My Money Pit--I Want Your Advice

[Gryphon]

nice! I can see its potential...
is there a bath upstairs?

[~Daisy~]

No but that big closet seems not to have much of a purpose. I was thinking half bath, since there will be 2 full baths down stairs...


Heck, I'm offering something like $27,000 for it. I plan on sinking at least $75,000 in repairs over the next year or so. I just want to get it livable first. Then I'll start my major projects like dorm windows upstairs, new bathroom upstairs.

We are going to rip out all of the nasty carpet downstairs and have all hardwood flooring, except for ceramic tile in the bathroom and kitchen. Probably something cheaper for the mudroom, like vinyl flooring. After all, the washer and dryer and all the muddy shoes we always have will be out there.

[Gryphon]

when you do put a bath upstairs...spliurge and make it a full...it will help your resale a lot.

[followsthewolf]

Absolutely.

[Sunny]

I vote for a 1/2 bath and a walk-in closet upstairs! Boy do I miss mine!

[~Daisy~]

I'm not sure if a full bath would fit...remember, space is limited because of the low sloped roof.

[Gryphon]

you can pop up a dormer. Trust me, it will be well worth it to add a full bath up there...at resale time, buyers will be saying "gosh, whoever sleeps up here has to go downstairs to shower"

[~Daisy~]

Good point...

[Gryphon]

its a great house though...seems to have lots of potential.

[~Daisy~]

That's what I'm hoping. I'm a nervous wreck over this...I've never taken on this kind of project before, and it just seems like its not real.

[Henry Hawk]

Daisy for what it is worth....about a year ago, I finished spending about 9 months to a year remodlleing my garage into 2 bedrooms and a family room......I ended up hating nearly every minute of it....It took so much time away from being with my family....I did most of the work on weekends and it really got to suck.....If I ever took on another project, I would either budget it to have it done (at least mostly) by others or I would not do it.....I missed so much time, that I could have spent with my kids, that I will never get back....at least that is the way I felt....

[~Daisy~]

I hear ya...my oldest has volunteered to help.

There are some things we'll have contracted out...the roof. The windows. The added on windows. Any construction. Having the walls tested for lead paint, and if necessary that removal of paint. Aaron has a unique schedule, too. He works for 3 weeks driving to California or Washington state and back, having a day and a half off each of those weeks. The fourth week he is off for 7-9 days. He'll be able to get a lot of work done during that time he's off.

[Sunny]

If we were just a tad closer, I'd give my husband to you...he'd LOVE to work on a project like that.

[~Daisy~]

And I'm taking all the volunteers I can get...I've already roped a friend into driving up from Southern IN to pick out all of our colors and art (she's donating some of her art out of her gallery to us), hopefully a deal on windows from one of Aaron's friends in OH, and another of his friends is an architect in OH (soon NY) who will oversee any structural changes I'm going to make (the upstairs particularly).

THEN I get a drunken Paul Baylor trying to convince Aaron NOT to move...grrr.

[me]

One thing I didn't see anyone mention was a septic and well inspection if it's in the country.  If the house has sat empty for any length of time it is vital that you have that done.