We are considering selling our small lot and moving to 3+ acres, a 1970's mediterranean "style" stucco home. The house is priced for the work that needs to be done.
Most of the interior, living room, dining room and other rooms are stucco on the interior - is this common to have both interior and exterior stucco'd?
Have some questions about costs involved for needed repairs, and I'd also like feedback on the pros and cons...
First, how energy efficient are stucco homes in the midwest, zone 5 Wisconsin?
Kitchen and baths need to be gutted and updated, but are livable, and we'll certainly get our money back on these remodels in time. High end homes in this area, not far from the city, and plenty of land which is hard to come by.
Carpeting is outdated, needs to be replaced. In the main living areas areas we'll be adding hardwood floors.
Basement carpeting will definitely be pulled, adding ceramic tile.
Windows aren't the typical interior dbl hung with an exterior storm that I've been accustomed to my whole life, - I don't know what style windows you'd call them, but some are up/down sliders with screens, and others are tall dual pane stationary (unable to open) - I've typically seen these as "crank outs" but these don't have the crank outs. How energy efficent would these be if they are from the 70's?
Stucco, plaster & wallpaper, - kitchen and baths have plaster with wallpaper. How difficult is it to remove wallpaper from plaster, and does this leave you with a paintable surface?
The house sits high up on a hill, but it is a tri-level with a basement walk out. The problem is, the walk out is a concrete slab that is BELOW grade. See pic. We were concerned about drainage - there is no apparent drainage system next to the patio door, so when it rains, where does the water go??? We'd have to install some sort of drainage system, and run a pipe to the nearest hilly area on the property. Not sure how much this would cost, but a contractor would be necessary to run the drainage pipe through many feet of underground soil. Aside from that, the lannonstone retaining wall around this walk out needs to be redone, a matter of manual labor and we'd probably tier it somehow to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
The basement or walk out level smells musty, but that could be the very old carpeting. Selling agent has said no leaking in the basement, would make sense given that the property sits high on a hill, still I'm skeptical. I was told the surrounding area is not clay soil. To my knowledge, the property does not have a sump pump, but may not be needed.
As far as the patio doors, we'd like to replace with exterior french style doors. Can anyone give me a ballpark figure what we can expect to pay? I'm assuming we'd buy the doors with the works - frame and all, and have professionally installed. We have no idea of the costs involved.
Pros and cons with oil heat? It is an above ground oil tank. We were told the furnace is a couple years new, so we don't want to revert to gas, at least not until years down the road. I've heard your home tends to get dustier.
Costs associated with adding a water softenening system? Well water. I've had city water most my life.
Septic tank - what do we need to know? How often is this serviced? What questions do we need to ask seller?
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There is also a retaining wall - the staircase is obviously not up to code for today's standards, the spindles are too spaced, and I have small dogs. The retaining wall itself worries me - the land behind the wall is only 2 to 3 feet from the top, a hazard for my dogs, so as a solution, we were thinking of removing the staircase from the retaining wall altogether (this goes up to a deck and not sure why we need this back entrance anyway), and just running stairs behind the backside of the retaining wall to the bottom, and closing off the top deck with a continuous rail that runs down the retaining wall. I think this would be more aesthetically pleasing.
Thoughts?
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On the flip side, the home has many nice qualities, including brick kitchen built in grill, beamed ceilings, huge calif. drifwood stone fp, new roof, decent size bedrooms and kitchen, 2 full baths. Many nice mature trees, but some attention needed to landscaping.
What to do?
barbcollins
Susan
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