Let's play "what if?"

[hisno1girl]

.44 acres?

Nope. Unless there was tons of vacant land around.

Our lot is smaller than that and I hate how close the neighbors are.

[circa1978]

Is it haunted?

[Deleted]

I would. Between my dad and my grandpa we could have the thing fixed up with minimal costs to us in no time.

[cheeseandcrackers]

In the middle of nowhere?
No, def not.

[cutecloud]

Nope. I don't do the whole "middle of nowhere" thing. Or the whole one bathroom thing either, lol.

[Deleted]

Not lived in for 13 years + built in 1900 = No.

[karmasabiotch]

If you could add more bathrooms I would go for it.

[TrickyBob]

Jun 10, 2013 8:19:11 GMT -5 cutecloud said:

Nope. I don't do the whole "middle of nowhere" thing. Or the whole one bathroom thing either, lol.

Lol, I already live in the middle of no where. This place is closer to an actual town than what I am. 


I'd possibly pay 14k for the lot, put a double wide on it, and rent it out. That's how folks roll around here. 


In reality, we aren't buying squat unless it's the land down the road but I don't have an extra 92k to spare. Damn. 

[sparkythelawyer]

Jun 10, 2013 1:34:25 GMT -5 TrickyBob said:

What if you could buy a 2.5 story, 6 bedroom, 1 bathroom home, 2016sq ft, on 0.44 acres of land in the middle of no where for $14,000. Would you do it? 

What if it had no heat? What if it hadn't been lived in, in 13 years? What if it needed a ton of work? What if you could live somewhere else while you had it fixed up, would that change your answer? 


And most important;


What would you do with all 6 rooms?

Do I have the money to fix it up?  Is it structurally sound?  

6 bedrooms, 1 bath and 2000 sq ft. seems weird to me.  I am assuming the bedrooms are teensy.

SO, now having read the rest of this, if I'm just daydreaming here?  I probably merge the master bedroom and the next closest bedroom and put in more closet space and a master bath (old houses never have these, right?).  Then I take a look at the remaining bedrooms, and see if they are really big enough to be bedrooms.  If not, I knock out another wall and either create another big bedroom, or somehow work to have four bedrooms of a decent size rather than six small ones.

I would also take a look at my lower level layout to see about getting a powder room in on the main floor (Again, I am operating on the assumption that there is likely not one.)

Otherwise, I try hard to maintain any look, feel or effect of the original house :-)

[EmilieMadison]

No:
-It would probably need LOTS of work, which would take lots of money and time- always more than you plan for.
-One bathroom? We'd need to add more, so more money, more time.
-2000sqft and 6 bedrooms? Those are going to be ridiculously tiny. And so are all the other rooms.
-If I'm going to have a house in the middle of nowhere, it better have lots of land. A .44 acre lot is barely bigger than a city lot.
-No.

[EmilieMadison]

Jun 10, 2013 7:43:39 GMT -5 @sounderschick said:

I would. Between my dad and my grandpa we could have the thing fixed up with minimal costs to us in no time.

"Minimal cost" in "no time" seems like a recipe for disaster LOL!

[DotAndBuzz]

Only if I was fairly certain that I could sell it when it was re-done, and I could afford have it re-done This Old House style (and that includes at least an additional 30% on top of the initial reno estimate) - exceptional contractor, architect to re-work the layout, etc. none of this "I know a guy who would give me a GREAT deal, and my dad can do XYZ" stuff. There's no way I'd try to do that level of reno myself.

[Deleted]

Well for me the only thing that would detract from its attraction is the work and it being in the middle of nowhere.

However if I could afford to hire people to do all the work I'd choose that. This is a step up from building a house for yourself, in terms of being able to customize w/o actually waiting for the structure. That's pretty cool!

[TrickyBob]

The foundation is stone. That right there would be an arm and a leg to fix and would make me worry.

However, my house is held up by 4 tree trunks sooo...I'm not sure which one I'd be more concerned about.

