Project house hell, overdoing it edition

I love our house, but I would KILL for a separate 3 car garage for projects.

Kudos for taking on a such a brave endeavor!

dculberson wrote: Cool.. I was planning on a 72" but it seems like you make a big jump in cost and weight to go from 62" to 72". So I'm planning on doing some shopping to see what the main difference is. It might be worth it to pay for the 10" of additional width. I'm hoping to get the main mowing down to an hour or so.

Test drive them before you buy. Yes, those monsters can mow a lot of property quickly. But they're designed more to mow large open fields. Even though they're zero turn, something that big can be a bit unwieldy. If it can't fit in spots you need, or is hard to move around spots where you need to be precise, it may not be worth it. It only took me 2 hours because even though my property was largely flat, there were spots that were extremely bumpy and I had to slow down. If it had been smoother, I could have done it in 1:45.

Nahhh, it won't mess with the racing at all. Congrats! 3300 sf is a LOT of house.

My two year plan is to find another house with a big enough lot for a decent size shop or find a house with one already there. Gotta be in or very close to the mountains too.

My only house dream is to have a "compound" someday, with garages and outbuildings and a pond and stuff like that. Congratulations man, that is very cool.

Ahhh, Ohio. Where you can buy a house for the price of a VCR. You probably paid substantially less for that than I did for my cramped 0.5 acre split level here in Pittsburgh.

ScreaminE wrote: Ahhh, Ohio. Where you can buy a house for the price of a VCR. You probably paid substantially less for that than I did for my cramped 0.5 acre split level here in Pittsburgh.

Maybe in most parts of Ohio, Columbus isn't one of those parts.

Yeah, I cant see Columbus being any cheaper than PBG. I think the secret here may be that Columbus is experiencing enormous growth outside the beltway.
This house is inside the beltway though in/near some of the great remaining areas.

I will however, agree with some of the generalization of Ohio. In my small Ohio town, $200k will get you a half acre and 2500sqft of all brick house with attached 3 car garage, on the 18th fairway of the only fully private country club in the county. If you shop/buy right.

Cool house and lot, that much land is nice to have as a "buffer" from your neighbors and the outside world. Plus it is nice to have a second set of living quarters, you never know when you will have relative from out of town or a buddy going through a divorce or whatever that could use it.

EvanB wrote:

ScreaminE wrote: Ahhh, Ohio. Where you can buy a house for the price of a VCR. You probably paid substantially less for that than I did for my cramped 0.5 acre split level here in Pittsburgh.

Maybe in most parts of Ohio, Columbus isn't one of those parts.

Findlay also, not as bad as when I lived in Chicagoland but no great deals.

That looks like an awesome spread!

EvanB wrote:

ScreaminE wrote: Ahhh, Ohio. Where you can buy a house for the price of a VCR. You probably paid substantially less for that than I did for my cramped 0.5 acre split level here in Pittsburgh.

Maybe in most parts of Ohio, Columbus isn't one of those parts.

I thought about that after I posted. Columbus seems to be doing it right, so I figured I was probably wrong about the real estate market there. Cleveland, they have the cheap houses I've been told.

We didn't close yesterday, the selling bank is balking about a $7,000 unpaid water bill they have to cover. They'll get over it, we should close tomorrow or Monday.

Yeah, Columbus is not cheap, and this is actually in Worthington so while it's not Grandview or UA, it's still one of the more expensive areas around Columbus. We wanted to be in Grandview but when we toured a 4 bedroom 2,500sf house that was $600k (and sold quickly) we knew that was not practical for us.

Looks like an amazing place. Congrats! Depending on how bad snow is in the winter you may also consider a smallish tractor with a 3pt hitch mow deck and a blade for scraping in the winter. I love my 42" ZT Toro though. Even added a receiver hitch to it so I can drag trailers around which is a huge help.

dculberson wrote: Cool.. I was planning on a 72" but it seems like you make a big jump in cost and weight to go from 62" to 72". So I'm planning on doing some shopping to see what the main difference is. It might be worth it to pay for the 10" of additional width. I'm hoping to get the main mowing down to an hour or so.

