House hunting is terrible

[harvester77]

@daps32 9 kids as a single parent?

 

[daps32]

@harvester77 Yup. My husband literally just left me after I gave birth on Christmas Day. It’s a long story if you read my other posts you’ll see. I am lucky that I have my family and my best friend never had her own kids so she’s actually planning to come stay with us next week after her finals are done. But my kids are also pretty good and self sufficient besides like feeding them and doing their laundry

 

[harvester77]

@daps32 Wow, just read through your posts. You must be a very strong woman.

 

[daps32]

@harvester77 It’s been difficult that’s for sure, but we’re trying our best. Now we are trying to move because I don’t want my now ex husband showing up and bothering us. Like I said though my kids have just been wonderful this last week. I think they’ve kind of realized the situation and are trying their best to be at their bests for my sake

 

[annemoon]

@daps32 You can look into old colonials but they almost always require renovation. There are some by me in a downtown old main street area that are newer than my current house (civil war era brick farmhouse) that run $150k-$165k but again, renovation is a given on these types of house. All are 5 bed depending on what they did with the interior.

How old are your older kids? A lot of renovating can be done with mid teen and older kids and the littles always love to "help."

 

[daps32]

@annemoon Most of the old houses here are very small and expensive because they consider them valuable because of their age. It’s stupid. I’m looking more in the newer areas anyways because the schools are better out there compared to the inner city areas.

My eldest twins are 10, turning 11 in September, so they wouldn’t be that much help. I’d likely be paying for workers, probably people I went to high school with that need work outside of drug dealing or whatever they do

 

[annemoon]

@daps32 That is weird but I've seen it plenty in my time. I had to gtfo of those areas. Old = work 99.9% of the time. Charm is realtor speak for bad floors, whistling windows and sooty furnace. I hear you about the ex felon trade, we had our roof redone last summer.

We decided to live rural in a lcol area, although my husband's commute is at least 1 hr no matter what. Thank goodness for company car!

Good luck!

 

[daps32]

@annemoon I eventually want to live on an acreage, once the kids are older so we have more room

 

[oceansedge]

@daps32 5 bedroom with a large walk in closet for your 2 year old?

 

[daps32]

@oceansedge That would be an option but then I’d be jealous he has a walk in closet and not me haha

 

[katrina2017]

@daps32 I think the idea is that you put his bed in the walk in closet so it’s a baby sized bedroom.

 

[daps32]

@katrina2017 I know I’m saying though I’d be mad I’d want the closet for myself. Also I’m not sure if his bed would fit, it’s a custom build bed my dad made years ago that looks like a hockey rink

 

[kerimf]

@daps32 Finding a cheap house with space for that many is difficult. Look for houses with 3-4 rooms and an unfinished basement or extra mud room/breezeway and build extra rooms there

 

[daps32]

@kerimf That’s what we currently have but I think some of my kiddos wants more space. I mean if worse comes to worse I could always put my 2 year old son with his little sisters since they are all young still

 

[gmbeischer]

@daps32 Last time we went the renovation route. We bought a house where the basement was only half finished and added three more bedrooms.

 

[daps32]

@gmbeischer That could work. What did it end up costing you?

 

[gmbeischer]

@daps32 I can’t remember. We did all the labour ourselves but hired a drywall guy to mud for us. Unfortunately the cost of renovation materials has skyrocketed during covid so that would have to be considered.

 

[daps32]

@gmbeischer Oh see we couldn’t do that. My husband and I just split so it’s just me