I bought a house! In Indiana! For $8000!

[Michael]

And I blogged about it here. It's hueueueueuge. Check out the Flickr set!

So ANYway, if you've been yearning to visit Richmond, Indiana, and help me renovate it, now's your chance!

I'm only doing it because Indiana's a blue state now, of course. Well, that and the whole "never pay rent or mortgage again" thing is cool. I have a paid-off house and you don't! HA! Of course, your house probably has working plumbing, but there is no way your house is as downright cool as mine.

[mouse]

at the '$8000 house', i decided i hate you. then i started looking at the photos, and thinking how much work you were going to have to put into it, and i decided i felt sorry for you. then i came to the built-in cabinet thing in the dining room, and the doorknob (in the beautiful wood door), and the windows, and i was back to hating you again. and then there was the carriage house, and that front porch, and you also have some land around it....i'm sorry, i am going to have to hate you with a white-hot fury. unless, of course, you can find me something of the same vintage, but about half the size, needing a bit less work (as in, maybe some painting and cleaning and of course gardening)...you know, something i could retire to (since i suspect the house price indicates there are no jobs). (and besides, if i had a house like that, i wouldn't want to leave it anyway).

but i have to ask - how long has it been since anyone lived there? poor house - it looks more than a little neglected.

oh welll....congratulations, hope the renovation work doesn't kill you (where will you be living while you are doing that?)....and you'd better mean it, about keeping up the blog on how it progresses.

[Michael]

Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful, mouse!

I'm gonna live in it while renovating. The upstairs is in fairly OK shape, and frankly, we just don't need the downstairs. I'm going to flood the yellow room this winter so we can play hockey.

The family is heading for Budapest until July 3. So I have from May 13 to July 3 to get the upstairs into livable condition and the kitchen downstairs into working condition, and the rest will just progress after I have extra manual laborers (i.e. the family) available.

It was last occupied just before foreclosure in December, but it was being run as a homeless shelter, effectively. The owner lived onsite (upstairs, as a matter of fact) but his attention was split between a number of houses in the area, and I think his priority was basically "livable" instead of "presentable". He now lives catty-cornered from there; my dad talked to him the other day and I've emailed back and forth with him. Seems like a good guy.

As to the amount of work: actually, I don't think there will be a horrendous amount of work. I don't think there are structural problems, the roof is relatively new, and so on. Heat is going to be a real problem, so I might be doing a lot of wiring for radiant heat and/or baseboard heaters, and obviously a lot of insulation work.

There are other houses available, of course. Go to Realtor.com and search on Richmond, Indiana. After May 13, I'll even go preview them for you. Or you can rent my carriage house.

[Ringading]

Mother trucker, those are some good prices. Are they mostly demolition jobs at the lower end of the scale? Even taking an unfavourable exchange rate into account I'd be able to afford some of those places outright just with the savings that I accumulated by hardly ever having any fun. I'm half tempted to do it and move to Amerikee- it's just too bad that the place is so full of Amerikeeans.

Actually, it's mainly that I'd have trouble finding work. I am pretty much devoid of employable skills.

Anyway, good buy. You should line that downstairs floor with trampolines in the summer time.

[Michael]

As far as I can tell, none is a demolition job in Richmond. They all need some work, of course, but mostly they're old, old houses that were built to last. I might spend some time looking at a few in May when I get there.

As to being surrounded by Amerikeeans, yeah, I feel your pain. I've lived in Puerto Rico for five years to a great extent because I feel far enough away from Republican voters here without the hassle of actually living strictly outside the United States. But ... $8000 house.

And as to work -- yeah. There is none. You have to work online, like me. On the other hand ... $8000 house.

[Ringading]

Oh well, the dream of home ownership will have to remain seemingly impossible for the time being. Unless of course those ads about making your fortune by posting links for Google are for real. They have pictures of rather expansive cars and big piles of cash so maybe they are!

Your house looks nicer than a lot of the mid-range houses around here. It must be a nice feeling to think how many times over the cost it should be worth if not for a glitch in the economy.

[Michael]

About 8. Times over, that is, according to the last tax assessment and what the former owner paid for it in 2003. Although when I get done with a little cleaning and painting and insulation and floor replacement and plaster work and plumbing and tile in the kitchen and a new roof on the carriage house I'm betting it would be more like 15.

[mouse]

if the former owner was running it as a homeless shelter, i'm betting he is a good guy, and he gets a pass for not keeping it up as a showplace. i imagine a really good cleaning and some fresh paint will help quite a bit. of course, i've spent about the last 8 years trying to convince myself i could manage to replace the living room carpet with some sort of flooring (i'm thinking cork, in tiles even) - so i'm maybe not the best reference point for home renovation.

and i really do look forward to seeing it all prettied up. judging from the woodwork alone, it was a grand lady in its day.

[Michael]

In case anybody ever still comes here, I'm blogging the renovation. I freaking love this house. And the kids have great schools. And my wife is working - actually teaching physics and math at the college level - for the first time in years. And I still have enough work.

There isn't enough wood in the world to knock.

[Ringading]

Great, sounds like all you need to make your life complete is new Boxjam comics.

Just don't knock too hard on the load bearing planks or you may see superstition manifest itself in an unfortunate fashion.

[Michael]

I got this crazy idea to write new BoxJam. I did a couple, once, a while ago, and then there was the Great BoxJam's Doodle Spinoff Thread of 2001, sadly lost to history. Damn Guigar won, anyway, with his Scooby-Doodle. Although Tirdun's animated 8-ball was cooler.

[mouse]

i miss tirdun.

[Michael]

Yeah, me too. I miss *you*, for that matter. Happy to see you're still poking about the Spot occasionally.

[MaiteTikeType]

What type of the panels in solar are most desirable through despite dwelling-place use. I arrange heard that we can undeviatingly use solar power in quarter and we can also nourish towards the rear electricty to grid. Kindly guide in support of the kindest solar panels and inverters.

[Michael]

I wanted more.