If you pour yourself into a relationship for 6 years, then walk away, you’re removed from the situation but never completely clear of it. A piece of you left behind and a piece of the relationship lodged in your heart like shrapnel. It will always be there and it’s sort of lumpy but with time it smoothes over a bit.
A swath of buildings including the historic Eileen Court Apartments will soon be torn down to make way for the Capitol Hill light rail station. I am all for progress and mass transit and would love to hop on a train and get to Sea-Tac Airport in 20 minutes, but I have some attachments to this old building after living and working there for 6 years. Not only as the manager but for two of those years also working for the remodeling contractor. Working overtime, it not only felt like around the clock, it was. I couldn’t go home and relax and forget about work, I lived at work. During that two year stretch I would occasionally sub at WA Legal on nice sunny days. That two year taste of residential remodeling is one of the things that pushed me back to the messenger world.
About 11 years ago the owner of the building went into bankruptcy and a trustee took over. A short time later a real estate company bought it for under a million. Which is a steal for a 24 unit apartment on Capitol Hill. Over the next few years they remodeled it from top to bottom. A new roof. Replaced the white trash Bavarian stucco exterior with beige vinyl siding, All new plumbing and electrical, new light fixtures in the hallways, new carpets. They even refinished all the original wood floors. High ceilings, huge windows, gas stove, claw foot tubs, old world charm with all the modern conveniences.
When I moved in, a studio apartment was $300. After the remodel, studios were $950.
Last year Sound Transit bought the building. I delivered some of the legal documents before the final sale and had a chance to flip through them. I’m not sure what the bottom line was but a fully occupied apartment on the hill in 2007 is worth some money and the monthly stream of income factors nicely into the value. Add to the original purchase price the extensive remodeling, and an expensive drawn out legal battle with one tenant who demanded relocation assistance and still, I'm sure the profits were handsome.
After six years of sweat and blood, picking up trash and unclogging toilets, hanging sheet rock and refinishing claw foot tubs, I was burnt out and exhausted. No quality of life but a healthy savings account. Money in the bank...at what cost? Are you working your ass off just to buy a flat-screen TV? just to make your car payment?
I hope to be there when the wrecking ball hits.
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