Hi!
I do have more Mulberry House room reveals coming up for you, but I thought I’d take a quick break and share our goals for 2021 with you!
Insert paragraph where I lecture you about setting SMART goals and BHAGs and how New Year’s resolutions just set you up for failure. But I usually set them anyway because they motivate me. But don’t worry, I’m only here to tell you about my house related goals.
1. Sell my condo
Before moving into the Downtown Luxury Slum, I lived in a fancy condo in the tallest building in Raleigh. I still own the condo and I’ve rented it out for the past two and half years. Unfortunately the amount I can charge for rent is barely more than I need to cover my costs. So I’ve started preparing to list it for sale.
2. Buy another shit heap
Once I sell the condo, I can use the proceeds to buy a couple more shit heaps to fix up and then rent each out for about the same amount as I can charge for one condo.
I think it’s obvious that I enjoy fixing up old houses, but I have a few more reasons for doing it.
- If I rent out or resell a house, I can make millions of dollars and buy fancy things.
- I generally find old houses much more aesthetically pleasing than new houses, so if I can save the old houses from being torn down and replaced by modern monstrosities, my eyes are happier.
- I don’t like waste (we use cloth napkins and only own paper towels because Andrew makes me). Tearing down old houses made with mostly natural materials and replacing them with new houses made mostly of plastic* hurts my soul. Think of the turtles.
- I feel so lucky to get to live where I live, in my dream house. We bought this house from a lawyer who bought it, let it decay for a year, and then sold it to us at a $60,000 profit. But he likely bought it from someone who was renting out each side of the duplex for a couple hundred dollars a month. As it stands, the cheapest place I can find for rent within a mile of here is $750/month. So what I’m saying is that gentrification is a bitch that I have tremendously benefited from. But I’d like to be able to help fight it, at least a little. And the way I want to do this is by fixing up old houses and offering them to people that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford to live in cool, walkable areas.
* vinyl siding, vinyl replacement windows, PVC and PEX pipes, luxury vinyl plank flooring, fiberglass insulation are all forms of plastic
So the goal this year is to buy and fix up at least one more shit heap and have it rented out or ready to sell by the end of the year.
3. Get a shed and front walk built at the Downtown Luxury Slum
I just realized that my permit for this from the Raleigh Historic Development Commission expires at the end of the month and I’m still waiting on a zoning permit so it’s going to be tight.
4. Build me an office
It’s going to be super fancy and in a closet. Don’t be jealous.
There are a bunch of other things that I want to do with our house, mostly involving new furniture, but I’m just going to let those happen as inspiration strikes or as deals come up.
I’d love to hear if you have any house goals this year too 🙂
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