Hire someone to clean your roof once a year.
That's what old people do.

I vote go for it! I do second the comments regarding the price of construction materials right now. I would also warn about the availability and the cost of hiring people to do the work. Due to the housing boom, I can't find anyone to do a drywall job for me. And I've been looking for months. The drywall guys only want to do large jobs and aren't even returning calls unless it's for an entire house or apartment complex.

:D Mrs Ahab is who you need for the stone work!

What a transformation, that's more than remodel :eek: but I think the house as it is now looks great

Labor to do that rendering would be even more than materials. When you remodel, you need to look for the low hanging fruit, and concentrate on what will make your life better living in the house. You don't need to impress the neighbors to improve your living arrangements unless you have money to burn.

Do you really want to be a slave to a house payment, or do you want to have a house so you can have a secure base for living a full life? Sacrificing a year of your life to get a great house is one thing, working OT for the next 10 years to pay for it is another. If you have to tear the whole house down to rework it, it would be cheaper to start fresh.

I saw a lot of people go upside down after the 2008 recession. They had really nice houses though. Too bad they couldn't afford to keep them. Don't blow your nest egg on your pad, pad your nest egg.

I agree. In ten years people will say 'that house was renovated around 2020'.

Exactly what i was thinking.

What does it look like now?????
Seriously.

Any recommendations for software to draft a floor plan or do a high level home design that I can take to an architect and get a real set of plans made from? I downloaded the trial of smartdraw, but I can't really print anything from this version.

Has anyone used any of these?
https://www.homedesignsoftware.tv/ppc/

It often is.

We use chief architect home design. I use suite, the cheaper version, mostly for cabinets and tinkering. My son uses architectural. The demos, and even my version don't print well. I cannot print scale pdfs on our plotter, but he can.

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/?__utma=67784003.763715596.1605404795.1605404795.1 605404795.1&__utmb=67784003.10.10.1605404795&__utm c=67784003&__utmx=-&__utmz=67784003.1605404795.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmc cn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided )&__utmv=-&__utmk=203887063#products

Vash, Is there any minimum amount for the chimney height from ground level that is required for building code in your area?

Shuie, Do you have experience with design software? If not the learning curve could take a while, I used Chief architect and was not impressed, it was good at simple items like making walls and placing cabs but was not good with complex roof. Should have just used Solidworks, much harder to learn but way better. Talk to the architect you want to use and see what type of files he can transfer to his software, not all file types convert well.

Thanks. This looks very similar to one I posted links to above. homedesignersoftware.com vs. homedesignsoftware.tv. weird. I think the one I posted is a cheaper knock off.

I have no experience with home design software, but I have an engineering background and have plenty of experience designing & building various systems and things that are actually in my professional domain. I would never send any professional in any field a half baked working file, spec or set of drawings and ask them to finish it. I just want to get what I have in my head refined on paper so I can give a pro architect a good visual and a list of requirements to start with. I'll let them do their thing and tell me what I missed or if it's just a bad idea.

I did something similar about 12 years ago. Took off the roof and turned the attic into a conditioned space. Turned out nice and cost me about 40k. Wife put up with it but said never again.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1605461094.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1605461094.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1605461094.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1605461094.jpg

just had initial meeting with my builder. he torpedod my roof ideas..he said my house it too long and the high point will be way the hell "up there". he suggested a pitched roof. which satisfies my wife's future solar idea.

this is gonna get interesting. we got along great. i liked him a lot. he said this is a tiny project for his company. tiny. hahha.

Yeah, but I thought height was the purpose for having a good field of view? :p

Unless it’s changed, the chimney needs to be 2’ higher than the roof (anything) in a 10’ radius.

Clearly this is a job for ROOF GIRL!!!

I'd sell before building a whole new roof. I'm serious.

More power to you and your wife Vash, I did a full gut, moved walls everything a few years ago on my first floor. Turned out great but am not looking forward to doing the second to match it. Did some things like doors already, but it need trim and two bathrooms to be consistent.

I can't imagine having the whole roof replaced with a different design, let alone still trying to live/navigate around the construction zone and workers, I value my privacy way too much.

In late 2018, I almost single handedly completely rebuilt our downstairs bathroom (down to the studs with new everything), I was never so happy to finally button up everything after it was functional again....what a pain in the azz !