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Originally Posted by wdfifteen
The balcony was too rotten for me to step out onto. The view from the balcony must have been magnificent when the fields are green.
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See my comment about the roof
Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
Every room has a fireplace and some built-in cabinets. The finish on the wood is in remarkably good condition.
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Don't let that fool you for a second.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
Part of the roof is so rotten some of the corbels have simply fallen off.
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Again: roof
Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
Passageways in the basement made it look like catacombs.
The "thermostat" for the coal furnace is in the main hallway. A continuous chain runs through the control, and down to the damper on the furnace.
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Love it.
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Originally Posted by herr_oberst
What a cool old place. I'm sure someone has their eye on all that woodwork for the high end remodeling market.
(I double-dog-dare you to explore that at midnight!)
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Yep.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevej37
The shingled roof doesn't look too bad. Someone must have lived there in the last 30-50 years or so.
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That old asphalt roof is totally trash.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
Actually restoring it would be a nightmare, and it wouldn’t be livable by today’s standards. The kitchen is tiny. There is one tiny “full” bath in the house, plus a toilet on the second floor. Seven rooms downstairs, I lost count upstairs at 11 rooms. There is a rumor that it was an Underground Railroad house, but they say that about every old house around here.
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Glad you have that perspective. As Jeff said, and as per my experience, the budget to properly restore that home would be in excess of a million. I spent someone else's million back in Alabama in the mid 90's. It was to be a museum of sorts but not with all the public access restrooms, ramps and parking. I did do the Boulder Dam Hotel downstairs conversion to a gallery and historic showplace, (just that one area) and we were in at a half mill for a 1000 sq ft. But that's a horse of a different color. We had not only the local and state historic nazis, but the Feds as well.