The Mulberry House

One of the things I love most about being a Realtor are the homes I get the pleasure to either list or sell. I've sold little cracker boxes and modular homes as well as big huge 6 bed room homes with 6 bathrooms, I've had the pleasure to run the gambit. I mentioned in an earlier post that I love the Craftsman homes, Victorians and older homes in general. They seem to have an aura about them, something special to me anyways. Maybe it's the history, the families that went before. I can't pin point it, but the feelings are there. One of the homes I most enjoyed wasn't a listing of mine but of one of my co-workers. 


I had a couple who wanted an older home in Riverside. They really wanted a Victorian era home and had called me to go look at one. Before I left to meet them, I pulled up my buddies listing and took it with me. A good Realtor will always have a back up house to show you if the one you wanted to see wasn't what you really wanted. As I had thought, the home they picked wasn't "old" enough even though it was 100 years old, it had been modern for the time...not at all what they were looking for. I mentioned this other one, it was being restored at the time but I could get us in, and they said they wanted to see it. 


It was only a few blocks away and when they parked behind me in I could see their faces in my rear view mirror, this was the kind of house they wanted. The home was built in the late 1800's it was a true Victorian. In fact, it was a Painted Lady. If you don't know what that is, it's one of those old homes with like shingles on the sides that are painted all different colors, the outside of this home had about 15 different colors on it and it was amazing to see. Almost like we stepped back in time over 100 years.


The outside was fairly complete and was incredible, the front door however was a sheet of plywood screwed to the house. I had my screw gun with me of course, I'm ready for anything! We went in and within two feet of the front door they told me they wanted the house, and I'm telling you it WAS UNDER CONSTRUCTION! You could see who ever was doing the work was doing it right, well I could since I'm a woodworker and construction guy, and although very dirty I could see they were taking very painful steps to restore this home to it's former glory. Trust me, it deserved the attention, this Painted Lady I found out a few days later is in the painted Ladies Of America Book, it really was a true historical home.


Long story short, we made the offer and my clients got the house they always dreamed of, in total disrepair, but that didn't matter. In the contract it was to be finished and my clients would be able to pick certain things that they would like such as colors inside and that kinda thing. Because I was knowledgeable about the type of house, construction and all, they asked if I could drop in once or twice a week and make sure things were going as scheduled and as per contract for them. Remember now, I wasn't the listing agent, as it should have been them, but I said no problem and did as my clients asked. It really was a pleasure for me anyways. 


Once again, long story short, it was finally completed. Parts were bought in from other old houses of the same age to fix things like hinges, doorknobs, glass and such. It turned out beautiful and it is one of the showcase homes in Riverside, California for the Christmas tour they do every year. In fact they do a dinner where every home prepares some dish and as visitors stop in they eat and get to look through the homes. I loved doing this transaction, it was one of the most fun/frustrating deals I ever got through. It took almost 6 months to close, remember we don't get paid until Escrow closes so that was one thing, but making sure the work got done on time and properly was a small nitemare but worth every minute in the long run. Here's some photos, it's a beautiful old home, and is completely up to date pluming/electrical wise. This first set is all exterior.

Here's some interior shots, things like the era chandeliers they found and such.

Part of the contract was the landscaping, we asked for some certain roses and things, which we got as well. These folks scoured antique shops, e-bay and anywhere they could for the downstairs furniture, they wanted certain real era pieces and they found them. This home actually has the right decorating and everything when you get inside, it is truly like stepping back in time.

Fixing Up That Older Home

So you live in an older home. I do too, mine was built in 1959 and it's a kind of Ranch Style on the outside. A few years back we wanted to do a face-lift on it, you know paint, replace the old roof, update the siding, that kind of stuff. Even the inside needed a lot of work so we bought 2 tons of magazines to get some ideas for our fix up, inside and out. I'm glad we took our time. My wife and I have always tried to do things that will last, look good and are economical. Right now in the economic environment we're in, it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend large amounts of money fixing up the house as you may not get a good return on the money. What you can do however, is make the house way more sell-able, so it does get a higher sales price and does sell quicker when placed on the market.


On the outside, we found the difference between a 30 year roof and a 40 year roof was minimal, about 300 bucks or so, maybe a little less. The price difference is in the material, not the labor. To me it was worth it, I don't even have to start worrying about the roof until I'm 90 years old, and I may just not really care by then! Plus the 40 year roof has thicker shingles so there is a more dramatic effect on the shading so it just looks so much better. Also, remember that the roof color should go with what ever color your going to paint your house. If you get a green roof, you may not want to paint the house blue, you may want to use greens or browns, see what I mean?


