Ruthie Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 My dh wants to move to a more rural place. OK, fine. But all the homes we look at with the land we want are such dumps. Unlivable. I am hsing a middleschooler and high sschool looms in front of us, do I even dare think about attempting such a huge feat? I'm talking total gutting. I don't want to spend my remaining years with my dd fixing a house. kwim? do you think it is worth it? Ruthie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMW Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 It CAN be worth it, imo. If you have just one to homeschool, you could work through 3-4 hours of school a day and do projects together on the home for another few hours... that is incredibly learning time... and team work. You have to have patience, yes. I lived through that experience myself. We took a major project a year... plumbing and electricity one year... replacing walls one year... doing floors another year... etc. If you cant stand the idea of living with tools... if you don't want dust and mess... don't do it... If you know that you and/or your husband don't follow through and complete projects... beware!! But, if you set your mind to it and you get a home at a low price and you keep your monthly payments low... you can do a lot and end up with a nice reward! If you have lovely furniture, you'd want to store it... if you don't have a garage or ability to pay for storage, you would want to fix one larger room first and store what you want to keep safe! I absolutely think you could do this and homeschool one, even a few children, depending on how much you are involved in the teaching... but you have to be realistic about what life is like living with major projects... The reward is there... it takes time and lots of effort and understanding along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruthie Posted May 30, 2009 Author Share Posted May 30, 2009 I have 3 kids to hs. My whole thing is that I want to give them the things more land offers (animals, pool, freedom to make a mess outside), but hsing does take time and my dd is 13. Do I really want to spend the few years left with her working on a house? But she herself really wants some animals. Maybe it is worth it for her? Ugh,BMW, how did you live during all that time? Did you live in only one part of the house? what about cooking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in IL Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 We bought a huge house with everything (bathrooms that are big, huge kitchen, just HUGE) on 6.5 acres with a barn, orchard, etc. The drawback - everything needed fixing. Make sure you can afford all the necessary changes. We are in our 8th year here - and we are making progress (this summer is huge - new 1400 sq. foot deck, siding and roof), but there are other equally expensive things that still need done (our bedroom/bath, kitchen, etc.). We have already done 2 bedrooms, 2 .5 baths, some windows and the 27x26 living room - but we still have about $150K worth of stuff that still needs doing. Just make sure you can live with the stuff that needs changing til you can afford to fix it. On the flip side - it has been great for the kids - they have an egg business and about 150 chickens - they do ALL of the chores - great experience. They mow lawn (yes, we all do - takes forever on 6.5 acres of grass), they pick cherries, apples, pears, asparagus, they eat the fruits of their labor (garden, eggs, orchard, homemade bread every day). It takes a TON of time and my husband is home alot and gone alot. (he's a pilot and he is either home or gone = so we have more time than most people.). I dont' think I could do it with little kids and only have a husband on the weekends. But, then again, we do all our own work, so he keeps pretty busy (and has learned tons about remodeling). If you could afford to hire it done then that wouldn't be a problem. Just some other ways to look at it... (by the way - consider the equipment you'd need to maintain - we have 2 huge lawnmowers so we can spend less time on the lawn - one cost about $10k, because it is also something we can use to do heavier things if we need to) Lawn mowers with 60 inch decks are expensive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 We have friends that lived in a mobile home on their property while they built their house. I think a similar strategy for gutting a house could work. I can't see how you would live in a house while gutting it and homeschooling to boot. It's definitely not for the faint-hearted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 I have lived in a 100+yo fixer-upper for ten years. It's only worth it if you can embrace renovation as a way of life AND can live with imperfections for a loooooooong time. Like BMW we do roughly one major project a year. The rest of the time we live with the cracking/peeling/crumbling and pray that things do not break before we can afford to fix them. When we bought the house we thought we'd have it done in ten years. :smilielol5: We have probably another 100K to go. Literally every square inch of this house and property needs to be repaired or replaced. It doesn't help that dh's career has always required a lot of hours. It also doesn't help that, between tendonitis issues and asthma, I just don't have the necessary stamina to do the work. When we bought the house we thought that since we like creating things, we would like rehab. NOT! We have learned that while we do enjoy little projects like building a loft bed for a kid, we hate-hate-hate the constant rehab. Dh and I have learned that we absolutely cannot work on the house a little every day, or even every week, because it sucks the life from us. We choose to spend money on travel because we love it, and we choose to do one major house project a year. That means we