Thanks for the post. We are in Minneapolis MN so the part about not moving in the winter couldn't be more true.

We went out aggressively after the first of the year- apparently everyone else did too. Inventory is super low and we're trying not to get discouraged.

Looks awesome!

You buying in the city or the suburbs? I rented in Minneapolis for years then bought a house in golden valley about 1.5 years back, very close to the city but with a lot more space than you standard Minneapolis lot we love it. We looked at something like 30 houses over a 3 month period before finding the one we wanted, didn't get into any offer/bidding wars but I know friends that did and it was frustrating. I also wasnt in any rush or on a deadline to move so my thought process was I'm not buying anything I don't absolutley love and I was prepared to look at 100 houses if necessary. I probably drove my realtor and wife a little crazy, my wife just wanted to jump in and buy like the 1st house we looked at.

Anyone itt have experience with garage apartments / attached rental properties?

I’ve been casually home shopping the past 6 months but search is heating up and I’m really drawn to a community where they are pretty common. I’m familiar with the community and working professionals are the typically renters, approx. $1k/month.

Houses range from $500-$750k. I’m focusing on the lower end.

Not interested in making tons of money obv...I just like the idea of offsetting some expense and also having a trusted person on my property, as I travel a lot.

Either S mpls, 1st ring suburb, or no further south than Bloomington. Hoping we have your experience as we're starting month 4. I share your pickier mindset too. We aren't pinched to move - but the amount of homes on the market that are trash is insanity. Inventory is really low.

I rented an attached garage apartment for the last 3 months. Landlord was cool and so are we so it worked out great. We helped with their dog when they had a death in the family, took out garbage, etc. They gave us rides to the airport.

It could however easily go the opposite direction. Our landlord had a few nightmare tenants and decided to only advertise on travel nursing websites. It was a good way to get High quality tenants. Those are generally 13 week contracts.

It’s Maui thoug so they are never short of travel nurses on 13 week contracts that they can gouge the **** out of.

Thanks for the insight. Yea I actually have experience from the “renter” side as well, a girl I dated lived in a garage apartment in this same neighborhood and she had a similar relationship with the landlords where she’d take care of things in their absence.

There is a large corporate campus nearby so most of the renter market at $1K/month naturally filters to them, but I’m still hesitant bc as you mention bad tenants are always a possibility.

It’s near a vacation destination as well so Airbnb type rentals would also be an option, but probably more hands on than I’d like to deal with.

roof is roughed in and new materials delivered.



had a little crappy spot that was just dirt and rocks, and a bunch of bricks stacked next to my house pissing me off, so...



was planning to build a pergola here (for the last 5 years). think the pics from me pouring these footings are here itt somewhere...

Dude that did my patio room replacement does pergola's as his day job and brought over some models. Waiting for him to give me a side-job quote for it.

I have some friends that sold their house in S Mpls a couple weeks ago. I’d have to ask how long it was on the MLS but it seemed like about five minutes.

Good luck, being a buyer in the spring is tough.

I closed on my house at the end of January and spent about 3 weeks doing some small projects including painting the entire interior of the house, tiling in kitchen, expoxy kitchen counters, replacing all lighting, and sanding+staining kitchen cabinets, replacing bathroom counter top, adding mirrors to bathrooms. I'm not quit finished with the cabinets but will be finishing those up in the next couple of weeks.
Code3 helped with the painting and replacing lights and I did all the rest, so I didn't have to pay any labor.

Purchased the house for $18k under appraised value with the seller paying all closing cost

Paint+Supplies: $1500
Kitchen Counters+tiling+staining: $500
Lighting: $400
Bathroom Counter+fixing sink: $200
Mirrors+hardware: $150

These are the before pics. I'll post the after pics in another post.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

Tiling the kitchen:
The biggest mistake I made was not making sure the cabinets were level before starting, this caused me to have to make A LOT more cuts.
I decided to tile and epoxy over the existing laminated counter that continued up the wall. The problem with this is that there was small radius and caused the bottom tiles to bulge out a little and was a ***** to get spacers in the maintain even grout lines.
I also spent a lot of time using curvy tiles behind the stove to break up the subway tile. It took me 3 hrs to get it "square" and just really wasn't worth it.

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My bad with all the pics. I don't know how to spoiler them in Tapatalk.

These are the counters. I painted the marble pattern and did a clear epoxy instead of the colorant powders and pouring the patterns. If I did it again I would use the colorants as the clear stains very easily.
The first mistake I made was not removing the old sink before I poured the epoxy. I had to hammer a screw driver to get it out.
I also did not spend enough time getting the air bubbles out with the hear gun. I ended up sanding the epoxy down and applying a second layer.
I also did not spend enough time with prep with the plastic to keep the epoxy from dripping on everything and my dishwasher is cover in drips.

Nice work. That epoxy is a *****. I'm impressed

Have we gotten an update on the wood vs steel beam estimate?

Thanks. Yeah, it's a *****..... mostly messy. I had stained the cabinets and the painters tape didn't stick well to hold the plastic up.
The application went well. I had watched some videos that showed to brush coat the edges before pouring and this made pushing the epoxy over the edges go smoothly and leveling it out pretty simple.

roof done. solar install this week

Ironridge flashfoot. My favorite mount.

They just came by again to figure out exactly how they would get the steel beam into the house. Hopefully I'll get a number this week.

About a month ago I posted in here looking for advice on how to build a 4 foot by 4 foot dartball board and I wanted to report back that it is finally compete. I ended up going with 3/4 inch thick 7-layer plywood that is 4x8.

It took me 15 hrs to complete it with my girlfriend contributing 12 hrs and her sister helping for another 5 hrs. With one person helping I think we could make another in less than 6 hrs. The paining and getting the deminsions right was by far the most time consuming. I thought stapling the wire all around the board would take longer than it actually did.

If you all are interested and someone can tell me how to post pics here I can share the steps along the way and the finished product.

easiest way to post pics, that i've found, is using the tapatalk app. there is a upload picture button and you just select whatever pics from your phones camera roll.

I got some first pass pine wood!
It looks like bacon lol.
I took a piece and attached it to my existing mantel. Does this look weird or look better than before?

I was thinking of hanging the other pieces horizontally on a long wall in the living room. They will take up about 1/3 of the wall. I will make a small table with one wide piece I got as well.

Depends on how the rest of the room is decorated but from the pic I’d say I like it without.

getting closer

I would say no to having that bacon on the wall or mantle.

Thanks.
This is how it looks with stuff on the mantel, but it does probably look better without.

I think I will take that piece and make a bench or small table and hang the other pieces horizontally on the fence directly behind the patio area.

Also, my counter tops are staining a lot and I got a quote for real marble ones. It's $3300 for the kitchen and a 56"x 22" bathroom vanity. $52/SQ foot including instillation. Does that sound like a decent price?
It's a white marble, almost exactly what I painted, and supposedly the hard kind.

He originally quoted $56/SQ foot and I haggeled down to $52 only having a general idea that marble is between $40-$70/SQ foot.