Fixer ups

[Dave]

I thought I would take some pictures of fixer ups in our town which could be available. If someone is interested there is probably another 10 or 12 in similar condition. Just need to be handy in the building trades and have some financial resources.



And if a person is looking for a business opportunity this is the cafe and tavern. Cafe to the left and tavern to the right.

 

[4hfarms]

Already got one of them on the other side of the farm.

 

[Dave]

As I said there are another 10 or 12 similar houses. I added it up there is only 9 houses in town which are lived in. Not much of a town now. But we do have a post office. Back in the old days it was real important to have a post office. We got a post office here in the 1860's. I was known as Express Ranch back then. It was an important relay station on the Boise - Umatilla stage line. My guess is when the railroad came through in the early 1880's the stage coach line went out of business

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

There was one like that on a ranch I used to live on. Whole dry corn cobs were kept in the rooms.

 

[Mrcopier]

Wayyyy. Beyond my skill set

 

[CowboyRam]

It's kind of hard to tell if they are worth saving. The first one might be worth saving, and the second to the last one looks like it would be best to add is five gallons of gas and a match. The rest I can't really see enough.

 

[Dave]

The first one an old late neighbor lady told my wife that she went to some sort of Christmas gathering there. That would have been 30-35 years ago. The others would only take half a gallon of gas but we don't light fires here. Might spread well beyond the old house. Besides with those old wreck of houses the people driving by on the freeway just keep driving. Who would want to live in a falling down town like that? I consider that a good thing. I don't want them stopping.

 

[Travlr]

I thought I would take some pictures of fixer ups in our town which could be available. If someone is interested there is probably another 10 or 12 in similar condition. Just need to be handy in the building trades and have some financial resources.

View attachment 59642View attachment 59643View attachment 59644

And if a person is looking for a business opportunity this is the cafe and tavern. Cafe to the left and tavern to the right.

View attachment 59647

The town I live in now has half the buildings on main street empty. I've tried to buy a few of them and either the owners aren't interested in selling or they want prices that would make a televangelist blush. So the buildings sit, and the town dies. The owners pay property taxes on buildings that never bring them a dime... and they think it's fine.
I'd love to open a steakhouse that was only open one night a week, and a lazy man's tavern that had very few customers in a town surrounded by cattle country.

 

[Ky hills]

We looked at a property a few years ago. It had two best way I can describe it was structures on it. One definitely needed bulldozing, the the other may have been ok to remodel but was pretty nasty with trash and debris inside. The said at the time if it were mine I'd probably just have it torn down and start over new.
A couple years ago we were visiting friends in northeast KY, Man is in his 80's and was showing us a little cabin that he once lived in as child. Evidently it was an old structure even back then.
It was way way back in the hills on an almost impassable county road. I was surprised to learn it was a county road, my guess is it's seldom used and not regularly maintained. It turned to gravel and then to just a little gravel in washed out tracks, only accessible in a 4x4 truck or side by side. He said that the county had recently removed a large down tree from the road but there were still smaller ones that we somehow drove over and under.
I think in that situation if any of the family wanted to fix it up for nostalgia sake it might be ok, but would be pretty expensive to remodel and build rooms for modern conveniences and appliances. It might make a good hunting cabin.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

The town I live in now has half the buildings on main street empty. I've tried to buy a few of them and either the owners aren't interested in selling or they want prices that would make a televangelist blush. So the buildings sit, and the town dies. The owners pay property taxes on buildings that never bring them a dime... and they think it's fine.

Same here half of main street is empty but the owners think they are worth a fortune so they sit empty and in disrepair until the village acquires them thru back taxes or blight ordinances then they are so far gone they just get bulldozed.

 

[Ky hills]

Our city's Main Street has been a ghost town except for banks, law offices and courthouse for years. A few old money people own most of the buildings and for a long time if a new business could afford their rent to even open it was the sad talk of everybody when saw a business open of wonder how many months they'll be in business. Most were out within 6 months to a year.
The buildings are grandfathered in and so they don't have to bring them up to code, in spite of several having collapsed over the years. If a new person buys them they immediately have bring them up to codes, or in some cases go through the red tape of demolishing historic buildings.
We had a paint store years ago, rented the lower part of a building. It was in awful shape, landlord refused to fix an obvious hazard around the front door and would not allow us to have it improved either.
Very fickle old man to say the least. At one point he offered to sell the building and we got to go and look around on the second and third stories. Dilapidated and cluttered. Rain had been coming in on the top floor and it that third floor was literally covered a foot deep in pigeon skeletons. We said no way we'd buy it but he had already decided again not to sell but to raise our rent another $1000.
We soon phased out the store.
Now the south part of Main Street has been somewhat revitalized with new money out of state owners. They are wanting to become an arts and entertainment district. Not my cup of tea, but they improving the looks of that part of downtown, atleast from the road. A lot of us say they just putting lipstick on a pig

 

[Brute 23]

Here they would try to hit you for taxes on all those. You cant afford to leave some thing like that on your place. Cheaper to doze or burn them.

 

[jltrent]

With the cost of labor and materials a lot of those you will be under water on to remodel or at least around here.

 

[CowboyRam]

Years ago dad had a couple that wanted to remodel their ranch house. Dad suggested to tear down the old house and build a really nice new house. They could not do that because it was the heritage of the ranch. They remodeled the heritage.

 

[Dave]

Neighbor over on the coast in a county where permitting is a nightmare. Jacked up the house and put a new foundation under it. Got a permit to remodel. Removed the old house to the foundation. Built a new house on the foundation. Inspector said you were just remodeling. He told them that he kept running into dry rot. Had a brand new house on the same foot print as the old one.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Some friends "remodeled" a house using 2 walls of the original foundation and nothing more. The location was grandfathered in that way and permitting was simple.

 

[Travlr]

Years ago dad had a couple that wanted to remodel their ranch house. Dad suggested to tear down the old house and build a really nice new house. They could not do that because it was the heritage of the ranch. They remodeled the heritage.

There's a place I drive by that's got three houses built close to each other. You, know what I mean... we see it all the time in rural country. They had their original house and wanted something better. Then they got tired of the second house and built the next. And the first houses sit and rot. But this place I drive by has this beautiful, old, brick house that I'd remodel in a heartbeat... and they are living in a box with nothing except modern wiring and plumbing to make it better.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I tore 80% of my house down and made it 3x as big. Saved $4000 in development fees, just have to play the game.

 

[tater74]

We bought a 1950's craftsman home that had set empty for 6-8 years at an auction. We took it down to the studs on the inside and actually replaced most of the interior walls. It would have been cheaper and easier to bulldoze it and build new. A lot faster as well.