Forever HOME project!

SHINTON

SHINTON

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Location
Triad area of NC
Well let me start by thanking everyone for all the posts and input over the years, they have been out there percolating in my mind and trying to find the best possible solution(s) to our forever home concept!

Long story short, we own land, we were gonna build a new house on it, I was thinking of full basement vs workshop, buying and the alternative was buying and refurbishing (or already perfect...yeah right!)

So just over 2 weeks ago, house popped up on local Realtor listings, full basement, 3 acres and 2 barns/buildings out back. SOLD...so tell me about the house itself? 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath brick ranch built in 1973, 1800+ sq feet. Turns out we were not the only parties interested so "final and best offers please..." and we were 1 of 2 final contenders. We upped our final and best a bit more and because of our ability to close in essentially a week, we got the house!!

Now the fun begins, will be asking questions, posting pictures and generally be annoying as I figure this stuff all out! This will be a full interior restoration, not a huge deal, our family / real estate biz has bought and redone 6 homes so far. Even then, always good to get collective opinions and maybe even local leads for contractors and recommendations.

A few pictures to whet the appetite!
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Nice. In for any and all basement work info...... Where is the house on the areal shot?
 
So our first project(s) that I would love to get a bit of feedback on, one is SHORT term (coming soon!) and the other is longer term as we move on, good solution for driving out to the barns!?

Short term... cinder block basement with efflorescence on the walls up front of house. So I want to do a full / long term solution here and dig out the front of the house, waterproof outside, and new french drains? Just would love any thoughts, opinions, suggestion, local/recommendations and possibly estimated costs? The front is about 80' long and another 30' down the left side to rear. Right side is garage and only about 10-12' of wall that might need finishing again.


Long term... as you can see, 2 shops out back, big wide open grass field from the front driveway out there. Neighbor says he just drove the motorhome out over the field to the shop on back when parking, I would prefer something that is less likely to end in muddy ruts!? This will be a LONG "drive" so cost per square foot is primary concern, will be looking at cheaper solutions, crushed run, concrete washout, crushed/crumbled concrete or asphalt, you tell me!? I suspect I am looking at 400-500+ feet in length, and possibly cover the whole area between those two barns!?
 
ghost said:
Nice. In for any and all basement work info...... Where is the house on the areal shot?
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Just below the frame of the picture, bottom left!

You can see here the whole property and in RED the approx line where I would like to do the driveway out to shops and back to house/basement entrance!

View attachment 295576
Overhead with Driveway in red.JPG
 
Really feel like I've driven by that house. That's a hell of nice setup, wish I had that much land.
 
So, full basement garage?
How high is the basement from slab to joist?

I *loved* havin ga basement garage when we lived in Lewisville. Was super convenient during the winter. Not so great for my wife, when she was in the bedroom just above me and I was pounding away w/ tools at midnight, lol.

But I assume the real working garage would be either out back or on the attached upper end (unless that one is just for her...).
 
I’d build the driveway to the shops from your existing driveway. That way you are building and paying for less driveway by utilizing what already exists.

Where is the septic? Where is repair area? That will affect drive location to the shops.

The cheapest option for a driveway is fabric and some cheap version of crushed aggregate. You can get recycled concrete reasonably cheap but it can have metal in it you’ll have to deal with. Another option is asphalt millings. It’s recycled asphalt which is installed in lifts and bonded with tar. It’s cheaper than asphalt and concrete but is a little more than crushed stone. Depends on budget and the look you want.

But, whatever you do, if you put crushed aggregate down, always blade the soft topsoil off and add some decent fabric before laying down stone; it will keep the driveway stabilized longer and will help to keep the weeds out.
 
House is in Kernersville / Walkertown area! The basement does have a nice little workshop area on the end where the garage door is now. But, with the Red barn out back, that is going to be my "primary" workshop as it has a double door on the front and a single door on rear so a NICE cross breeze with both open this weekend. PLUS, the K5 blazer FITS already in there so that is a huge benefit! Check out these BEAMS...not sure I have to ever worry about this coming down any day!?

29d661b9f11a0730ec526970b3bc5728l-m26xd-w1020_h770_q80.jpg


Basement is not wet to the touch, but flaking off all the paint and NEEDS a dehumidifier for sure, bit of wet smell. I will buy (advice?) a big dehumidifier SOON that has the drain (or pump/drain) where I can run it outside and leave it running all the time. My current house / basement went from 80+% humidity to a nice constant 45-50% with my current dehumidifier so pretty happy there (1600sf basement, this new house is 1800sf)

29d661b9f11a0730ec526970b3bc5728l-m22xd-w1020_h770_q80.jpg


LONGER term thinking...I really want to close off and make the basement mostly "man cave" with window unit heater / HVAC system, needs to be good enough when I am done that I can put my acoustic guitars in there without worries of any damage!

There is also a distinct chance this basement, say 900-1200sf or more out of 1800sf could end up as a "live in" apt for my mom or my wifes dad or mom someday. We are at that age in life and that is in my mind right now that I may have to put in shower / toilet, sink, and small kitchen etc so they have their own space. Mom had to come live with us for about a week and just thinking at some point this could become SHORT term project instead of long term... This is one of the great parts of the house is this gives me that choice in life, would have their own garage door entrance and their own space as needed.