[Deleted]

Personally, I would get a few bids from contractors for all the work that needs to be done. If it's that big a fixer-upper, you want a professional's help and THEN make a decision after you determine how much time/money is going to be involved. I could find something to put in 6 bedrooms.

[jane6672]

No, I'd want more than a half-acre if I'm buying an old farmhouse in the country.

[juliagoulia]

I'd take the 14k and take an awesome vacation instead, lol. A house that old that hasn't been lived in for that long is going to cost soooo much more in the long run. Our rental property is a row home built in 1907 and our $14k purchase has equated to about 14,000 headaches :-P

[papie]

Just no.

1. I don't do middle of nowhere. 
2. I don't do single bathrooms
3. I don't do complete remodels
4. That sounds tiny for 6 bedrooms

[daisybuchannan]

I would not.

Honestly though, I'd have to see pictures just bc I'm so curious of how that could even buy a 6 bedroom home!

[papie]

Oh and in reality, I could totally use 6 bedrooms.  3 kids, 1 master, 1 guest room, 1 office. 

[TrickyBob]

This is one of my dream homes:




Sits on 108 acres. 

Too bad it's $1,100,000. Wee bit out of our price range. Haha.

[deanlicker78]

I love and adore old houses and love and adore fixing them up. Clearly, since we are living in an old church.

I would die to see the inside of it, post pics!!

[TrickyBob]

Jun 10, 2013 9:34:26 GMT -5 daisybuchannan said:

I would not.

Honestly though, I'd have to see pictures just bc I'm so curious of how that could even buy a 6 bedroom home!

I could just imagine it cleaned up, painted white, with either a full front porch or partial wrap around. And I love old water pumps. 

I'm willing to bet there are 4 bedrooms upstairs and 2 attic bedrooms. 

There are no inside pictures. None.

[deanlicker78]

That would be a beautiful home all fixed up. It's probably a good thing that isn't located near me. I would be all over that place peeping in windows and stuff.

[TrickyBob]

I was wrong.


There are FIVE bedrooms on the 2nd floor, including the master bedroom. The 6th is in the attic. The 1st level has a dinning room, family room, kitchen, AND living room.

I NEED to see the inside of this house. I want to know how they shoved that all in there.

[julez]

This sounds like something I would LOVE to do - in theory. In reality, I would probably die of anxiety interviewing contractors and waiting for it all to get done.

nursewife, we're in the early stages of considering a move from the city to somewhere with land. It would be amazing to have the kids grow up with chickens and goats and a huge garden.

[Deleted]

Jun 10, 2013 7:28:33 GMT -5 shopgirl07 said:

I'm sure it's a total teardown, so you'd really just be buying the land. So if you like the lot and want to build, then yes. Otherwise, no. I'm sure the cost to renovate would far exceed the amount you could sell it for once renovated.

Not necessarily... maybe just tear it down to the studs.  We had a total dump property next door to us.  I mean hoarder style, mold, no one had lived there in 10 years.  They gutted it and fixed it up (for a $ premium I am sure).


Regardless the house will need a lot of help and likely a lot of $ invested in getting it to a livable situation.  

I would seriously check out the foundation.  Our house was built in 1890 and the foundation sucks.

[papie]

Jun 10, 2013 9:45:05 GMT -5 TrickyBob said:

I was wrong.


There are FIVE bedrooms on the 2nd floor, including the master bedroom. The 6th is in the attic. The 1st level has a dinning room, family room, kitchen, AND living room.

I NEED to see the inside of this house. I want to know how they shoved that all in there.

I can bet you the closets are too small for more than 2 dresses and one pair of pants.  The bathroom is tiny. And one of the bedrooms would make an ok but small walk-in closet.

NOOOO.  That house is a tear-down. 

[TrickyBob]

The taxes are only $999.00



And it's in a flood zone, which is what I figured. And it's flooded pretty decent around here, that particular town gets hit every year.

[pantsparty]

No. Too many renovations, too much work.