victoriandream, My DH is an attorney & banker. He is NOT a handyman although he tries...Bless his heart. We are both gardeners &, if I do say so myself, accomplished gardeners. So, we've done the garden restoration & hired 95% of the home renovations. It took us about 15 minutes with a heat gun to realize that we were never going to be able to strip all that paint off the millwork ourselves. And, if we did we would ruin the woodwork! :) There are times in economic & societal cycles when historic homes ARE a good investment. We are not now nor have we been in that type of cycle for, maybe, the past 8 years thereabouts. Will it again turn in favor of historic homes? Sure, but who knows when? Just like...if one had such a desire...avacado-green carpet is again available. (Ugh!) Everything is cyclical. You should, IMO, never purchase an historic home with the intention of making a bundle. That's not realistic. Facts are that it costs considerably more to restore these homes than it would to bulldoze & build new on the site. Those pesky appraisers & lenders don't share our emotional attachments so they often block our dreams of grandeur. In many cases, they save us from ourselves! Yes, we had kids. The ranged in age from 8 to 13 when we purchased that 1848 colonial. Our son is a pro at stripping wallpaper! During their teen years they had great ghost stories to entertain their friends! They may have suffered from things we did as parents (?); but I don't believe living in a period home did them any lasting damage. LOL You will know your stewardship is over when you hesitate before starting the next project. Or, you'll know when the checkbook is running on fumes because you can't even stay in a period home, much less restore it, without being bankrolled. They suck money like a vacuum from your wallet. Your daughter is precious! And, what a grand lady your home is! Wonderful that you've got old pictures for a guide. Did you have to strip ALL that millwork? OMG! I think you've done a lovely job of maintaining the 'feel' for the kitchen while still bringing to a 21st century functionality. I love the windows. The windows in our 1848 home were narrow & tall. Window treatments were like trying to dress spaghetti! Yes, our East Lake, Brilliant Period Cut Glass, & tapestries would have worked wonderfully in your home. The auction was sorta fun...we've actually done that thing twice (auctioning off our entire household...that's how we've managed to upgrade our collections...buy, sell & then re-purchase fewer but higher quality pieces). I've got a cupboard that would be lovely in your kitchen...it's c. 1865 so very appropriate to your home. Here's its official description: A circa 1860-1870 step-back cupboard having pie shelf beneath shaped apron beneath a top case consisting of pair of paneled doors with tombstone and molded design with applied cornice molding. Top case rests on bottom case; double drawers above conforming paneled doors having recessed tombstone and molded design matching doors in top case; side panels of lower case also with inset tombstone shaped panels; side of bottom case terminates with successful "cupids bow" base cutout; front apron and feet conform to shaping above pie shelf. This cupboard retains desirable original chrome yellow surface with red highlights; faux birds eye decoration. (84-inches tall X 45-inches wide X 19 1/8-inches deep.) That's funny about you wanting to become boaters! We started with a small 21' sport lobster boat & quickly got a bad case of "Two-footitis". That's a common disease amongst boaters & it's contagious. We ended up with this...she's a Nordic Tug outfitted for long-distance cruising...the Bahamas to Maine. Stay away from boat shows. They are dangerous places! rofl I can really understand why you fell in love with your home & I'm sure she's grateful for your efforts. I know this may sound like blasphemy; but, have you considered a B&B? If not your heart, at least your tax returns would thank you. :) Your family will make many wonderful memories living in that house. If it were me, I'd sigh & start on that siding before the season gets away! :) /tricia

Your house is lovely in a charming, old-fashioned type of way that appeals to many of us. I'm stealing a phrase from someone else (can't remember whom), but your house says "Ahhh" rather than "Wow!" That's exactly the feel I want from my house. I do not think you should feel pressure to move up to a bigger, more expensive house . . . just because you can /will be able to in the future. We are building a house that's much smaller than we could afford to build, and we're planning to fill it with luxury items . . . in moderation. I think you should proceed with caution because none of us knows what may happen in the coming years, and what you today call a "forever home" may NEED to be sold for any number of reasons: A work move, surprise twins or the need to take in a family member's child, a freeway coming through. None of us ever think these things will happen to us -- until they happen to us. We have to be realistic. I'd say go ahead and improve your small house with lovely things that will please you and enhance your life, but do keep it period appropriate, and don't over-do excessively for the neighborhood.

There are a lot of things that make doing what you are talking about less than optimal. Having had partners, even in real estate, a few times before I can tell you that it never quite works out the way you expect it to. First, I find that my partners never seem to live up to my expectations, nor me to theirs. There is no faster way to spoil a good relationship with someone than giving them some of your stuff to take care of. Or try making a decision or repairing versus replacing components, or try writing a big check for a big ticket item for a house you aren't living in or getting money from. Next, there is the problem of someone needing their money out. Assume one of the families invested in this home needs money, what mechanism are you going to have to get them out? You are going to have fun with the liability issue on the property. Multiple owners will give you joint and several liability which means if anyone gets hurt they can sue whoever they want. Not only that, if one of the other owners gets hurt because of any known maintenance issue, then that person could sue the other two to pony up their share of his/her damages. Then we have insurance, which insurance alone is going to make you pay attention. A communal property with no full time resident and a pool. You will not be eligible for homeowner's insurance as the house isn't anyone's home, so you are going to have to get some kind of commercial insurance that will probably cost you close to what the actual house payment is. Next, you have house and pool maintenance. A huge number of pools end up as nothing more than mosquito pools because no one expects that pool maintenance is that much work. Pool maintenance is neither cheap nor easy. House maintenance isn't going to be a walk in the park either. There are ways to make it work, however, I think you are looking at all the upsides and none of the downsides.

My advice.... is either listen to Joseph Corlett advice and do as he said OR sell your lot now and run. If you decide to press forward, please do yourself a favor and go TALK to people at Lowe's, Home Depot, wherever that work at these stores. Millwork will tell you they can't get doors and windows. Lumber will tell you the prices are up 3 times normal... on the lumber they CAN get. Kitchen cabinets will tell you their normal lead time of 6-8 weeks is now 4 and 5 months possibly longer. Appliances will tell you there is very limited options available due to severe supply chain issues. Flooring will tell you... well, you get the idea. Don't take our word for it... go ASK the employees in these places and CALL electricians/plumbers/HVAC people and see if they are even taking jobs. Builders/contractors where I'm at in South Carolina are booked through this entire YEAR and well into next year with all the jobs they can handle. I believe this is true in many parts of the country as people have sat home for 12 months looking at Houzz and thinking "I want to renovate NOW". Best of luck to you...