[roger1]

I'm guessing you have grandkids as one of the reasons she wants a pool?

[dataway]

Actually we don't, she's apparently a bit of a princess that needs such things. You and I both know it won't get much use. But she says she can still do a cartwheel so who am I to argue.

[OG68]

Happy wife, Happy life

[Heybuck]

This all looks pretty wonderful. I love the concepts of what you are doing.

However, looking at your overhead vision of the property and where the old house is, I wonder why your intent is to pull it down? If that was mine, I'd would plan on making it quite habitable, tidying it up, secure etc and then leasing it out. Not hard to find the right tenant who will look after it, pay you some rent and hopefully be there to keep an eye on your main house/shed etc if for whatever reason you are not there.

And eventually, you could possibly subdivide it off your main land and sell it. Could be some very handy future income for you.

Just my thoughts

[dataway]

Heybuck. I really don't think the house is worth saving, it has some structural issues that would need to be addressed, and a complete rehab, it's about 75 years old. Might save the "garage" which is a fairly sturdy pole building.

But, it's not out of the question, we would like a "caretaker" home as we will probably be spending sometimes a month or more out of the country.

Don't think we'd ever subdivide, in fact I'm looking to buy the rest of the property surrounded by the road (another 7 acres) and consolidate them into a single lot. It's kind of a rare opportunity to own an entire "country block" completely surrounded by paved roads that make a wonderful delineation for property lines.

The problem with the old house is that it has a perimeter block foundation (cracked in many places) and then concrete block piers supporting the floor ... which are progressively sinking into the ground and have been shimmed up many times. Zero insulation underneath, very little in the attic, and I'm guessing nothing in the walls. Floors are pretty much trashed, entire house is carpet ... even the bathroom, every wall in the house is cheap 70's panelling, pipes have burst many times ... so it's a mess. Livable for a year or two while we are building, but it could take $100K to make it right.

We hope to at some point fence the entire property. We are fortunate that retirement income is not an issue so that leaves us considerable flexibility with our plans. We were planning on building a caretaker house at some point, a quite small one, and try to convince a niece or nephew to live there and take care of the place when we are gone

[Greg Reid]

That's great idea anyway when you can see yourself clear to build something. Passive income. Either have a straight renter or as an air-bnb. Especially if you're near any kinds of attractions.
Every time I look at that aerial picture of your property I can't help but think about how much I miss playing with my airplanes. If I had a spot like that right outside my door I would still be flying these.

Sent from my moto g stylus (2021) using Tapatalk

[dataway]

Greg, the 6 acre field up the upper right corner is absolutely dead level, probably 700' x 400', would probably make an excellent "mini-Reno"

We've played with the idea of a paved cart track there.

I haven't been having much success with my drone, apparently it feels its mission in life is to violently attack me whenever possible. Half the time it behaves, the other half it has a mind of its own, if there is no tree to collide with it will turn its attention to me like a rapid racoon.

[Shiny]

LOL, Greg made me laugh.

Your field would be a great place for launching gliders! And it is both magical and terrifying when your plane catches a thermal and climbs out of sight.

Think what amazing glider parts you could make with your 3D printer and those design skills!

Here's a glimpse of my shared interest and similarly, where it lies today:



Maybe I'll fly RC again after I get my car running!

It will be done by Christmas...

[Greg Reid]

I trained myself to fly RC using gliders. My goal was always powered flight but I found a new hobby soaring. Yeah, a good thermal will take that thing clean out of sight. Sometimes I could hang out with a group of buzzards, making big lazy circles.

[hgerhardt]

Speaking of flying things, would be really nice if your lot were big enough to build a 2500' runway which could double as a dragstrip...

[dataway]

Hgerhardt, longest strip I can fit in is 1636' But because of the lay of the land in that area I think are a plenty of local airstrips ... buy yes, would be very cool have one. A nice piece of lawn and a windsock and people could fly in and visit.

Not only could it double as a dragstrip, but then I'd just HAVE to build a hanger that could double as a giant shop!

[roger1]

I know you must be really busy right now but would love to have you update this thread!

[dataway]

Well we are living in TN full time now. Doing lots of mowing and taming of the property. House in NY should close this week and we'll be able to purchase some needed equipment and get a shop built.
Been great so far (although hot) and had a battle with poison ivy for a couple of weeks. Spending our days mowing down the wheat/weed field, about 20 acres of it, using our old equipment, hope to have a couple of new zero-turns in a couple of weeks.

Waiting to register everything in TN till the NY house closes (tax reasons). But the GTO is in it's new, and hopefully temporary, home till the new shop gets built. It's a sad, sad little old garage, however the carpenter bees seem to think it's the Hilton.

Wife made a video riding her dirt bike around the perimeter of the property. About 3/4 in you'll see a green hill with nice trees, that's where the new house will go.

