What happened to This Old House? omg

[chad22]

The first thing I did was strip off all the layers of old roof and put down new with double coverage 30# felt and premium shingles...

This house needs a new roof as well. It's only leaking in a few spots in the the front bedroom and in the bathroom. I'll temporarily patch it enough to get by and then once I get the inside finished I'll redo the whole roof when I have some more money.

But one thing I need to do is get a tree limb removed that overhangs the roof. I'm surprised the wind hasn't already brought it down onto the roof as it's very hollow and one limb already came off of it.

I'm gonna get an estimate soon from a tree service company around here and see what they'd charge to remove it.

 

[EddieWalker]

I never knew the home owners paid for the work on the show. I figured the reason they did the show was because everything was donated and the labor was part of the crews pay for being on the show. Why would anybody pay to have somebody do whatever they wanted to do and top price AND have to deal with the delays and distractions of a tv crew being there?

Eddie

 

[IslandTractor]

I never knew the home owners paid for the work on the show. I figured the reason they did the show was because everything was donated and the labor was part of the crews pay for being on the show. Why would anybody pay to have somebody do whatever they wanted to do and top price AND have to deal with the delays and distractions of a tv crew being there?

Eddie

Good question. I suppose there is some cache to having your home be featured on TOH, and you do get pretty well tested contractors but it sure is an expensive way to do renovations. Kinda like buying a 57 Chevy and having it delivered to the local Chevy dealer for restoration.

 

[ultrarunner]

One of the TV shows did a home makeover here and it was done with very little cost to the owner... the kicker was the makeover triggered a reassessment the family could not afford to pay each year.

I guess there is no free lunch...

 

[chopped]

Back in a day when they started the program. I got a kick out of one particular person they had on the show. He would look at everyhitn and just say thats ''gotta'' go. and on the the next part and he would say the same thing. I always thought its easier to just tear it all down and start from scratch.
But now fast forward 30 or so years and my kids now have houses and I hear omg those cabinets have to go .. reason is they are "old" 11 years old LOL....And I also heard form one of them that to put Tongue and Groove pine in a house takes away from its resale cvalue. Im not sure about that one but I know any natural wood in a house sure adds to the value in my opinion.
But my overall complaint is that This Old House doesnt show people new to it or un experienced how to do projects in a simple cost effective way.
However U Tube has made huge progress with life in the real world. Many more u tube videos of the real world.
So for me This Old House was a good thing, In its time it was much more to me, Now its just entertainment.
There must be money in it to fly these people to the other side of the country to film how to plant some plants LOL

 

[Jstpssng]

This house needs a new roof as well. It's only leaking in a few spots in the the front bedroom and in the bathroom. I'll temporarily patch it enough to get by and then once I get the inside finished I'll redo the whole roof when I have some more money.

But one thing I need to do is get a tree limb removed that overhangs the roof. I'm surprised the wind hasn't already brought it down onto the roof as it's very hollow and one limb already came off of it.

I'm gonna get an estimate soon from a tree service company around here and see what they'd charge to remove it.

With all due respect, aren't you doing things a little backwards? I'm no expert by any means;to me however, the foundation and roof are the two most important things to address. Besides,visible leaks are often only the tip of the iceberg; it could very well be dumping water down walls, causing rot which you will only find later. Besides, it would be too bad to get the entire house renovated then have the roof fail and ruin all of your work.

 

[chad22]

With all due respect, aren't you doing things a little backwards? I'm no expert by any means;to me however, the foundation and roof are the two most important things to address. Besides,visible leaks are often only the tip of the iceberg; it could very well be dumping water down walls, causing rot which you will only find later. Besides, it would be too bad to get the entire house renovated then have the roof fail and ruin all of your work.

After digging into this old house some more. I think I MIGHT eventually tear it down or turn it into a garage once I get the place paid for. Leaning on tearing it down and salvaging the boards for a garage eventually.

The stone foundation has settled pretty bad. "I could fix" but don't think I will. I've been just jacking it up and getting it as level as possible using bottle jacks and setting some bricks underneath the floor joists. I figure I'd probably have around $2,000.00 put into it to get it up to a livable enough condition until I get it paid for and I can then save up by then to build a new "Smaller" house on the lot.

Also looking close in the basement the concrete walls are cracked and are caving inwards.

Also found out from the city that this house is actually 109 years old it was built in 1906.

I hate to see the old house go as I love old houses but this one does really need to go eventually. It has extensive rot in some of the exterior walls, some due to termites and others due to water damage. I didn't really care if the house was in that bad shape as the main thing I wanted was some land in my childhood hometown as that's where I figured I'd feel at home more and I already do.

There wasn't any bare land for sale around here to build on and not much of anything else for sale in this town.

I've moved around with my parents and and after moving back to my hometown I don't think I'll ever leave here again.

I just feel like this is where I should be.

The price I'm paying for the house and large lot is worth it to me to get to be back home in my home town.

Also I don't see it as a waste of money to tear it down eventually as I could be just paying all this money for 10 years to just rent a place to live and not own it.

So at least I'll own the house and the land it's on once the last payment is made 10 years from now.

So I think I'll just patch the roof and then put a tin roof on it and reuse the tin roof on the new house. Or if I decide to use the house as a garage I'll just leave it on there.

 

[mark02tj]

Is this place safe to live in? Or are you still living with your parents?

I think you really need to rethink this. You're paying a total of $30,000 over a period of 10 years for something that will eventually be an empty lot. You're also putting in time and money trying to make it livable. And that's just "livable", not something nice that you can be proud to show off to people. How much is an empty lot in that town worth? What's it going to cost you to tear it down when that time comes. You're going to need to look at that since the house most likely has asbestos in it you're going to be dealing with "hazardous materials" at tear down time.

I'm guessing you did this on a land contract. Did YOU have a lawyer that YOU paid for review the contract? That's always worth the money it takes - you have to remember that the document that you signed/will sign was prepared by a lawyer looking out for the other guy. I know that part of your goal is to rebuild your credit, but you might be better off in many, many ways to walk away from this deal. I hate to see you throw good money after bad.

If you want to pursue this topic further, it should probably go in a new thread as we're deviating horribly from the original topic.

I do wish you the best of luck with all this!!

 

[IslandTractor]

As someone who owns two homes built in the 1890's, I want to point out that while some construction practices since then have improved (foundations are one obvious example), very few homes built today, even McMansions, have the quality of lumber, trim and style of the old homes. If they haven't been kept up over many decades, some are too far gone to salvage. However, if the bones are still good, you'll almost always end up with a more distinctive quality home in the end if you renovate rather than tear down. Don't tear down or remuddle, renovate!

Of course not all homes built a hundred or more years ago were built well to begin with so that needs to be considered too. And, not all renovations need to be done at once either. Make sure it can be made sound and functional and then live in it a while before doing costly renovations.

You may find that the layout and organization work fine even if different from run of the mill homes today. Stainless kitchens will go out of style just like Avocado and Harvest Gold did. White is classic. Great rooms are a fad too. Nothing wrong with old style living room and dining room. Even utilities like heating don't always need updating. We have a hundred year old gravity hot water heating system that delivers smooth gentle heat and works without needing electric power or problematic valves etc. We added a separate A/C using modular components and saved mega bucks compared to tearing out the old system and installing a "new" HVAC system. Redoing plumbing can be a mind boggling expense if hired out but using PEX and PVC makes it a reasonable DIY project that can be staged.

Lots to assess before making a decision but don't make the mistake of tearing down a quality character home just to build a cookie cutter Home Depot Plain Jane replacement. Do your homework first! This Old House Journal is a good place to start learning.