Pre-1900 Bungalow?

[Nicholas]

Have you looked into whether or not that house was moved onto the site? That may explain the 1800's dating, plus that overhang on on the cinder block foundation looks suspicious. All of the craftsmans in my town are crawlspace homes, even those built in the 30's. But that would be Florida, and was done to keep the house cool in summer.

[eclecticcottage]

I haven't done much research on it, aside from some quick poking around on fulton history and trying to decide what it is. If my offer is accepted and I get it, I'll do more extensive searching and asking around about it. It's a small town, someone probably knows a lot about it. I will feel bad if I find out all kinds of cool stuff then I don't get it and someone doesn't fix it. As bad as it is, everything is there so techincally, someone could live in it.

Basements are a lot more common here, outside of the wetter areas-or cottages like my house. This has kind of a partial basement-I'd call it a cellar. It's rubblestone walls and dirt floors except where the water tank and furnace are-at least under the front left side. Under the back is just dug out where the stairs come down, the rest is just very low crawl space. I haven't seen access to the front right side at all.

My contractor was pretty dubious about resale out where this is, as am I. But if I can get if cheap and keep costs down by doing a lot of the work myself or with friends, I think I can at least break even. At the worst it would make a decent rental.

[eclecticcottage]

Well...still nothing. I'm going to wager a guess that the bank accepted the other offer and figured they didn't need to respond to mine (not the first time that's happened). If I hear otherwise I'll post, but since this has happened more than once to me recently, I'm not gonna hold my breath.

I guess that was the trick. About half a minute after I hit submit I got a text. They countered at 17K. I countered with a best and final a lot lower than that. Guess now we'll see how bad the other offer person wants it, and how bad the bank wants to get rid of it. No way I'd pay 17K for it. I was originally going to offer 5K (I did come up a little...not a lot...but a little) hopefully they yay or nay tomorrow. I want that out of state owner house but I have waited on this and another one before writing a letter. Mostly cuz Im a wuss about talking to people. I like it so much I might get over it though lol.

[eclecticcottage]

Well. Um. I am not entirely sure if I should be excited or watching for the men in white coats (and I actually just said that to my agent). The bank just came back and said they had to get approval for my offer because it was so low, but it was tentatively accepted.

Sooo...in the event that it IS accepted, I will be posting a lot of questions I'm sure. Now I kind of wish I hadn't sold the windows from the Bungalow, I will need some of that glass!! Ah well, I've had good luck finding free ones in the past, I guess I'll just need to work on finding some again!

As Tom Petty said...the waiting is the hardest part...(but really, it's actually going to be the fixing I'm sure lol). I still can't decide if I'm nuts or not. It needs a nick name. The last three have been easy...the Old House, because we always said "our old house", the Cottage, because it's a cottage and the Bungalow Project, because it's a bungalow and it's definately a project! I don't know what this is. The Wisteria House Project maybe. Or the Cardinal House Project, because of the cardinal in the one photo (cardinals have a special meaning-they are supposed to signify a departed loved on is nearby looking over you, and my grandparents LOVED cardinals). Or...The What Was I Thinking Project

[JRC]

Well, good luck?

[eclecticcottage]

Haha, thanks! I just scrolled through the pics and I'm not sure what I got into here. Well, I am sure what I got into but I'm not sure why! Actually, I know why too...but man o man. In one way I think it's crazy and way too much and in another way I think it's not that big of a deal, just one project at a time. I'm stuck on a real old house resto vs a good solid family house. I know I really want to keep the wide plank floors! Probably move the kitchen and bath back where it belongs...do I tear off the addition then? How do I make the upstairs make sense again? #1 gut everything (so I can use dumpster space from#2) #2 roof #3 uhhhhh

[Lily left the valley]

EC, I'd have your engineering friend look at it before you go that deep into the planning or even gutting. If you're going to be tearing down additions or needing to do a major reshoring of whatever walls/floors, best to decide such before you put the new roof on top, yes?

Also, I looked back over the photos and the roof alone might be interesting if the amount of rot in that one photo is average.

[eclecticcottage]

My thinking for needing the roof before all else is that I believe there is a leak. If there is, it needs to be remedied asap. I figure it will need to be gutted anyway, so if I can get some dumpster space for free, I may as well take advantage. Plus once everything is out I can see exactly what I have to work with. I think it looks worse than it is, but I might be optimistic. After seeing what the Cottage looked like under the old floor sill and rot issues aren't as scary as I originally thought lol. They might just have taken out a support when they moved the stairs and it just needs put back-once all the drywall (it is drywall, so I know it's not original) is out I will hopefully see the ghosts and that will make figuring it out a lot easier.

I still haven't heard back. I talked to my contractor last night (he stopped by the Bungalow Project just to see the progress) so I'll have him out to look at the roof and give me a bid this weekend if I either a) hear it's accepted or b) don't hear anything (in other words, unless I hear it was NOT accepted). I know it's going to be more than the Bungalow's was, because I will do pretty much all I can as long as I can keep it in budget to keep those rafter tails and overhangs exposed (he had said it might be cheaper if there is a lot of rot to repair them without doing the detail work and just put up vinyl soffit (the Bungalow already had it and I didn't elect to remove it). If there's any rot in those T&G boards it's going to be more to fix than just putting up new sheeting (ply) because you have to keep detail of boards. If it's not too extensive I might also see if I can fake it with ply by cutting "groove" lines in the bottom so once it's painted it matches the look of the T&G. I'd rather not cover those. If need be I can use a jigsaw and recreate the rafter tails-I know I have to recreate a few brackets anyway.

[Kashka-Kat]

Re: the need to keep out rain on a temporary basis.... that's what the giant silver tarps are for The structural elements need to be straighted up first before a new roof.

[Texas_Ranger]

How about "bungle-low" for a nickname? *eg*

Seriously, I'd go this way:
1) Structural assessment
2) Shore up anything ready to collapse
3) Keep out water

Looks like you got yourself a fun project - nothing more rewarding than bringing something back from the dead!