A Day In the Life: Rental Project

As many of you know, Justin and I recently made the decision to turn our Longview home into a rental property.

Justin had bought this house in October of 2005, and I moved in in September of 2007. We began our married life there in 2008, brought a son home in 2011, and a daughter in 2012.

Selling the house had been in our plans in the beginning, but when the housing market crashed, we decided that we should plan on staying indefinitely.

We made several improvements to the place throughout our years there, including a cosmetic make over of the main bath room, installing a sprinkler system in the yard, and a complete remodel of our kitchen.

We dreamed of some day turning the house into a rental and finding our forever home in the Vancouver area. Justin's family lives in Washougal, and we hated being so far from them.

In January, our mortgage company called and offered us a refinance. We had done this less than a year before, and were surprised to find out they wanted to do it again. When all of the negotiations were finished, our interest rate was slightly lower and our payments considerably lower. I made a joke about renting actually being profitable at this point, and Justin laughed. Little did I know that I had planted a seed in his mind.

A few days later, he came to me and asked how I would feel about renting. We took a couple weeks to figure out the details and ended with this: We would move into Justin's folks' house, remodel our house, and get it rented out. We would then finish building the apartment above his parents' separate garage, and live there for a few years rent free while we payed off our debt and saved our money. When we felt we had a sufficient amount, we would begin the search for our forever home. Thankfully, the plan sounded good to Rick and Hazel as well, and we moved the following week.

I can't tell you how this story ends, but I can fill you in on the details to date.

We thought our renovations would take 6 weeks to complete. They took 12. As is common with old houses, we ran into complications at almost every turn, and it wasn't long before we were completely frustrated. We were pretty sure this project would never end, and Justin kept saying "This house just won't let me go."

Being away from Justin during the week was difficult for me as well as for the kids. Every weekend, I would leave Zack with Hazel and head up to Longview to help Justin. Zack began to have separation anxiety and behavioral issues, and because we were busy for the couple days a week that we were up there, Tabi barely knew who Justin was.

As we began remodeling, we tried to get the word out that we were looking for renters. We knew that we wanted to use public advertising as a last resort, so we started with our friends and family. We had two prospective renters, but both fell through. By our third time, we were hopeful, but not expectant. We showed the house to a young couple expecting their first baby. They loved it and we set a move in date.

By this point the house was safe enough for us to bring Zack with us, and the kids and I spent a lot of time there with Justin. We wanted the house to be everything we had dreamed of when we were living there, and we worked our butts off to finish by our deadline.

As we wrapped up our last day there, Justin helped me get the kids in the car, and I saw his shoulders slump when he walked back up on the porch. I asked him if he was OK, and even though he nodded yes, I knew something was up. I made it halfway up the walkway before I saw the look in his eyes. He didn't even have to tell me what he was thinking, and I started crying. We stood on the porch wrapped in each others arms, and took one last look at what had been our home for so long.

Realizing dreams is always so bitter sweet. We were happy in that house, but we look forward to everything God has planned for our future. Only He knows how it will all work out.