Hope to have it ready for the first annual West TN Pontiac Meet in a year or so. Won't have the house done by then, but should have the shop done, water and power up on the hill, and a nice green field to park in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN1sZQmwVCs

[limejudge69]

Originally Posted by hgerhardt

Speaking of flying things, would be really nice if your lot were big enough to build a 2500' runway which could double as a dragstrip...

That's a sharp looking RV ya have there. Occasionally we work on Rotax powered RV's at my job, but it's mainly Pips, Slings, Bristells, CTSW's and gyrocopters. And of course your usual Cessna/Piper products

[sdbob]

Been following your dream. Very nice. I live in a 1200 sq ft brick ranch. It has hip roof. 24 " overhangs. Front Faces the south. Overhang Shields sun in summer,then in winter low sun heats the rooms. The only thing I would consider (my father and I were contractors for years)is putting laundry room on main floor. The thing we use to talk about is reroofing these many pitch steep roofs $$$$. Plus now as Cliff talked about are roofers who know what they are doing. It's not hard just details. My father had old time training he passed some of that to me. He would always say 'think about what you want to do and do it right, do it only once. I built a 30x60 2 story gambrel roof garage. Not thinking about now(car lifts) I only made ceilings 10 ft,less heat cooling. If I had to it I'd do 12 ft clear.

[400 4spd.]

Beautiful location that you found!

[dataway]

sdbob, boy, we are on the same page. Plan is for a hip roof brick house, 2' soffits, front facing the south. Being in tornado country we'll go with a max 4/12 pitch, maybe 3/12 (no worries about snow). Will have a basement so no need for room in the attic for AC. And yes we plan on a main floor laundry room.

I've bounced around on shop height, was also thinking about 10' and using arched trusses and put a lift in the center of a gable end to take advantage of the arched trusses ... but it would still be tight. Will probably end up going 12'. No higher, I don't want the shop to be the main visual feature of the property.

Going to be calling Morton Buildings in a couple of weeks. Not the cheapest option, but I just don't have the time or the local knowledge to line up the necessary contractors in the time frame I have to get the shop built. We'll see what they come up with for a 40x60 building 12' high. Only real extra I want is insulation on the ceiling, I'll do all the inside wiring and lighting myself, and any additional insulation.

Hopefully by the rainy winter season I'll have it ready to go.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by dataway

Well we are living in TN full time now. Doing lots of mowing and taming of the property. House in NY should close this week and we'll be able to purchase some needed equipment and get a shop built.
Been great so far (although hot) and had a battle with poison ivy for a couple of weeks. Spending our days mowing down the wheat/weed field, about 20 acres of it, using our old equipment, hope to have a couple of new zero-turns in a couple of weeks.

Waiting to register everything in TN till the NY house closes (tax reasons). But the GTO is in it's new, and hopefully temporary, home till the new shop gets built. It's a sad, sad little old garage, however the carpenter bees seem to think it's the Hilton.

Wife made a video riding her dirt bike around the perimeter of the property. About 3/4 in you'll see a green hill with nice trees, that's where the new house will go.

Hope to have it ready for the first annual West TN Pontiac Meet in a year or so. Won't have the house done by then, but should have the shop done, water and power up on the hill, and a nice green field to park in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN1sZQmwVCs

RM43 is your friend when it comes to poison ivy and other noxious weeds. It comes it quarts, half gallons and gallons of concentrate. Normally you can find it at TSC. It WORKS but don’t spray it around anything you want to keep plant wise!

[dataway]

I think I have some of that stuff. Bad smelling brown stuff that I bought in a gallon jug that was expensive and didn't have any of the typical labeling you would expect on a consumer product. (bought at TSC). According to the complex label book it kills just about anything in the right concentration.

Today I sprayed 4 gallons of a mixture of that stuff (6 oz), Round Up (6 oz) and Brush Tox (6 oz) Drenched all the over growth on the barbed wire fence along the front of the property ... it's pretty much a wall of foliage, weeks, vines and saplings.

Round Up doesn't seem to work on underbrush and vines unless you mix it way over the recommended dose for weeds.

I've various experimental test plots using various products in difference concentrations. I've about a mile of fence line to work on.

[67drake]

Originally Posted by dataway

I think I have some of that stuff. Bad smelling brown stuff that I bought in a gallon jug that was expensive and didn't have any of the typical labeling you would expect on a consumer product. (bought at TSC). According to the complex label book it kills just about anything in the right concentration.

Today I sprayed 4 gallons of a mixture of that stuff (6 oz), Round Up (6 oz) and Brush Tox (6 oz) Drenched all the over growth on the barbed wire fence along the front of the property ... it's pretty much a wall of foliage, weeks, vines and saplings.

Round Up doesn't seem to work on underbrush and vines unless you mix it way over the recommended dose for weeds.

I've various experimental test plots using various products in difference concentrations. I've about a mile of fence line to work on.

I’ve found the modern day Round-Up to be weak as compared to when I used it years ago. Seems like it used to kill anything it came in contact with. Nowadays, it seems I have to mix it in increasing concentrations to get it to do anything.