i can certainly feel your pain in this one. when i moved to my home, the outside (i won't even comment on the inside) had not been touched for 12 to 15 years. the house was owned by a woman in her mid 90's when i purchased it. other than her front lawn (which no longer exists), nothing, and i mean nothing, had been touched. my yard, was an absolute jungle. it took me a year to get it to a forrest, another year and it became a plain tapestry for me to start from scratch. the sad part was she had everything and everything growing and i was really able to only salvage about 10% of it. all that could be salvaged, i took my chain saw and buzzed them down to ankle level. they grew back and are now managable. i hated it in the beginning, but it was the only way. i made the big mistake of working everywhere, in all directions, as opposed to properly working one area at a time. then the light bulb went off and that's what i did - concentrate in one area at a time. i started with my front, ripped out all those nasty hedges and yews and dead azaleas. i have no grass now, it's beautifully landscaped (if i do say so myself) and laid a path to the back. from there i worked on other sections. i'm in my house almost 11 years and i'm not done. from what i understand, you are never done. i still have one problem area, but cement is really starting to look good LOL - it is probably the only part i will ever have done professionally, because i need a bobcat to come in, dig and level. the one thing i did learn was how to separate all the perennials, i also took whatever anyone gave me - especially if they grew well, and put them in where ever i ripped something out. that's one of the things i highly recommend. if you are weeding an area, make sure you put something in it's place to force weeds out completely. split your hostas, iris, as well as those native orange lilies (oeople call them ditch lilies), sedums work well too. under some of the trees, kill off the grass and lay mulch - even that playground mulch and here and there put little sitting areas or even that ground ivy or pachysandra. there's so much you can do. as for your downed trees, cut some of the trunk enough to bury a little in the ground for it to become stepping stones. the wood that remains that is "rotted" rent a chipper and have it ground up and then mix that with some good dirt and use that as mulch. (you might want that to sit for a year). read up on lasagne gardening and it will save you digging and weeding. start now and by fall, you can get a boatload of bulbs in it and it's one last area to worry about come spring. my biggest suggestion to you - as a fellow gardener - is DON'T GIVE UP. i know an old house in and of itself is a royal PITA, but gardening shouldn't be - it's such great therapy. best of luck to you. i always keep a shovel and gloves in my hand, so....if i'm passing by, i'll stop and dig and weed for ya :) just have some...

If the wood of both floors match as to species and width, then I would suggest calling in a professional to remove the 1940's section and relay it by weaving it into the older portion. It would require some carefully selected new material to incorporate into the job, but this is not impossible for a restoration flooring professional and is done every day. It is, however, quite a challenge for the average DIY'er.