Septic is unknown, county does NOT have record of it, there is TWO pipes going into floor, calling septic folks to come out and look / pump out / give me a report soon. Not sure if 2 tanks, or they come out and meet in a single tank / field. But assumtion is that it will be immediately in the flat area right behind the house, which slopes down to water shed area (soil/conservation planned in 1972!) May know more soon.
 
Call @Riddle for your septic needs. You'll get treated right and meet a great guy in the process.
 
Call the county to do an inspection. I had 2 different private companies not be able to locate the tank, d box, or lines. The county came out and in 30 minutes had everything found and marked. Yay for gov help! :lol:
 
Call me 336.709.5014
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SHINTON said:
House is in Kernersville / Walkertown area! The basement does have a nice little workshop area on the end where the garage door is now. But, with the Red barn out back, that is going to be my "primary" workshop as it has a double door on the front and a single door on rear so a NICE cross breeze with both open this weekend. PLUS, the K5 blazer FITS already in there so that is a huge benefit! Check out these BEAMS...not sure I have to ever worry about this coming down any day!?

View attachment 295581

Basement is not wet to the touch, but flaking off all the paint and NEEDS a dehumidifier for sure, bit of wet smell. I will buy (advice?) a big dehumidifier SOON that has the drain (or pump/drain) where I can run it outside and leave it running all the time. My current house / basement went from 80+% humidity to a nice constant 45-50% with my current dehumidifier so pretty happy there (1600sf basement, this new house is 1800sf)

View attachment 295582

LONGER term thinking...I really want to close off and make the basement mostly "man cave" with window unit heater / HVAC system, needs to be good enough when I am done that I can put my acoustic guitars in there without worries of any damage!

There is also a distinct chance this basement, say 900-1200sf or more out of 1800sf could end up as a "live in" apt for my mom or my wifes dad or mom someday. We are at that age in life and that is in my mind right now that I may have to put in shower / toilet, sink, and small kitchen etc so they have their own space. Mom had to come live with us for about a week and just thinking at some point this could become SHORT term project instead of long term... This is one of the great parts of the house is this gives me that choice in life, would have their own garage door entrance and their own space as needed.

Septic is unknown, county does NOT have record of it, there is TWO pipes going into floor, calling septic folks to come out and look / pump out / give me a report soon. Not sure if 2 tanks, or they come out and meet in a single tank / field. But assumtion is that it will be immediately in the flat area right behind the house, which slopes down to water shed area (soil/conservation planned in 1972!) May know more soon.
Click to expand...
 
rockcity said:
Call the county to do an inspection. I had 2 different private companies not be able to locate the tank, d box, or lines. The county came out and in 30 minutes had everything found and marked. Yay for gov help! :lol:
Click to expand...
You’re not calling the right septic guy ;)
 
I'm sure you got an engineers stamp and a county permit before doing that, of course....

I'm guessing you bought from the original owners?
 
It was reviewed actually by a buddy that is a structural engineer. He gave me his blessing before any walls came down, will upload pic of the trusses but outside walls have the load, nothing internal on the home, the center of the house where that wall was is just below the center of this picture where the 'walkway' is on the trusses, so no 'weight' at all in center, might have been a bit more question if they were directly under the V part on each side.

As we are doing the work ourselves, the permitting process is generally not needed, bit of a gray area, but not in city, etc. Sheetrock, new floor, paint, new cabinets in kitchen, etc. My electrician will pull permits when he does that part, wires up the hot tub, etc.

Hey, on that second picture especially, tell me your thoughts folks on INSULATION? Looks good, needs more after 40+ years?

We did buy from original owners estate, built in 1973 by them and lived there until passing 2017 or so and we bought from grandkids/estate.

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Drove by this afternoon and saw you are getting a new roof. Standing seam would have looked good on it.
 
For the house, just wanted traditional architectural shingles, had some issues with water inside, probably from old solar panel install. So put on a new roof over the whole thing to get water tight, then will do new gutters, fascia, etc instead of the wood, trying to get as low maint as I can.

Thinking long term of metal roof on the barns, the RV shop needs new roof and thinking pretty seriously of covering sides with Red metal "roofing" and then top with charcoal colored metal roofing. That way hopefully no painting in the future on that building and when time comes on the 'barn' will have to see what makes sense. I prefer the looking of the wood on it for sides, but might do metal roof then.
 
rockcity said:
Why? That’s an interior wall on a non-vaulted ceiling ranch house. I’m 99% sure the only load bearing walls are the exterior walls.
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You're right in this case, but the roof could have been stick framed. We did something similar in our kitchen, and needed a double 14" lvl to pick up the load.
SHINTON said:
Hey, on that second picture especially, tell me your thoughts folks on INSULATION? Looks good, needs more after 40+ years?
Click to expand...

How deep is it? Looks like "not very"... Should be about 15-16" overall by code.
 
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