Renovation Stories | Our Story

The first one is long, the rest won't be. I had graduated college with a tremendous amount of student debt. I knew after graduation the only way to escape my debt was to climb the corporate ladder. I entered the post graduate world with a strong economy (2012), yet started my career journey in a minimum wage paying job at Nordstrom. I progressed to a department manager, moved to a third party logistics company, from there, a digital marketing company, into a technical position, and on to a local furniture retailer (Art Van) that had filed bankruptcy and was being led by private equity firm, Thomas H Lee. At this point in my career I had made an income that could start to afford me some piece of mind with the finical burden of my debt. However, the cost of rent, kept me thinking of money scaries day in and day out. I was in no way financially sound, the student loan bills with other day to day bills were too much for me and I couldn't help thinking that I was wasting away my money paying for rent..

My first home

Some people believe in spiritual paths, divine intervention, others believe it's one hundred percent their own will and determination that got them where they are on this planet. For me, I believe its both. I say this because during this exact period of time (2018), I had met with a friend who was recently married and just purchased their first home. She was gracious enough to walk me through the entire process, even sharing details of the percentage she put down and her monthly mortgage. Right then and there, I knew I had to take the jump, trust the universe and purchase a home. The mortgage would be less than I was paying in rent and I would have the start of an asset that I could one day leverage (hopefully).  

I had jumped jobs, but one thing I maintained was my 401K, which I realized after researching, that if used for your first time home purchase meant you didn't have to pay the ten percent early cash out penalty. I had enough within my 401K to cover all expenses I would need to close on a house, even with my less than stellar credit score. I just needed to find a community and house within my budget. Going in I knew I never could get turn key, but I've always had a vivid imagination, creating images and possibilities in my mind. I saw potential and a house within my budget and I pulled the trigger with the intent of fixing it up and renting or one day selling it. 

Dating

Dating

So from 2018 to 2019 I'm humming along, I have my new home, I have a new Director of Operations job for a local Virtual Reality startup. I have been able to make small improvements, removing a temporary wall, adding a kitchen island, painting the kitchen cabinets. With new home ownership even though my house is completely out dated, my tax assessment goes up and so does my mortgage. I accounted for this before purchasing, but lets just say I don't have buckets of money to change everything all at once. Enter Mike ^^ little cutie!! He is divine intervention/spiritual path. I say this for a couple reasons, my mom died when I was 22. She had married my dad, her one and only. They knew each other since the age of ten. She always talked of wanting the same thing for me (I knew that was not gonna happen/my thing), anyways we'd talk about things I wanted and liked in a partner and things I didn't. Some of the things I liked were weird and stupid and we'd laugh about them. I won't go into details, but I believe she brought him to me. Reason two because Mike and I had actually matched on a dating app while I was visiting a friend in Florida for her 30th. Mike lived there, we chatted on the app but never met. Fast forward five months. Mike had moved to the state I live in. I was at a celebration for my friend who owns a local business and my realtor was there. I am talking with her and in walks this very dreamy man, he makes his way over to us and starts chatting to my relator. A lightbulb goes off (didn't mention above, but in one of Mike's dating app photos was my realtor, so I had asked her about him). She makes the connection that he and I had knew each other from the dating app. We hadn't even recognized each other in real life, HA! The rest is history on that, we've been together since that day. 

Mike is handy, and is in the process of buying his own first home. While that is going on 2020. Covid hits, we are bored we have some funds and together we decide to embark on a full renovation of my house. Luckily we have the same taste, but I'm trying to go all modest with the enhancements, meanwhile, Mike blows the scope out in the best possible way! We take our outdate mid century and update it to modern times. Mike executing the majority of the work and I helping where I can. Let’s be honest, my original hard-o thought of redoing everything on my own would have been a shit show/hack job. I am very lucky that Mike entered my life and we were able to do it together. 

Mid Century Renovation

And finally, Mike purchases his home, we move there and start those renovations. I then purchase a building from the 1800s to start another dream project. We sell my Mid Century, buy property on a golf course for a new build in northern Michigan. Where each one we leave our mark.

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