Why not buy a house in Davenport?

With 3 weeks left before Mike goes back to work, we decide to purchase a rental property in Davenport, IA... and it needs lots of cosmetic work before it can be rented. Some would think this is an insane thing to do but we laugh it up to a normal decision in the Green family. :)

We decide to purchase a fridge and stove in Dallas and take it up there... so we are traveling with a truck full of appliances and tools for the upcoming work. The trip was going very well (despite getting up at 3AM to leave before 4) until we stop at a Love's truck stop and obviously get something "extra" in our gas that caused the fuel to start clogging up on the filter. But we make it that night and Grace is back at Aunt Jodee's!

We closed on the house on the 29th and Mike attacked the house in full force. At times, there were 6 or so people working at stripping wood work, removing debris, installing ceiling fans, etc. Here are some before & after pictures of the kitchen (missing the redone plaster below the chair rail).

Then, we did major work in the bathroom but the plaster had to dry before we could paint & put stuff back together. Here's a before picture and we'll have an "after" when we go back up.

In two weeks, we stripped all the woodwork in the house, redid all the polyurathane, installed ceiling fans, painted the interior of the house, had linoleum installed & carpet. The bathroom has been completely redone and some of the plumbing was redone. It was a VERY busy two weeks! Just ask Mike about the 12 - 15 hour days he was putting in...

Hopefully we'll have it ready to rent in March and then we'll have to paint the exterior once the weather permits in the spring.

We wrapped up the trip with another long drive home on Friday ... just missing the 12 inches of snow in Dallas but not missing the 5 days without electricity! What a couple of weeks. :)