A Farmhouse and an Old Motorcycle Dealership

Wow, now that's a score! So much garage space! I would fill every inch of that with old German cars, haha

So jelly.

Ok, I gotta ask.

What's a property like that going for in the Lehigh Valley these days?

Super cool.

I look at something like this and wonder when I will feel at ease enough with life in general to want to buy a property to live in. Doesn't seem like it'll happen any time soon.

Congrats on the new place, looks really awesome!

Amazing how you guys fulfill my dreams for yourselves.

Thats a pretty sweet deal right there.

I have no new info and I already said congratulations.

It's just so damn cool I had to come back to the thread to loiter. There are no 1860s farmhouses in PDX, and we're not really inclined to move to outlying areas where we could find the closest thing, but I am still very, very jealous.

In reply to SVreX:

About $250k- I have only just recently stopped panicking about being in debt for the rest of my life.

Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to SVreX: About $250k- I have only just recently stopped panicking about being in debt for the rest of my life. Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

Yeah, that kills me.

I'm looking at houses in the same price range and all I can find are HOA subdivision houses.

Oh wow, I like that. That would be my ideal retirement home. Lots of room to work on cars, set up a workshop, and store stuff. And a house too. Good score.

pres589 wrote: I look at something like this and wonder when I will feel at ease enough with life in general to want to buy a property to live in. Doesn't seem like it'll happen any time soon.

At ease? Not so much. We tend towards more of a "berkeley it, let's see what happens" method than a calculated, safe bet- we've been through enough moves and life changes at this point to realize we can handle most things. If it's more expensive than we thought, maybe the racing gets dialed back (I can always go back to racing on two wheels for the reduced cost), or maybe the shop gets rented out, or maybe we decide we hate it and try to remodel and flip the place.

I guess what I'm getting at is that part of the fun is in not being completely at ease with it, that's what keeps things interesting. I spent our first few weeks of ownership daydreaming about living out of a van, because I was anxious about the responsibility and wanted nothing more than to get away from it. I'm sure I'll feel that way again, many times, along with feeling like it's cool as hell occasionally.

Basil Exposition wrote: I'll bet you'll find some neat old floors under that carpet. Wall to wall carpet was a big thing in the 70's and 80's and many beautiful hardwood floors were covered up (and preserved). I had 50's house that I bought in the 80's. I ripped up the manky carpet and the floor was perfect hardwood underneath.

+1 here. House was built in 1954, We bought the house in 76. Owners had put in new wall to wall to sell the place. We waited ~5 years before ripping it up and going back to hardwood.

In reply to Hal:

One more here for crossing your fingers for what's under the carpet. Our entire house was carpeted, and it all had hardwoods underneath. Some of them were in bad shape from being under carpet under leaky windows, but mostly fine.

Actually, the dining room was hilarious; we actually bought hardwoods with the plan of tearing up the the awful old linoleum we'd found under the two layers of carpet(!) and installing that instead. Then we discovered that the linoleum was over more linoleum. Over particle board. Over hardwoods.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to SVreX: About $250k- I have only just recently stopped panicking about being in debt for the rest of my life. Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

Come to West coast of B.C. Where a standard lot with a house that needs to be torn down costs $1 mil.

You'll feel much better.

I'm mainly just posting so this shows up on my "your posts" list...and also to say it looks like a really cool property. I expect it will be a lot of fun (even if you are telling stories about it one day long after you've moved on). Very unique...very awesome.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: Yep, on the outer edge of what is still considered Quakertown. Previously we've lived in New Hope and Bethlehem.

SWMBO grew up in Pennsburg...yeah Jihad Jane territory. Be careful about your neighbors...

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

My situation has always been fear of job upheaval requiring a move to another city. The aircraft industry has not been the most stable in my personal experience.

I imagine I'll be renting until I'm five to ten years from retirement. Until then I value the flexibility too much.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to SVreX: About $250k- I have only just recently stopped panicking about being in debt for the rest of my life. Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

You're still young. A 30 year mortgage will be finished when you're only in your 50's, assuming you can't pay it off quicker which would be likely.

As I told him when I visited the shop, I would be seriously shocked if a house built in 1860 didn't have hardwood floors under the carpet and underlayment. Although my ex's house had old-growth pine flooring in the original rooms. But it was still decent flooring after getting refinished.

We've pulled up a corner of the carpet in pretty much every room- it looks like most of them do have boards (rather than plywood) underneath, so you guys are right. The boards seem to have pretty big gaps between them though, which I would assume is typical for a place this old?

The carpets will probably get pulled up when the need arises- with two dogs and a cat I think it's only a matter of time until something we can't vacuum up happens

Congrats, glad to hear this deal worked out. Awesome place.

It sounds like it was mostly if not entirely move- in- ready. I would call $250k for a nice 1800s house and garage a pretty damn good deal for the area, without even considering the bonus dealership. Nicely done.

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

Floor gaps are not necessarily typical.

You may be looking at at the subfloor. Sufloors for that era were often run diagonally, and were built with junk wood (usually 1x6's). They were intended to be covered with a 2nd layer of finished flooring.

OR, you may be looking at a rustic plank floor. Farmhouses were often floored with random width wide plank flooring. It was often pine (sometimes now called heart pine). This was considered a low quality floor when it was originally installed, but is now treasured for the beauty and natural richness of the wood grain. People now often consider the gaps, knots, and wild grain as having wonderful character (like patina for cars). I happen to love rustic wood floors (as do many), but these were not considered good floors when they were originally installed.

Either way, it comes down to what you like. You can sand and refinish anything. You just can't make a knot-filled rustic floor look like a tight-grained high end floor.

FWIW when I redid the floors in our building, which had originally been a tack shop in the 1800's, I borrowed a floor scrubber and went through a couple brush heads cleaning it(~1500 sq-ft). Then I just liberally applied polyurethane floor coating over the entire thing. Since it was nowhere near smooth, there was no need to worry about a flat even surface. In one spot that was especially worn, I even left all the tiny tacks that were embedded into the wood & didn't come loose during cleaning.

Yeah, there's grooves and gaps where crap falls into it, but since the floor is so uneven anyway, a vacuum is usually how we clean it.

Congrats!!! You had me at old motorcycle dealership....

Super cool car guy property. Congratulations.

Awesome place! Maybe look at a pellet stove for the shop if oil gets too costly? Waste oil heater?