Our house was built in 1890. Bought it in 1989. It had been abandoned and empty for two years when we bought it. Put all new roofs (about 32 squares), new heating system, much new plumbing. New drywall ceilings in about a quarter of the house since the roof had been leaking so badly the ceilings were on the floor. Took up carpet and refinished hardwood floor underneath or put in new hardwood floors.

It had hot water radiator heat. When it was left empty, temperature went to 30 below zero. Boiler busted and almost every radiator in the house cracked. Pipes were steel and joints were cast iron. Most joints were broken. We put in new joints. We learned how to take apart radiators section by section and reassembled new radiators from the unbroken sections. Someone had stolen most of the light fixtures and almost all the switches since they were the antique push botton type. Someone had stolen the mantel from the living room and the stained glass out of the front window. Solid oak trim everywhere. No one had stolen that, but even better, no one had ever painted it downstairs.

We did all the work ourselves. Bought used boiler and used radiators to replace the ones we couldn't fix. Took out one of the 1950's bathroom and replaced with claw foot tub and period fixtures from the used lumber yard. Total cost out of pocket less than 12k in materials. A thousand or so in tools and lots of sweat. Very fulfilling work.

I watch This Old House. Those people are in a different league altogether than the average person in my opinion. We paid for materials as we could afford it and never had a mortgage on the place at all since no one would loan on it to start with because it was in such bad shape. Someone offered a construction loan but the closing costs in six months (which was the total amount of time they would allow to renovate it) were ten per cent of the loan. Needless to say, I turned it down. The house is now worth about 15 times what we paid for it.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13