Some young homebuyers are still willing to renovate

Talk to almost any real estate agent and they will tell you "sweat equity" is dead when it comes to millennials. "Fixer-upper houses" now seem to be the exclusive purview of investors who make a few needed and highly visible updates and then resell the houses for a quick profit.

In fact, one longtime Realtor recently quipped: "In my experience, each succeeding generation gets less handy and less willing to make home improvements themselves. They want any home they buy to be move-in ready."

So it is almost an anomaly these days to find millennials who are willing to come home from a long day of work, roll up their sleeves and renovate their house like their parents and grandparents likely did.

Lindsay and Zack Hines are two of those exceptions.

The couple purchased a 1953 brick ranch home in Mount Prospect, closing right before Christmas, and they still haven't moved in. The couple continues to live with Lindsay's parents while they spend most weekends and evenings toiling in the terribly outdated home they purchased, because they were convinced they could turn it into a showpiece and eventually sell it for a nice profit. They purchased it from the original owner.

"You are so gung-ho at the beginning, working in the house every free moment. But then life continues and you have other things to do and it really becomes exhausting," Lindsay admits.

They keep working, however, because they are convinced this house will eventually enrich them when they sell it in four or five years and that profit won't come simply from housing market improvements. It will come because they have updated and improved the house through their own hard work.

Since the closing, the Hineses have hired people to replace the roof and gutters, upgraded the electrical service from 60 amps to 110 amps, installed circuit breakers in place of the old fuses, replaced pipes that had literally crumbled inside the walls, added can lights and installed hardwood floors throughout.

Currently, the couple is waiting for a carpenter to upgrade and reconfigure their existing kitchen cabinets so they can order countertops and new hardware.

While they hired others for that work, the Hineses, too, have thrown themselves into the project. They, their friends and family (particularly Lindsay's parents) have painted the front and back exterior doors, retiled the walls and bleached the grout of the floor tile using Q-tips in the main floor bathroom, ripped up ceramic tile in the foyer and carpeting in the living room, removed three layers of linoleum in the kitchen and Pergo in the family room, painted all of the window trim and woodwork, replaced heavy living room drapes with blinds in each of the 12 large panes, painted the soapstone fireplace and replaced ceiling fixtures.

Most startlingly, they enhanced flat, solid panel, stained wood doors throughout the house with decorative trim that, once painted with an antique white enamel, were transformed into gorgeous two-panel doors.

Walls and ceilings are being gradually painted (edgecomb gray on the walls and antique white on the ceilings) as they wait for a workman to finish his part of the kitchen so that countertops and new appliances can be installed and so Zack can install a tile backsplash.

"We hope to finally move in around the middle of April," Zack says.

"It was crazy, nonstop work for the first month and a half while we were doing our part," Lindsay adds. "We also had contractors giving us estimates and evaluating the furnace and so forth. That was an education. We never expected prices to vary so much between tradespeople and to find that some, for instance, were willing to remove the baseboards before they laid the hardwood floors and others just wanted to but them up against the baseboards. We never expected that. We had to vet people more than we thought we would."

Now, however, the Hines have hit a stall point while they wait for workmen, kitchen cabinets and other ordered materials to arrive.

"You have these glorious plans for your house and then reality runs into your budget when the plumber tells you he has found some bad leaks and also has to cut a bigger hole in your plaster wall than expected in order to install the new vanity you bought," Lindsay says. "HGTV makes it all look so easy and it isn't."

Zack, the son of a custom remodeling contractor in Indiana, grew up around construction. "I knew that $1 becomes $3 and one week becomes four weeks - and I knew it would be chaotic. But I was still surprised when it took me two weeks to tile around the tub," he says. "Time and money are a huge reality when you buy a house that needs work."

But the Hineses do not regret their decision to buy a house with "good bones" in a "great neighborhood" near downtown Mount Prospect. They know they will love living there and will eventually sell it for a healthy profit because of all the work they have done themselves. Zack, in particular, is pleased they chose the house over a more finished, move-in ready condominium they looked at the same day.

"In Indiana, we generally don't share walls with one another, so I really wanted to buy a house with a yard," he says. "Besides, we know this house was a better investment because we have been able to improve it. There wouldn't have been much we could have done to that condo, so our only financial appreciation would have come from the housing market going up."

"It is truly amazing what a can of paint and some elbow grease can do for a house," Lindsay says. "Besides, we have heard so many scary stories about flipped houses, where major problems have been masked rather than really fixed, that we knew we didn't want to buy one of those. We preferred to do it ourselves and do it right."

Originally, the pair admits, they wanted to go through the house and replace everything. But then, after checking out some prices, they realized the old brass doorknobs and hinges could be painted to look like oil-rubbed bronze and the back door could be painted instead of replaced.

"It is now the cutest door and I love it," Lindsay stays. "I also chose to paint the original stained front door navy blue instead of buying a new one and it made the whole front of the house 'pop.' I guess that three months into this project I can say that we are appreciating the things that came with the house and are just updating them to make them work for us."

As far as money goes, Zack said the big stuff like the roof, kitchen, electrical and flooring have come in just about on budget.

"It was the daily trips to Home Depot that surprised me and how the little things like rollers, shop vac bags and paint add up. We should have bought stock in Home Depot," he laughs.

"So we haven't been able to save as much every month as we had expected. But it is not like we won't make this money back some day. We see it as an investment," Zack says.

"Yes, spending money in Home Depot instead of in Pottery Barn has been a disappointment," Lindsay admits, "but it is one I can live with. It's not like we are spending the money on new clothes or a vacation. This is money and effort that will come back to us down the road."

Would they do it again?

"In a heartbeat," Zack says. "But next time I would hire someone to do the little stuff like painting. After two months of working full days and then working in the house all weekend and from 5 to 9 p.m. every night, we are exhausted.