historic house (Austin, Victoria, Georgetown: sale, real estate, mobile home)

[ScoPro]

Zowie! Things gettin’ ‘spensive!

[JT-3]

I like Taylor, it's not that far away and the few times we visited the locals were super friendly. Definitely still has the small town feel. But, the forever stress of renovating that home....orchestrating all of the contractors out there, costs, etc. Even with a GC managing. So many decisions, and give/take with your family.

I'll add that we caught the old house bug, and one of the many reasons we moved. But, still have family in Austin and return often for tacos.

[texan2yankee]

We bought my dream house 20 years ago. the renovation took 4 years to complete and lots of blood, sweat and tears, but the results were beautiful and all i'd hoped.

would I buy that house now at 60? no. but, at 40 i'm glad we bought it. I have no regrets. we lived in the home 10 years. I'm still grateful I had the opportunity to live in my "dream home" for part of my life. Most people don't get that chance!

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by texan2yankee

would I buy that house now at 60? no. but, at 40 i'm glad we bought it. I have no regrets. we lived in the home 10 years. I'm still grateful I had the opportunity to live in my "dream home" for part of my life. Most people don't get that chance!

Spot on!! If you have the skill sets needed to do things right, you can certainly I've built everything from large barns to workshops over the years, but nowadays I'm afraid I'm past that stage. But when you can do it RIGHT yourself, you not only have more pride in the finished product, but you save a TON of labor costs. My last major project was a 16' x 20' workshop clad in Hardiplank - total finished price (on concrete slab) was under $10,000, including full insulation, a ton of electrical outlets and subpanel, etc. Quotes to have it built to the same standard approached $30k.

[Austin97]

My master bath had quotes of about 60k-80k. Im getting it done for about 15K with a mix of contractors and doing it myself.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Originally Posted by riaelise

https://www.google.com/maps/place/17...!4d-97.4283546

This is the house, just fyi.

That's a very nice house. It reminds me of some of those old farm houses back in Indiana. I just wonder how much it would cost to keep it cool in the summertime and warm in the winter time? I bet it might be as much as a thousand dollars a month. I live in a 1300 square feet mobile home that was built in 2016 and the electric bill ranges from about $160 to about $300 a month, depending on the month and how hot it was. I don't think it's ever been higher than $320 and it hasn't been lower than $160. It's still disappointingly higher than what the mobile home salesman assured me it would be.

[ScoPro]

Built our 2060 sq/ft house in 1995. The highest electric bill we ever got was about $350 for one August during the heat wave several years ago.

The A/C tech who replaced the whole 17 year old central heat & air unit with a 16 SEER Trane advised us to blow in more insulation, but we delayed until this past spring. Our son & grandson did the job in one morning with materials & rental blower from HD (about $500 or $600 to buy the insulation bags and rent the blower machine).
The old insulation had settled to a depth of maybe 4” to 5”, and they added at least 15” of the new stuff.

With the replaced A/C unit the highest summer bills had dropped down to $290-$300 at the most before the new insulation, but this last summer the highest was only $219. Well pleased with it.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

That's a very nice house. It reminds me of some of those old farm houses back in Indiana. I just wonder how much it would cost to keep it cool in the summertime and warm in the winter time? I bet it might be as much as a thousand dollars a month. I live in a 1300 square feet mobile home that was built in 2016 and the electric bill ranges from about $160 to about $300 a month, depending on the month and how hot it was. I don't think it's ever been higher than $320 and it hasn't been lower than $160. It's still disappointingly higher than what the mobile home salesman assured me it would be.

Dang! Plant some trees if your home is not already shaded! Who do you get your electric from? PEC or COA? Or from the market? We have a massive tree that shades our two story house, and I swear it must save us at least $20/month. I guess you could call it 'green insulation' or organic insulation . Our 1999 home is 2,400 sf (2-story) and our largest electric bill over the past year was August at $169, with the average over the past 12 months being $95. Our heat is gas, though, so that keeps the electric low. Not sure what average gas bill is, but it is very small, maybe $350 over the entire year.

My wife's family had a farm house in Indiana that was very cool but very expensive to keep warm. I think they still used oil to heat it (converted from coal) and it was all natural draft heating with no ducts. The heat in the basement could lead into the main floor and there were vents in the ceiling that led to the second floor. While the house was amazing in the historical sense, the family eventually sold it due to the maintenance and utility costs.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by Austin97

My master bath had quotes of about 60k-80k. Im getting it done for about 15K with a mix of contractors and doing it myself.

That has got to be one heck of a nice bathroom!!!

[riaelise]

Hey guys, just wanted to say thanks for the responses. And scopro that's sooo cool!! Wow. that's what I enjoy so much about historic neighborhoods/houses - they have stories to tell.

But yes, I do need to be mindful, especially about the historic appellation in regards to zoning. never had to deal with that before.

I do fear that the gut renovation (at least with the figures Austin97 gave) might be overimproving, because I could get a similar home in better condition for not more than 550k, simply due to the fact that it is in Taylor and that's considered "far out" by some folks. I'm having a tough time convincing my husband to move to Taylor because in his words "it's too far out, and you work downtown". BUT I can work from home some days, too. Taylor is probably the last affordable area that's commutable that offers BIG lots and estate homes.