Today is a cold, rainy fall Sunday. I’ve spent most of it getting this site updated and getting some photos ready because I’m about to start a HUGE new reno project.
I just bought my latest house. Financially and legally, it’s my house, but I’m embarking on this project with my fiancé, Marcel, and I’ve recently also moved my Mom in to my home. We have been renting a house in North Woodstock (Ontario, Canada) since I sold my pub last year, and now have purchased a home in central Woodstock in a beautiful mature neighbourhood. The house was built in 1963 and has been owned and beautifully maintained by the same family for about 35 years. And it has an amazing pool!
This past year or so has been “unprecedented” for Woodstock real estate. The COVID-19 pandemic happened, and because of it people were able to relocate and work from home in a lot of cases. As a result, the housing market blew up. People in the big cities sold their homes in the cities and started moving to smaller cities like ours and paying well over asking price for the homes here. At one point, I put in a offer that was $50k over the asking price. I was outbid by $55k. I decided to just hold off – sit out and wait until things cooled down a bit. Well… then a friend suggested that I should talk to her friend – he wanted to sell privately. Well… that’s what I did. And after a very long 6 month + wait, I got the keys 2 days ago.
If you’ve gotten to know me at all, you know that I didn’t just sit around and wait for the closing date to happen… I have been working with someone to draw plans and get estimates to build a whole new level onto the house. You see, it’s currently a 963 square foot home with very, very tiny closets, and a small kitchen. It’ll never work for me and all my stuff. Plus, now that my Mom is living with us, we’ll need a bit more room. Take a look:
Front
So now that we have possession of the house, we’ll be able to start working on the major reno, and I plan to write about it and update you all on the progress as we go. Please come back often to check out how things are going! See you soon.