Oooooh. OK, yes, it’s clearly haunted and pink and I don’t know which is worse, but ooooh! Let’s go inside, shall we?
What… what… what happened here? Something nice, right? There was just so much niceness floating in the air from all the nice things that some of the nice sparkles fell on the carpet and turned it had nothing to do with explosive… wait no wait people read this while eating… I mean maybe someone spilled a cup of coffee with great enthusiasm. Let’s go with that.
“To be honest, it needs some work, about $30,000 to make it pristine again plus your labor of love” sez the listing, and I presume FLUSHING THE TOILET would be the “labor of love” part.
Let’s see… if I spend $30,000 on the necessary cleaning supplies… well, let’s just take a peek at what I would have to set up my first day in the house:
scrubby scrubby scrubby scrubby
Found By: Bruce
Loveliest comment, just because I love it when this happens, by Rehab Man: My wife and I are actually buying this house – it’ll be our 19th house we’ve acquired in our Victorian neighborhood. We’re preservationists, and are careful to preserve what’s old while providing modern amenities. This house has some gorgeous woodwork in it from the 1880’s. Unfortunately, it’ll take more than $30,000 to rehab it – the roof alone will be $15k as some one pointed out. At least the furnace works in this horrid winter! I’ve listed our website (www.summitlane.com/1127) so you can follow our progress!
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Copy & paste this:
“Honey…lemme explain… The baby wasn’t feeling so good, and walking her all over the house wasn’t helping, so I gave her a bottle, and that didn’t help, so I gave her some Pept0, I didn’t know that you’re not supposed to give babies Pept0, and we were walking, and she just kept throwing up and throwing up… Honey? Honey? Please stop crying…”
*pat pat pat*
I like pink but this is too much even for me. Wonder who lived in the green room.
I have a much bigger concern about that green room. Why is the door, which is not attached to its hinges, approximately half the size of the doorway? Or is that a closet/entryway to The Hobbit Village?
I’m stuck on the lavender bathroom, and the nice extra-tall window right next to the toilet!
I want to get my hands on this house SO BAD!!! It’s just screaming for a makeover, which I hope it gets, rather than getting scraped. Imagine the improvement just from ripping out all that horrifying carpet, pulling down the pink curtains, and simply painting every room. If I had even the teeny-weeniest desire to live in Davenport, Iowa, I would be on a plane on my way there right now. I <3 this house.
Me too! For under $60,000? And I LOATHE pink.
I agree! It has great bones!
I hope that someone does it justice.
I know! This house could be so charming and it would be so much fun to make it so. I wonder what exactly the realtors think it needs for $30,000? I hope they mean remodeling and not a $15000 roof and $15000 foundation leveling.
I just got a Pottery Barn catalog in the mail. I’ve never gotten one of these before. PB read my mind and knows I like this house and is all “and here’s what you can reward yourself with after you get the floors and painting done.”
OMG, yes, I am totally with you on that. I think I would actually be willing to move to Iowa for a house like that!
Definitely a lot of potential here, but fun for the DIY-er. Lose the carpets, refinish the floors, repaint… everything. The interior would be fun to decorate once it’s all cleaned up. Lose, or at least trim, the hedges and do some landscaping. I could see a nice oriental or garden in one quarter of this yard. looks like the roof might need some work.
Hate to be a party pooper, but I’m from that part of Iowa – and you don’t want to live in that area of Davenport without a dog and a gun. A dog that can shoot a gun would be even better.
Too bad, too, because this looks like one of the few historic houses that haven’t been carved up into crappy apartments. Sad. *shakes head*
I also just cruised around looking at comps in the area, and truly, the price isn’t even particularly good. By the time you’d done 30k worth of work (and you know it would be more) you’d be perilously close to over-improving for the area. Looks like there are nearby houses for 30k. The area looks challenged.
In other news, in Davenport, they appear to be selling a antebellum mansion:
http://listings.listhub.net/pages/QCARAIL/4108354/?channel=yahoo
an antebellum — boy, I shouldn’t try to post when I’m tired, grammar and tense problems galore.
Did you notice that there is a Chair hiding behind the pillars on the antebellum mansion? So sweet just peeping round the edge.
Me too. Love the house, have no desire to live in Davenport, IA. I would be willing to fix up the house. Heck, I had been seriously considering putting in an offer on a house with a noose in the garage.
