Project 99% Complete

At long last, after four months of solid work by my husband, the rental property I inherited from my mother in 2001 is ready to rent. Not only that, we think we have found someone who wants it, a process which took less time than I imagined. A lot of people are looking for a place to live.

I never imagined myself a landlord and this is not a coveted title, but four words in my mother's will has me pretty much unable to do anything with this property other than rent it. Kind of amazing, the power of four words, isn't it?

Here are some before and after photos: This is a bedroom (or just a room).
Before:

After:


This is what the kitchen looked like before:


This is what it looks like now. We still have to put in a stove, which will happen this week:



This is the hallway/furnace room before:
This is what it looks like now:


And so on and so forth. This is the work we did: new floors all over, new paint or new paneling everywhere, new toilets in both bathrooms, new shower heads, new plumbing, new vanities in the bathrooms, new light fixtures, new ceiling fans, new shelving in the kitchen cabinets, new hardware on the kitchen cabinets, one new window, part of a new wall, new ceiling tile in the kitchen/great room, new propane furnace, and an enormous amount of cleaning.

We had to take out a loan to do all of this work and spent thousands, not counting my husband's labor. It was an enormous effort by my husband to get the place clean and remodeled - he worked on it until 9:30 at night for many nights (because of course he also had to work his THREE other jobs).

Because I have bad allergies and asthma, I could not help much (I am allergic to dust and cats, and the previous tenants (who I also inherited along with the house) had cats and apparently had no idea what a vacuum cleaner was, plus I'm allergic to paint, so I am pretty much useless in a renovation project).

Anyway, the house is three bedrooms, a great room/kitchen, two baths, and an attic loft room. It is 1,500+ square feet. On the exterior it's aluminum siding, with a front porch. It is an old farmhouse that has been reworked, is what it is. It was built in the very early 1900s and the structural craftsmanship in the older part of the house is about 100 times better than what was added on in the 1970s.

This is what it looks like on the exterior (this is an old shot but we didn't make many changes outside):



When we have someone settled in the place, it will be a real load off our minds and quite a relief. I know some people would like this kind of thing, but it has been a trial for us, probably in part because it was thrust upon us. But that is another really long story.