Whooooooo!!!! Not quite a gloat, but awesome anyhow!

[Prometheus]

Hello folks,

Well, I'm officially moved into my new house, and it is WONDERFUL!! After years of working on other people's places and getting my credit polished up until it shines like a new penny, I've finally got a house of my own. To keep it on a woodworking level- It's got not only an excellent basement shop with an oversized door leading directly into the garage, but an 8' x 12' (approximately- we're getting deluged with snow right now so I'm not going to go measure it) shed on a nice foundation with electrical outlets. As far as other stuff goes, it was built in 1946 with Oak framing and floor joists, and was owned by only one family- the lady selling it was 97 years old, and the place still looks like it was just built. All the woodwork is custom-milled natural maple, much of it with fiddleback grain and bird's-eyes- with the exception of the upstairs bedroom, which was trimmed in african mahogany. We're in a town with less than 5000 residents now, but it has two excellent hardware stores, a couple of great resturants, and a couple of lumber suppliers. The place was listed for $73k, and we didn't even bother negotiating the price- nothing else was even close to the condition of this house even in the $150k price range. I'm so happy I could just about bust open! Sorry to go on and on, but it's a big deal for me- I'm sure it's fun for anyone to get their first home, but for a carpenter and woodworker, it's close to a religious experience! Spent $300 at the hardware store today getting all sorts of material to tweak it just the way I'd like it, and even though It's costing me a fair amount of dough and I'm likely to be working continuously for weeks or months on it (it doesn't *need* any work, but it's getting it anyhow) it's great fun! No more downstairs neighbors blasting music until the wee hours of the morning, no more funny smells or cars parked in the backyard, not even a hint of rotted moulding or faulty electrical wiring.... I'm in heaven here- I don't think I've smiled this much in my entire life!

Anyhow, thanks for getting this far (if you did) It's probably not a gloat, but it's a great thing for me, and I figured I'd share. Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Can't buy a shack in most areas for that price. If it has a roof on it, you can't go wrong at that price.

Maybe not a gloat, but it sure is nice having your own house. Good luck with it and hope you have many happy years there.

[Patriarch]

Prometheus wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I'd sure rather read this post than about another air nailer accident!

Thanks for sharing your joy!

Patriarch

[Owen Lawrence]

You just bought a shop with built-in living quarters for $73k. Your life is now underway. It IS a gloat, and let me be the first to say You Suck! :)

[Robatoy]

[snipperized]

Congratulations! I always think it's wonderful to see somebody embrace a project/future with such enthusiasm, be it a house, the restoration of car/bike or breathing new life into a neglected musical instrument.

Like Edwin, I also couldn't buy much around here for under 100K, so something in the 70's...good on you!

We'll be expecting pictures soon.

0?0

Rob

[Silvan]

Second that. $73,000 with all that custom woodwork stuff? Unless the house is only 800 sq. ft. or something, he sucketh royally.

Well, unless it's crawling with termites or something.

[Abe]

---------- What city and state?

[Dave Jackson]

Congrats! --dave

[Mike Marlow]

.....

Congratulations! It's a great feeling to get your own home, and it's nice to see people who still feel an excitement over such things.

[Rolling Thunder]

Dittos

Thunder

[Fred]

CONGRATULATIONS! It really is special finally getting into your own home, and it sounds like you got a great one. From the sounds of the woodwork alone, I'm jealous.

ENJOY! Fred Bearman Port Huron, Michigan (and it's snowing here too)

[WD]

Just wondering which States is he in?

[Roger Shoaf]

Not quite a gloat? Sounds to me like you just scored the score of your life.

[dgadams]

An older home with interior character, as you describe, is a great find. New homes are usually overpriced and of less durable construction. You can't hardly touch an older home in our area if it has the least hint of hardwood on the interior. Congrats.

[makesawdust]

I think that this is an awesome gloat. Congratulations

-- makesawdust

[Glenna Rose]

Congratulations!!!

I totally understand your enthusiasm at this very significant purchase in your life. Here in our area, that would be a bargain beyond belief!

It sounds like your happiness with your new home nearly matches my own for where I am. Though all of my adult life, except for the first six months in an apartment, I've always lived in my own home (often with a mortgage as this one has), this is the first time I've lived where I chose to live. The day I looked at it (to help my son buy it, later his wife said no), I walked half way through the living/dining room and said, "If Darin and Tina don't want this house, I do!" It only got better as I went through the house, into the back yard and onto the covered patio off the garage. My childhood wasn't the best, and this was the first time in my life I ever really felt like I was home; the house wasn't/isn't just comfortable, it was/is my home, really my home. It is not something I can explain, especially since the neighborhood in which we raised our children was quite special (and just up the street and around the corner from where I now live). Later that week the realtor wrote my earnest money and turned it in with my son's withdrawal. It took nearly 19 months for me to get it (seller's side, not mine), but I held out and now it's mine. There were so many problems that, after the first two months, I posted photos on a web page and asked for prayer from our on-line support group (the house purchase started the fall after my son died); I firmly believe that the prayer helped, if only to keep me in the right state of mind. The final irony, and perhaps evidence of a master plan of which we are very unaware, of it all is that when it did finally close, it was at the absolute perfect time, for many reasons.

Many said to just get another one, but sometimes we just can't do that, so I understand totally why you didn't bargain, but grabbed it immediately! It sounds like you have something extra special and that your house deserves a loving family which it sounds like you folks shall be.

Congrats again. May your family and you have a long and happy lifetime there. :-)

Glenna

[Prometheus]

Nope, 3 bedrooms and clean as a whistle! :) It was a heck of a price even for rural Wisconsin. My brother bought one for a couple thousand more, and it's got a leaky roof and dry rot in the floor joists. Just a case of being in the right place at the right time, and being willing to move when it was -20 f.

Not even a spiderweb in the place :)

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[Prometheus]

Bloomer, WI Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[Prometheus]

True... could be a gloat after all. It's not my final house, but it's a damn nice starter untill I get to a point where I can build my own! Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[Dan]

On Sun 23 Jan 2005 01:50:32a, Prometheus wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Wow. Even that far north, I'da thought you were too close to Eau Claire and the Twin Cities to find anything under a hundred k. NICE find. I'm here struggling with an unattached garashop in Madison where the codes and inspectors make insulating and heating that building an expensive and complicated task. I'm almost ready to concede defeat and put a tiny neandershop in the basement for winters. Hey, if Frank Klauscz could go through his apprenticeship having all the heavy machinery in an unheated room, maybe I can too.

But even while it's good to know that somebody can find a decent house for a decent price, anywhere, in these times, you still suck. :-)

Did you bring a family into it, or are you planning on adding one on later?

Dan