My Most Expensive Mistake, to date; the Smithton house

We finally closed on this today. Delayed 2+ weeks thanks solely to the most incompetent bank employees in the world. NEVER buy a house through Wells Fargo, in fact, if you have any type of accounts with those criminals, go close them down and go to your local Credit Union instead.

But enough about the criminal syndicate masquerading as a bank, onto the good stuff. 

1950s raised ranch, 1850 "livable" square feet, closer to 2300 "under roof". 8 and 10 foot ceilings everywhere except the downstairs bathroom. More breaker panels than the last strip mall I built, but they're mostly labeled, so that helps. 2 car attached garage, with a 20x30 garage and a 15x20ish steel shed. 0.67 acres

garage

Shed. 

The pictures in this post are stolen from the realtor, hey, same as the incompetent appraiser! I'll put up other pics in following posts, this is just much easier on my laptop. 

So, looking at things, parking for 12 if properly arranged. A good start, and with NO zoning in the township, that's exactly it, a start. 

Gonna be nice getting all my tools OUT of the berkeleying weather, that's for sure. Then the bonus of actual, nonflat, concrete floors to work instead of gravel.

BUT

This house is not without its problems. Ceiling tiles in th first floor and one of the upstairs bedroom, ALL need replaced and I HATE ceiling tile work. As mentioned, the wiring is ridiculous and only mostly labeled, the plumbing is it's own can of worms, but I think I've mostly figured it out already. It needs painted, and the wallpaper over paneling all removed for new paneling or something that isn't hideous 70s wallpaper. And the PO took the mailbox. 

ON the good side though, most of the wiring is actually labeled, most of the plumbing pipes say what they are, the garage is on its own meter and came with a 60 or 80 gallon compressor that builds pressure, holds it, and smells like burning rubber when it's running. Most of the gutters have good metal gutter guards in them already too. 

First priority though is getting the carpet out of the upstairs bathroom for some LVP. Looks like a good plywood floor from the bits I saw around the toilet, so it shouldn't suck that hard. Then changing over the locks, putting locks on the bedroom doors, getting internet up and running, and a VERY deep cleaning, and we should be able to move in. 

I guess a benefit of canceling school for the rest of the year means we don't have to wait till June, but probably will anyway by the time it's up to snuff. 

Upstairs bathroom remodel thread

Yes, the garage has big doors on both ends. I'll most likely ripping out the pictured door and replacing it with a 48"man door.I'd just rather have a smaller opening to keep whatever heat in and weather out I can. 

Fair bit of shelving included in the garage, as well as a wood burner (also going away). The work bench is shot, but there's enough wood in the shed to build a better one. 

This is just the data stamp from the compressor, I was hoping a picture on a big screen might be easier to read

Congrats! Jealous of 12 car parking. To get 12 car parking here, would be $3-4$M.

Previous owners took the second fridge and welder they said they were leaving, but left us a very broken and out of tune piano, some plates, a dead mouse, a very expensive looking china hutch that is just going to be impossible to get out of the house, and a hand full of plastic containers. They also left, and I didn't get pictures yet, a sizeable pile of roughcut lumber, some school style chairs, and a bunch of straight up trash. I'm going to need a dumpster at both houses for this move. 

Hard part for me is going to be figuring out the sun throughout the year so I can figure out the garden and the chickens. The patio has a hell of a lot of room for expansion though. 

While not necessarily "closer" to any other GRM members, it's much easier to get to than my current house, so that might be a positive too. 

This is my other big complaint though, then I'll be done for now. 

I HATE in wall ovens like this. Luckily, I have the awesome oven I bought last year to move in when my mom moves out of this house. And with no gas *grumble*, I'll have to deal with the bullE36 M3 coiltop cooktop for a while. Might just get a gas tank later though. 

37 kitchen cabinets by the way. I'm giving serious thought to labeling them with chalkboard paint. 

Try some anti sieze and a rubber squeegee on the tag.

Congrats! 

