Beachfront Bargain Hunt Renovation Part 1

Beachfront Bargain Hunt Renovation Part 1

Hello everyone! 

What an exciting new project my husband and I have been working on!

Fist pump with Me! This one's gonna be good.

Honestly, I have wanted a beach house for as long as I have been an adult. I look around the beach town closest to us, Ocean City, MD and all of the adjacent beach towns like Fenwick Island, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, and Rehoboth Beach and know I have seen the insides of a good number of them through the years. I've seen everything from million dollar beachfront properties to musty, moldy avocado green carpet round homes in the forest... just to be near the beach. I used to tell my first husband.. "All I want is a trailer by the bay... I would be ecstatic". I may have settled for a tent by the campground as well. As long as I could have my own pillow and toothbrush in my own space, near some water. I'm a bit of a claustrophobic person and anxious person. Maybe I'll write about my struggles with this in another blog post, because this 'condition' of mine helped me get into DIY and woodworking in the first place.  What a way to heal... get your creative juices flowing, right? I was not afraid to jump into a renovation, and knew I could see potential in just about everything, as long as the "bones" were good. I was not afraid to get my hands dirty, or to shop on a strict budget.

Well after 16 years (including 2 kids, a divorce and remarriage) of wanting a beach spot, we finally did it. We bought a beach house, on the bay. We decided we are more 'boat' people than 'ocean' people. Truth is, husband can't handle the heat of the ocean and I get bored laying on the beach and am truly afraid of what may be lurking in the ocean....like a dead body horseshoe crab floating around. 

House hunting in the freezing cold. 

The following is my list of must haves for this beach house:

3 bedrooms

2 full baths

more than 800 sq. feet

2 parking spaces

central air

Please note: condition of the property was not a requirement. 

After many, many trips to the eastern shore (and use of many Marriott points) to house hunt, we were guided by this guy:   

Dave Leiderman- A local real estate agent in Ocean City. He literally lives a street away from what ended up being our potential future purchase. 

He has had a number of clients appearing with him on Beachfront Bargain hunt on HGTV, as well as the renovation series. 

We ended up choosing one side of a "duplex" but really it's a townhouse on the bay with 2 deeded boat slips, 2 docks, and 3 (1 boat and 2 jet ski) lifts, and 4 parking spots (all things we did not want to install after the fact). Our offer was accepted well below the sale price, with a few concessions. Bringing us to the core of this post, we had an indoor renovation to consider. As far as I was concerned the entire thing needed to be gutted. 

Me the day of closing. I was actually crying right before this picture. 

Here is a picture of the outside of what we bought, and a clue as to how dated this place is.

****Would y'all like to see our "fixer upper"?***

Curb appeal?
None. But has a parking lot!
You can't just add that to another property.

How did I really feel about this house? 

This is how I felt about the interior of the home.
One concession I made was that the house needed to be completely
emptied before we would purchase.
And the realtors made that happen! 

The inside of the home made me ill immediately (allergic), meaning there was mold or mildew somewhere. It was musty....but it was MINE OURS! The whole place needed a deep clean. Having the home cleared out of mattresses and drapes and pictures and linens helped a lot, but I still felt sick. We were going to have to transform this place and get the carpet out quick. Here are a few pics of the inside. The house was built in 1982. 

Master bedroom. Nice ceilings. But...just no.
Too many silk flowers that collect a ton of dust.

The brick.. and brass- ugh! But does that fireplace work???

That light... And the clutter.... Palm to forehead.
No problem I can see the potential.

So, my husband joined hands with me and jumped into this journey with me. Seriously, have you guys even met him? He is the most patient and loving man ever! He has to be... to be married to me. I have some big ideas.... some he will love, some he will hate. What will he dig his heels in on? And what can I convince him will make a big impact? Wanna test your marriage? Do a 9 month renovation with your spouse and see how you do, because we run into every problem imaginable (so it seemed) with this reno. In the end it was worth it!  Oh, by the way - did I tell you that we kept this renovation a secret from our kids for the entirety of the process? I really wanted to surprise them. Could we keep it a complete secret? Yes, and it was so worth it to see their faces at the reveal! 

-Stay tuned for more progress.

Kristen