I have always wanted to renovate a house and in 2017 I went looking in the Atlanta area in-town to find something that I can buy and fix up. I did research for weeks on what neighborhood I wanted to be in and settled on East Atlanta near the Village. The Village is an area that you can park and walk around to go to shops, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc.

My criteria for me was to be in Atlanta, but in Dekalb county, which has lower taxes, be in a good school district for resale value, be no more than one mile from the village and to be close to downtown.

This is the house I found and it even had the bonus of being eligible for the 203k loan which lets you wrap the house and the renovation together into one loan. It’s an FHA loan which has a host of requirements, but we’ll get into that during the actual renovation.

I had to bid on the house and I actually lost the bid, but two weeks later that deal fell through and I got the house!

These houses were built in the 1950’s and mine in particular had only one update from then to now. There was damage to the siding and the paint was chipping everywhere.

The weirdest thing to me was the side deck that had French doors leading into the house. I don’t know anybody that wants a deck on the side of the house as opposed to one at the back of the house. So that had to be addressed.

The other side of the house didn’t look too bad although the air conditioning unit was really old.

The back of the house was okay. There was a small concrete patio, but the yard was huge and a little overwhelming. I did not expect that at all and was a little worried about what I would do with all that space as well as the upkeep. The driveway went into the back yard about three quarters of the way and I wondered about the purpose of that. The yard was fenced in, which was a plus.

I had so many plans for this property and I had to start getting my thoughts on paper and develop a budget. Please join me on this journey as I start to wrap my mind around this.

In the next Renovating Post, I will show you the inside of the house. Be prepared, you’ll probably think why the heck did she buy this, but be patient as I take you through all of my thought processes.