Next Project...

[u crank]

Well Armistead the next project looks very interesting. You know what they say, fun is where you find it.

I did this once. Bought a hundred year old farm house, very cheap and gutted it to the frame. The results were very nice and it was our home for twenty years. Got a good price for it when we sold. We moved to be close to our Daughter and Grandson. One thing I said though was I would never do that again. If you have the skills and time the results can be very satisfying. I worked in construction so the know how was no problem but it was a lot of work for one guy. There were times when I thought I would never get it done.

Keep us posted and the best of luck. And the eight acres part sounds really nice.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Beautiful house you found there buddy. As AVGWarhawk said, older homes have more character, and personality. I love that covered wrap-around porch. Hope you're gonna leave that there. Hard for me to tell from the picture, but that looks like 3 large Oak trees in the front, and maybe a Norway Spruce on the right rear?
I'm glad to hear that you're doing better with your health. Any improvement is better than none. Keep us up to date on the repairs. I love old houses and have been in many of the old mill homes in Paterson. The wood working, moldings and carvings on some of those old homes is nothing short of astounding. I especially liked some of the old pressed-tin or cooper plate ceiling tiles I've seen. Anyway, best of luck to you and your wife with it.

@Wolferz:
I've seen enough death of all kinds and between all age groups to say that we're all on borrowed time here.

[Platapus]

A house and 8 acres for $46K

I don't think you can buy a driveway for that amount where I live.

Good luck to you.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Platapus

A house and 8 acres for $46K

I don't think you can buy a driveway for that amount where I live.

Good luck to you.

In our area, numerous homes like this exist. The cost is not in the home, it's in how much it cost to restore them. The fact is many of them simply rot.

However, our county is overall a poor county compared to the others in NC. You can buy houses rather cheap. Many in surrounding richer counties are buying up houses and land here now, willing to make the hour drive to work in Guilford.

They key here with all the old neighborhoods is to know which ones are increasing in value, which ones are going down and buy as a neighborhood is going up. Just a mile away, the entire block is restored, houses cost 3-500K. This home is in between, one block is good, the one behind it is a mix of people restoring, but still many going to waste, but it's on the rise. For the most part it's in town, but with some land. In reality, it would cost about 300K to bring this house where it needs to be, with my connections and friends, I think I can do it for about 100K. That's with me and family doing a lot of the work.

[Jimbuna]

Sounds like a pretty cool investment

If only I weren't so lazy these days, the wife and I are tinkering with the idea of moving into the countryside but I'd need to buy something that was ready to be lived in hence the price would be on the upper scale

[Karle94]

I too live in a house from the mid-late 1800s. It looks something like this:
http://img.akam.no/923/923997/original.jpg

It´s a classical Norldlandshus that were pretty common in those days.