Our investor came through and we signed our construction mortgage.  Dh will be doing the majority of the work himself to keep costs down, but it looks like, if things go relatively on schedule, we could be in a house that is "ours" by Thanksgiving. 
We have owned and been paying property taxes on this place for three years, now we finally get to work on it.  The house has been in my family since 1939, so we are pretty pleased to make it livable and fill it with family again.

Quote from: JustKari on August 27, 2012, 06:15:27 PM
Our investor came through and we signed our construction mortgage.  Dh will be doing the majority of the work himself to keep costs down, but it looks like, if things go relatively on schedule, we could be in a house that is "ours" by Thanksgiving. 
We have owned and been paying property taxes on this place for three years, now we finally get to work on it.  The house has been in my family since 1939, so we are pretty pleased to make it livable and fill it with family again.

You and Dh are taking on quite a task, best of luck on bring the old homestead up todate. 

Pretty exciting stuff Kari, looks like lots of fun in the future.

Thank you guys.  The loan we took out was slightly larger than we originally planned, just in case dh gets way behind, or he realizes that he can't tackle something.  We are hoping to get by with only hiring a guy for septic, well, plumbing, and electrical.  He's done small plumbing and electrical DIY things before, but never a whole house, so those things we will hire, but anything a reasonably good DIYer can do, he wants to try to do.  Whatever is left of the money when we are done, goes back to the investor, so being thrifty will be in our favor.  The goal is to be done before the snow starts flying.

Quote from: JustKari on August 27, 2012, 08:07:44 PM
Thank you guys.  The loan we took out was slightly larger than we originally planned, just in case dh gets way behind, or he realizes that he can't tackle something.  We are hoping to get by with only hiring a guy for septic, well, plumbing, and electrical.  He's done small plumbing and electrical DIY things before, but never a whole house, so those things we will hire, but anything a reasonably good DIYer can do, he wants to try to do.  Whatever is left of the money when we are done, goes back to the investor, so being thrifty will be in our favor.  The goal is to be done before the snow starts flying.

I've been working on my fixer upper for about 8 years, as time and money allows. I just finished putting in kitchen cabinets. New granite counter tops in the morning.

As far as the DIY stuff, tell your husband not to forget the internet. There's a wealth of information out there. This Old House is a good one. Lots of others too, with step by step instructions and videos. I'm not the fastest, but I've managed to do everything myself. Of course, if you were to ask my wife, she would say that we should have taken out a loan and got this stuff done a long time ago.

Quote from: JustKari on August 27, 2012, 08:07:44 PM
Thank you guys.  The loan we took out was slightly larger than we originally planned, just in case dh gets way behind, or he realizes that he can't tackle something.  We are hoping to get by with only hiring a guy for septic, well, plumbing, and electrical.  He's done small plumbing and electrical DIY things before, but never a whole house, so those things we will hire, but anything a reasonably good DIYer can do, he wants to try to do.  Whatever is left of the money when we are done, goes back to the investor, so being thrifty will be in our favor.  The goal is to be done before the snow starts flying.

A part of me envies you guys, but I'm glad it's not me doing it.
I spent the last 20+ years building my own home, all by myself, since I have experience in every aspect of home building, I saw no reason to hire anyone to help, evem just to carry lumber.
KICKED MY ASS!!!

But I wouldn't have passed up the experience for anything, loved every minute of it.
So if you have questions, just ask, someone here will have the answer, or like Kramarat just mentioned, the internet, but save your money, ask us first.

Will do, thank you! 

Quote from: Solar on August 28, 2012, 05:34:07 AM
A part of me envies you guys, but I'm glad it's not me doing it.
I spent the last 20+ years building my own home, all by myself, since I have experience in every aspect of home building, I saw no reason to hire anyone to help, evem just to carry lumber.
KICKED MY ASS!!!

But I wouldn't have passed up the experience for anything, loved every minute of it.
So if you have questions, just ask, someone here will have the answer, or like Kramarat just mentioned, the internet, but save your money, ask us first.

You're a lucky man. Mrs. Tbone and I bought this place four years ago, and her idea of the proper start-to-finish time for any project, big or small, is about 20 minutes. I think it has something to do with a radically reduced attention span, or something.

Never mind that this house was built as a two-stall horse barn back in 18-something. You know, you read all the time about somebody finding something REALLY valuable in the wall or ceiling of an old house... yesterday I found about three feet of hemp twine rolled into a small coil in a beam pocket in one of the old barn corner posts. Hell, I tried smokin' the stuff, but it's the wrong kind of hemp! 

