Condo news...
Apr. 30th, 2005 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseLoan is still up in the air, but we should know by Monday whether we're going to be able to purchase a condo or have to just rent an apartment. However, assuming everything goes through as planned (keeping fingers crossed), we've found one that we like in our price range. It's a bit bigger than most $100K condos here in Juneau, but that's because it needs, shall we say, a pretty decent amount of remodeling on the inside. At the moment, however, it's got a fair amount of potential.
The entire building was built in the seventies, and shows it - the outside looks like the siding equivalent of shag carpeting, and it's light brown with dark green trim. It hasn't been kept up too well, though there doesn't seem to be anything structurally wrong with it - mostly it's just peeling paint and the like. We talked to the president of the condo association and he said there are plans to redo the entire exterior (siding, roof, trim), repave the upper parking lot, rebuild the retaining wall that's holding the upper parking lot up, and generally make the entire thing look a lot nicer within the next few years. That should improve the property value enormously.
Interior-wise is where we get to have fun. At the moment the individual condos are appraised at $122K. This one's selling for $100K because the interior is only partially remodeled. It still has the original diseased-looking coffee-stain carpet in the living room and hallways, and the kitchen is incredibly 70's looking - avocado green fridge, goldenrod countertops, gothic dark brown cabinets, the works. Nice enough when new, but rather dark for Alaska (being as it's dark half the year here anyway, the last thing we want are dark colors absorbing what light there is). The bedroom floors have been redone in a nice laminate wood flooring (the sort that's easy to put down, easy to clean, relatively inexpensive and lasts forever), and all the walls are painted. The ceilings are in rather dire need of new paint, however, and the rest of the wooden fixtures (bookshelves, staircase railing, etc.) need to be painted a lighter color as well. Once we've painted the ceilings and taken out the carpet (we're figuring on putting the laminate flooring in throughout the place - it reflects light well and we can always put throw rugs on top of it) we can move the furniture in. I'm sure we can get a new fridge at Costco for a few hundred (we don't need an ice machine or anything), and we can repaint/redoor the cabinets. Plus we're thinking of doing tile countertops - it's fairly easy to just put a slab of concrete over the current counters and then lay tile on top of it, and then put coordinating trim along the sides.
Once all the cosmetic stuff is done, I think it'll actually be a really nice home. The master bedroom and living room have a lovely view of the Gastineau Channel, although the lower view is obscured by the trees during the summer (not that I mind; I rather like looking at leafy green trees). For a fairly small place (I think it's about 900 square feet) it gets a remarkable amount of light, and there's a nice little deck where we can put some plants and maybe a small grill. We're figuring on putting the sofa/loveseat sections of his mother's wraparound couch upstairs in the second bedroom along with the TV; we can watch movies up there, and then we'll have room to put a table downstairs next to the kitchen, and the chaise lounge section over by the French doors so we can read a book or something in the light.
Then, in five years or so when we leave Juneau, we'll have a pretty little condo to sell - the way the market is currently going, it should be worth $150K at the very least.
Of course, this is all assuming the loan goes through. So everybody please keep your fingers crossed...
The entire building was built in the seventies, and shows it - the outside looks like the siding equivalent of shag carpeting, and it's light brown with dark green trim. It hasn't been kept up too well, though there doesn't seem to be anything structurally wrong with it - mostly it's just peeling paint and the like. We talked to the president of the condo association and he said there are plans to redo the entire exterior (siding, roof, trim), repave the upper parking lot, rebuild the retaining wall that's holding the upper parking lot up, and generally make the entire thing look a lot nicer within the next few years. That should improve the property value enormously.
Interior-wise is where we get to have fun. At the moment the individual condos are appraised at $122K. This one's selling for $100K because the interior is only partially remodeled. It still has the original diseased-looking coffee-stain carpet in the living room and hallways, and the kitchen is incredibly 70's looking - avocado green fridge, goldenrod countertops, gothic dark brown cabinets, the works. Nice enough when new, but rather dark for Alaska (being as it's dark half the year here anyway, the last thing we want are dark colors absorbing what light there is). The bedroom floors have been redone in a nice laminate wood flooring (the sort that's easy to put down, easy to clean, relatively inexpensive and lasts forever), and all the walls are painted. The ceilings are in rather dire need of new paint, however, and the rest of the wooden fixtures (bookshelves, staircase railing, etc.) need to be painted a lighter color as well. Once we've painted the ceilings and taken out the carpet (we're figuring on putting the laminate flooring in throughout the place - it reflects light well and we can always put throw rugs on top of it) we can move the furniture in. I'm sure we can get a new fridge at Costco for a few hundred (we don't need an ice machine or anything), and we can repaint/redoor the cabinets. Plus we're thinking of doing tile countertops - it's fairly easy to just put a slab of concrete over the current counters and then lay tile on top of it, and then put coordinating trim along the sides.
Once all the cosmetic stuff is done, I think it'll actually be a really nice home. The master bedroom and living room have a lovely view of the Gastineau Channel, although the lower view is obscured by the trees during the summer (not that I mind; I rather like looking at leafy green trees). For a fairly small place (I think it's about 900 square feet) it gets a remarkable amount of light, and there's a nice little deck where we can put some plants and maybe a small grill. We're figuring on putting the sofa/loveseat sections of his mother's wraparound couch upstairs in the second bedroom along with the TV; we can watch movies up there, and then we'll have room to put a table downstairs next to the kitchen, and the chaise lounge section over by the French doors so we can read a book or something in the light.
Then, in five years or so when we leave Juneau, we'll have a pretty little condo to sell - the way the market is currently going, it should be worth $150K at the very least.
Of course, this is all assuming the loan goes through. So everybody please keep your fingers crossed...
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Date: 2005-04-30 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-30 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-01 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-01 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-03 10:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-01 12:48 am (UTC)*crosses fingers*
"Black Adder, Black Adder! He rides a pitch black steed!"
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Date: 2005-05-01 09:42 am (UTC)I got the DVDs through interlibrary loan and Brian and I have been working our way through them. They're pretty darn funny. :)
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Date: 2005-05-01 05:20 am (UTC)I'm on the same track/goal, though a bit further back, so good luck!
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Date: 2005-05-01 10:21 pm (UTC)