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Category Archives: Purchases

Aunty’s House and Gillis Updates

Just look at this car!

(I admit, there are also more Washington updates in here, too.)

Today our helper Kimberly and her mother-in-law set out to help pack up the stuff in Aunty’s house. It’s really hard to do this, because all the stuff in the house is so darned interesting, so we’d hoped people not all involved with the family would be able to concentrate more on packing. Of course, while Kim is a neutral party, her mother-in-law is from Cameron. So she just had to go through some yearbooks to see all her friends. The house just sucks you in! Continue reading →

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What’s Up at Washington?

Hooray, the open concept is here. Doesn’t everything look great?

Last Friday, I took a little drive around to look at properties we’re working on in Cameron. I was lucky enough to run into the renovation crew from Choice Builders, the team our partner Jennifer has selected, when I was at the Washington property. That allowed me to ask Cody lots of questions about the progress, all of which made me very happy (as did meeting his wife and extremely cute young son).

When I was there, they were waiting for the new beam to get inspected, so that the framing separating the front and back of the house could be removed. As you can see from the photo, that’s been accomplished! Open concept is achieved! They’ve also framed in the new shape of the kitchen, which now opens to an eat-in area that will be great for any size family. Continue reading →

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Commercial Opportunity

Old two-story brick building

This is one of the “extra” buildings that the banker didn’t include in the cost calculation. It is included in the property. It would make a nice eight-unit apartment on its own.

Have you ever thought about assisted living?

Sue Ann and I have known several “older folks” (We’ll just ignore our own ages for the time being!) who have chosen to spend their “twilight years” (nothing to do with the movies) in some very nice assisted living facilities. There are also facilities for people of more modest means.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking that Milam County would be a great home for a middle-class facility for some time. You can soak up that small-town vibe. It’s quiet. Other support businesses are already in place. It’s not far from first-class hospitals in three or four directions, one of the reasons why rural hospitals are an endangered species. Continue reading →

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An Interesting Closing on Russet Valley

It was dreary outside, but nice and warm inside the bank!

Yesterday we got the Russet Valley renovation financing all under control. We’d had a number of options for it, and just had to figure out which one would benefit all of our team the most.

The original plan was to sell the house to Hermit Haus Redevelopment and do the renovation as part of that company’s activities.

However, as Lee kept looking at the numbers, he realized it would benefit everyone more in the long run if he and I held on to the property, and refinanced it, so that we can get the funds for the renovation that way. Our business will benefit, because we’ll hire Carol to do project management and pay her a fee for that, which will probably be more than she’d have made off a sale.

It also frees up the money quickly, so she can start paying the new contractors we’re working with, Oscar and his team, right away.

We used our friends at Buckholts State Bank for the transaction, and we found it pretty interesting. There were all sorts of forms none of us had ever seen before that came from the other parties in the transaction (we were paying off a loan, too). So, we all looked much harder at the paperwork than normal, but I think between Lee and the bankers, we got it all straight. Even the notary had to prove who she was. It was funny how different this one was. But we’re professionals!

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Welcome to Aunty’s House

We’ll get a better photo of the whole house soon.

The Hermit Haus Enterprises team in Cameron has just signed a contract on another renovation project. We’re really on a roll, aren’t we?

Aunty’s house was brought to us by a local friend. Like many of the houses we buy, this one was an inheritance deal; a beloved aunt, who’d lived in a house for decades, passed away last year. We were able to buy the house from them in as-is condition, so that they’d have money to do a project they need to do, and would not have to figure out the time to fit in renovating this old house while doing a huge renovation of their own. This saved them a lot of realtor fees and other money, like payimg people to clean the house out, putting on a new roof…all the stuff they’d need to sell at retail.

You can see the beautiful, large lot the house is on. It will be lovely in the spring.

You can’t really put a price on the mental stress and strain of having to deal with inherited property. There’s so much emotion involved, plus time and effort. We are happy that we are letting this family move on, while we get a lovely property to renovate.

The House!

So, Aunty’s house is a charming one-owner cottage (the late owner was a teacher at the school that’s right down the street, and the house was built for her) in a great neighborhood. It’s just two bedrooms and one bathroom, but it was very well loved. It’s the house I wrote about last week, when I was considering bringing a house back to its former glory rather than gutting it and making an “open concept” modern house.

The tiled kitchen and bath in this house would do well to keep some of the original charm. And I’d hate to tear down the kitchen wall, because there is a custom bookshelf unit on the other side of that wall. It was built with love and has so many memories from the earlier residents.

I don’t think I have the heart to remove the wall these built-ins are on.

The interior floors are some fascinating kind of tile, maybe cork. It’s quiet and comfy.

The foundation has shifted over the past 60 years or so, and we’ll need to patch up some walls, for sure. But mostly it’s in good shape on the inside.

Outside

There is the usual deferred maintenance to be done. Lots of volunteer trees around the house, some very sad soffits, and a roof that needs to be worked on. The good news is that is is not currently leaking (yay!).

The planter and wrought iron are loevely vintage touches, but you an see issues with the trim and the junk trees that have grown up in just a short time of no maintenance.

Its good parts of the outsideinclude cute planter boxes that I hope we can keep and turn into features, and a very large yard with beautiful trees and plants. Someone who likes to garden would love this place. It’s on a quiet street, and even the dogs next door don’t bark. Wow.

There’s a nice attached garage, currently with Aunty’s extremely cool old car in it, but that will convey to the seller. It’s a sentimental attachment kind of thing.

We’re really excited at the opportunity to work on this house and bring it up to the neighborhood standards. Whether it becomes a rental or we sell it, we think we’ll be proud of it, and so will the former owners.

Below are a couple more photos of the house from our initial walk-throuogh. We’ll have more later.

Before!

 

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