live truly as rehabbers for a couple months each year. Each and every project we have ever done on this house has taken twice as long and cost quite a bit more than originally projected. We have also found it difficult managing the workmen. There are always those precious few who are fabulous, and then there's a LOT of mediocre out there. And, often, the fabulous workers are at the mercy of those who are mediocre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMW Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 You sure you want to know how I lived??? hee hee Most people would not have done what we did... but I think that most people would do some things differently and it would be just fine! So... like I mentioned... you have to live with tools around! All sorts of types. We lived upstairs and didn't use the downstairs. For a time, I hauled our water because we had to put in the plumbing... We used public laundry mat for laundry and showers every few days. Once the plumbing was in, it was much better. The thing is... when you do without, each thing you add in, you really appreciate!! I remember being SO happy when I had a kitchen sink!! We would put dishes in a tub and take them downstairs to the laundry room, which had 1 large wash tub... not fun. But, we worked as a team and got through. It was not easy. I would not recommend it... BUT, if you, on the other hand... have the plumbing and electrical in already and just have to remodel... replace walls... fix up every room... you can do that... (I think) We had chickens and land and it was very good for the children. They love those memories. We had it rough, but it doesn't have to be that rough for you... if you get property and a house, like I said, that you can live in WITH water and facilities! And as another said, you live with projects going on... We didn't work on it daily unless it was something like plumbing... that we really needed sooner than later... !! I am a "get to done" girl... so, it is important to me to take a room or area and really get it to the finished place... Know yourself and your family and what you are willing to give up (having lovely furniture or nice things put away for a while) and ask if the trade off will be worth it. I think at 13 if your daughter takes a few years with you and you have a hopeful, happy attitude you can teach her so much about accepting what you have and working for something better... this is what life is about... she can learn a lot in a few years of this... and take it with her. Your example to her can set the stage for her making responsible choices in the future. (the lessons of priorities and what is important... if getting out of town is important and having animals and space, etc.) It doesn't seem to me like she would lose out by having a few years to work with the family on this... Now... IF you love living in a finished home and keeping it lovely each day and neither of you know anything about working on projects to fix houses up... hmmm... proceed with a lot of caution!! And I have to agree, projects always end up costing more and taking more time... keep that in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 You have to really want to do it. Don't just think you do. Our house is 150 years old and only needs modest renovations. After 9 years very little has happened. My dh works many hours, we travel as part of his work and the kids need to study and the guitar needs to be played and, and and. :) He just didn't understand when I told him I didn't think this was the best choice for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Our house is around that old - 1860s. As I type this, my husband is re-framing the dining room porch, which started out as a project to replace the screening so we could leave the door open... :001_huh: Suffice to say, in an old house - particularly one where the previous owners' highest standard was "cheapest and easiest", which translates into delightful things as spray foam between the window sashes - there is no such thing as an afternoon project. AND, we live in town, where we cannot have "farm animals", and the drunk, brawling neighbors are out across the street every single night when it's not freezing. However, we would do it again (on more land, outside of town) in a heartbeat. This house was built by hand, has seen many generations of families and all their joys and sorrows and, in many ways, it is an honor to restore it. (Or maybe I am a glutton for punishment. :D) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shalom22 Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Have you seen "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long? Nough said. BTDT. We bought a house on 5 acres. The house was not really livable, but we lived in it. We were going to remodel it...:001_huh:. We did not know what we were getting ourselves into. I had to do most of the work except for the stuff that was just too much for one person, like jackhammering up the master shower floor. We went the way of ripping out everything that we were going to replace. I took out the castiron bathtub with a sledge hammer by my self. It like to killed me. We worked on that house for about two years, I won't do that again. I am too old for that kind of labor. We have a different house now, it needs some updating but nothing that has to be done right away. We will tackle these projects one at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruthie Posted May 31, 2009 Author Share Posted May 31, 2009 Ugh! Thanks for all the stories, it is really sobering. the house I'm considering is only 50 yrs old. A young 'un compared to some of your homes! I think it has solid bones, just needs renovation. Giving my dd that experience is another way of looking at it.She'll have her own home soon enough ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.