Yesterday, after a process of several months, I finally closed on my grandmother’s house. My grandmother passed away a little over two years ago, and while I do not want to go into all the family details, it has been a heck of a process to finally get the house. As of yesterday at 10AM, I am now the owner of two mortgages.
The plan is to start renovations next week; we have a 120-day contract with our construction/remodeling company. Hopefully we can move into sometime in late October or early November. Of course that means we have to time the sale of our current house, which is going to be a not so fun proposition.
The good news is that the house stays in the family – it was built (I think) by my great grandfather in 1902. The house is larger than my current house, and will have great opportunities for entertainment, which my current house certainly does not provide. We are also going to get a deck, a fenced in back yard for the kids (and a much wanted dog), and a garage apartment among other things. The house is a Columbus, GA historic park district casually called Lakebottom. The historic part is another story, but the park is only .3 miles from the house, which is going to be wonderful for the kids. I played there when I was a kid, and now my kids get to experience the same thrills and spills of the neighborhood park.
The bad news, besides needing a lot (and I do mean a lot) of money to fix up the house, is that the garage apartment is in shambles – wood rot, old termite damage, the whole nine yards. I want to keep the garage apartment because it increases the value of the house, and I lived in the upstairs apartment when I was in college. The builders practically have to rebuild the whole damn thing; about 25 percent of it is gone right now, which is also another story for another day. This little project is completely out of pocket, which means pretty soon I will no longer have money in said pocket. Major ouch, and it will certainly cut down on any sort of gaming budget that I think I may have for the next few months.
The good news is that I now own my grandmother’s house. Tonya and I decided that since we are spending so much money to restore the garage apartment that we should somehow get some use out of the damn thing. We are going to convert the bottom area into a game room. Hello pool table and refrigerator full of beer (the beer part was actually Tonya’s idea, bless her).
I just figured I would write/share a little, since I cannot sleep (5AM Saturday morning) – worrying about that second mortgage I guess. Plus this explains why I have not had any free time for gaming – I have been spending most of my free time over at my grandmother’s house sorting out 100+ years of stuff.
Congratulations.
Since mortgage interest rates are near 40-year lows, maybe you can refinance.
A lot of people are buying second and third homes or flipping homes because of the way housing prices are appreciating. It’s kind of scary if you hear some people talk about a bubble.
Columbus, GA is near which school? Athens is UG?
I think the movie Breaking Away was filmed near Athens? It had the old abandoned quarry which was turned into a lake.
The refinance thing is not really that big a deal in this case – I have a house that I am going to sale (living in it now) and I just purchased a house that I will move into after it is renovated.
Columbus, GA is about 45 mins from Auburn, about 90 mins from GA Tech, and about 3.5 hours from Athens. And for what it is worth, I am about 3 hours and 45 mins from the beach.
Having just had a similar experience, I feel your pain/excitement :-). We were able to sell our house in Gainesville before we closed on our house in College Station, but I do know what you’re going through.
Congrats JC. When I started fixing up our place about 4 months ago I missed gaming at first. Then as things progressed I found that I didn’t have much interest in gaming anymore. I get some fun with OOTP or a flight sim at night, but my consoles are collecting dust. The reality is that I look at the video games and they don’t look fun or draw me right now. I’d rather cut moulding or prep another room for paint. I wouldn’t be surprised if you start feeling the same way. Good luck!
Ted