Projects on the go....
We're currently renovating two houses that we've purchased by leveraging investor's and our own money. One is a large, single-family dwelling that has quite an ugly false-tudor finish on the outside; the other is a triplex that hasn't had any maintenance done to it in decades. Both houses are stucturally sound, but will appreciate very nicely in value once they've had cosmetic upgrades.
The single-family residence is a fairly large house -- four bedrooms and two baths, plus a full basement. We've already added a laundry room into the basement, plus done a lot of minor improvements on the interior. The next step is to transform its outward appearance.
The "Before" Picture
We've considered using either siding or stucco. Siding is about half the cost of stucco, but frankly I hate siding, and most of the other houses in the area are covered in it. Stucco gives the option of creating some nice colour and texture effects, and I think it will be perfect for this house with its many sides and funky angles.
I'm going to do some experimenting with the false tudor paneling -- I'm hoping that stucco will stick directly to them, with the help of wire mesh reinforcing. Then I can just strip off the 1x4 planks that cover the joins in the paneling, and lay on the stucco.
Our other current project, the triplex, is in a great part of Guelph near downtown, and we got it very cheaply because it's so run down. The previous owners did the absolute minimum of maintenance, and it needs a lot of minor repairs throughout. I'm finding that we need to undo a lot of crummy repair jobs before we can do it properly, but because the building was originally very well-built, it turns out nicely in the end.
Triplex Project -- "Before"
We've already got the top-floor apartment finished, for a total cost of about $2000. We used natural clay-based paints on the walls, and a natural linseed oil finish on the hardwood floors and other woodwork. There was a vinyl tile floor in the kitchen, which isn't particularly attractive, but we elected to keep it because it's still in good enough shape that we can't justify putting it into landfill. The bathroom got a new 6-litre low-flow toilet, a ceramic tile tub surround, and a great medicine cabinet that I found at our local ReStore.
Both of these properties will give an excellent return on investment. We have an investing partner in the single-family dwelling, to whom we expect to give an 18% return on his money within six months.
If you are interested in investing in real estate like this, with an environmentally-conscious team who takes care of all of the hard work for you, have a look at our website at www.real-ontario.com.
And stay tuned for the "After" pictures!
posted by arvana | 9:23 AM
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