We bought an old house that in the 70’s was converted in a half way house by a priest. Eventually a counseling center bought it and it was s group home for many years. When we bought it two and a half years ago it was like living in a 1970’s office with an old church kitchen. The pass through had fake wood accordion blinds (or whatever they are called when you can pull them shut horizontally across the counter). It was added onto so it’s a gigantic two story square. We had (still have in much of the house) drop ceilings with fluorescent light panels. We even had pull down fire alarms and big lighted exit signs.
The plus side is that since it was a licensed group home the “guts” are pretty good. Most of the changes are cosmetic. It’s a big house-9 bedrooms plus three offices. Perfect for us space wise. Just pretty ugly.
We are starting with the back section of the first floor: disconnected the institutional smoke alarm and sprinkler system, then removed the false ceilings from that part, reworked the back hall to created a mud room, had the lighting rewired and sheet rocked the mud room, what will be our pantry hall, dining room and middle hall (kind of a room/hall). My husband cut down salvaged boards into widths needed for farmhouse style trim for doors, windows and cased openings. So today we will be priming (still cold, but windows will just have to be open as oil based primer stinks) the faux ship lap wall in dining room and the windows. It’s a huge undertaking, and it’s only about 25% of the house. He has his own carpentry business so our project isn’t top priority, but the horrible spring weather has gifted us time for our house. But no income:-/. Soon he will build the new kitchen cabinets (I bought my farmhouse sink last year just so we’d have it before funds ran low!) and we will tackle that. Then our beautiful new flooring can replace the awful asbestos tile that is in this part of the house. Then a breather for a year or so to save up funds to tackle the front part of the first floor and maybe the basement family room.
How neat that he can make your cabinets. That’ll save a ton. We ended up spending a small fortune on ours and the quality is lacking even with the upgrade. They look nice right now, but I don’t think they will hold up.
Actually I really like the idea of the pulldown fire alarms, the sprinkler system, and exit signs :-) actually sprinkler systems like that are now mandatory in California homes. They don’t care that an accidental trigger will ruin your entire house and furnishings. I suppose pull down fire alarms with children just aren’t a good idea!
Mudrooms are really nice, I wish we had room for one. It sounds like you’ve got a great buy, if the foundation and bones are intact, the cosmetic stuff is the cheapest and easiest part to fix. Although it doesn’t seem like it when you’re in the middle of it.
I don’t know, we could probably have an ugly house contest. We can’t figure out what to do to make ours look better on the outside without spending a small fortune. And we just assume the neighbors think we are keeping it the way it is. Although word got out about all the remodeling inside :-(. I always thought that I loved brick, but somehow these people found the ugliest brick to put on this house. And it’s just a rectangular box, looks like a mobile home shape. With itty bitty windows. Boring boring boring!
Your place sounds amazing! 16 years ago my sister bought an old church retreatin the western NC mountains outside of Black Mountain. Has an amazing porch & windows. She truly got a steal. Haven’t seen it in 15 years as she has cut our family out of her & my nephew’s life.
Good luck on your place!