ROFL!!  That is awesome   Unfortunately anything cool from this houses walls, my mom removed.  She did most of the demo herself, before realizing that it was just too much to take on.  It was supposed to be a life estate, but she quit claimed it to me.  I got my inheritance without death.

Lucky for my husband, before my current disabled situation, I used to do home improvement projects right along with him.  I am actually pretty bummed that I won't be helping put in the floor or drywall, or much of anything.  All that to say, I know it takes time, so I won't hound him about it.

Quote from: JustKari on August 28, 2012, 01:44:57 PM
ROFL!!  That is awesome   Unfortunately anything cool from this houses walls, my mom removed.  She did most of the demo herself, before realizing that it was just too much to take on.  It was supposed to be a life estate, but she quit claimed it to me.  I got my inheritance without death.

Lucky for my husband, before my current disabled situation, I used to do home improvement projects right along with him.  I am actually pretty bummed that I won't be helping put in the floor or drywall, or much of anything.  All that to say, I know it takes time, so I won't hound him about it.

I just told my wife, that there's no point in getting it done too quickly. If I move too fast, it'll just need to be redone in 20 years, and I'll be too old to do the work. She will be happy to have a kitchen again though.

Quote from: tbone0106 on August 28, 2012, 01:06:29 PM
You're a lucky man. Mrs. Tbone and I bought this place four years ago, and her idea of the proper start-to-finish time for any project, big or small, is about 20 minutes. I think it has something to do with a radically reduced attention span, or something.

Never mind that this house was built as a two-stall horse barn back in 18-something. You know, you read all the time about somebody finding something REALLY valuable in the wall or ceiling of an old house... yesterday I found about three feet of hemp twine rolled into a small coil in a beam pocket in one of the old barn corner posts. Hell, I tried smokin' the stuff, but it's the wrong kind of hemp! 

Out here when people but homes that old, the first thing they do is pull up the floor and run the dirt through a dredge for gold.

Who ever gets my house will find all kinds of tools sealed up in the walls (accidentally) and one long rant about Clinton on a wall, I wrote it when I was really pissed.

My neighbor bought the house down the road, circa 1870? and after moving in, found carpenter ants to be a problem.
Those little buggers are worse than termites, anyway, they wound up having to bull doze the house and start over, there was no integrity left in the walls, the place was beautiful, but collapsing.

Quote from: Solar on August 28, 2012, 03:43:54 PM

Out here when people but homes that old, the first thing they do is pull up the floor and run the dirt through a dredge for gold.

Who ever gets my house will find all kinds of tools sealed up in the walls (accidentally) and one long rant about Clinton on a wall, I wrote it when I was really pissed.

My neighbor bought the house down the road, circa 1870? and after moving in, found carpenter ants to be a problem.
Those little buggers are worse than termites, anyway, they wound up having to bull doze the house and start over, there was no integrity left in the walls, the place was beautiful, but collapsing.

Here, we pull up the floor and run the dirt through a machine that makes the damn dirt go away.

Yeah, those carpenter ants can be a bitch. Hereabouts, we have more of a problem with termites. Carpenter bees too...

Carpenter bees bore an entrance hole into a slab of wood that is so perfectly circular that it's often mistaken for a drilled hole. We have carpenter bees here more than the ants.

Yikes!  We are pretty lucky, had a friend of mine who is a contractor look at it first, and he said it looked great (other than the stairway being too narrow and steep).  Septic and Well are going in week after labor day, in the meantime dh has about six trees to fell and cut up, and tame the six to eight foot high prairie grass around the house.  Hope the Yard Machine is up to the task.

Quote from: JustKari on August 29, 2012, 10:38:21 AM
Yikes!  We are pretty lucky, had a friend of mine who is a contractor look at it first, and he said it looked great (other than the stairway being too narrow and steep).  Septic and Well are going in week after labor day, in the meantime dh has about six trees to fell and cut up, and tame the six to eight foot high prairie grass around the house.  Hope the Yard Machine is up to the task.

Post some pics for us Kari, before and after.

I have a blog started for that purpose, the only reason I haven't posted a link to show you guys, is that parts of it would give anyone on here a pretty good idea of exactly where I live (because I have said before which state I am in, the rest would be easy).  Let me see if I can grab a pic or two from the blog to post.

This is the best I can do for now, takes a lot to download pics from my phone to Photobucket, but here is the house.  Dh just removed that tree on it a few weeks ago.