Hi! My name is Debra, and I absolutely love this forum. I've been reading it for the past three days, because I keep finding topics that apply to my situation.
My husband (Mike) and I recently relocated to central Illinois (Champaign) after living in Florida for the past 13 years. Seems silly, I know (the cold weather/snow/ice/wind/mud really sucks) but my entire immediate family lives here and hubby's family is all in Michigan. Anyway, our parents are getting older (several serious health issues recently) and we wanted to be closer.
We had five glorious wooded acres in North Florida and a 2200 sf tri-level home that we lovingly restored over the past ten years (built in 1954 and abandoned and vandalized for 10 years prior to us purchasing it in 1997). It was a lot of work but we loved it.
We do dog rescue (currently at 9) so we found 2 acres just 3 miles out of city limits. It is a very desirable location, it has lots of mature trees even though we are surrounded by corn/soybean fields. We have a two-car detached garage, a two car detached shop/garage and a barn. All the outbuildings are in various stages of neglect and disrepair, but nothing we can't handle ourselves.
Now about the house.....well, it's a mess. In fact, I cried for 2 weeks after we moved in. I was so focused on the location and property that I kind of ignored the house issues when we first looked at it. We knew it was only half the size of our Florida house, but planned to add on. We actually only looked at the house once before we bought it, and left the details to my dad because we had to return to Florida. He's normally a VERY savvy old coot, but he missed some major issues on this place (I'll cut him some slack since he's 75 now and just battled colon cancer).
House is OLD, maybe 1900 or before. It's not one of those great old farm houses. It is the tenant farmer shack. It's been added on to twice, once a kitchen/half bath, then another addition for a tiny bedroom/full bath.
The windows are a million years old and the wind blows through/around them.
The floors slope to the outside edges of the house and you can feel the slope (like being on a boat?) but the floors don't "bounce" too much.
The crawlspace is maybe 12". The foundation is....well, I don't know. Red bricks and crumbling mortar around the outside perimeter, but must of it has fallen down/off. Under the house (from what I can see since there is no space and we had to cut a hole in the floor to look) is random stacks of the same red bricks and crumbly mortar stacked up under beams.
All the plumbing is that old metal pipe stuff that is rusting out bad. The furnace is propane and installed in 1985. Electric hot water heater is older than that. Our utility bills are astronomical! $375 for gas last month (stove is the only other gas appliance) and electric was $125. Remember, this house is only 1100 sf and we keep the thermostat at 68.
There is no insulation under the house and very little in the attic.
But hey, the roof is good, and the insulated aluminum siding is fairly new and in good shape.
I know if I was posting this BEFORE we bought the house you all would say RUN AWAY NOW, but it's too late, we're stuck. Not our smartest decision, but we did get a decent price and the land is very desirable and valuable.
That being said, we didn't make much of a profit on our Florida house (absolutely the wrong time to sell) so we can't afford to just scrap this house and build new.
We have lots of plans/ideas but a lot of the time it just seems so overwhelming I want to give up.
We have about $20,000 we can sink into it over the next year. I am looking for any and all opinions as to how to get the "most bang for my buck". Hubby and I are pretty 'handy' and very hard workers, but don't have a lot of professional skills like plumbing, etc.
Sorry if this is long winded......I'm just so happy to have found a place where it seems like there are a lot people who have BTDT and are VERY supportive of us ignorant "newbies".
Thanks!
Debra
My husband (Mike) and I recently relocated to central Illinois (Champaign) after living in Florida for the past 13 years. Seems silly, I know (the cold weather/snow/ice/wind/mud really sucks) but my entire immediate family lives here and hubby's family is all in Michigan. Anyway, our parents are getting older (several serious health issues recently) and we wanted to be closer.
We had five glorious wooded acres in North Florida and a 2200 sf tri-level home that we lovingly restored over the past ten years (built in 1954 and abandoned and vandalized for 10 years prior to us purchasing it in 1997). It was a lot of work but we loved it.
We do dog rescue (currently at 9) so we found 2 acres just 3 miles out of city limits. It is a very desirable location, it has lots of mature trees even though we are surrounded by corn/soybean fields. We have a two-car detached garage, a two car detached shop/garage and a barn. All the outbuildings are in various stages of neglect and disrepair, but nothing we can't handle ourselves.
Now about the house.....well, it's a mess. In fact, I cried for 2 weeks after we moved in. I was so focused on the location and property that I kind of ignored the house issues when we first looked at it. We knew it was only half the size of our Florida house, but planned to add on. We actually only looked at the house once before we bought it, and left the details to my dad because we had to return to Florida. He's normally a VERY savvy old coot, but he missed some major issues on this place (I'll cut him some slack since he's 75 now and just battled colon cancer).
House is OLD, maybe 1900 or before. It's not one of those great old farm houses. It is the tenant farmer shack. It's been added on to twice, once a kitchen/half bath, then another addition for a tiny bedroom/full bath.
The windows are a million years old and the wind blows through/around them.
The floors slope to the outside edges of the house and you can feel the slope (like being on a boat?) but the floors don't "bounce" too much.
The crawlspace is maybe 12". The foundation is....well, I don't know. Red bricks and crumbling mortar around the outside perimeter, but must of it has fallen down/off. Under the house (from what I can see since there is no space and we had to cut a hole in the floor to look) is random stacks of the same red bricks and crumbly mortar stacked up under beams.
All the plumbing is that old metal pipe stuff that is rusting out bad. The furnace is propane and installed in 1985. Electric hot water heater is older than that. Our utility bills are astronomical! $375 for gas last month (stove is the only other gas appliance) and electric was $125. Remember, this house is only 1100 sf and we keep the thermostat at 68.
There is no insulation under the house and very little in the attic.
But hey, the roof is good, and the insulated aluminum siding is fairly new and in good shape.
I know if I was posting this BEFORE we bought the house you all would say RUN AWAY NOW, but it's too late, we're stuck. Not our smartest decision, but we did get a decent price and the land is very desirable and valuable.
That being said, we didn't make much of a profit on our Florida house (absolutely the wrong time to sell) so we can't afford to just scrap this house and build new.
We have lots of plans/ideas but a lot of the time it just seems so overwhelming I want to give up.
We have about $20,000 we can sink into it over the next year. I am looking for any and all opinions as to how to get the "most bang for my buck". Hubby and I are pretty 'handy' and very hard workers, but don't have a lot of professional skills like plumbing, etc.
Sorry if this is long winded......I'm just so happy to have found a place where it seems like there are a lot people who have BTDT and are VERY supportive of us ignorant "newbies".
Thanks!
Debra
