Becoming a real estate mogul...

In an earlier posting about acquiring the lot to the right of the house, I outlined my vision of converting the three car carport to a four car drive through.  Given the pie shape lot, I had to have the lots on both sides of the house to accomplish that goal.

I knew the lots to the left were not going anywhere soon so I left it percolating on the back burner until the time was right.  The near completion of the interior drywall and the need to empty the house while the drywall was taped and bedded moved it up the priority list as I'll need a place to store everything while the bedding work is done.  I need outside storage  for general stuff, lawn tools, and the soon to be acquired riding mower.

I could have a shed installed awhile ago but I wanted it to be far enough away from the house to limit it's visual impact on the round nature of the house.  That meant it would have to be built on the other side of the property line to get sufficient distance from the house.

Acquiring the Lots
Several weeks ago I enlisted the aid of my friend Margie from the big box store (we've both since quit working there) to help me go about acquiring the two lots to the left of the house.  As real estate goes, these two lots are close to worthless given the lack of amenities (no water, power, or lake access).  Their only value to me is that they were pretty much clear, previously maintained (somewhat) and would serve as a good buffer on the remote chance someone might want to build on the lots further to the left (unlikely but ya never know) AND because the lot closest to the house is needed to support the vision of changing the three bay carport to a 4 car drive through.  I need the lot to complete the left side driveway.

Margie is acting as an unrelated buyer so that the owners, who used to own the house too, would not think that because I was the new homeowner, they could jack around with the price as they once tried to do during early negotiations.  She made contact and found they were interested in selling....only because she called them.  Otherwise, I don't think they were motivated to do anything on their own.

More in my next post!