Repairs on the fixer-upper house that we are living in and repairing on Calle Canis continues. As mentioned previously, my wife and I bought this fixer-upper in order to live in it for at least two years and then sell it. We will pay no federal capital gains taxes for the sale because we are following the steps to receive the exception under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.
There isn’t that much left to do, but often it seems like the closer we get to the end, the further away it moves from us. The list of final repairs include,
1.) refinish two permanent wooden cabinets, one in the kitchen, one in the hallway;
2.) paint new indoor doors;
3.) applying a little more mud (joint compound) to cracks in guest bathroom and paint it;
4.) finish painting outdoor trim of house;
5.) fix cracks, paint, install pump and fence in swimming pool;
6.) spray for termites (we just discovered that we have them).
Presently, I am working on the guest bathroom and my wife is painting doors. We mostly operate early in the morning while the kids are asleep.
Sometimes, when we have to focus on our rental houses, it pushes back the work on this house. But, except for a few extended breaks, we have made pretty good progress on repairing this house.
This is a 4-bedroom, 2-bath 1600 sq. ft. house that we have completed the majority of repairs on, including landscaping the front and back yard, floor tiles on bedrooms and bathrooms, new (or almost new Re-store) kitchen cabinets, wood planks in the TV room, rebuilt master bathroom, ceiling fans in all rooms, new room for the washer/dryer, fixed wall cracks, paint all walls and ceilings, and other odds and ends.
Kitchen before repairs:
Kithecn after repairs:
Mostly, we just fixed or replaced what was broken or missing. Since we plan to sell the house, we are spending a little more to make it look good than we would if we were going to rent it. With the weak market, I sometimes ponder keeping it as a rental until the market perks up again, but we don’t have to decide right now. As Lincoln said, ‘we’ll jump over that ditch when we get to it.”
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Tags: making repairs, repairing fixer upper houses, taxpayer relief act exemption