flaskey

On Saturday we took a trip to the Woodstock area of SE Portland to look at a home right by Reed College. I received an email (as I usually do on a daily basis) and had this home listed at approximately $103 per square foot which is a bargain for the area. After we arrived there and took a walk through we could see why.

The outside of the home looked to be in good condition, but the inside definitely needs work. I think a good portion of the windows would need to be replaced since they appear to be the original ones (the home was build in 1925) and a few of them had the counter weights missing. There were also random sinks in some of the rooms that you can see from the slide show that didn’t really make a lot of sense. We were thinking we could either turn them into 1/2 baths, or just rip the sinks out. In the kitchen we would also need to rip out those white cabinets which would turn that area into a nice little dining nook.

For the amount they’re asking for the home it was definitely not worth it. Since the home was just listed a few days ago I’m sure this will drop several thousands of dollars over time. I think we’re looking at about $50k – $75k to get the home to the shape we’d want. I’d also want to do some work on the small “mother-in-law” apartment which is part of the house, but has its own entrance way, bathroom and kitchen. We could probably rent that out as a 1 bedroom and get about $700 a month for it which would help pay for the home and repairs. Maybe if it dropped down to $350,000ish it might be worth it.

Today Pech and I did our first physical house browsing. Previously we had just looked at listings online, but with everything else going on we didn’t have much time to actually go to an open house.

We originally wanted to view a listing on NE Going St. that we both really liked. That all changed after we saw it in person. Aside from the great kitchen which was recently remodeled, it needed a lot of work. It definitely has potential, but for our first home I don’t think either of us wanted to start with a fixer upper.

Since we had time we decided to drive around the area and found two other houses that had open houses going on. The first was a really cute (but small) bungalow right by Wilshire Park. The total SQ FT is around 900 (very small), but the great use of the space made it seem much larger. Also, there is a detached garage which has a full bathroom installed along with a kitchen sink, small furnace and wood burning stove. If we wanted to we could turn it into either a studio to rent out, a guest home, or a nice entertainment room with a bar. It also has a really nice yard and was well kept.

The third home was right on NE 33rd Ave. This home was around 2,894 SQ FT and in very nice condition. The only down side to this place aside from the cost ($449,000 as opposed to $299,000 for the smaller home) is that it only has one bathroom. There is enough space in here though that we could add another full bath if we wanted to spend the money.

Below are the pictures we took of the last two homes. I’ll edit them later with a description, but you should be able to tell when the one home ends and the new one starts.

Click on the pictures to see a larger view.

NE 36th Ave.

NE 33rd Ave.

My 4th of July was spent over at Melanie & John’s house and their friend Jon came as well. After eating Melanie set off a bunch of fireworks and then we headed into the house for a few games of pool.

Belated Happy Birthday to Melanie.

I’m a little late in posting this image and message, but well that’s me. On 6/21/08 I was invited to Melanie’s 33rd birthday party which had the theme of “33 in 33”. As you can see in the image she was dressed for the year. There was a BBQ and much mocking of my vegetarian sausages, but it was to be expected. Great weather and a nice get together.

Happy B-day!