Home For Sale!

Four and a half years ago, we bought this wonderful house in Lindley Park. It had been owned by one family from the day it was built until we bought it. Esther Foster lived here until 2007, when she died at the grand age of 100 years, 3 days old. When we came to see it, it was clear that the house needed some work. It had never had the electrical service upgraded from old, 30-amp, screw-in fuses. The galvanized plumbing was almost completely plugged up. The aluminum siding on the gables was weathered and worn. The awnings over the windows and side porch were an eyesore. The list goes on and on...

The back yard is 200 feet long, from the house to the back fence

We bought it knowing that all these things needed to be done and so we started work on it right after closing. We tore off the awnings over the front door and windows. We had a company come and replace the aluminum siding with vinyl and build us a whole new cover over the front porch, complete with columns! We had a friend of ours who is a licensed electrician and plumber come in and replace 90% of the wiring and pipes, including upgrading the service from 30 amps to a more usable 200, upgrading the fuse boxes and replacing the water line from the street to the house to get our water pressure up to normal. Unfortunately, that blew out the hot water heater from 1979, so we had to put in a new one. We painted everything inside and had the first floor hardwoods refinished to a beautiful state. I wish we'd had the budget to do the upstairs, too.

That made the house liveable, but over the next 4 years, we:

• Replaced the gutters and downspouts
• Replaced almost all the windows (the old ones were wood and were completely frozen in place), including a garden window in the bathroom.
• Added 600 sqft of concrete to the driveway
• Replaced part of the fence so you can get to the back yard from inside the house without having to go through a gate.
• Added a 10'-wide gate to get into the back yard with a vehicle, if needed.
• Put in access doors so the attics can be used for storage. They were just plastered over before.
• Replaced all the exterior doors. The front and rear doors are oak with 9- and 15-lights repectively and the side door is a metal, 15-light door.
• Replaced the storm door on the front of the house
• Replaced the chimney cap
• Added a fireplace insert so the fireplace can be used for heating. (saved us $1500 the first winter we had it!)
• Replaced every light fixture, including adding 2 ceiling fans in the upstairs bedrooms.
• Replaced the metal awnings over the side porch and back door with beautiful matching canvas ones.
• Built a 3 1/2-cord woodshed and fully stocked it.
• Established a working garden with 3 beds and an irrigation system.
• Cut down 3 trees. One was damaged in a storm. The other two were removed to bring more sunlight to the yard.

In all, we estimate that we've spent more than $50,000 on making it into our dream home.

When we bought our house, it was with the intention of living here for the rest of our lives. It was Rebecca's dream house in her dream neighborhood. Unfortunately, our dreams have changed... Our new dream is a farm in the country where we can raise this ever-growing brood of ours with tons of space and work to keep them busy. Sadly, in order to do that, we have to sell our home. It's really a hard decision for us because we love this house, but we know it's what we need to do to take the next step.

So, if someone out there is interested, here are the details:

$210,000 (negotiable)
4 bedrooms, 2 baths.
Approximately 1600 sqft. with a 120 sqft basement
Built in 1946.
Oil furnace and tank replaced in 2008.
Roof replaced around 2002.
Lot is about 19,000 sqft or .44 acre.
Fully fenced backyard.
Everything listed above.

Feel free to email if you're interested and we can set up a time for you to come take a look.