Buy This House. Please.

Wanna make a deal and buy this with me?

More on page 101

A Modest Post for Granddaddy

I’ll really miss my grandfather’s stories.

More on page 100

We’re Not the Only Ones

More confirmation that people are re-thinking what’s possible in small towns.

More on page 99

4-1/2 Announcements

Community involvement is making our time here even better.

More on page 98

Should We Save the Suburbs?

Old homes hold the key to rethinking how we live and making it “greener”.

More on page 96

What Brian Found Buried in the Backyard

Just another surprise discovered buried in our backyard…

More on page 95

Heart Pine & “Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal”

What’s a home renovation without it’s first complaint issued to the city?

More on page 94

Insurance Killing That House?

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Image by Joan Thewlis via Flickr

If you’ve ever driven by a could-be-beautiful-again home and wondered why no one has restored it, here’s one piece of the puzzle: insurance.

Our insurance company called this week to inquire about changes to the property’s value to renew the policy. Due to the state of the property (presently uninhabitable) we don’t qualify for normal homeowner’s insurance. Instead, we must carry commercial contractor’s insurance, which yes, costs more.

So I ran down the changes we made thus far:

• removed lean-to structure on western side of house
• removed all non-original partition stud-work
• removed all floorboards
• temporarily shored southern addition to main house frame
• removed all debris from dwelling
• temporarily weatherproofed home for winter season

Here’s where it gets tricky. What does this mean for the present value? Well, overall market drop across the country notwithstanding: zero. These changes have all cost us, but, we’re aware that in order for the project to work we have to shoulder a period, perhaps a lingering period, where we’ll have more money in the property than it is worth.

And being risk-takers, we’re okay with that. Here’s why.

When we purchased the property we had our financing in place to restore the home soup-to-nuts. But, we were hesitant to commit to that once we determined that we’d rather start a business than trade our move for a commute to larger markets like Charlottesville or Harrisonburg.

So, we decided to do it in smaller chunks, on our terms. The biggest risk will in fact concern one of the next steps: restoring the stone wall. This step is expensive and necessary, and, will firmly place us on the “wrong” side of the ledger for awhile. (By this I mean more money invested in than could be recouped in its present, uninhabitable condition.)

But back to the insurance, and the problem with it:

The insurance company - knowing there are limited companies who will insure homes in this condition - has stated it will now require us to pay insurance based on the home’s FUTURE, totally restored value. (Even if, at that point, we’d qualify for normal homeowners insurance.) Their rationale is that we should have “already fixed it up”. We’re guessing its really a matter of “we want to charge you more money.”

We’ve called bullshit on this, and, are seeing what if anything can be done about that. Which begs the question: can protecting your restoration project from fire and flood ultimately be the method by which its killed?

katie @ January 30, 2010

Choosing a Neighborhood? Choose This.

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Image by Martin LaBar via Flickr

WSJ’s Juggle Blog posted a story yesterday about the factors in choosing a neighborhood - a topic of interest to most urban escapees. It reports these findings:

Given a choice, most people don’t care as much about the local economy as they do about the social offerings, physical beauty and openness of a locale, says a recently released survey of about 14,000 people in 26 communities by Gallup and the Knight Foundation. [emphasis added]

Interesting. Our move accomplished this for us, but the obvious must be stated: no matter where you might move, you need to make a decision to participate (in social offerings), appreciate beauty where its found (or actively create it yourself), and seek the company of those open to ideas. No place is perfect, and, to assume you’ve found utopia is sure to disappoint.

I think too many people think a move will magically solve problems unrelated to location. The bigger shift should be in outlook first.

Side note: the Juggle blog post perpetuates this idea that small towns/rural outposts have slower internet service. Our internet connectivity is noticeably improved over our Manhattan apartment.

katie @ January 12, 2010

More Buried Treasures

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Eric, our awesome contractor, came by the grocery today to give Brian two things he dug up from the root cellar (aka wine cellar) during our last work installment (when he removed the floors). Eric’s been busy all summer and I know why: he rocks.

Anyway, here’s what he found (click thru for a larger image):

It’s a camera-phone photo of a glass “Lithum Water” bottle, and a hand-thrown German wine bottle with nifty German-language stamp on it. I’ve seen the Lithum water bottles in antique shops. It was a delight to get these because I’m sure others in Eric’s position might be tempted to throw these away or sell them…

We’re discussing and scheduling next steps. We’ve had a structural engineer come before and it looks like we need another one to proceed. I’m excited.

katie @ August 31, 2009