Revisiting the Bradford Street House

My husband and I bought some of the ugliest closet doors this weekend!

I am sure that is exactly what the Habitat employee was thinking when we paid for them, as well.

But these ugly doors will serve two purposes. First, they will finally give our rental house closet doors again, and second, they will save us money on having custom doors made.

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I can’t believe it has been nearly six years since we were fortunate to purchase and renovate our small rental house on Bradford Street.

Originally built in 1945 and only 800 square feet, this little house blessed my son and daughter-in-law with a place to live very inexpensively after they both finished college. A year later, my son moved temporarily to Indiana to finish his master’s degree in seminary studies while my daughter-in-law stayed behind to fulfil the state’s requirements for her scholarship to the University of Tennessee.

Even though we could not help with his next phase of school financially, we ensured that our daughter-in-law and our daughter, who lived with her for that year, had a home to stay in without worrying about the extra cost of double rent payments.

Three years ago, when our son accepted a job in Missouri, this little house continued to bless a close friend of ours by providing affordable housing for her while she finished school and eventually got married. She and her new husband were able to establish themselves in their careers and save for a home of their own. We were comforted knowing that someone we knew and trusted was taking care of our little rental house.

Now it is 2023, and our little rental house is empty and ready for more updates and the next phase of its life.

We are still discussing the purpose of it. Rent or sell? Each option has pros and cons.

For the next few weeks, we will be making some much-needed small renovations on a budget so that either our next renters will feel more at home in the house or a new buyer will take it over.

As a recap, this is what we renovated or updated on the house when we purchased it back in 2017.

New energy-efficient windows were installed.

The kitchen was completely gutted and renovated to be more efficient and usable for today’s busy lifestyle.

This included ensuring a small dishwasher could fit a tiny 9′ x 13′ kitchen. Phase 1 of the kitchen renovation and the full reveal of the renovated house are some great posts to see how far that small kitchen has come.

The kitchen’s electricity was upgraded so that the refrigerator and stove could be moved to a different location.

All of the ceiling lights were replaced with energy-efficient LED fixtures.

The entire house was repainted on the inside. The shutters were given a new color for the outside.

The overgrown trees and bushes outside were trimmed back and some small landscaping was done.

A new sump pump was installed in the root cellar.

A new closet organizer system was installed in the only closet in the house. The old doors didn’t allow you to use the large closet efficiently, so they were rehung.

Which leads us back to those ugly closet doors we just purchased.

We bought these doors because they could be retrofitted to fit the opening of the closet space without having doors custom-made, and when opened, they shouldn’t impede the available floor space in the bedroom.

Making these doors pretty will be a challenge for me and a stretch for my creativity. I will definitely share where and how that journey turns out.

The next renovation phase for the house.

Our plans for the house will include a new bathroom floor. The pink floor needs to go!

A new bath vanity with counter space is also planned for the bathroom. This, too, will be a challenge as the layout is very tight, and our budget won’t allow a complete gut job. I will work with what I have on this one and make it better.