I had some friends who bought a house where the previous owner had hung himself from a ladder in the garage. He was totally blind and quite ancient so he must have been really determined. His wife had knitted little bootees for all the chairs legs so that they wouldn’t dent the carpets. I’m sure the two things are unconnected…
Looks like the toilet overflowed into the living room.
Not pictured: Mystery Machine, Velma.
Not pictured: Sophie, Nathan, Stingo,
Rheingold beer sold separately.
Bank owned. There’s a shock.
There’s only one thing that would make this FAIL perfect: If the home was a registered historic landmark. A childhood friend lived in one of those homes. They’re just as much trouble to fix up, but they are “haunted” by a historical committee who have to approve everything you do. Gaaaaa!!!!!
What’s with the weird camera angles in the interior shots? It makes it look like a dream sequence from a bad movie.
Or maybe they’re from cameras hidden in the walls…. I’d be checking the attic and the basement for hidden rooms, or maybe hidden spaces between the walls.
Suddenly three weeks after you move in, the phone start ringing and the person on the other end says that you shouldn’t be painting the walls: they must be pink! Then the police say the calls are coming from inside the house, then somebody dressed up like Barbie shows up in your bedroom one night with an axe….
Aaaaaaah! It’s the ghost of Bild Lilli
Sounds like a remake of the 1970s classic made-for-TV movie “Bad Ronald.”
I would totaly buy this house…and then paint it.
Technically, that’s not pink…it’s coral, or shrimp. As for the other colors…well, you’re on your own.
Who the heck painted the Fisher or Fisher-Diaz Funeral Home pink???
Why do realtors insist on taking pictures of these disgusting toilets with the seat up? Do they really not notice? Or are they just trying to get their listings on this site for the free publicity?
What a great house. Somebody kind of strange lived there, but it’s probably very solid. They had good wood back then. None of this chipboard.
But I liked this best: “back stairs to kitchen” How about that! Sweeping front stairs for the family, back stairs for the help. And you’d need a lot of help to keep up the lifestyle this house calls for.
Hey, I wouldn’t let a little bad paint scare me…(when I bought my current house, some bozo had painted the front hall International Orange). Too bad I don’t live in Iowa.
Aargh, I’ve always wanted a pepto-bismol colored Addams Family house. dammit
Awful decorating, gross carpet and icky toilet aside, I totally want this house…I’m positive there are amazing wood floors under that carpet! And that staircase! The woodwork alone in that house is probably worth more than the asking price.
Price was just reduced to $49,900. If we wait long enough, the price might come down even more and then the we can all just chip in and buy the house!! A new for Chair!
My wife and I are actually buying this house – it’ll be our 19th house we’ve acquired in our Victorian neighborhood. We’re preservationists, and are careful to preserve what’s old while providing modern amenities. This house has some gorgeous woodwork in it from the 1880′s. Unfortunately, it’ll take more than $30,000 to rehab it – the roof alone will be $15k as some one pointed out. At least the furnace works in this horrid winter! I’ve listed our website (www.summitlane.com/1127) so you can follow our progress!
Hee hee! That’s great. I trust you’ll take all the decorating advice found in the comments to heart.
Rehab Man, you took much better photographs of the houses features than the listing agents did, well done!
Good luck with it, that woodwork is wonderful, and it will be nice to see the house taken back to its full glory.
Please tell me you are planning on doing something about that fence outside, because that’s one of the saddest elements of the place. Potentially gorgeous old house, with fantastic woodwork and a bargain basement, junkyard chain link all the way around it. Yikes.
Glad to know someone who knows what they are doing will be taking it on. I saw that 30k estimate by the agents and was desperately hoping someone who knew how much bunk that figure was would be buying. Otherwise the poor old house would just end up in another round of “bank owned” transition because 30k isn’t going to get it done.
I’m so jealous! Original woodwork intact! Lucky, lucky you!
This is great news!
Thanks for letting us know and showing us the beautiful pictures.
I love the pocket doors!
I will look forward to watching the developments.
So cool! I’m originally from the area and love big old houses, I’m so glad this one is going to get what it needs!
Good luck!
Lose the pink!
Yay for Rehab Man and Mrs. Rehab Man! I’m so glad this grand old dame will have a happy ending!
Yay for Rehab Man! If you made your website into a blog, I’ll bet a lot of us would subscribe to see the progress.
