It was late Summer in 2014 and I was just about to turn 30 years old. I had been living with my parents for the past two years after moving home from a 3 year stint living in North Carolina. I moved to Asheville, NC on a whim and with a quest of “finding my true self”. I enjoyed the bohemian lifestyle but couldn’t find a solid job so I sucked it up and moved back home with Mum and Dad. I can’t say this was a terrible decision—living with my parents was basically like living in the lap of luxury. I had my laundry washed and dinner cooked for me almost every night. I often wondered why I ever moved out in the first place! BUT, all good things must come to an end, and as I was approaching thirty, I decided I should probably move out and get my own place. At the time, purchasing a home was the furthest thing from my mind, but I had a decent credit score so my Mum suggested I look into it. I connected with a realtor and before I knew it, I was shopping homes. I only looked at about 3 other places before I came across my diamond in the rough. The house was located in Fishtown, a super up-and-coming neighborhood in Philadelphia, and I was READY!

The first time I saw the MLS listing, the house still had the brick exterior and the blue front door. I was kind of bummed when I went to see it in person and the scaffolding and stucco was already up. My home inspector actually advised me against buying the house because they had stuccoed up over the window sills and if a window ever needed to be replaced, it would most likely damage the stucco by pulling it out. But do I listen to reason? NEVER!

““Do you ever just get that gut feeling to do something? Well, I did and I listened!””

I put in my offer and within 4 weeks of going under contract, I closed on the home. What a whirlwind!

Built in 1830, 980 square feet, 1.5 baths, 2 bedrooms and a den, unfinished basement, washer and dryer, small concrete yard.

The house was owned by two couples who lived in different states. They used it as a rental property for 10 years and rented it out to college students who obviously could have cared less about the place. Negotiating with two different couples was very stressful. It always took 2-3 days to hear back from them, so I don’t think I slept until we were under contract. Finally, all parties agreed and they sold the house to me “as is”.

Buying "as is" means you typically inherit some TRASH. The pictures below describe that pretty well, random pieces of basement debris and a terrible painting that made me laugh out loud.

During one of our walkthroughs, my realtor gave me some cool advice. The carpet was beyond gnarly and he suggested I pull back a corner to see if the original floor beams were hiding below.

So I did and there they were! Almost two hundred year old pine floorboards, just waiting to return to their glory days!

My Mum tried to talk me out of ripping up the carpet so many times (she felt it was too much work, which she was right about), but I was determined! On Christmas day of 2014, my friend (friends with trucks are the best) and I ripped it all out.

And this marked the start of my first home renovation!

Let me just say, removing the carpet from the staircases was the absolute worst. I would spend entire days pulling staples out. No matter how many times I combed over them, I would find more and more. It appeased my OCD and simultaneously drove me crazy.

“Tip: putting deadlines on reno work is really helpful.”

My parents have always been very savvy with home renovation projects, so I somehow convinced them to help me on the weekends. What we thought was going to be a 1-2 month clean up job, turned into a 6 month cosmetic facelift that nearly killed us. We worked 10-4 pm every Saturday and Sunday for 6 months straight. Once we started, it became kind of like an addiction, clearing the trash and rolling out the fresh paint. The more we did, the more we had to do - or least that’s how I felt! I think my parents just went along with it because they felt sorry for me. I decided June 2015 was to be our completion deadline because I figured I could probably afford the mortgage on my own until then without becoming completely wiped out (tip: putting deadlines on reno work is really helpful). Another factor for purchasing this particular house was because it had an awesome third floor with a den attached to the main room. A perfect space for a roomie! I knew going into it that I was going to need a roommate to help cover the mortgage because I was making shit for money back then. The only reason I was able to afford the home in the first place was because it was a) cheap and b) I had good credit and qualified for a conventional loan where I didn’t have to put down a 20% deposit (and no mortgage insurance).

“The Devil’s in the details.”

My dad said this over and over again during our many painting sessions and it has stuck with me ever since. It is now my renovating mantra that keeps me going when I just want to be lazy and cut corners.

My dad was also the one who taught me how to strip floors. My house was a “trinity row home” meaning it was three stories with tiny spiral staircases built in the 1830’s—locally referred to as a Betsy Ross staircase. Hauling the floor sander up and down those stairs was straight up SCARY. But we did it and I learned how freakin tedious and dusty the process is. Black boogers and all!

About a month into home ownership, I woke up to a pretty bad roof leak. I was home alone, sleeping on an air mattress, and the echo from the water dripping on the floor above woke me up. I WAS FREAKED OUT. This kind of disaster wasn’t supposed to happen so soon! I had a flat roof and my neighbor’s pitched roof was causing melting snow to leak through the front of my house. Fortunately, my Philly row home was tiny and a new silvercoat was fairly inexpensive. Two roofers later (first one ripped me off), the leak was fixed!

Over the next few months, we continued trucking along. We repainted every corner, every ceiling, all the trim and baseboards in the house. I even hired a friend and his girlfriend towards the end because we were struggling to see the light at the end of the dark paint tunnel. It was also fun to have them stay for the weekend and drink beers at lunch time!

FINALLY we were done with the paint and it was time to seal the floors. I finished the floors alone over the course of a few weekdays. I was still primarily living with my parents in the burbs and crashing at my house on the weekends. I would drive to Philly after work, put down a coat of polyurethane, get high from the fumes, and then slip out the backdoor.

The house really became my masterpiece. With my parents help, we would work hard during the day, and I would lay in bed at night obsessively surfing design websites while looking at my progress pics for inspo. I cultivated a vision and my parents helped me see it through, none of this could have happened without them! I have a BFA with a concentration in sculpture and helped run an art gallery in college... so I kind of knew how to paint walls and use power tools...

“But this was on a whole other level.”

I owned the home for 5 years and in that time had two wonderful roommates. The house saw a lot of laughter and tears, BBQs, dance parties, a sewer leak and everything in between. It really became my home, an extension of me, and sometimes I would walk around and think, holy shit, I made this happen. And I really worked for it—it definitely did not come easy and nothing was free or handed to me.

Over the years I saved hard and was able to replace the washer and dryer, add a glass sliding door to the back end of the house, replace the fence and jazzed up the backyard. I had the kitchen replaced before I sold it which really helped make it POP.

In early 2019, my boyfriend at the time (now husband), helped me touch up the paint and get the place together to sell. It brought back a lot of memories from the first handful of months and it made me smile—the process came full circle!

Today marks the one year anniversary of my house sale. I passed the torch to another young lady who felt the same “knowing” vibe when she first saw the place.

My brother has since become a realtor, and when we listed the house it sold within 24 hours. Kinda felt like the biggest compliment of my life!