Pics of Our New (Old) Home
Yesterday, we got busy with the fixing-up of the fixer-upper in Palmetto. While Sam worked on the electrical panel, I made a photographic record of the state of the house. We plan to ask Manatee County for a re-appraisal as the house is currently not ready for occupancy. So I have about 3.5 GB of photos showing everything from the exterior views below to the various fixtures without cover plates.
There was soaking rain when we left Clearwater. By the time we got to Palmetto, that had slowed to the drizzle. About an hour after we arrived, the clouds cleared and we had some sunshine. We took advantage of that to have a bit of a picnic lunch in and just outside the garage. I had called Manatee County during the week about a couple of abandoned vehicles parked on our seven acres, and the towing service sent out two tow trucks to handle those while we were there on Saturday.
The house itself was built in 1955. We’ve been told that it was neglected for some time before its purchase in 1998 by the previous owners. They replaced much of the roof structure and were working on renovating the interior room by room. The floors are all done in tile, with the exception of the hall bathroom and a couple of closets in the hall that are unfinished. The hall bathroom is completely stripped out, with exposed drywall and the previous set of tile taken off. There are no fixtures in there, so part of our work will be to get the hall bathroom finished again. The interior paint job was not complete, so we have that to look forward to as well. There is a bedroom suite at the east end of the house, with two adjoining rooms and a master bathroom. We are contemplating redoing the doorways there to make the rooms separate, rather than simply having a shared door to the hallway.
Because the place was foreclosed, there is essentially nothing more complex than ceiling fans still there, except for the central air conditioning and heating system. We will need to get ourselves an oven/range combo unit, refrigerator, and, eventually, a dishwasher. There’s nothing in the utility room, so we can add getting a washer and dryer as well. It looks like the water heater in the garage is actually relatively recent (the tag references efficiency figures from 2004).
So on with the pictures. The exterior shots don’t hint at the work to be done on the inside.
Enjoy your new place and lots of luck with it!
Jeff, thanks for the well-wishes!
We got our first tow from our neighbor to the east on Sunday night. I was taking our van around the edge of the property, and managed to get stuck. AAA told us to get stuffed. So we asked our neighbor, who hopped in his 4WD truck and came to our rescue.
I wish you as much luck as you can handle and then some. It looks solid structurally. My 1950s farm house has had a number of serious structural defects that we have spent time and much money correcting. Only having to spiff up the interior is a good deal in the grand scheme of things.
Sounds a little like our (HUD) house when we first got it (no stove, no water heater, missing one toilet, part of the air con. missing, water softener hack-sawed out, a few holes in the drywall). Fun, fun, fun.
Btw, will the van even fit all the way in the garage? :)
We haven’t put the van as far back as we can yet. We still wanted to walk around behind it. But it was good that that much fit in; it was raining hard when we arrived last Saturday.
We aren’t really planning to use the garage for anything as mundane as vehicle storage, though.
So far, none of the people we’ve had look at it have indicated any fault with the structure. We’ll see…
Nice house– wishing you all the best in your new home.
Congratulations on your new home. Sounds like you have your work cut out for you.
We bought a house a little over a year ago under similar circumstances. It was in the middle of foreclosure, and we had to deal with both the owners (a couple going through a messy divorce) and their bank. It was sold in as-is condition, meaning we are having to do a bit of work to clean it up and make it what we want. Still, we got a good sized home on almost 2 acres of land, which is hard to come by in Lexington MA for the price we paid.
It sounds like you have a great yard for all your activities.
The house we bought had already been foreclosed upon, so the fact that the previous owners had already divorced did not affect us… other than that in the divorce, the husband got an incomplete legal description in his title, and the bank got a copy of the incomplete description. That meant the bank had to go back to the court to get a corrected title, and caused almost three months of delay.
But, yes, getting seven acres in commuting distance of downtown St. Petersburg and a house that wasn’t a total wreck for what we can afford was definitely hard to come by. Diane compiled the various real estate possibilities on her computer; I think she has over two hundred others that we’ve considered.
Happy times in the new abode, Wes.
Did you manage to have the bathroom checked? Are the toilet seats
still functional?
My friend bought a house with septic tank problem which took a while to resolve.
Anyway good luck with your new place.