I love that on your website, you even called this Hot Mess by it’s Lovely Listing name: “Barbie’s Haunted Mansion.” I commend you, sir.
I’m so happy I could cry! If I can’t have it, I’m glad Rehab Man & Heartland Hannah are going to take care of it. And they’re wonderful enough to put a website up so all us fans can watch & enjoy & live vicariously through them. I haven’t stopped thinking about this house since I saw it. Hurray, a happy ending!! (or new beginning, depending on how you look at it)
I just found this, 2 years later. How is it going now? Would love to see the new improved version.
Spotty, you haven’t toured this particular neighborhood for awhile – no guns necessary and we’ll chase you out if you have one. The new buyer (yes, hate to spoil the party – its sold) has restored/is restoring 19 in the same few block area and won a bunch of awards from historic preservation to good neighbor from the local newspaper and good citizen from the mayor. He’s a one man wonder – removing gang & crime from the area and making it a really nice place to live – and yes, raise a family. You’re welcome for a tour anytime Spotty – we’ll even take you out at 1 or 2 am so you can see how fearless we are to walk on our streets. Yes, one person can make a difference – even one with little money but a lot of determination! Best, Hannah
Wonderful!!!!
Wonderful to hear it, Hannah! You’re right, my last experience in the neighborhood was many years ago, when I was helping a friend move out and literally had to guard the truck while it was being loaded. Other friends lost a neighbor to street gunfire not long after.
My heartiest admiration and congratulations to everyone who is trying to rehab the area.
Spotty – it was actually the gangs and guns that caused us to go a bit crazy and buy up the neighborhood so I know exactly what you’re talking about! In a short period of time in the mid 1990s a drug dealer pointed a gun at us backing out of our garage, our children were witness to a drive by shooting playing at a neighbors’ and the house behind us became a house of prostitution. We had just finished restoring our own historic home and it was fight or flight time. We chose FIGHT and we became very creative about it. Never planned on being a landlord, lol, but buying up places and throwing out the bad guys has been more effective eliminating crime than the police. Not their fault – it’s just hard to catch these guys with enough to put them away but it’s fairly easy to make them move…. We’ve had a few neighbors join us buying multiple houses. It’s contagious in a good way : ) And taking trashed houses and making them beautiful again is really fun! (I’m “Mrs. Rehab Man” btw – didn’t realize hubby posted about the same time I did….LOL).
You two do beautiful work! And you’re so lucky with this one that they didn’t paint that gorgeous woodwork 50 times! What you’ve done is what I believe real estate investing should be about – taking a crappy neighborhood and making it better and safer. Three cheers!!!! (Nice website too!)
Ok, a little bit of paint and elbow grease and this would actually be a pretty house. WAY too much pink as it stands though… /shudder
Ok, the single purple and teal rooms crack me up. And whatever setting is being used on that camera is making ME sick!
Aaaw, the big gay house even has a tiara. Or two. And I think you’ll find that the one green bit is the house’s gall bladder. It clearly has quite a lot of gall too.
For that price, I would almost consider moving to Iowa, pink or not.
looks like the house from Coraline (film)
Lady Belle, we have plenty more like this with lots of potential in improving neighborhoods. The Quad Cities is a perfect size metro area of about 350,000. Low cost of living and close driving distance to bigger places like Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis as well as a great university town within 60 miles (Go Hawks – Orange Bowl champions!). Big homes built by lumber barons with river bluff views are a fraction of the cost here they are most anywher else. No rush hour traffic, great medical care options, lots of honest decent people with a great work ethic – really a well kept secret.
You and Rehab Man have both been great sports about finding a house you bought on a site highlighting “Huh?” listings
Thank you, and best wishes with everything you are doing.
Mr. and Mrs. Rehab, two thumbs WAY up to you!
It’s a great job you guys are doing, and it’s so encouraging and inspiring to see!
Thanks for having such a good sense of humor as to link back to the lovelylisting post on your site too!
It will be so cool to see the Haunted Barbie Mansion when it is fully restored, and ready to be somebody’s actual dream home!
I love that house! It has great bones. I can’t wait to see the finished product. Someone commented on the back stairs to the kitchen. Our house has a set of those and we use them more than we use the main staircase.
I didn’t know that they sold Magic Erasers in 10-packs.
That is never a good angle for a house.
I adore that house! Victorian architecture was the BEST!