If you think a vehicle's previous owner can really berkeley up a car, wait until you find all 60 years, 2300 sf, and two floors worth of the pervious owners AND their families!

We had a ceiling fan that couldn't spin since it would hit a closet built out of the hallway wall.

Wow! Neat place and lots of potential for awesome!

Very nice, congrats! I'd  kill for just one of those "vehicle storage devices " never mind all of them in one place. This seems way nicer than the other one with the giant shop.  Enjoy

Nice purchase!  I'm also envious of the garage space.

Why do you hate wall ovens?  I love mine and when we did the kitchen over we made it a double.  So much easier to get stuff in and out of, plus one person can be working at the stove while someone else is checking the roast.

Remember,  the list of E36 M3 to do to the house never gets any smaller. Ever. Once I realized that, I relaxed quite a bit. Just keep plugging. 

In reply to Duke :

To me they're like an anti-tardis, considerably smaller on the inside. Measuring the doors, it's the same size as my floor oven but open the door it's like half the volume. A turkey looks like it will be a very tight fit. 

Hopefully the old kenmores are good and reliable though, because when I checked depot for a replacement in wall and saw they cost DOUBLE what I paid for my floor oven I couldn't believe it. 

Full disclosure, I've never used one myself. Dana has one at her place, and it does oven things fairly well (considering no one in that house can cook), but it's also rather small inside. My great aunt had a double in wall when I was growing up and baked up a storm, but those old Italian women can cook with anything. 

Fantastic looking place. Lots of room for activities.

Congratulations! 

Think hard on the double overhead door situation in the garage.  That configuration can be really handy. 

Leave the wall oven, replace the stovetop and cabinet under it with a standalone. You'll love having two ovens. 

Awesome place!

Was it in the contract that they were going to leave the fridge and welder?

Congrats!  That's no mistake.  Best money you'll likely ever spend.

why not replace the ceiling tiles with drywall if you don't like it?

Garage space for days. That's what's really important isn't it?

Congrats

In reply to docwyte :

Not in the written contract no. But neither was the air compressor or the hutch. Not a big deal to me, fridges are cheap and I already have a stick welder I don't use. Might have just been a miscommunication between the realtors, because they left A fridge, just not both. 

in reply to Grizz : 

I'm pricing it out now actually. 8 cases of 2x2 tile for the basement, 4 of 2x4 for the bedroom. It's just so messy and I have no idea where my reveal jig is anymore. Although these appear to be flat tiles, so if I don't need to cut reveals it shouldn't be as bad. I just see broken tiles and have flashbacks to being punished at my first job "here's a 2500 square foot office, go do all the special cuts". 

I've never been able to tape drywall properly so it doesn't show,  and I'm 6 inches taller than any of my available helpers, so hanging it on the ceiling is just asking for problems. Be a good excuse to buy the drywall hoist from harbor freight I've had my eye on though. 

In reply to RevRico :

If I am understanding how the buildings are placed on the property, it then seems that the rear garage has two doors so that you can drive through it to then drive something into the steel building at the left, rear of the property. 

I would consider keeping the two doors. 

PS: I like my wall stove. It's interior is a little smaller but it works for my needs. Mtn's idea of a free standing unit where the cook top currently resides could be a good answer. 

I'm also extremely jealous at the amount of cabinets in the kitchen

Nice start! I'm sure you'll have the rough edges softened in no time!

Can't see your photos. Did the realtor take them offline?

In reply to OHSCrifle :

Weird, Zillow still has the listing up and that's where I pulled them from. Oh well, here's uploaded screenshots of the first post then. 

 house

 weird stove

 pass through garage, which it turns out has a door of some sort in the plywood on the house side.

 shed. 

more and better pictures to come. Today was hectic. Probably be a build thread before too long. It's gonna take me weeks to get my stuff over there and setup.

Dang that's cool. I love the look of the detached garage. Also does the house have the worlds tallest house chimney or am I seeing that wrong? One tall and skinny, one short and fat? Neat. Does the fat chimney go through the attached garage or is it behind it?