The Big Project

I’d like to e-welcome you all to Firebase Blue

(all pics are click to embiggen)

Yes, The Wife and I are finally real property owners.

Back in September, when all the feces was beginning its forced rotation, some news weenie spotted Donald Trump and asked him his opinion as to “What should investors do?” The Donald answered with three simple words: “Buy Real Estate.”

This no doubt confounded the news weenie, because home foreclosures were dominating the news cycle. But I did not have the slightest doubt that the Trumpster was right. In fact, I was already a month ahead of him.

I’d been watching housing prices in the Seattle Tacoma area fall, ever so slightly, for a while and had taken a serious look at a couple of short sale type homes by then. Unfortunately, none of them fit the bill. The Wife was a sort of an unwitting accomplice in all this. She’d been resisting my wish to own for more than a couple years, but I was able to show her more than a few properties that were now within our reach and finally agreed that this was as good a time as any to try.

Our needs were simple: A 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath home of over 1500sqft, with a two-car garage on at least a 1/3 of a fully fenced acre, preferably outside of King County. I had to be able to get a vehicle around the backside of the house, either through alley access or a driveway, and cable internet access. Parking for at least five vehicles was the reason for the first requirement and you all were the reason for the second.

There were also wants on our list. In no particular order, mine were: A wood burning fireplace or freestanding stove, a place for my grill, as few neighbors as possible and as far away as I could get them, and nowhere near a main arterial. I would consider a fixer, but no major repairs and it had to be move in ready. Oh, and it had to be able to be readily made defendable.

The Wife simply wanted a kitchen with newer appliance (Stainless Steel was preferred, of course), room to entertain on the backside of the house, not near any schools (especially high schools) and as far away as possible from any apartment complexes. She also wanted somewhere to walk the dogs.

Having found online and then visiting over sixty homes in the span of just under two months, none of them seemed to fit the bill.

Here is a home we looked at which was at the high end of what we were willing to pay.

Here is another one we looked at that was quite suitable, and at the lower part of the range.

Both were very close to what we wanted , but something just wasn’t right about them. There are over 750,000 on the market in the state and I couldn’t find one that I like 100%, and that was bothering me

Until I found this one.

It has everything we needed and most of everything we wanted. The things we wanted that it does not have are easily installed and have already been arranged for the not too distant future.

It sits on 35,719 sqft of land (aka: .82 acre) in the Browns Point area of Tacoma. When I saw the long and narrow recorded drawing of the plot it sits on, my first thought was “Wow, that looks like a rifle range.”

And sure enough, measured from the edge of the rear deck to the back of the lot, I have 110 yards. There is, however, a small problem with actually putting a 100-yard rifle range there: Someone else’s property starts at that end of the lot; I do actually have neighbors on either side of me, I’m inside the city limits of Tacoma, which has rules and laws relating to the proper circumstances under which a firearm may be discharged, and lastly, there is a decent rise at the 80yd mark that would make it rather difficult to actually see the targets at 100.

However, that will not stop me from installing a 50ft archery range this summer. And then, after I clear some of the undergrowth away and a year of not missing my target and accidentally killing their favorite squirrel or what have you, I think I will be able to get away with expanding the developed part of the back yard out for a 50yd air rifle range.

Or maybe I’ll have to scrap the idea and be told by The Wife that were going to fill the space with a gridiron. It is actually big enough to fit a regulation sized NCAA football field on, with sidelines.

Oh, and I did say deck

Fourteen feet deep, and from corner to corner, so there is plenty of room for the grill and the outdoor dining table and the one side is high enough that The Wife can lay out for her “sun gathering” during the summer without the neighbors leering.

You’ll notice the fence splitting the yard almost in half; one side for humans and the other side for the dogs and what will soon be a small orchard. That pic is taken from about three quarters of the way back of the developed area of the lot. There is a gate just out of shot to the right.

Sale price: Just under $280,000.

You Midwest and Mountain timezone folks are probably shaking your heads at that figure, but when the previous owner put this place up for sale over a year ago she was asking for a cool $350,000. And had the bottom not fallen out because of the sub-prime mess, she probably would have gotten at least $335,000.

All in all, I think we did rather well for ourselves. Especially since during the closing process it was appraised for $11,000 over what we payed for it.
So now you see the numerous sub-projects I have in the weeks ahead. Paint will be happening this week, before we move the large items over. I also need to meet the cable guy there somewhat soon so that he can punch a couple more jacks in for the interwebz access and TV for the guest bedroom.

In the not-too-distant future, I’ll be getting two freestanding wood stoves installed, one upstairs and one downstairs, and possibly tearing out one of the tubs and installing a tub length walk-in shower.

Oh, and on the subject of property issues, the local politicians ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. Now that I has me a mortgage, there’s gonna be hell to pay.

And as an added bonus, here is the future RNS Blogstation Tacoma at Firebase Blue

It’ll be getting paint this week. What color, you ask? It will definitely have a Soft Green Glow.