House Suggestions

[todpod]

So here is the the deal We (me, wifey and 3 kids) live in an old church. Its on about a 1/4 acre lot shaped like a triangle. It was moved here in the late 1800s from the stories I hear and has been on this lot since about 1896. This issues are that is is cold and drafty in the winter costing some serious $$ for gas, hot in the summer no A/C thank god. Its on a poured concrete foundation (crawl space) that isn't super solid and not much of a footer, and it is has settle quite a bit. I really don't think its going to fall over anytime soon its built solid just leaning a bit.

The good thing is it is paid for its ours, and taxes are cheap about $500 a year.

We have been considering several options.

1 build a new house behind the church and tear down the church ( hopefully get somebody to do it for the old lumber)

2 Same as 1 except connect the house and the church and house togeter, tear the floor out of the church and fill with dirt and gravel pour a concrete floor and make it a garage.

3 Get a decent mobile used mobile home tear down the church and the build a house slowly off the MH connected with a breezeway.

4 fix up the church. The big downside is I don't think we could ever fix it up to make it worth while in terms of money spent to value.

The church is about 30x44, and has 16' ceilings. we have put a lower ceiling in and insulated alot of it. The floors are like ice cubes in the winter.

Anything we do we will do alot of the work to save $$.

Just looking for outside ideas to kick around

Thanks Todd

 

[bctbct]

I dont see any value in tearing down the church and living in a MH, that would cost you more.

Hard to advise on whether its worth fixing up the church vs building new.

You could repair the existing foundation or if that is not feasible, place a new foundation on the property and move the house to it.

Generally speaking it is usually cheaper to remodel/add additions vs. build new house.

 

[todpod]

Repairing the foundation is not an option. If it had a basement under it it probably be worth saving. It would be hard to move the church on the lot its sited about right in the middle of the lot.

 

[Greenman]

Is the church an historical landmark? If it is you may not be able to tear it down, but you might be able to get a very low rate government loan to restore it, possibly even some grant money.

The rest of your questions can't be answered without a great deal of homework. You need to have some estimate of the different costs are to make an informed decision.

 

[warmodder]

Build a house and fix up the church. You can than turn it into a sort of tourist attraction--have a museum, conduct tours and make a little bit of money through donations or admission.

 

[Squisher]

So, your issues with the house is it's leaning and it is poorly insulated?

If you don't require a bigger house they might be able to mud jack it level, squirt in foam insulation in the walls, and install radiant floor heat for much less than a new house.

 

[todpod]

Its not a historical landmark, There are a bazillion of these free methodist churches around. Its pretty simple construction, 2x4 walls, wood siding on the out side, wood sheeting on the inside covered with this cardboard like covering. It would make a good tourist attraction, Though if I had the $$ you probably could make a neat B&B, We are near a state forest and Located in Allegheny National forest.

I could build a house for between 60 and 100 grad depending on how much of the work i did myself. It really doesn't lend it self to adding on unless we go with th garage option.

 

[todpod]

Originally posted by: Squisher
So, your issues with the house is it's leaning and it is poorly insulated?

If you don't require a bigger house they might be able to mud jack it level, squirt in foam insulation in the walls, and install radiant floor heat for much less than a new house.

We actually could use more room bedrooms and baths. The walls are insulated with blown cellouse (sp) as well as the attic.

Ideally if we kept what we have, we would add a basement, possible but some serious $$ building under the house. Most of the ceiling we have put in has 2x10 ceiling joists with the thought of adding a second floor. Ideally the second floor would have dormers but that would also be serious $$, but without them bedroom up stairs wouldn't be very practical.

We currently have 1 Bath, 3 bedrooms. The smallest bedroom is 9x6. There really needs to be alot of work to make it a nice house. I guess our debate is it worth dumping bunches on money into this or start fresh and have something new and energy effcient etc etc.

 

[meltdown75]

i'm torn between adding on to / renovating the church and building a new house altogether. truthfully i would want to see what the property looks like and go from there. without seeing anything i would have to say.. based on the info provided about the church, i would most likely be leaning towards a brand new home.

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: todpod

Originally posted by: Squisher
So, your issues with the house is it's leaning and it is poorly insulated?

If you don't require a bigger house they might be able to mud jack it level, squirt in foam insulation in the walls, and install radiant floor heat for much less than a new house.

We actually could use more room bedrooms and baths. The walls are insulated with blown cellouse (sp) as well as the attic.

Ideally if we kept what we have, we would add a basement, possible but some serious $$ building under the house. Most of the ceiling we have put in has 2x10 ceiling joists with the thought of adding a second floor. Ideally the second floor would have dormers but that would also be serious $$, but without them bedroom up stairs wouldn't be very practical.

We currently have 1 Bath, 3 bedrooms. The smallest bedroom is 9x6. There really needs to be alot of work to make it a nice house. I guess our debate is it worth dumping bunches on money into this or start fresh and have something new and energy effcient etc etc.

I'm surprised there is a bedroom that small in a 1300+ sqft. house.

I'm also surprised the house is that drafty after you insulated. If you don't know where the loss of heat is occurring you might want to look into getting infrared thermography done to pin point the problem (approx. $150)

I can only guess what a dormer with bath AND a basement would cost.

 

[todpod]

Actually the floor is like a giant radiator It it gets really cold and the heat is hanging arround the 16' high ceiling. We have closed it off but its only so good. I have thought about insulating the floor which would help some. The foundation really needs drainage as well.

I guess the big ? is it really worth dumping the 60 or 70 grand into it and have s pretty good house, they may really not be worth that, when for probably not much more we would have a new house that would. The advantage to keeping what we got is that it is paid for and we could work on it as we go. A new house would require a mortgage.

We would be able to do much of the work ourselves with either option and save money that way. Actually it would be the excavation for the basement that would cost big $$, we would do the block work ourselves (family business for many years).

I just figured I would throw it out to you folks to see if you had any bright ideas