Where Am I and How Did I Get Here?

Life has a curious way of changing things up on you in a way that's unexpected and often so slowly you don't realize it's even happening.

After years of being single I met my girlfriend two years ago and we've been living together in a rented house in Laguna Beach since last April. Along with Beth's cat Princess, we recently acquired two Lab puppies, one we planned to get and the other was a rescue who's picture was so cute there was no way to say no. Needless to say that having never been married before and only a few relationships where there were deep feelings involved finding myself with a live in girlfriend, two dogs and a cat (along with frequent visitor Zoe the Retriever) things had rapidly changed from my carefree bachelor days.

A month ago our landlord told us she was selling the house and our lease would not be renewed; essentially we needed to be out when our year was up in April. Since that was 3 months in the future and I've had a somewhat nomadic past I wasn't too concerned but for Beth it was a different story. Finding a new rental on Craigslist, Zillow and Trulia dominated the next week and we found several houses that fit the bill but the idea that a decision of someone else could throw her life into upheaval obviously was causing her a lot of anxiety and we found ourselves talking one day about buying instead.

Now California real estate is an interesting thing, I'd spent from 2001 until 2007 in the homebuilding industry and had a firsthand view of the spectacular rise in prices and the inevitable crash that followed. From 2004 until 2006 every month saw the local newspaper trumpeting the huge jumps in the median price (as if that were a good thing). People camped out at model homes to buy houses unseen thinking they could flip the house to the next buyer for 6 figure gains and they were right for a time, at least until they weren't. And then, despite the best efforts of the government and the Fed, the housing market crashed. Trillions were lost in housing values and foreclosures dominated the real estate scene. Despite interest rates at never before seen levels buyers stayed away in droves. I will admit I suspect that home values are still higher than they should be due to these remarkable rates and I wonder just how long government will continue in its efforts with Europe and China to see which country can devalue its currency the quickest. It's a race to the bottom and I'm not certain anyone will be a winner.

But that's neither here nor there, we needed to move and Beth was motivated to buy a house, a course of action the avid remodeler in me approved of. My last renovation was completed in Reno in 2001 and I've been toting my shop tools all over California just waiting for another opportunity to turn a dump into a real home to be proud of. Beth hooked us up with a realtor and off we went in pursuit of the perfect fixer. By perfect fixer I mean a real piece of trash in a nice neighborhood, a home with lots of deferred maintenance and perhaps a funky floor plan. I also like a place where there's been no attempt to update the place for the sale, these owners typically want to be repaid for the money they put into the updates regardless of how hideous they are.

We found a place in Dana Point that I immediately wanted. It was dated and ugly and the owners had made some questionable upgrades to it over the years (like taking out the wall of the master bedroom so it was open to the kitchen). Not only that but their taste in furniture and furniture layout was so poor that most anyone other than an avid fixer would walk in, take a look and immediately walk out again. I loved it! But the neighborhood wasn't right for Beth so we moved on (I've since learned that this home has had 2 price reductions - the first from $645k to $610k and now it's down to $579k).

So we moved on and subsequently found a place in San Clemente that fit the bill. It's 1300 SF with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and best of all (to me at least) it has a 2 car garage that will become my new workshop. The seller was asking $530k (like I said, I suspect prices still need to come down a bit) but after looking at comps we felt that wasn't a reasonable price. Our realtor found out that there had been 2 prior offers (neither accepted) so we figured it had been investors doing some serious lowballing. Our research led us to think the house was worth a top end of $480k so we decided we'd offer that and if it wasn't accepted we'd move on. The seller must have seen the writing on the wall (over $500k wasn't going to happen) and she accepted our offer so we're now in escrow and it's time for me to get my butt in gear and get a plan in place.

The idea is to do a seriously classy remodel on a skimpy budget. Frugal is the best word for it. I'm not penny-wise and pound foolish but if there's a deal to be had I intend to get it for this place. I love the challenge of turning a fixer into a real home on a budget that will make people do a double take. And that's the purpose of this blog, to chronicle how I go about it to meet this end. I've done other remodels before but unfortunately hard drive crashes have made me lose all the pictures and documentation. That really bums me out because my other efforts have turned out pretty well and I have no way to look back on them. Never again.

So I'll be posting pictures and videos of the process because there's really nothing that I enjoy more than remodeling and sharing and I hope anyone reading this enjoys it as well.