As any good legend goes, there has to be some back story. This is mine, at least as far back to the point when I decided to get a fixer upper.

I used to live in a 4 bed, 3 bath split level ranch out in the suburbs of Fairfax, VA, which I bought at the height of the real estate market.  It sat on about 0.2 acres of land, on the corner of a nice cul de sac.  It was in a great school district, and that house in and of itself, was a bit of a fixer upper too.  I worked on updating the bathrooms, installing laminate flooring, painting, replacing light fixtures, finishing the garage, and all that other homeowner stuff.  It would make perfect sense to live there if I was married and with a few kids in tow.  But, that was not my situation.

I had a roommate of almost eight years, which in some states would make him a domestic partner.  (He’s not my type.  Too hairy.)  I also had two women who were roommates as well.  One lived with me for three or four years.  The other woman, only a year.  It was generally a good set up, but like all roommate situations, there were the occasional bouts of tension and whatnot.  Then one day in the spring, my roommate of almost 8 years told me that he was going to move in with his girlfriend.  I was “Yoko Ono’d.”

So with notice in hand, I started to dig around my network of friends to see if I can get another roommate.  But a funny thing happened.  I had midlife crisis #23 (or something like that;  I lose count).  My commute to work takes about 45 minutes to an hour each way.  I’m in the suburbs so I have to drive everywhere to get anywhere.  My socializing occurs more in Washington DC than in Fairfax.  So I asked myself, “Well, how did I get here?” And more importantly, “Where to next?”

After some quick soul searching (since I don’t have much of a soul), I decided to rent my house out and buy a new place closer to Washington DC.  I spent several months renovating the ranch (that will be discussed in a later post) so that it would be ready for rental.  In the meanwhile, I started my house hunt.  After some consideration, I decided on the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria VA.

So while I was renovating my house, I was looking for my next purchase.  Boy was I excited!  Living in Del Ray would cut my commute in half.  It is much closer to the city.  I can walk to a movie theater, a great cheese and wine place, and of course, frozen custard.  How can you not love a neighborhood that has a haberdashery or a consignment store called Amalgamated Classic Clothing and Dry Goods?  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not a hipster.  But I can appreciate the character and charm of places like this in my hood.

But after looking at a number of houses in my price range, my dreams met with reality.  I was looking to downsize my lifestyle a bit  (no more yard work for me, thank you very much) so I did expect to buy a smaller place.  But it was tough finding the right place.  The homes in Del Ray are on the older side.  The renovated ones are snatched up pretty quickly and usually higher than the list price.  The older ones are in really horrible shape.  So after losing out on 4 bids, I decided to bid on a fixer upper that popped up on my radar.

Now the place that I had bid on is in horrid shape.   It is 74 years old, so there’s a bit of wear and tear in this place. There is a broken window or two.  Creaky floors. Some holes in the drywall.  Which means it is a perfect vehicle for all of my HGTV dreams.  So I put in an offer.  I had to compete against three flippers, each offering to pay in cash for this home.  After some last minute changes to the offer (and an agent who pleaded on my behalf), my offer was accepted.  As of this writing, I am still in the process of closing on the home.  But it is the best point at which to start documenting what will be a crazy story of how a mid life crisis has turned into a major renovation project.

Oh, and this picture was found in the basement.  I think I’ll keep it around.