Old House Renovations

I promised you an update on my search for cheap, old homes. I was in Cumberland, Maryland this weekend. It is absolutely gorgeous and the people were really nice. I fell in love with the whole place. Unfortunately, my brother wasn’t so enthusiastic, so I’m sharing everything I learned with you. Someone has to be able to to profit from my hard work!

After hours and hours of research, I discovered that the west and north ends of the city are the best to look in, as they are the target of major renovation efforts. Some streets are still a bit iffy. I checked citydata.com’s forums before making a final decision. There’s a pretty comprehensive list of the streets that are best. I talked with realtors and people living in the city and looked at the local paper’s police blotter, though, and it seems like the worst streets in town are no worse than the street I lived on in Hampden, Maryland ten years ago. (I was very happy there.)

The biggest thing you’ll have a problem with is parking, especially in winter, when the snow messes up the roads. Off street parking is rare, but half the houses I saw had at least a driveway and a few had garages.

This house has an awesome front room with windows to die for and they left enough original stuff to make someone pretty happy. The mantle is really nice and has the original tile created by a well known local place. It wasn’t right for me, but it didn’t seem to need a ton of work. Of course, that’s no guarantee that the home inspector won’t find something scary! The biggest problem I noticed is the back yard’s retaining wall wasn’t done right and it has a bulge from water trying to find a way to drain.

Cumberland has several very nice things going for it.

• It is a resort area with several national park areas.
• There is a lot of skiing and rafting.
• There is an arts and entertainment district with artist incentives.
• There are jobs in the medical fields.

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