OP
chilipeppermaniac
Ambassador of Decibels
Yeah Sp8, if I had any choice in the matter on this house, I would have taken a preemptive approach to how it was "improved" on over the years like digging out a proper basement under the eventual whole house. But, the history has it basically starting out as a 16x26 foot, 2 story home with a single chimney with 2 fireplaces built upon a stone foundation before electricity, before plumbing, and obviously before modern HVAC. Circa 1850. Then somewhere along the line the area under the original house got about 6 feet below the bottom of the floor joists dug out likely by hand. Wiring, plumbing and HVAC were added somewhere in the 1900's. Also, somewhere in the 1900's, a 24x24 - 2 story addition was built to the rear of the original house over a crawl space currently only accessible by a hole in the bank of dirt to the rear of the main original section. Sadly, but also fortunately maybe in the 70's or 80's a 2nd addition was also built slightly above ground level or on a crawl space extending the rear of the house approximately 10x22 and currently has the only bathroom/laundry area and home office area.
As Hack says, SERIOUS OBSTACLES. As I started out my reply to Sp8 above, I seriously would have dug out a proper basement at least under the 2 additions and built either a block or poured concrete foundation and then gone up with the additions above those spaces, thereby making a much more accessible, useful and serviceable area to meet the needs of the rest of the house above. Better HVAC, plumbing, storage, and overall maintenance ability would have been accomplished putting the untilities there instead of in the tight barely able to fit a full size man " dug out basement/crawl space situation" currently in use. While the dug out portion under the original house makes access to the electric panel, water heating, and furnace possible, the fact of how much and where prior owners decided to stop digging outs, left future owners with a less than ideal space to "work" in. Everything is shoehorned into basically a sardine can of space, if you get the picture.
Now that the essential plumbing work is done, I will spend the rest of my year converting what was previously one of the bedrooms into 2 bathrooms on the 2nd floor, fixing roof leaks or a roof replacement, rerouting some plumbing lines on the first floor to minimize/eliminate exposure to porous foundation walls which permit drafts to cause occasional frozen pipes, redo some HVAC ducting to make cold spot rooms more efficient to heat and cool those areas better, plus build closets/built in book/clothing/shoe etc storage units for the master bedroom, Install our new kitchen cabinets and countertops,new tile and hardwood floor work plus sand and refinish the antique pine flooring on the master bedroom and 2nd floor hall floors. For exterior, as mentioned, I have roof work, but also a planned side porch build and all new siding and gutters etc. I am sure more will be to come, but that is it for the next year or 2. If only I could somehow get the ladies to move out and get all the household items out of the work space too. As anyone who ever remodeled will know, having someone live in the work area is a HUUUUGE obstacle to good progress.
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