If you are going to do a lot of the work yourself, and only hire out the work for some specific licensed trades and work that specialty equipment or tools or skill are needed, you sound similar to what my husband and I have done on approx 5 houses in the last 10 years, all similar in age and character and condition to the one you are looking at. I know prices vary by region, and I'm probably opening myself up to a bunch of critical comments from people saying either we spent too much and wasted money in one area, or too cheap in another... But I want to try to offer some help in a possible pricing to help you decide if you want to go down this path or not... P - hire a plumber: varies with the house and whether you add a bathroom, but plan for $5k, assumes they take care of big stuff, roughin the shower, code, venting, but you DIY fixture installations - Hire an electrician: similar to plumbing, varies with the house, but assume $3k for them to do layout changes, code corrections, but you DIY fixture installations - if a roof is needed and/ or painting touchups, fascia repairs, etc: big variable but for this assume $8k minimum - assumes siding is in good condtition, $0k or add more - assumes heat / air conditioning / hot water heater are all in good condition, or add more - assumes water in the basement isn't a problem, or add more for dealing with mold, draintile, grade corrections outside, etc. - Hire a hardwood floor refinisher: $2k - assumes hardwood everywhere except kitchen and bathrooms, otherwise add more for carpet/ new floor in other rooms - windows: Varies a lot if you repair or replace, and if replace what quality, but for this rough estimate figure $200 per window x probably around 20 windows would either pay for repair supplies and hardware, or a cheap vinyl replacement, DIY install. $4k - Kitchen materials: ikea cabinets $4k with butcher block countertops, or add $3-4k for granite, $3k cheap ss appliances, $1k tile and paint, you DIY all installation - Bathroom materials: $2k ( tub/shower, vanity, faucets, ligt fixtures, tile), You DIY all installation, Looks like times two in this house plus $1k powder room= $5k., all DIY installation except for the roughin plumbing notes above - light and door fixtures : $1k, all DIY install - basic supplies: Paint, sheetrock, spackle, sanding pads, hinges, eurythane : $3k, all DIY install - holding costs: depends on tax rates, if you need to heat/cool, etc but if you figure $400/ month for 3-4 months (this would have you and your husband there probably 20-30/hrs a week if you are moderately competent but not streamlined professionals at this), adds a bit more than $1k, more if you have a loan with interest accruing. Soooo.... If I add all of this up, I get at least $40k of fixup costs which is you doing almost all of the work. And I should note these are economical material and finishing choices. And assumes you already own all the tools needed to do the work. If you pay $25 k plus $1k in closing costs (no mortgage fees) you'd have at least $66k in to it. If you later sell for $125k, after real estate commissions and another 3 months of holding costs, you may get $110k. So- best case scenario i think you might potentially take home a little over $40k for 3+ months of work. Or, it could be a lot less profit if you hire out more of the work, if you add a 10% error budget ($4k), need new HVAC ($6k), mold/water issues ($?), extensive plumbing (+$6k), exterior repairs ($3-$15k), if opening up walls triggers other code improvements like insulation and vapor barrier ($2k or more), if you add landscaping curb appeal ($1-3k)..... Hopefully you find this helpful, and can adjust this to fit the house you are looking at, your local requirements and rates, etc. It can be fun to bring these houses back to beautiful, and there can be some money to be made doing it. But it's important to run the numbers upfront so you know what you are getting in to. It also makes the work a lot more fun when you feel like you are doing it "on budget"- noone has fun when things are going wrong or you are stuck midway knowing you are loosing money on it. Another thing that my husband and I do, is we each get a $1k "allowance" to spent on "frivolous" things for the house. Well maybe "frivolous" is too spendy of a word, but for certain as you are going through the project you and you husband will have differences of opinion on what to put in the house: Maybe he likes a $2.99/sqft tile and you don't want to waste money and are ok with a $0.99 tile. If he really likes the more expensive tile, that extra $2/ sqft can come out of his "frivolous allowance". It allows both of you to have input and fun with some minor upgrades, but keeps a cap on them. Good luck if you decide to do this - either on this house or a different one! :-)

The information shown in the panorama is too shrunken and distant. The other pictures are piecemeal so I'm afraid that's all that the feedback can be. If you want more comprehensive feedback, you'd need to take a series of sequential, slightly overlapping pictures that show a whole scene from end to end (like from the outbuilding all the way to the house). It would show all the potential landscape space in between. To do it, you'd probably need to stand at the pool deck (not far from gate and not far from the portion of the yard you're capturing and roughly in line with the scene center) and capture the entire area contained within the yard perimeter fence. The camera would stay in ONE spot and pivot, taking slightly overlapping shots, to capture successive pictures. Looking at this picture, we can see that it would be useful to have the roofs of distant buildings screened. If you committed to pollarding the crapes, they could pretty much accomplish this goal, all while keeping healthier looking foliage, massive flower trusses and a "bouquet" appearance which I think suits being around a pool better than the rangey/woodsey look. I acknowledge that there are plenty enough bad examples of crape cutting to warrant using the words "murder" or "butcher." But this is easily avoidable while bringing some distinct advantages. For one, it controls the size and creates a handsome trunk/canopy relationship. Two, it increases leaf and flower size; and 3, leaves look healthier and are much longer lasting on the plant. Flowers grow into enormous trusses. Personally, I love the way they grow on long, arching canes that makes the tree look almost like a weeping tree. Cut them straight across the top, not like a single-dip sugar cone. 9' above grade is a good minimum height to cut for a residential yard. The canopy will return to slightly lower than that, still allowing a person to walk below without getting scraped in the head by branches. Be aware that the canopy fullness is not instant on newly pollarded crapes. it takes a couple years to develop and continues to get better every year. If you don't like the narrowness and stiff verticality of the existing trunk structure, chainsaw it to 8" above grade and start completely over. A new form will be there by summer's end. Personally, I like them to be slightly wide-spreading. 45* - 55*. It would seem better to me if the outside of the yard were surrounded by a perimeter bed next to the wood fence/and a smaller lawn. Not using this picture to say what should be in the bed, Just that it is a bed.