The Willowbrook Cottage & Diving Into Vacation Rentals

Y’all, I am in love with real estate. It is SO much fun to me. I love seeing how people design houses, decorate houses, mess up (subjectively and objectively); I could watch re-runs of Chip and Joanna Gaines all day long. It makes me happy, and even though may be a false sense (which I will expand on), it gives me a sense of control to be able to tear apart, move, and create spaces that give my mind breath. I got to do this a bit with our long term rental units, but always crave to see how the people who move in decorate and make it their own. It was super exciting when I had a turn to do it all: tear apart, move, create, and decorate! It all looks like a blast on TV, amiright?! All the DIY and pretty things that come about because of handy and talented people? You can’t watch one of those HGTV shows without wanting and wondering “I wonder if I could pull that off.” Around the same time (like, same week) I left my job as a Mental Health Therapist, we saw a tiny little house on a hill with a for sale sign in the front yard…and we bought it (because I love real estate). It was sweet and quaint and in need of some TLC, spit shine, and sprucing up like everything else we buy; and now that I “didn’t have a job” I might as well “keep myself busy” and expand the family business into the short term rental market, right?

The short term rental scene is hoppin’ in our area, but especially in Bayfield, WI, an adorable little town a few miles up the shore: orchards, artisans, ferries, wine, and outdoor adventures galore. It’s the tourism hub of our area, where big city folk can find a little air, some woods, and a lot of water. This house, with its giant willow trees, and little brook feeding a private coy pond (how freaking quaint is that?!), has been named The Willowbrook Cottage and is going to fit in to the local vibe perfectly. You’ve gotta come check it out!

When we closed in June, there were renters that had signed a lease through October, which meant that:
1. We were getting a bit of income/paying for the mortgage for a bit while we enjoyed summer, and I could dream about interior decor for a few months;
2. and…I couldn’t start working on it til November.
Both good things! We planned on having it ready and rentable by the spring. Then a friend of a friend had a friend who needed a furnished place for the winter starting December 1. Heck yes! Give me a challenge, a deadline, and cash to feed my property habit (i.e. mortgage) - I’m in. I started the outdoor updates (mostly landscaping, bushwhacking, and painting) and began envisioning and designing each room cohesively. I’d never been able to do this before. Who has? All of our homes together - we’re on our 5th - we’ve pieced together thrifty finds, things we stole from our parents’ houses, hauled in free stuff from the streets, invested in new things that didn’t quite fit, and had very few items that were planned to go together. Isn’t that what everyone does? It’s how our house is decorated right now! No one has the money to go all out and decorate their house all at once with nice things. But for this project, a house couldn’t be pieced together. We needed every furnishing to have its place and to be something someone would pay to experience, so we did some Return on Investment calculations (if you’re interested, check out Bigger Pockets podcasts, they’re an awesome wealth of information) and decided to do a cash-out refinance of our updated duplex to pay for that experience people are willing to pay for.

BEFORE

Yay! Now I had a chunk of change! And spend it, I did. Lord did I shop. Things people use daily and that need to last and need to be comfortable, and need to not have other people’s dirt on - these big items I bought new: pillows, mattresses, a sleeper sofa, a couple rugs, and cute matching accent chairs. I also splurged on a new fridge that would fit my smaller kitchen, and a new dishwasher…because there wasn’t one and I hate scrubbing dishes. Everything else I got/found gently used to save my budget - from the kitchen sink, to the TV. It was so much fun, y’all!

After what seemed like the longest 4-months e v e r, renters moved out and the fun began. Most of this little cottage needed a little elbow grease or some paint. A lot of paint. I also have some handy/free laborers in my corner. Our moms and friends helped me clean, and our aunt tackled the plumbing and new electrical wiring. **see the clouds part and hear the angels sing** But I also learned about an unwelcome someone named Murphy who makes stupid laws. Apparently Murphy’s Law is “if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.” Murphy exaggerated a bit, not everything went wrong, but I did run into a few hiccups that slowed the pace of the job that I had one month to complete: the sewer backed up and flooded the basement…with 2 inches of sewage. Enter a baby back-hoe, plumber, new sewer line, and a lot of bleach; husband and son got the Corona and I was quarantined for Covid for one month, locking me out of the house while the handy man finished the floor; we fell through the mudroom floor, finding a completely unsupported structure floating on a puddle of mud that was collecting the runnoff from seemingly every other yard on the block; the drainage situation also put a kibosh on the back patio I had planned, but not before the cement crew came in an tore up the whole back yard; a pipe under the sink was cut, flooding the kitchen; and I picked the wrong color paint (and painted the entire exterior of the house) 3 different times. Dammit, Murphy.
I did a bit of budget rearranging, learned to do a some things myself, took all the help I could get, and stuck it to the man. My tenant has moved in, and I have moved out - until May 1, when vacations start rolling in for the summer.

I am super excited to start the journey into this new market. With or without Murphy.