When Trees Meet Houses

Is that a rafter I see before me? I know that rafters are in these days, but this is ridiculous!

I'm working on coordinating a house rebuild. It's a home that was vacant after a foreclosure, and it's managed by a faraway company. While vacant, a tree fell on it, and now we have to put about a third of the real value of the house into it in order to make it salable again, or at least an insurance company will. As you can see, rafters are peeking though the ceiling. I was impressed. It reminded me of that scene in The Lord of the Rings (the book; not the movie) where the Ents destroyed the tower with their root arms.

Trees are very powerful things when they're growing and when they're dying.

The addition might have been a solid investment to the little house. It looks like, at one time, someone really cared about this place. It has a decent deck out back, there are big windows in the addition, and a high open ceiling in the living room. It's a shame what's happened here.
Plus, it's in an "up-and-coming" neighborhood. Right near Montgomery Hill Park, it's a great spot for raising kids and doing other "young family" type things.

It's got a nice kitchen. I'm not sure where all the appliances went. It's got a good floor, it's got a nice working area, and it's got a two-basin sink. It's OK. I can see how it would become the center of the house because it's nicely situated in the house right between the living room and the addition, which would probably double as a dining area. The kitchen's big enough for a small kitchen table, though.

If you can ignore the nasty roof, it's a nice little joint. A cute walkway up to the door, off-street parking, a little landscaping, some "curb appeal." It's by far one of the nicer houses on the block. Most the houses in this neighborhood are very similar, and someone obviously invested some TLC here.

Here's where the addition meets the rest of the house inside. The tree had different ideas.

Poor roof, but I think if I had a little dough, I'd snap this house up "as-is" and get a contractor to do it myself. A great opportunity sitting there, methinks. But I like to think of the potential of spaces. YMMV.

It looks worse than it is. And it could be worse. Pretty lucky that just the addition got smashed. I'll get a general contractor to get in here and fix up the addition, and then get him to paint the rest of the interior, and this thing will look "good as new."

I hope that this might be my first listing as a real estate agent. That would be nice.