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Rebecca Roucloux Avery, 67, had already done the thing most people aspire to: she owned a brand-new home in Austin, a city people pay premiums to move to. She was retired, financially stable, and living in a modern construction built to last.
But then she left it all for a 132-year-old Victorian home in Vermont, a small town in Illinois, according to a report by Realtor.com. Worse, she spent nearly as much money fixing the place as she'd paid for it in the first place.For Avery, leaving Austin wasn't about the house. It was about the people in it. She wanted to be closer to her family. So the proximity to progress really mattered less. And that’s exactly when she stumbled onto something that felt like destiny wrapped in red brick and a mansard roof.
Along with her partner, she is renovating the Victorian home built in 1894. They have already fixed up 1,000 square feet. Four months into ownership, with the foundation and the roof fixed, she is learning how expensive it can be to restore old homes.
There’s more to do, but Avery is someone who loves a project, so it's keeping her busy.A Facebook post changed everythingAvery didn't want to spend her whole life in Texas. That's when she saw an old Victorian house made of brick with a mansard roof.
"It looked like the Herman Munster house. It wasn’t even for sale," she told the outlet. She always wanted to live in a big, old Victorian house, as she loves history and architecture. As Vermont has its own Facebook page, Avery posted about the Victorian house she was interested in. "I asked if anyone knew of any houses for sale.
People responded, letting me know about a house that was two blocks away from the one I was first interested in," she recalled.It was a 4,000-sq-ft home, and the asking price was $125,000. Her son paid a visit and found it had a new roof and a nice basement. The sellers were ready for a handshake deal at $110,000. She thought it was a great bargain, given that it could be sold for $200,000.She continued looking for other homes, and that's when she stumbled upon the one she bought. The 4,000-sq-ft home sits on half an acre. The Victorian house has five bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms.
She called the owner directly, and he revealed that he bought the house seven years ago at an auction for $10,000. The house was already deteriorating. The roof had leaked for years. There was no air conditioning, no kitchen.
A basement fire had left its own damage. The asking price was $160,000. Her realtor, Nick Curtis, helped coordinate a proper inspection of the Victorian house, and she negotiated the seller down from $160,000 to $97,500.
He had an insurance claim on the roof he'd never pursued; she leveraged that. He agreed to $10,000 worth of foundation work during the inspection period. But the renovation work was only about to begin. Foundation work ran $45,000. The roof and rotted decking cost another $40,000. These were the big-ticket items, the ones she'd been warned about. But they weren't the only surprises.“When we repaired the roof, we closed off the chimney. That accidentally trapped some bats inside that came flying out while I was on the couch watching TV.
The second issue was water. The basement flooded after a big rain. We needed a sump pump. It took 12 hours to get the water out – I was crying. The last thing was a weird design quirk. The third floor had a balcony that opened up and overlooked a bathroom and a giant garden tub.
We sheetrocked over that and made the balcony space a closet,” Avery told the outlet.Despite all the trouble, Avery is happy, as she feels this is the house meant for her.
"It was the right house for us. This home makes sense because my partner and I can do the renovation work. He has done some electrical work already, helping remove the knob-and-tube wiring. I am handling the design and have put in a lot of hours removing wallpaper, skim-coating walls, and sanding. I have spent 40 hours on one bedroom alone," she said.They're not trying to flip this house. They're not even sure it's their forever home: at 4,000 square feet, it's twice the size of what she needs, and the stairs feel steeper every year. But this home is everything she has hoped for. Neighbours walk by regularly now, stopping to ask about the renovation. She's invited about 20 people inside to see the transformation. They tell her how gorgeous it's becoming, how grateful they are that someone is saving this piece of their town's history.
She has found a community, and she is happy. After all, home is where the heart is. In the end, that's what matters the most, right?
