M. did, because he’s really good at stuff like pulling out toilets and tile and poison ivy. And, dare I say it, he likes that stuff.
Now, we just need to find a tenant to enjoy the fresh paint and floors and the sweat we’ve put into the place.
If you know anyone in the market for a four-bedroom, recently updated, lovely home (feeling jaunty again), with mature landscaping and new just-about-everything, let me know.
We need some rent money so we can start on our next foreclosure.
We just bought a foreclosure home as well, but for us to live in. We close on Friday of next week. Thankfully for us, it needs only minor TLC, paint, carpet upstairs, and a garage door. I think the mother (it’s always the mother) couldn’t drive and backed into the garage door from the inside of the garage. Apparently there was thought she might run through the house to as the word “STOP” is written extremely large across the front wall.
Good luck with your foreclosures and finding renters!