Manalto wrote:There's a long tradition in my family of having relatives in houses close by; it has worked out well in too many ways to list. A few friends have similar situations and the positives seem to far outweigh the negatives for them as well.
It's annoying not to be clairvoyant but the good news is, if you express an interest to the owner, there's no commitment and you'll able to change your mind if it doesn't feel right. Knowing the people who live there and have an intimate knowledge of the house is a big advantage. We can only proceed armed with the information we have today, with the understanding that Murphy's Law applies. In other words, I'm cheering you on and hoping that it works out that you are able to get the place next door. How do you like the house? Have you been inside?
I agree fully about the benefits of being close to family. We did actually talk to my in-laws today, and they didn't jump on the idea, but it's definitely not a hard "no we won't move there" either. She's in an uncertain situation because part of her work has been within the D.C. area of late, but she also has steady online work which she can do anywhere. Stepdad-in-law is retired, and he goes where she goes. If she loses her used to be F/T contractor, now freelance contractor D.C. area work (downgrade due to budget cuts), that will cut her tether to that area. She knows we're in a lower COL area, and she can continue to do her online work as long as she wants from here. Given what she does, she could make up for the lost D.C. work here, possibly even with the same agency.
My in-laws current lease is up at the end of the year. Depending on what happens with her D.C. specific work in the next few months could be a deciding factor. The idea was floated that if they do come up, they can stay with us at Beebe for the interim until next door is a done deal or they decide to find another place close by if it doesn't work out for us to purchase it. One of our original intents in our home search was for there to be room for them, should they want it, when retired. So we have enough space if it comes to that short or long term.
I appreciate the cheering, and really all of your post. How do I honestly feel about the house/have I been inside? It's a 750 sq. ft. 1947 simple long Ranch style with an unfinished cellar. The exterior and windows have been upmuddled. Since I have not been inside--only seen glimpses of two east rooms because our homes are 10' and maybe a bit more apart and they don't believe in keeping curtains closed all the time--and given what my neighbor has told me about the place, I expect very little extant detail worth restoring if anything.
The short answer is: as a rental to help pay the mortgage or potential inlaw retirement house, it will serve either purpose and we acquire the property.
The long answer is: In some ways, the house next door through no fault of its own is a nuisance. Yet one we can work with to make it less so. Whomever sited that house and/or did the landscaping was an idiot about exterior water management and consideration for full root spread of mature trees. Although owning the property itself will help us mitigate some of our own water management issues, with removal of some trees and part of the stone wall which really were just a "natural" fence jammed right in the middle of a 10' separation between the homes' respective foundations, I am not attached to it thus far in an old home sense...yet.
We have discussed possibly later turning/adding to the building a sort of combo out building. Garage/workshop/root cellar/pit greenhouse sorts of things. The garage would be especially good so we can fit both cars, and rip up our current driveway here which will allow for better grading (and plantings!) on the east side of the house, and we'd turn our current garage into a garden shed.
If the town does not allow us to skirt building code by way of owning both buildings, we may decide to later shrink the footprint/remove the first floor portion of the house (and donate whatever bits Habitat for Humanity wants), as that also has even more advantages for water mitigation. It would allow us to extend the overhang on
all sides of Beebe when we redo the roof. Currently, due to code we cannot extend on the west side because there would no longer be 5' or greater to the property line as we have to the east. Since we plan to reveal Beebe's original wood siding down the road, that extra overhang would be helpful in protecting the wood siding; as well as our original wood windows; and of course water mitigation around the foundation. (Which reminds me, I need to post about a recent foundation discovery sooner rather than later.)
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It took me a long time to try to make my reply this succinct yet informative. I hope I succeeded.
If further clarity is needed, ask away.