We had decided we were going to paint the house body yellow and the trim white, with the shutters and doors a dark green so we went with a grayer colored roofing with tan overtones, a good choice. Then the siding had to be done as well. We had old redwood ship lap and some of it was pretty badly damaged so I had called around to find milling prices to see what it would cost to have some pieces made that would match. Wow, there was like a $250.00 set up charge to even set up the saw to cut the lumber, then there would be labor and the wood it's self. We decided to look into other alternatives for the same price. I found a new product at Lowes, well it was new to home owners, it had been used for years on commercial buildings and schools and places like that. The material looked like brick, and the selection was huge. We went with what looked like a used brick, remember our house is a Ranch Style so with our color choices we felt that the used brick would look the best. This product was made a lot like wonder-board, kinda a concrete with fiber mixed in, it was tough and durable and is supposed to last like 50 years keeping it's color for that time as well. The material came in 18"x36" planks, which was a good thing because they weren't light! It was easy to install, I did it myself and it came with all the installation instructions. We hired a roof crew cause I won't do roofs, and I hired a painter I used to work for and he gave me a good price, so I saved some money on the paint job, but saved nothing on the roof and that's OK, it was a wash. I got the better roof and the discount on the paint. The siding cost about the same as the lumber would have cost so that seemed like a good deal as well because it would completely change the look of the house.

We were so happy that we were careful and took our time to pick the colors and products we used, it turned out better than we had hoped. I then did a little more work in front of the garage and put in a garden, these things are fairly cheap to do if your willing to put in the sweat equity and do most of it yourself and it does raise the value and it does help to sell your home quicker when the time comes.

At this point the background shrubs have grown in as well, and the flower border is gone, but it still looks great!

Some of the biggest savings we've found were on the inside. Paint, very cheap and easy and really adds if you choose the right colors. One of the things we did was put in lots of moldings, upgraded nice moldings around windows doors and baseboards. I have been a fan of older homes all my life, especially the Craftsman styles and Victorians. What I learned from them was with the plaster walls, they would use moldings around a room to hang pictures from, they called them Picture Molding. I always liked it and wanted to put it in my home but it never seemed quiet right to do it. Our home like most older homes and has 8 foot ceilings. The newer homes have 9 or ten, so what could I do that would make it feel like they were higher? Well, that Picture Molding came back to my mind and here's what I did. I took molding and placed it 5 inches down from the ceiling all around the rooms, I've used a couple different moldings, but they were all door casings, about 3 1/2 inched wide. I would paint all my moldings white so these were too and then I painted the ceiling white as well, all the way down to the moldings. This gives the room a "taller" feel and also makes the entire room feel larger. It looks really nice and goes with the style of our home. Also, I do try to change colors in each room. Nothing to bold, but bold enough to create warm rooms that feel cozy and you actually like to be in them. Here's a few shots of a few of the completed rooms, we're almost finished doing the whole house now, but we do 1 room at a time so we're not living in a construction site forever, oh and before i forget, I scrape all that nasty popcorn off the ceilings and respray the texture in the rooms as I go, this creates a room that looks brand new with no patches from nails or anything, like its a new house. It's easy, and it's cheap to do and it sure makes it looks so much better.

You really can do this yourself for the most part, it takes time and effort, but that saves you a ton of money, which for the most part you may not recover, but by doing it yourself you will. Yes, we have hardwood floors and I have done the refinishing on them myself, that also saved more money than we have spent on fixing up these three rooms, honestly! We have about 300 bucks into each room we've fixed up in materials and the tool rental for the sander for the floors. These three rooms would have cost between $2000 and $3000 to just do the floors! With those kinds of savings you can buy a lot of the tools you may not have and still save a bunch, that's what I did.Now when I do work, I have the tools I need to do what looks like a professional job, in fact it looks better than a lot of work I've seen professionals do in my 30 years of construction. Don't let that deter YOU from doing the work yourself, everything is on YouTube now days, you can learn in 5 minutes what took me a year to learn in the field and you have the satisfaction of knowing you did it and you saved the money and most of all you raised the value of your home without the high cost of a contractor. So, whether your getting ready to sell, flipping  an investment home, or just wanting to fix it up it's well worth the time and effort to do it yourself, and believe in the magic of color and trim. The trim alone makes so much of a difference you can hardly believe it. I hope you found this interesting and informative, and maybe you'll get the courage to do it your self! Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read this, and I hope if your thinking of selling you think of me to be your Realtor!