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manzoni

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Hi all

My husband and I live on the Eastern Shore of MD.
We are purchasing a 1924 Farmhouse that we want to renovate.

My husband has been a carpenter (new homes, home renovations) for 21 yrs.

I am sure we will be here looking for assistance and helping out where we can.

Cheers!
 
I love the old style homes. Good luck in your renovations.
 
Welcome! Good to see that others are buying old homes to renovate!

Good Luck and keep us updated...
 
1924 farmhouse? I'm green with envy! :D

I hope you manage to share some photos. As for your husband being in the trades for 21 years, just how are we supposed to be helpful??? LOL, maybe he can help us out some.

Anywayz, welcome to the forum and congats on the new 'old' house. ;)
 
hehe yeah he does know how to do a lot of things. He totally amazes me when I see his work and what he knows. We will definitely help out here where we can.

The only thing he has never done, which we will need to do, is to raise the house. Its on piers and needs a foundation put in. :eek: He has done foundations but never had to raise a house to do one.

Here are a few pics of the house we are buying
011508_17101.jpg


011508_17102-1.jpg


011508_17103.jpg
 
I'm looking at the barn and thinking "Ultimate Woodshop!", hehe. Let me guess, he has the same idea?

Needless to say, raising a house is quite a big project. But he can do it. I've never raised a house before but I know the principal and it's pretty straight forward. However, it's not something he's going to do without help. If anything, it's going to take at least 2 hefty guys to get beams under it.
 
Welcome Manzoni:
I don't see any reason to raise the house (just my opinion), but the biggest problem in raising it will be the chimney on the back. If there is any way to get rid of that and replace it with metal pipe, I would do that first. Also the chimney is in a portion that appears to have been added on; he'll have to be very careful not to let it drop loose.
I have raised a few houses and can lend a hand when he is ready to get started on it. Please keep us posted and we'll be happy to work with you on it.
Glenn
 
The chimney is for the furnace. I think he is going to demo that back little room and rebuild it afterwards. The furnace and stuff in there is sitting on a concrete slab.

The reason for needing to raise it is because its on piers. When inside there is the dining room downstair and bedroom upstairs that you can see the floor/walls have sagged down. Dave is under the impression, and I hope he is right, that by lifting the house and putting a real foundation under it, will mostly level out the floor/walls again.

Is there another way ?
:confused:

And yes, the barn thing is going to be his... all his. :D
 
...And yes, the barn thing is going to be his... all his. :D

What a lucky guy!

He's right, that will level the house. However, lifting and shimming as needed will also do the trick. I thought you we're maybe going to put a basement under it or someting like that. You stay inside with a 6' level and he under the house with 6-ton bottle jacks lifting a little at a time, till you tell him it's level. Then he packs shims or some other material at the top of that pier. Then do the next pier as needed, and the next, till everything is level.

Then it's time to repair all the plaster that has cracked from all the movement. :p
 
It would probably been a good idea to replace the center poles (they must be starting to rot by now) with footers and steel poled scew jacks.

If there is no foundation your husband is right. one should be put in. lifting the whole house seems like a scary project. i would rather build the foundation as high as possible to the house. maybe just adding 8 feet at a time. Using a 6x6 to span the opening and lay block up to that. It would be something that he could do as little or as fast as he wanted with out being to overwhelmed.
 
Hi Manzino:
Leleling the floors is considerably different from raising the house. Tool Guy and Guyod have the correct answers, just combine them and go for it. As long as we are just leveling the floors, I don't think there would be any plaster repair needed. Floor leveling usually happens at mid span of the floor joists. Just use a 4 X 6 beam, the jacks and some concrete blocks to hold it when it is level. Under the house we don't have to worry about freeze depth; simply dig down to undisturbed earth, place a concrete block on its side (for more bearing on the dirt) then stand the blocks up to make up the rest of the distance. I would not use any wood unless it is treated and rated for ground contact.
Glenn
 
Hi all

I took some more pictures of the house over the weekend. Thought I would post them. Still trying to sell my house so I can buy this one. Have 90 days to sell mine. Anyone want to buy a gorgeous cape cod on the shore? hehe

Anywhooo here are the pics of the house we are trying to buy:

Front of house
front.jpg


Awesome front door that we hope to refinish
frontdoor.jpg


Stairs going to second floor (sorry, had to take pics through the windows)
stairs.jpg


Looking inside the front door
insidefrontdoor.jpg
 
Rear of the house (we're gonna have to demo that small room with the chimney to raise the house to put in a real foundation)
rear1.jpg


Rear of house - we are going to get rid of that little thing off the side. I dont know what used to be in there. Its empty now.
rear2.jpg


Inside the back door
insidebackdoor.jpg


Inside the furnace room
furnaceroom.jpg


*keeping my fingers crossed that we can get this place* I think it has a lot of potential!
 
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