On 2015-01-31 10:24 AM, jmcquown wrote:

> The house next to mine was on the market for nearly 5 years and it has
> all the bells & whistles, very nice kitchen upgrade, hardwood floors
> throughout. No so with mine. Everything works which is all I ask. But
> whoever bought this house would need to spend a large chunk of change to
> make it the way they want. That certainly would cut down on what I
> could ask for it.
>

Last night we had dinner at the new home of our old neighbours. They
had bought the house next to us about 7 years ago. He is a handyman and
quit work about a year after they moved in and spend his days working on
the house. By the time he was finished they only thing unchanged were
the brick walls. He started with the roof. Then he rebuild the angle
stone retaining wall along the driveway. He took it completely apart,
cleaned all the stones and cemented them in place.
They put in gardens and had a large pond dug.

The roof extended over the deck in one corner. He walled it in to make
an extra room. He removed the fireplace in the family room and replaced
it with a gas fireplace. The old oil furnace was replaced with high
efficiency natural gas. They tore out all the carpeting and put in wood
flooring, did complete renovations on the bathroom, and the kitchen. He
moved stair ways and put in an upstairs laundry room.

When they ran out of things to do they put the house up for sale. It
took them three years to sell it, and finally ended up buying the
buyer's house to facilitate the sale. Last night they gave us a tour of
their new place, showed us all the changes they had already made and
told us about the other plans they have. Meanwhile, construction will
be starting on their new place up north. They hope to have this small
house completed and sold by the time their new house is complete.