Welcome to the house hunt with me! I can’t believe I haven’t landed on SOMETHING, just ANYTHING yet! I know it takes patients and time to really find the next great investment, but I’m itching to design something NOW! This is the craziest time, with nothing on the market, and what is, the prices are so inflated. Oh and don’t forget COVID-19. Oh, “COVID-19, how you have made house buying so difficult!”. What do you do though? Oh ya I decided since I can’t find a house to remodel, why not remodel mine? I will get to that over the next few blog post.
First, I have to show you what I have come across while on the hunt over the past year…
My good friend and fellow realtor, Paula (Just call Paula) would usually accompany me. It’s great to have the safety of another person with you and someone that loves to remodel as much as you. You will see her in a few photos, she’s the cute blond!
Just a little background on me… My passion and bachelors degree is in fine art photography, and I have always been interested in “quiet and unique” spaces to photograph. I’ve notice there is a theme with my composition in most of these images with lighting and objects that call out to me. So, come take a journey with me through a few houses that really could be quite beautiful with a little TLC. A few of them I REALLY wanted to get my hands on, but I forgot to read the fine print on the listing that listed them as HUD homes. Which means investors can’t buy them.
What have I learned on my journey? I’ve learned that my husband and father are really good resources to bring in for a second opinion and burst my bubble ha ha. No, they actually just get me off my “High Skye Horse” and bring me back to earth.
This house below was funny! In the basement they had the most random tiny door that lead to nowhere. Paula and I would make up the most random story lines! Just watch your head please!
We call this the “Wallpaper House” it was the cutest little peanut of a house in uptown that I wanted to get my hands on SO BAD! This happened to be one of the HUD houses that I was talking about. It was a 2 bd/1ba. At some point one of the owners tried to modernize the bathroom by making the clawfoot tub look like a drop in tub. We opened the closet behind the bathroom and discovered the foot of the clawfoot tub! I hope some nice family bought it and kept all the beautiful woodwork and wallpaper. I love the chandeliers in the drop ceiling?
I love a good light fixture and boy was this one of them. It was definitely vintage, but I don’t think it was from the 1900’s when this house was built. This house had 4bd/1ba and was a really great size for the neighborhood in South Minneapolis. This would have been a fun one to buy and remodel to live in, but WAY TOO much work to remodel and make a profit.
My thought is when this house was built in the early 1900’s, these people were fancy and had a little bit of money! This is the same house as the above one and look they have a sink in each of the bedrooms upstairs with wall sconces. What a luxury, once plumbing was added, to have a sink in your bedroom!
Oh the “Turkey Feather” house! I’m sure normally these were hanging on the wall, but it was quite a surprise to happen upon these in the living room of this story and a half in Richfield, MN. They also had a quite a collection of antlers that were still hanging on the wall in the dining room (see the next photo).
I actually really love the aesthetics of the color pallet. I am not into antlers per-say. BUT, again my photographer’s eye loved this combo. This was not the house for me, but let’s just say it was very interesting!
Okay, just so you understand, Paula is only 5’2″ and her head is almost touching the installation of this spaces they called finishable! They did do a really good job of insulating though. I love Paula’s face in this one. I sent her down, because I wouldn’t fit standing straight up. The rest of the house was very interesting. The lot was huge and brought you down to a sweet little creek.
I’m a sucker for retro tile and the color pink! First thing I look for is what I can salvage and save in each home and this would definitely be a keeper. It was in fairly good condition. How fun to have an original piece of history in your home. I mean who bought a pink tub and where do you find such a thing, it’s AMAZING! What you don’t see is the rotten wall under the window from years of leaking and no repair. It’s so sad to see these houses left to rot.
Another fun bathroom in Richfield, that wasn’t too bad! I remember it being soooo cold in this house, hence the down jacket. This bathroom in the day was thoughtfully designed with the sconces and tiled back splash. I felt relief after seeing so many distressed ones!
This is the same house in Richfield, MN and look at how great the refrigerator nook is! I love when houses have custom features from when they were built. The only bummer is that most refrigerators now days are twice the size! Oh, and again, I am a sucker for color… look at the green countertops! They used the same green countertop material to continue up the wall for a seamless backsplash look. Ooh-la-la!
This original mosaic green tile in this Minneapolis kitchen was gorgeous, I just could get over the grease and smoke smell. The original details is so beautiful with the original tile and stained glass windows.
Here is the livingroom of the above photo and see how the cigarette smoke discolored the wall so much that you can actually imagine what family photos were hanging once. It would be fascinating to find out the history of the families that filled these spaces.
Again, here’s one more detail of this home going up the stairs to the second level. The stained glass windows were in such great shape! I went back to this house several times, because I was so taken by it’s charm. We ended up passing on making an offer because it fell in an area of Minneapolis that was to high in rentals. For resale it wouldn’t have been great.
I’ve been trying to rack my brain on why this lamp was ever made into a sconce? Would it even work in a house with 20 foot ceilings? I don’t think any of it makes sense, it really should have just been a floor lamp ha ha!
This light fixture was about the only thing I would have saved in this house unfortunately. It was retro and super cool; very 50’s!
This house baffled me, but I just had to go see it in person! I went to Switzerland about a year ago and when I pulled up to this house I felt transported back to the Swiss Alps. Wow, this architect and homeowner had a vision in mind and they went for it! It was spectacular! Unfortunately, it has been empty for quite some time, so to recapture it’s spirit would take oodles of money!
I mean the staircase and the railings, how unique huh?!
I saved the best for last because it makes me smile! That’s why I am sure they invested in painting a beach scene in their laundry room, right!
It was hard to narrow it down for you! Of course I’ve seen about 5 times the amount of house that I am showing you here. These happened to be the highlights of my journey so far. If anyone knows someone that may be thinking of selling in the near future or needs to get out of financial housing situation, pass on my name! Thanks for taking the time to follow along on my journey! Stay tuned for all of my house renos…
