The layout of the house has the full bathroom in the main hallway for access from all the bedrooms.
Since my parents are older our main goal with this bathroom was to replace the tub with a full shower as it is easier for them to access. The secondary goal was to change everything else! 😉
Here is what we were working with. Some real…custom work…
This bathroom was the biggest overall project for the house and therefore the first thing we tackled.
I got my first experience with new tile floors and grouting, rebuilding a toilet and shopping for the design we had in mind!
The work was hard and took a while as we did this on our days off but I think it was totally worth it! The color of the paint really does not show well in these photos but the pale green gives a bright and warm feel to the space.
The listing looked promising!! 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 2 car garage, A/C, ranch style. Built in 1980. Bank owned.
As you can see, a bit plain, but a nice blank canvas. Looked as thought there was some attempt at a bathroom remodel at some point but more on that later!
The biggest, most obvious issue was the sliding glass door in the family room….it was missing! The listing photo below shows just a bit of the plywood covering the broken door, however, during our in person visit we found shattered glass everywhere. Our immediate concern is the expense that we would have to take on immediately as it was a bank owned home. Meaning as-is…..
Even with the glass door issues, the house checked off a good amount of the requirements! The full bathroom would require a full gutting to modify to a shower pan for accessibility. Everything else on first look was sound with only minor wear and tear. We knew windows would need to be replaced but everything else looked like just paint, carpet and some minor updates! Perfect!
Since the house was and “as-is” bank owned listing we chose decided against typical inspections. This can be a gamble but one we were willing to take.
It did not take me long, only about 3 days to decide to make an offer! Now here is where the anxiety part kicks in!!!! Listing price was $169,000, My offer was $140,000. Following the offer submission the seller countered asking for best and final offer stating that there were multiple offers on the property. What we will never know is if they actually did have other offers.
With that knowledge or lack there of, I adjusted conservatively to $150,000. Next thing I knew they accepted and holy crap I bought a house!!!
It was August 2018 and James and my plan to build a garage and apartment for my parents on our property is seeming to take way too long. We had been working with our township for nearly a year on lot modifications and I knew that we were still a year or more away from having a place we could move my parents into and that was just too long a time frame. So, what else to do but decide to buy another house here in our town! Why not right?
I started the way I think most people do, Zillow and Realtor apps, right!!?
My “budget” was under 200K. That is not unheard of in our area of NJ but will require work. Some of that work is modifications for my parents. Bathroom updates, accessibility, etc. Requirements were: 1st floor master, 2 bathrooms, A/C, garage or carport and that is about it!!
I started a list and shared those options with my friend who just happened to be a realtor!
Printouts and clipboard in hand we started our in home visits. Wow, people are messy and have some pretty weird “design” ideas. We looked at options that were full disasters of damage that would have been a down to the stud flip and some that were so dated that it was close to a full flip as well. Those options were just too massive and timely to take on.
The first few weeks of visits were rough, I was anxious to find something and get started!!
Then, bless my realtor, she found an option that I had missed and it was pretty much perfect. Well perfect with some work by us. This new option was a 3 bedroom ranch 1.5 bath, heat, A/C, 2 car garage, living room and family room.
Renovation Newbies 