How do you FIX this?

[lisascenic]

You may be a lovely person, and you may actually care about older homes. (The fact that you call this charming house "a dreaded angle nightmare" makes me doubt that you know or care much about American architecture.)

I'm going to give you a bit of unsolicited advice.

Participants on this forum care about historic preservation. We care passionately, maybe even a bit crazily about preserving older homes. When people start talking about buying houses that they don't even like to look at, but plan to FIX them (in capital letters) it makes many participants on this forum deeply uncomfortable.

If you want advice on reviving an older home, we will be delighted to help you out. We'll educate you about architecture, we'll help you find missing parts, we'll commiserate at your challenges, and we'll applaud your accomplishments.

But, if you plan to gut this house, install cheap Home Depot flooring, and then sell it for a quick profit, you're not likely to make a lot of new friends, here.

[downtowndahlgren]

Since you've already stated that you want to eventually build a home to your "own" expectations, I would recommend that you continue renting and save up money towards that end, rather than buying a nice old home and flipping it, especially if you are not familiar with or knowledgeable about old homes. One is either an old home lover - or not. It sounds like this house meets a requirement of "cheap", rather than "OMG, I love it!". And believe me, even if you do restore it on the cheap, it will turn out to take a lot more of your time and money than you desire. Additionally, in this and the future economic climate, I doubt that any flipping you do is going to pay off as much as you would like, especially if you are planning to use the profits towards your dream home. If home ownership is essential right now due to the rent situation, there are TONS of short sales, foreclosures, etc. out there that would be a much cheaper solution than buying an old house and remuddling it and/or flipping it. Unless you LOVE this house next Tuesday, perhaps it would be better, for you AND the house, if you passed it by in favor of a newer home with less need to be "fixed". JMHO.

[Sombreuil_Mongrel]

The only thing not "right" about the house is the expanse of siding with the tiny octagonal window in the middle of it. On a real Victorian Queen Anne, which this should be, there would have been something else in that spot. More detailing; a balconette, perhaps. A window more in scale with the space. Something. But that little window is a zit on the face of an otherwise pretty house's face. That's where I'd start exploring.
Casey

[nezwick]

Cool house! My house was "updated" in 1970's-1980's styles also, so I've gotten pretty good at seeing old house potential in something that's been covered up. The mix of siding materials really detracts from the aesthetic of the exterior, so that might be one reason it looks strange to you. We have plenty of these eclectic Queen Anne houses around my area, so that one does not look too out of the ordinary. It would look much better sided with clapboard.

Definitely not a candidate for a fix and flip, unless it has already been flipped by someone else and no original features are left. Find something built in the (nineteen) seventies and then hack at it all you want!

Even then, as others have said, flipping is not economically smart anymore - many flippers don't break even when they try to sell.

I'd really enjoy seeing more pictures, especially of the inside.

[identicalsnow]

You may be a lovely person, and you may actually care about older homes. (The fact that you call this charming house "a dreaded angle nightmare" makes me doubt that you know or care much about American architecture.)

I'm going to give you a bit of unsolicited advice.

Participants on this forum care about historic preservation. We care passionately, maybe even a bit crazily about preserving older homes. When people start talking about buying houses that they don't even like to look at, but plan to FIX them (in capital letters) it makes many participants on this forum deeply uncomfortable.

If you want advice on reviving an older home, we will be delighted to help you out. We'll educate you about architecture, we'll help you find missing parts, we'll commiserate at your challenges, and we'll applaud your accomplishments.

But, if you plan to gut this house, install cheap Home Depot flooring, and then sell it for a quick profit, you're not likely to make a lot of new friends, here.

As I stated in my first post I have been following this forum as a visitor for a while. I am well aware of how you individuals feel about ruining the architecture of a beautiful old home. I would not have registered if I wasn't one of you so kindly remove that opinion. The reason I asked about the home was due to the side of the house, the "turret" and the sharp angle from the back. I have seen them octogoned and rounded but never in a squared off. I don't want it to leak or have it fall down around me. As for the Home Depot flooring I once again repeat myself from a prior post We're not like that. We do things right. However we need to beable to afford it.


I registered and asked a question wanting a second opinon. I do NOT hate old homes or their architecture. I just want them buttoned up and properly maintained. The caps lock of FIX was meant to be taken as "re-establish proper form" There should be nothing wrong with updating and preserving a piece of archicture. To me the home looked as if someone did their own architeure to the sides and didn't keep to the homes true structure.

Since you've already stated that you want to eventually build a home to your "own" expectations, I would recommend that you continue renting and save up money towards that end, rather than buying a nice old home and flipping it, especially if you are not familiar with or knowledgeable about old homes.

Correction, I am very knowledgeable of old home and house structure. I love old homes, especially the victorian era, to the point the Mister hates it when we go driving and I look at delapidated structures going "Oh that has so much potential." I am not the beige box kind of lady. As for saving That is no longer an option with renting. We can no longer save up hence why we're moving. That's an extra pad for the pocket to be spent on the house.

