This weekend Dan and I are going to look at a hundred-year-old farmhouse out in the burbs. It sits on half an acre of land and has a picket fence lining the entire front.
And it needs a ton of work. Like a lot a lot.
I’ve been looking at homes on and off for the past year, more or less as research, and I’ve got to say, this is kind of a rare gem. I haven’t seen anything else like it.
See it here…
Are we ready to buy just yet?
Probably not.
Are we ready to take on major renovations?
Ehh intimidating. I want to renovate but how do you know you’re ready to take that on? I’m not talking painting and changing fixtures. I’m talking full gut reno down to the studs, new floors, and walls and windows and oh my god it sounds scary. Any advice on this front?
Are we ready to move to the suburbs (which means a serious commute for me 2-3 days a week)?
We honestly don’t know, but we’re keeping an open mind!
Either way, I jumped straight to the fun part late at night and started perusing Pinterest to see what this home could be. You know… after many years and many projects.
I mean yea – that looks nice. Hah Serious Christmas movie potential – like The Spirit of Christmas, for those of you who read last night’s insta post. 🙂
Will post some sneak peeks when we walk through on Insta stories. But again not getting our hopes up! This is just to look.
So many of you have asked what suburbs we’re looking at… the best way I can describe it we are looking everywhere from the west, northwest, and north suburbs… from Naperville up to Lake Forest, and yes – still in the city! We just want a garage, which our current place doesn’t offer. And a real kitchen where we don’t have to use the top of the washing machine as counter space. It really will come down to the house and the schools. Again – open minds!
You would LOVE our neighborhood- Bull Creek in Libertyville. Lots of land, young families and houses that need a little work but are one by one turning over. We gutted our house and I couldn’t be happier! Juuuust north of your boundaries, but worth looking into.
Hi Alaina! I definitely see the potential of it too and it looks absolutely beautiful! As someone who LOVES homes too and bought our dream fixer upper a year ago, I’d say it’s worth the time, money, and stress because it is most likely our forever house and we just love it and being able to make it our own! We still have a long way to go though and it’s honestly been the hardest, most stressful year of our lives living through it and having such a chaotic, unfinished house in constant dust/clutter/etc! So my honest advice would be this: if that house is “the one” and you can afford to continue living in your apartment for another year or two while the major renovations are happening, for your sanity and your family’s sanity (especially with a little one on the way!) I would HIGHLY recommend you do that BEFORE you move! <3
Be careful!!
When we bought our home we knew there was work to do and thought we were prepared to tackle much of it lol
But.. it’s true when people warn you – everything, I mean everything takes longer & costs more than you think!!
Add on top of that 2 full time jobs, being pregnant, trying to finish grad school, longer commutes.. & it’s a lot!
We are torn on our next step..
stay in a house that is (in my opinion) too big & too far for the suburbs & great schools..
or.. ??
Huge decision for you all!
Just really, really consider all angles 🙂
I love a white farm house. I always tell Dave I want chickens!
You will make any house beautiful – a wonderful home for your family
So exciting and what a gem of a house! We are doing renovations to a colonial home in the western burbs. The very first house we looked at was an old farmhouse (actually Marshall Fields old horse farm in Downers, so much history and character!) but decided to look around a lot more. I’m so glad we did because that helped guide us to figure out more specifically what we liked and what type of project we really felt like taking on. Ultimately we decided we wanted something we could customize but not gut to studs, largely because that worked best for our timing and cash/finances (cash is king in home renos). It’s hard to do a gut project in pieces so my two cents would be to walk through with a contractor to get an idea on costs and what that would and wouldn’t include for them – that can vary contractor to contractor (e.g. appliances, certain room lighting), and then add at least a 25% cushion to that for the unexpected.You have done so many home projects that I think you’ll enjoy the process of a total gut job and the ability to customize but maintain character, it’s just a matter of whether it works for your timing and finances.
Live in STL so I realize prices are really different, etc. But wanting to be in good schools is the same every where – which always comes with a premium. We opted for a smaller house to stay in a good school district and not be too far into suburbia land (first ring suburb and wanted the option to walk to some places – coffeeshop, etc). This meant we had to do reno, we budgeted for it but like someone mentioned above you always go over and it’s always longer. What was supposed to be a short 6 week stay with my inlaws ended up being closer to 3 months. But now that it’s done it was the best decision we ever made. I got to pick everything out and like you, love the design process. So, if you budget correctly and can deal with chaos in the short term – I think a reno is the way to go!
Have you considered a Chicago address but out from the city? We loved the dunning, Irving park neighborhood. Garages, small yards, tons of charm, affordable!! Taxes were way less than burbs.
Make sure to find out when the roof was last replaced as well as windows, furnace, water heater, A/C, etc. Those items significantly drive up home renovation costs with little aesthetic payoff (i.e. spending money on the parts you don’t see). Both my parents and brother/sister-in-law have renovated bathrooms and kitchens in their home. Demolition was the easy part and they did it themselves. Finding a contractor who would respond in a timely manner and actual take on the project took F-O-R-E-V-E-R. My mom had already sourced and purchased all of the materials and it still took 4 months to complete the guest bath.
Oh my! We are gut-rehabbing a historic home in Beverly, built in 1906. When we walked through for the first time, I instantly thought of George Bailey’s house from It’s a Wonderful Life… that should’ve been a bad sign, ha!
I will say that we love our house dearly, but gut-rehabbing an old house while living in it–and with a small child–makes me HATE our house on many days. We are doing most the work ourselves, so that could certainly be part of it.
Advice? Hire a lead inspector before you do any work on any old house. We removed an old door from its hinges and days later my kiddo’s lead levels shot through the roof. We tested the stupid door afterward and found lead paint on the inside of the door jamb. That was the most terrifying experience of my life (and thankfully turned out to be ok).
Also, and this may sound absurd, check the area around the house/garage for dead or problematic trees. We were surprised by a $7k bill when we had to take two giant silver maples down shortly after moving in.
I also agree with previous posters: Everything will take longer and cost more than you plan for, so budget accordingly.
And drink, like all the time! 🙂
Hi! Good luck to you! We just moved back into our Ravenswood home after taking it down to the studs. We have a yard and a garage :). The process was a bit rocky, took 16 months before we could move back vs the 6-9 we were told, but we had an amazing architect, had a blast picking out everything and now have a beautiful home for our family to enjoy forever! Honestly, despite a lot of issues/heartache, we would do it all again. It was worth it!
This is so exciting! Although, I am in major love with your current home so you can’t really lose! On the renovation front, we’re just in the process of renovating our 130 year old cottage in the countryside. We moved outside of London about 6 months ago and we both absolutely love it so I don’t regret it. However, building from scratch is pretty much easier than renovating because with old properties things pop up unexpectedly ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME. and they always seem to mean that you’ve just wasted money doing something else that could have waited. You get the drift. It’s a real treat to think that we’ll have somewhere that’s almost perfect ( I won’t say entirely perfect because we’re still making compromises and working around things that we can’t change but still, getting there!!). I have a little mini tour on my stories right now if you fancy a look to see what you’ll be getting yourself in for! 😀 http://www.instagram.com/hayleyjanewarnes