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Better than Plumb

What's my house worth?

Kevin Ireton, editor-at-large

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Last week I read in The New York Times that nearly one in six homes is “worth less than the mortgage owed on it.” In this context, I’m sure that “worth” means “market value.” In other words, one out of every six homes has a market value that is less than the mortgage owned on the house. Nonetheless, I let the original phrase suck me into a philosophical quagmire: What is the worth of a home?

I immediately went to cyberhomes.com and plugged my address into the search box. Five seconds later, up pops an aerial photograph of my house (clearly taken before I put the blue tarp on the barn roof) along with the news that my house has lost $15,000 in value since last June. And on average, homes in my town have lost $100,000 in value over the last two years.

Well doesn’t that just figure? Here I am thinking my house has never been worth more to my wife and me than it is right now. Since June we have put new gutters on the place, installed a solar clothes dryer (a clothesline), finished the staircase, laid a new brick patio, finished the office, and finished the last bedroom, including the tiny walk-in clothes closet I completed last weekend, and that my wife immediately declared she wanted (it was supposed to be mine). Hell, after 20 years of working on this house, I’m starting to spend time actually living in it, and it feels good, real good.

Everywhere I look I see things that I touched--windows, beams, bookcases, stonework--and made better in the process. I see a house that somebody else would have bulldozed and hauled to the landfill, but that has provided me shelter and a 20-year education in building. My house has taught me plumbing and electrical work, timber framing, epoxy repair, and stonework. It has taught me (or at least reinforced) the value of hard work, patience and perseverance. This house has taught me the humility that comes from living with your own work and watching what weather and use can do to it. This house has taught me how generous friends can be with their time when you need help with a project. (I’m thinking in particular of the night Chuck Miller and my father-in-law were here until 11:00 helping me finish the basement slab for the addition.)

I’m pretty sure that cyberhomes.com has not factored any of the above into their estimated value of my home. Maybe I should email them.

More and more these days, we reduce the value of everything to a dollar figure. We want to know: “What did it cost?” “What’s the payback?” “Was it a good deal?” “How long did it take?” “Time is money, you know?” People ask me how long it took me to restore my old windows because they want to calculate whether it was worth it, but they never ask how long it took me to play a round of golf. Of course, that could be because I don’t play golf.

Recently when my father-in-law was helping me work on the new patio, I said “We’ve put a lot of sweat into this place over the years.” My intention was to conjure up all the good memories of challenges and accomplishments he and I had shared while working on the place. I wanted to celebrate our relationship and the way it had grown, weekend after weekend, as he drove up from Redding, Conn. to help me work on this house. But even he couldn’t help himself. He looked at me and said, “Do you think you’ll ever get your money back?”

I could only think to answer, “I hope not.”

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Comments (2)

AndrewInChelseaQC writes: Can't seem to find a way to contact you directly so I'll try via a comment. I guess in a way it has to do with something to do with adding value to your house, intrinsic value. A few years back FHB had a piece highlighting the work FHB staff members did on their own homes, the small cool projects. One of the projects was a window seat that had a shelf that pulled out so that a person reclining could set a mug down without having to put it on the floor. My wife would love to see a picture of that window seat again, as we have one in our plans. I tried searching, no luck... asked for help on Breaktime, and a member there thought that it was your window seat. Any chance you could send me a picture of "your" (?) window seat? Or the issue number.

Thanks for your help.
Posted: 9:49 pm on January 12th

TheProductGuy writes: I feel your pain. My house appraised for nearly $300,000 last July. It's now at $275. Never mind the new deck, new bedroom windows, re-tiled master bathroom...you get the idea. Check out my blog at www.housingzone.com/blogs...I'm The Product Guy (second blog down).

I don't play golf, either.
Posted: 12:06 pm on January 9th

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