As it turns out, the house was repossessed and sold in April to some guys that want to start flipping houses for a living. They ripped out all the plaster and replaced it with drywall. Installed new wiring, plumbing, insulation, windows, flooring, bath and kitchen. They also fixed up the decks and cleaned up the yard.
The house sits on just over an acre of land and is ten minutes closer to work, so that helps a lot. It backs up to the baseball field, sand volleyball court and community building (previously a school) where they have open gym twice a week for Basketball & etc.
I contacted the town zoning officials to float the idea of building "something bigger than a two car garage but not as big as a four car garage". The neighbor has a good sized building next door and they didn't really seem to care one way or another so long as I stayed inside the setbacks.
Just pick up a Permit App and pay the lady.
Let's hope it's that easy!
Anyway, we put in an offer and went back and forth a few times with the seller before getting to a comfortable price. Contract is signed and Closing is planned for the first week of January 2015.
It'll take a while to get the funds together for the shed, but getting this done will be a big step in the right direction! I won't get too excited until the ink is dried...
Some pics below:
