Can I remodel this house?

10 years ago

I'm not sure if i'm posting in the right forum and if I'm not please tell me where I should post this in. I'm torn between building a house and remodeling my great-grandfather's house. Ever since I started looking for a house, I kept going over the fact that the happiest I've ever been has always been in my papaw's (great-grandfather) house and that house hasn't been lived in since he died in 1999, even then it was completely going down hill. This house as you can see has no formal foundation, it sits on cement blocks, the whole house would need new plumbing (the bathroom and kitchen were added like 15 years after it was built), it has no up to date septic system. The kitchen is completely falling in on itself and needs to be rebuilt, basically the only room that is still in good condition is the main square room that all rooms were added on to at later dates. My fiance says the land is too "marshy"(he says he sinks when he walks on it, I don't though except when it rains) and wouldn't be good to build on, because when we build the foundation I'd like to add a basement. My whole family says its not worth it to redo the house that, eventually, it'll just fall in or be torn down. It breaks my heart to think that it can't be saved. I'm asking, am I crazy and my family is correct to say that it can't be saved? Plus I can't even build and use parts of the house to keep the memory because my grandmother doesn't want the house torn down right now, though she said a long time ago they wanted to restore the house but decided it wasn't worth the money to put into it. So should I?

Comments (6)

southerncanuck
10 years ago
That is a question only you can answer once you determine what you want in the final Reno, That will determine if it is doable after you have put bids out for quotes from general contractors. If it is within the budget you had in mind then it is something that you can have done. If you have an unlimited budget anything can be done.

That is if it can even be saved, the first thing I would have done is a soil, substrate analysis by a qualified engineer that will determine if the land will support a new foundation, if not the rest is moot.
aidan_m
10 years ago
For a few hundred thousand dollars, the house could have a basement built, correct the drainage, and update the plumbing system. Another 15K will put on a new roof.

To build the foundation, the house would have to be lifted with steel beams, and supported by stacked timbers. This is several times more costly than building a foundation from scratch, and would likely exceed the cost of a new build.
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kirkhall
10 years ago
Salvage some timbers and windows (for interior decorations) and take it down. No one has lived there for 14 yrs. A restoration of this house would be much more costly than building something twice the size. You'd have to have an excess of money to be able to afford to restore it, since there is no way it would be considered an investment of any kind. A bank will not finance this.

As they say, some things are priceless, but it is still just a thing.

Think about what really you love about that house. The smells? The views? The windows? The large dining table and family dinners?

And, replicate it.
millworkman
10 years ago
Anything can be remodeled, it just depends whether or not it is money well spent.
User
10 years ago
Money can fix anything. If you have limited funds though, doing anything with this house is an act of idiocy.
Fori
10 years ago
It's got a cute form and the location looks nice (at least around here it would be considered desirable). I'd at least get someone out there to look at it. Nobody can tell much from here.

Forget about the basement though--it would have already had one if it was doable. I bet nobody in that area has one.