Summer is a go-to time for home buying or home remodeling. For young adults across the U.S. who are finding that buying a home is becoming even harder, it’s probably neither.
But for Belle Barnes and Joel Roop-Eckart, it’s both.
The couple scored a home in an area of Salt Lake City they really wanted by buying a 125-year-old fixer-upper. Pew Research crunched the numbers to compare median income to median home value and deemed the Ogden, Salt Lake and Provo metros “very unaffordable.”
But by looking to invest a little elbow grease and sweat equity, Barnes and Roop-Eckart got into the Central City neighborhood near downtown for $480,000 — that’s more than $100,000 below what Zillow says is the median home sale price in Salt Lake.
“We also toured this house the first time at night, which definitely put the rose-colored glasses on, so everything looked in much better shape than it perhaps was,” Barnes said. “So the inspection was a little bit of a wake-up call, but I think we knew we could handle it.”
They believe the three-bedroom, one-bath bungalow sat abandoned from 2007 to 2014. It had definitely seen better days: the stairs were falling, there were bugs and spider webs all over the basement, pretty much everything was broken in the bathroom … just to name a few of the problems.
So they got to work.
For the past year, house projects have basically been a part-time job for both of them. Their day jobs have nothing to do with paint, spackle or drywall — she’s an algorithms systems engineer, and he works with clients for a data analytics firm. But how much they’ve accomplished on their own is staggering. For starters, they built a 14-foot-tall, fully electrified backyard shed.
“Anytime we weren't working or doing something social, we were out here working on this,” Roop-Eckart said.
They also fixed the sprinkler system, put in a new window and replaced the carpet, which created clouds of dust when they tore it out. They built Barnes’ dream library, added pantry shelves and ceiling fans, cleaned out the basement and poured a new concrete floor down there. Plus, they fixed up the bathroom, including plumbing and electrical work.
“The fan used to sound like a jet engine was trying to take off with it,” Barnes said. “So we replaced the fan … and in that process, learned that it was wired incorrectly, so I rewired the whole bathroom.”
The only work the gutsy couple is afraid of touching is the main electrical panel and digging out the basement. Barnes has childhood knowledge from growing up with handy parents, so they didn’t start from zero. Otherwise, Google, YouTube and good old-fashioned trial and error have been their teachers. But no artificial intelligence.
“It will always give you an answer, even if it doesn't have the answer,” Roop-Eckart warned. “And you don't want that when you're doing house projects.”
The couple has spent between $25,000 and 30,000 so far. And since they’re doing the work mostly on their own, they estimate they’ve added around $40,000 and 50,000 in value to the house. They did hire professionals to replace the furnace, install radon mitigation, insulate the attic and run electrical conduit from the house to the shed.
They’ve also paid for upgrades in blood and fire.
Barnes punctured her finger with a framing nail gun while working on the shed. She was lucky, she said, because it didn’t hit the joint or the bone. Another time, the couple pushed a drill too far while mixing concrete in a Home Depot bucket.
“I was like, ‘This drill's getting really hot, but we've got one bucket left; let's just keep going,’ and then it just caught on fire,” Roop-Eckart laughed.
Despite all that, they still think buying a fixer-upper is a good way to get into a home.
“I would say it's a great idea if you like working with your hands,” Barnes said. “If you don't, you're going to be miserable the whole time.”
Her partner added that there is room to learn.
“You mess up the plumbing and you get water everywhere, and you can clean that up; mess up wallpaper, and you just have to redo it,” he said. “So it's pretty forgiving, and you'll mess up a lot, and that's OK.”
Barnes and Roop-Eckart have gotten burned out at times. That’s when they pause and enjoy what they’ve accomplished. And now that they’ve finished their latest project — patio shade sails — they have some backyard shade to rest under until they’re ready for the next task on the to-do list.
Editor’s Note: This summer, KUER is asking Utahns how they got the house. More stories are on the way.
