Page 14 of Love It or List It
Austin, though, had obviously made up his mind.“Let’s fix it,” he said.“Yeah, it’ll cost money, but it’ll be worth more when we sell, right?Like, I’m pretty sure we can get out what we put in, and then some.Sweat equity.Plus there are those rebates for insulation and stuff.I bet we can do a lot of the work.”
That was a terrible idea.
Not financially.Financially, it made perfect sense.Joe had read the appraisal carefully, and he had years of experience listening to his mother talk about the market.He knew that even getting rid of all the junk would improve the home’s value.A cleanup, some paint, and the major repair items on the list—the septic problem and the kitchen—and the house’s value would shoot up.
Besides, winter was coming, and with it, a major seasonal slowdown.That meant less money and less work for Joe.Most of his crew did different seasonal work in the winter—in retail, plowing snow, building furniture.Joe himself had driven a plow a few times, clearing out parking lots and driveways, but payment always depended on snow actually arriving.This far south, with global warming as a factor, he couldn’t count on it.He’d be boredandbroke if he didn’t find something to do.
No, the problem was Austin.Austinwas a terrible idea.Austin was smart and cute and funny, and if Joe had to watch him skillfully wield power tools, he would lose his mind.Or, God, the thought of him doing kitchen demo, swinging a sledgehammer with those broad shoulders and narrow hips—Joe would die.
Joe could not do that.His heart was a lonely himbo.It would make the dumbest possible decision and he’d end up right where he’d been when things with Paul imploded.“Where are we going to get the money for that?”
Austin gestured around.“Uh, well… now that we’ve cleared out some of the crap, we can sell some of the furniture.The dining set’s in great condition, and it’s an actual antique.I bet some of those Christmas ornaments are collector’s items.The typewriter….We haven’t even been upstairs yet.Who knows what’s up there?”
“More junk?”Joe suggested, because he didn’t want to go down this road.
“Or more money.”
Joe pinched the bridge of his nose.“Enough money to delay selling the place for months and to pay for renos?”
“If we’re lucky and do it right, we might be able to make hundreds just from selling the ornaments.And if we don’t have to hurry the sale, we can price them at what they’re worth.”
Sound logic, which, sadly, also applied to the house.If they waited until the spring to list it, the market would probably be better and they could ask more.Not to mention that any work they did to make the place livable would increase the value exponentially.Austin wasn’t wrong about that.
And… if they were able to get the house in good enough condition to actually live in it, then they could sell it as their primary residence and avoid the taxes associated with selling a secondary one.Plus then Joe could rent out the living area of the barndominium to cover some of the costs building up.
“Look,” Austin began, “how about we make a deal?Give me a week to see if I can sell some of this stuff.If I manage to get, say, a thousand dollars, will that be enough for proof of concept?”His eyes were big and pleading.“Please?”
“Fine,” Joe said, folding like wet paper, because there was no way he could stand up to those liquid eyes and that pouty lip.
Austin lit up and beamed at Joe.“You won’t regret this.”
Oh, Joe already did.He was definitely regretting more time spent with an adorable, sexy man he already wanted to ruin in all the best ways.That hair was just made for being artfully tousled on someone else’s pillow.Not to mention the way he looked in a pair of tight jeans.
The next several months would severely test Joe’s self-restraint.He was starting to suspect he might have a masochistic streak.
Chapter Four
THE FIRSTcouple of weeks of their plan went pretty much exactly as Joe expected.
Austin sold the dining room furniture for an insane three grand and showed Joe an image of the money transfer.Then he sent Joe half and asked what item on their to-do list he wanted to check off first.
Of course, they couldn’t tackle much of the actual renovation side yet, what with the house still being full of stuff.
So their first task was to continue decluttering.Thank God for his children, who continued to be nosy and helpful evenings and weekends.
The second order of business was to figure out what exactly needed doing, what could be done, and who was going to do it, and for how much.
So Joe called Starling.
“José!To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“How do you feel about coming round to my recently acquired run-down house and telling me how much I’m going to weep over the bill for rewiring the whole thing?”
“I’m sorry, what?You’re not keeping it.”
“Not forever.Just long enough to fix it up.Austin made some good points—”
“I’m on my way,” Starling said and hung up.