Hustler Super Z......we've got a pair of 72" ones(one side, one rear discharge) Between the two mowers, we can knock out three 5acre treed yards in under an hour and a half. And thats including 1.5mi of driving down the road.

dculberson wrote: We didn't close yesterday, the selling bank is balking about a $7,000 unpaid water bill they have to cover. They'll get over it, we should close tomorrow or Monday.

Sorry to hear. Hope it doesn't cause any snags. You're on a bit of a timeline. It would be a mess to try to do this come late fall...

yamaha wrote:

dculberson wrote: Cool.. I was planning on a 72" but it seems like you make a big jump in cost and weight to go from 62" to 72". So I'm planning on doing some shopping to see what the main difference is. It might be worth it to pay for the 10" of additional width. I'm hoping to get the main mowing down to an hour or so.

Hustler Super Z......we've got a pair of 72" ones(one side, one rear discharge) Between the two mowers, we can knock out three 5acre treed yards in under an hour and a half. And thats including 1.5mi of driving down the road.

Oh, thanks for the endorsement - that's specifically one model I was looking at.

@Klayfish: I know. I hope they don't stretch this out any further. Especially since past Monday, beyond the hassle and clash with my time schedule, it'll start costing me money to keep my rate locked with my bank.

Sweet house and property, congrats!

We're looking for something similar but with the sizes shifted a bit; 1/2 the house and twice the land.

The wife wants animals, a gym (she has competed in powerlifting and is wanting to again) AND a shooting range... wherein the animals are not shot by the people on the range. I want my own 4 stall garage and acre of land, both devoted to Rallycross and Rallycross related activities.

Congrats!!! I cant wait for Thanksgiving!!

We closed yesterday! We showed it to a couple friends then sat and drank sparking grape juice on the front step. Thanks for all the encouraging words, it's easy to have buyer's remorse with a project of this size. Now comes the work of getting it rehabbed and ready to move in. Hopefully more contractors will start returning my calls!

My Realtor took a ton of before pictures and she's planning to come back and take after pictures.

wooo hoo!!! When do u move in? Make sure that you get the nursery done first!

We'll probably move in about 60 days, assuming response time from contractors picks up!

We made the 60-day move in window, just barely of course. Then baby Naomi showed up and she rocks. House work slowed down of course but progress continues to be made.

The room that looked the nicest when we toured ended up being the worst - instead of just some drywall patching needing done, we had to strip the walls inside and out due to moisture and mold inundation. Then rebuild the room including residing, reinsulating, etc. I just put the finishing touches on that room:

The Library. With a candlestick. Err, no candlestick yet though.

Carpet goes in the family room and living room tomorrow. The bedrooms have been done since October, same with the kitchens and 3 of the baths. The fourth bathroom is done now. Lots of projects remain but it's been a great house so far.

Lots of surprises of course, the least of which was how hard it is to get some contractors to show up. Even people you've hired before and spent thousands with before. The polished concrete floors ended up being done by a new guy, he did a great job but cost almost doubled.

The garage has vehicles in it but isn't functional yet. I need to get it rewired - there are some breakers, some fuses, and a lot of scary hacked wiring. That's going to start over from the ground up.

Also, I've been stretching my skill sets on some things. I did a ton of finish carpentry which I've done a bit before but this was involved.

Crazy angles and all. Going to put a butcher block bar along the top of that wall to the upper left. It overlooks the kitchen. I'll get more pics once it's up there. The kitchen-family room combo turned out well, everyone that sees it loves it so far.

In reply to dculberson:

Wow, that looks amazing! I have neither the patience or skill to pull off anything close to that level of awesome.

Awesome! Congrats on the baby and house!