The Purple Palace
The Purple Palace still holds a special place in our hearts. We knew we needed her. She was a property that we really had to battle to buy. She was right next to ours. Eventually giving us access to our one acre property behind, she was initially bought as our first rental property. Having read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" Simon was keen to extend the empire. The worst house on the best street for sure. Because it was such an effort to persuade the bank that we could afford her (in fact we changed banks to do this deal) we didn't have a lot to do her up initially. So we tidied her with a touch of grey to start with. An elderly neighbour told us we had ruined it and should have left her purple, but we knew we were off to a start. After two years of dealing with less than helpful tenants we decided to do a boundary adjustment and give ourselves a bit more land and a big driveway for the Flemings Way subdivision and to set her loose. Though she has survived so long, it seemed that she hadn't originally been built to last. Built at the start of world war 1 when concrete was not so available. The very tiny initial part of the home was still quite nice, beautiful wooden floors and high ceilings. It seemed that after that a lean-to was added at the back for an extra room, toilet and kitchen.
So our first step had been to paint out the grey in preparation for rentals, but when it came to selling we really needed to make the outside sell as a little old cottage. So we chose a bit better grey, Simon painted the roof one very hot day with black paint which made it even hotter (and dry very fast) and we added a front entry and a back patio to really add he cute to the cottage, I mean palace.
Simon worked out the cheapest but most matching fence he could and we put it up and painted in one weekend. We had some helpers, mostly people who took our kids out to have fun each day and we will be every grateful for that.
We had a tight budget which meant some compromise, the entire budget was done inside and out for only $20K. We knew we needed to do floor coverings, which basically only meant money for paint.
We couldn't afford a new kitchen or bathroom, but we were able to make them tidier and more appealing with a good scrub up and that paint. Luckily (or perhaps unluckily) a tenant had had a small fire one drunken evening and the stove had been replaced and walls painted then to save us a little money at this end. Note the low ceiling height at the end of the lean to. Oh also, the bathroom came off the kitchen, we spent hours trying to figure out how we could fit money into the budget to put a new bathroom in with a different entry, but it just wasn't possible for us. A real estate agent friend does say "you've gotta leave something in it for the buyer to do" so we hoped that was a winner in this situation.
The dining area was a funny walk through area that was made small by a shelf on the wall. Removing that and discovering old sarking underneath revealed a new feature we didn't know we were going to create. Simon ripped a number of sanding pads on the boards but they came up beautifully and brought a warmth and personality that wasn't originally in this room. It had a lovely view over the Hakarimata ranges that we made use of by placing the dining table by the window, making sure it wasn't too huge a table (it was actually Tess's desk) to make sure the room still had some space for movement to the kitchen and outside.
Furniture was a fun adventure for Tess. We did want to give a good idea of space and with the old walls being less that perfect it was good to have something to draw the eye to. We clearly had no funds so Trademe (this was before Facebook Marketplace) was used to buy a couple of shelves, one lounge chair, this lovely drinks cabinet (check it out in our future homes). The rest was from our playroom/office plus and the kids rooms except from a brand new queen bed. Tess tried do give a contemporary feel while still matching with the style of the home.
Dressed to impress inside and out, she did photograph up well. It took a while to sell because lots of people would see the photos, come to see it but realise it was older than they anticipated and that it still required some love. We are realistic, she wasn't perfect. Finally the right owners came along ready love and live in her. Over two years we almost doubled the price of the property, and managed to keep some pretty important land for our future subdivision.
There was a roof over the carport by the time we sold too. As many real estate developers who started small will say: a quick way to add value to a property is a driveway and carport or garage.