The One is either an old home lover - or not. It sounds like this house meets a requirement of "cheap", rather than "OMG, I love it!". And believe me, even if you do restore it on the cheap, it will turn out to take a lot more of your time and money than you desire. Additionally, in this and the future economic climate, I doubt that any flipping you do is going to pay off as much as you would like, especially if you are planning to use the profits towards your dream home. If home ownership is essential right now due to the rent situation, there are TONS of short sales, foreclosures, etc. out there that would be a much cheaper solution than buying an old house and remuddling it and/or flipping it. Unless you LOVE this house next Tuesday, perhaps it would be better, for you AND the house, if you passed it by in favor of a newer home with less need to be "fixed". JMHO.

To everyone:Stop assuming things. I apologize for my vocabulary use of fix.

Thank you, those of you that gave encouragement and allowed me to look at the home in a new light and place me in a direction for how to restore this home back to a proper form. As for those for those who jumped to conclusions about me and this home I hope that you can hold better assumptions of myself and other newcomers next time. I'll be sure to use proper synonyms in the future should I need second opinion from this forum as I merely wanted to see what others thought of the home before hand.

The only thing not "right" about the house is the expanse of siding with the tiny octagonal window in the middle of it. On a real Victorian Queen Anne, which this should be, there would have been something else in that spot. More detailing; a balconette, perhaps. A window more in scale with the space. Something. But that little window is a zit on the face of an otherwise pretty house's face. That's where I'd start exploring.
Casey

Thank you for the instruction Casey, I will search through my older books on the Queen Ann style. I was also looking at Eastlake-Stickstyles to better blend in the angles so they didn't seem so harsh and bare. I have sketched up several possible designs on graph paper and overlay to see how we would bring out the homes true nature and charm and how to work it into the budget.

This was the type of style I was looking at last night.



Appreciated and hopefully resolved opinions,
Snow

[identicalsnow]

Cool house! My house was "updated" in 1970's-1980's styles also, so I've gotten pretty good at seeing old house potential in something that's been covered up. The mix of siding materials really detracts from the aesthetic of the exterior, so that might be one reason it looks strange to you. We have plenty of these eclectic Queen Anne houses around my area, so that one does not look too out of the ordinary. It would look much better sided with clapboard.

Definitely not a candidate for a fix and flip, unless it has already been flipped by someone else and no original features are left. Find something built in the (nineteen) seventies and then hack at it all you want!

Even then, as others have said, flipping is not economically smart anymore - many flippers don't break even when they try to sell.

I'd really enjoy seeing more pictures, especially of the inside.

I'll be sure to take the camera with me on Tuesday Nez, and if this falls through then I would like to see some of those Queen Ann's of your area! I'm currently gathering up my images and articles to a folder for this project just to give myself and the Mister an Idea of what we're going to be walking into. Never hurts to dream or be prepared.

[KristenS]

I have sketched up several possible designs on graph paper and overlay to see how we would bring out the homes true nature and charm and how to work it into the budget.

I'd love to see some of those! Would you be interested in scanning and posting them?

I'm having a hard time figuring out just what the house is under all the siding, and the mixed-messages of all the styles featured on the front. Do you have more information about when the house was built, and what style it was/is? Any pictures of how it looked originally, or maybe a similar house nearby that you're using as a guide?

I know from personal experience how hard it is to restore a house when you have very little info on the original. I've got a blurry scan of a blotchy photocopy of a 1909 newspaper ad with 35 houses built by the architect who probably built mine. What I wouldn't give for a clear image to study!!

Anyone who wants to buy a house and lovingly restore it is good in my book. From what you've written, I'm still not sure if that's what you want to do...but I'm trying to keep my assumptions on the positive side for now!

[identicalsnow]

If we get this home then that is exactly our goal. To restore it down to the gingerbread, the tooth crown mouldings, ceiling medalions, Newel lighting and even a turn to ring doorbell. I don't own a scanner and I wanted to take the photos of my work but the pencile is too light to properly show through. I did an embarassing version in MSpaint since I have yet to re-install my CAD and photoshop programs. Obnoxious neons and all.

As far as the house original date I was told 1860! Which places the home at the late era of the Second Empire and at the birth of Eastlake-Stick style architecture! You want to talk about excited when I found I nailed it on assumption of house style.

[downtowndahlgren]

Snow, I sincerely apologize if I came off too harshly in my comments. I hope you love the house, get it, and can return it to its original loveliness. The only things that concerned me in your original posts were that you are looking for a "cheap fixer-upper" - an oxymoron if there ever was one, especially if you are truly planning to do the level of restoration that you indicated (i.e., down to the original trim, newel posts, and working doorbell), etc. You also indicated that you cannot afford a contractor. Although you and Mister are very handy and knowledgeable about old houses, can you fix a complete plumbing system or an old boiler, or can you re-do a rotted roof or re-wire the house yourselves? Those things take a lot more money than the "pad" from not renting will provide, particularly regarding current codes as well as EPA regs. I'm GLAD you love old houses and want to restore one; just throwing out ideas regarding time and money to be spent since you are planning to do it right until you flip it or build your new retirement home. Good luck and send pics Tuesday.

[Alexander]

Snow,

Check out Lizzie Borden's house ' Maplecroft', the house she and her sister moved into after the murders. It has the same angled wing sticking out but it a much larger and fancier house but it can give you some ideas.

Alexander