On the Move: Welcome to Our Home

I am the proud owner of a 1950s mid century modern house in Illinois. When I bought the place in February of 2013, I was only its 3rd owner in its 55 year old history. It had been stripped of its original style and sadly had not been maintained, but I was not to be deterred - I had big dreams of what it could become!

THE STATS:

Age: 1958
House size: around 1,500 sq ft
Style: split level
Lot size: .26 acres
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: When I bought it, it only had 1 full, and 2 half. Now it has 2 full, and 1 half!

THE PROS:

Open floor plan
Blank slate with tons of potential
Amazing neighborhood, literally across the street from my friends, walking distance to train that goes to downtown Chicago

THE CONS:

Less square footage than I had hoped
Kitchen was a complete gut job
All bathrooms had to be blown up. During the inspection it was found that the water pressure (lack there of) required replacing ALL water pipes throughout the house!
There’s a carport, no garage.

To answer a very popular question…the house was an estate sale in a highly sought school district and was originally listed at $310,000 but over the period of nearly a year, the sale price was reduced down to $250,000. It was the black sheep of the neighborhood with most homes in the area going for $300,000 and up. After negotiating several times I finally offered a firm $228,000 and they reluctantly accepted my offer.

Update Oct 2013: My realtor came back to check on the updates to the house thus far and presented sale comparable's. I will definitely make a nice profit, if and when I decide to sell. Also, I asked my realtor I wonder why had no one presented an offer before me? She said a realtor friend of hers was actually considering it but was "scared" by the work that needed to be done; she was afraid it might be Pandora's Box. Thankfully for me, there were no Pandora's Box moments, all the known issues I knew of going into it due to the inspection. Any overages were due to me either changing my mind or wanting to upgrade :)

We have already done a lot of work and will be posting pictures soon. For the full 'Before' tour, just scroll down. I'm adding 'After' pictures as the rooms get done, so please check back often.

Before