The Oak Hill Manor Compound (Think Pink!)

Introducing our latest project property, which Andy has christened Oak Hill Manor. We closed on it on April 22. Bear with the pictures, there is a lot to show. As you will see later, there are actually two houses on the property.

If you are thinking, "Man, that yard looks steep!", it is every bit a bad as it looks.


This is the back view of the house. Here you can see where the previous tenant of the smaller "Treehouse" - which is shown below - was evicted due to the Codes Department declaring the Treehouse "Unfit for Human Habitation." Unfit, Schmunfit, we say.



Another view of the driveway around back. You can see the Treehouse here. If it were fall, all that firewood might be of some value to someone, instead of being dumpster-bound.

Closer view of the Treehouse. While the name "Treehouse" evokes lighthearted, whimsical feelings and appropriately reflects the house's high elevation, it actually was chosen due to the large tree that is growing slammed up against the side of the house, crushing the side gutter and probably cracking the foundation.


With a whole lot of work, this place actually has the potential to be a very small and modest two or three bedroom, two bath home. The houses share a common driveway; you drive around the back of the main house and this house sits near the far back corner of the property. According to Codes, we have until Feb '09 to make the repairs they've deemed necessary; otherwise, the Treehouse will be condemned. The repair list actually looks completely reasonable and is basically only a small part of everything we would be planning to improve anyway.


I don't have interior pictures of the Treehouse, and since I managed to lose every single key associated with the entire property (which numbered about 10), I can't actually access it until Andy helps me break in. Thankfully, he was good-natured about having to drill through the deadbolt of the main house and replace it on Day 4 of our ownership.

Here is the junkiest bedroom, as it was on the day we closed.

Here is the same room after my attempt at organizing it and throwing away all the trash. We are going to try to have an estate/garage sale at the house as soon as we can get it all somewhat organized, although I suspect that we will be left with a lot of stuff to throw away. Notice the pink bedspread and carpet. You'll soon detect a theme.

Here is the tremendously long, skinny living room/dining room combo. That huge pile of material you see near the door represents a portion of all the linens in the house. There is a truly shocking and incredible quantity of linens here.

Here is the second bedroom, after I cleaned it up and Andy sold the bed, along with a sectional sofa, for $50. I applaud this and hope many more sales will follow this first one.

Here's the smaller bathroom. See some pink?

Here's the third bedroom, after I had tried to clean it out and organize it.

Here's the master bath, complete with its pink double vanity. A double vanity in a house built in 1960, I would think, is pretty rare. This house was definitely the recipient of some other pretty groovy upgrades, like the partial wall of decorative shelving in the living room.

This is the family room, adjacent to the kitchen and breakfast nook. As I write this on 5/1, it is still untouched. I am slowly working my way through the house, throwing away trash and organizing. Since we don't have the budget for two remodels at once, we have to finish Whispering Hills before we start this one (these two!) in earnest. Therefore, Andy's time is spent at Whispering Hills, while the kids and I putter around at OHM making slow progress. Since we aren't ready to put the pedal to the medal on this job, the pace isn't a big concern yet.

Another view of the family room.

Here's the kitchen. It too is pretty much untouched since we closed, but I'll get there...

Another super-groovy upgrade was this sweet wall fridge. Apparently it was a 50's invention that didn't exactly take off. Alas, the fridge is inoperable and has been more recently used as regular cabinet storage. We're hoping it may find a good home, though.



Here's the little breakfast nook. Again, an unusual element in an older ranch like this, I would think, to have two separate eating areas.

I'm not sure what purpose on earth this strange, L-shaped room would ever have, but I'm sure Andy will come up with a workable floorplan. This, along with the primitive laundry room shown below, is a filled-in carport.
So there you have it, a first glimpse at the new project(s).