A millennial couple who ditched van life to buy a $150,000 hoarder house said it's worth it. Take a look inside.
Drew and Becky Bidlen are college sweethearts who spent three years traveling the US in a van.
After the birth of their daughter, they ditched van life to buy a $150,000 old home in Indianapolis.
The Bidlens are turning the property, which was abandoned by a hoarder, into their forever home.
A life on the road isn't for everyone, but for a while, it was for Becky and Drew Bidlen.
The couple are college sweethearts from the Midwest who met during college in Ohio. After graduation, the Bidlens, now 29, relocated to South Carolina. It was somewhere new for the pair, which awakened an "adventurous spirit" in both of them, Becky told Business Insider.
"Seeing how well that move went, we felt like there were so many places in the US we'd love to live in," she added.
Between 2020 and 2023, they did just that. After selling two cars, their furniture, and other possessions, they converted a cargo van into a tiny home on wheels and spent three years traveling. They wintered in warmer states like Florida and California and spent summers exploring the serene nature of British Columbia and Alberta in Canada.
Van life was filled with "endless possibilities," but the Bidlens knew it wouldn't last forever. Becky, a travel nurse, and Drew, who works in software, eventually wanted to settle down and have kids.
Like many other millennials, a generation drawn to the adventurous spirit and relative affordability of van life, they saved thousands by working remotely, living frugally, and, importantly, not spending a dime on rent.
In 2023, the couple welcomed their daughter, Aurora Mercy. Twelve days later, they found what they were looking for: a historic house in Indianapolis, close to where most of Becky's family still live.
The price was right: only $150,000. The only catch? It was a fixer-upper in every sense of the word. Take a look inside.
The Bidlens' 3,500-square-foot home was last inhabited by a hoarder who left it abandoned for two years.
When the Bidlens first came across their home, listed at $139,000, toward the end of 2023, they thought it was a steal for its size.
The 3,500-square-foot property has a main house with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a library, a sunroom, a garage, a basement, and an attic. In the backyard, there was an additional guesthouse in bad shape, which Becky said was used by a previous owner and their family while the main house was being renovated.
At the time, the couple wasn't looking for anything massive or needing major work. But when Drew went to see it with a friend who had experience renovating homes, he was sold — even though an owner with a tendency to hoard had abandoned it two years prior.
"They both came back from that walk-through jazzed about it, seeing the potential and seeing the price for it," Becky said. "We took on something a bit bigger than we had anticipated, but still felt like it was something we could do."
Given its size and price, Becky and Drew weren't the only ones keen on the house. To show they were serious, they made a higher offer of $150,000.
On the day they closed on the house, Becky said she initially felt "a little sick" about their choice.
Although she's a "dreamer" who has seen some "ugly stuff" in previous homes, Becky couldn't help feeling some trepidation about how much work they were in for with the house.
On the closing day, she said she felt "a little sick" thinking about whether they made the right choice. "I was like, 'What did we just buy? We don't even know what's under all this,'" she recalled.
According to Becky, there were piles of stuff in every room, filled with everything from trash and furniture to gadgets and books.
"Everything was just all mixed together," she said. "You would have a box with some sweaters and then Inuit-carved arts and china."
They didn't want to pay roughly $10,000 for someone to sort and clear all of the items, so Becky and Drew enlisted the help of family and friends. The weekslong process became somewhat of a treasure hunt, as the couple told their volunteers that if they found something they wanted, they could probably keep it.
"My mom took a Waterpik flosser that was new, and she was really excited about it," Becky said.
Beneath the layers of trash, dirt, and a few found treasures was a real issue: mold.
After the couple cleared out all the unsalvageable items, they were left with a few things of value, including jewelry and collections of coins, stamps, and crystals. They plan to get them appraised and decide whether to sell, donate, or keep them.
There's a more urgent problem: The building wasn't properly "winterized" and sustained significant water damage, leading to mold on the first and second floors, Becky said.
"That mold remediation process has been a whole thing," Becky said, adding that they've done most of it themselves after consulting a professional.
She added that the mold is the reason they're still waiting to move into the property, which they hope to finally do in July.
"Everything related to the air quality has been extremely tedious, especially with the mold," she said.
The couple quickly discovered that their house had also been overrun with raccoons, who left "ankle-deep" droppings in the attic.
There was also a raccoon infestation.
"The primary resident in our attic was raccoons," she said. "We don't even know how much were in there, but they left a lot of droppings, like ankle-deep."
The critters also left their mark by burrowing gaping holes in the floors and ceilings.
The Bidlens had renovated the van they lived out of, so they felt prepared to take on a bigger project.
Renovating a house is a much bigger project than fixing up a vehicle, but Becky said turning their van into a home years before served as great practice.
"That was our first introduction to working on projects together, and it was quite challenging, but it was good to learn plumbing, electrical, woodworking, flooring, and insulation," she said.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Becky said they've made almost all the major changes they want to the hoarder home. They replaced all the plumbing and adjusted a wall and beams between the kitchen and the sunroom to make the cooking area brighter and warmer.
They also spent a lot of time salvaging the hardwood floors, some of which have been damaged by water.
After finding an old fire map of the home, Becky said they discovered it once had a wraparound porch, a feature they intend to restore.
"We want to keep as much of the historic charm as possible," Becky said.
The couple's passion for preservation is inspired by their time living in Charleston.
Before their van-life adventure, Becky and Drew lived in Charleston, a city known for protecting old homes. The city's Rainbow Row is a series of 13 colorful houses originally built in the 1700s, Charleston Magazine reports.
"It's all frozen in time," Becky said. "They are just so beautiful and well-maintained."
Seeing these properties struck a chord with the Bidlens, who would venture into open houses whenever they could.
"That's definitely where this dream about restoring a historic home started, just seeing how an entire neighborhood that's been restored so carefully can look beautiful," Becky said.
In their neighborhood in Indianapolis, there are other old homes, some of which are brightly painted.
Becky and Drew are still mulling over the paint choice for the exterior of their home, which is pale pink, but will likely choose something in line with the rest of their neighborhood and similar to the houses they fell in love with in Charleston.
Buying an old house means accepting its history — which includes a few ghost stories.
In the months after the sale, Becky and Drew heard several stories about paranormal activity at their home.
"We got a few different people telling us that it's haunted and sharing different stories," she said. "That did definitely make me question things and feel quite frightened for a little while, not wanting to work in the house alone."
One of the stories involves a family who lived in the house during World War II and heard the voice of a child. Another tale centered on someone who claimed they saw a hazy, smoky figure on the property.
The house, which had several major fires, had been vacant for two years before the Bidlens bought it.
Nevertheless, the couple hasn't witnessed anything out of the ordinary yet.
Becky also finds it comforting that no two people believe the same ghost story about the house — it makes it less likely that any one myth is true.
"That makes me feel a bit reassured," she added.
The couple doesn't regret leaving van life behind to create a forever home.
While Becky said she and Drew look back fondly at their years on the road, they don't regret making the decision to ditch van life and settle down in Indianapolis.
"Both of us love kids and always wanted to start a family," said Becky, noting that living in a van and constantly going from place to place isn't ideal when you're raising children and want them to have weekly routines and a sense of community.
"People do have a nomadic lifestyle while raising kids," she added. "But we had both always pictured raising our kids with our families nearby, within a day's drive."
Becky hopes the home will be ready and safe for them to move in by July. As apprehensive as she was initially, she has no regrets about the house, even after hearing all the ghost stories.
"We love the house, we love the yard," she said. "There's definitely room to grow."
Read the original article on Business Insider
