Eh, what the hell. Lets do this.

It's late, I just finished work for the day (still behind in this crazy market) and I don't feel like going to bed yet.

Got a little back story for you Ags. On the Real Estate board I posted a simple question.
That one question turned into an unintentional 6 month journey into buying a small home in the King William Historic District in San Antonio. (The state's first historic district. I am first and foremost a massive history dork.)


I've so far located the original 1893 deed for the lot which only took me around 5 hours online and the house shows up on the Sanborn Maps at the latest in 1908.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/GwZzfC][/url]
00001 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr


The budget is going to be tight, and the time line very long, but I thought I would share the misadventures here with y'all.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HbRV3D][/url]2016-05-18_06-59-56 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Gx258e][/url]2016-05-24_01-05-13 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HhHj8d][/url]2016-05-20_11-54-39 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HkF3r8][/url]2016-05-20_11-55-06 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HkF5cT][/url]2016-05-20_11-55-26 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HeBg92][/url]2016-05-20_11-55-46 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Initial assessment:

The house has been levelled once before, but the kitchen at the rear needs a nudge as does the front room. I'm not looking for perfect floors, but I suspect there might be rot at those two corners. The electrical was updated at some point over the past 30 years and everything at this point looks kosher in that regard. The plumbing is a mixed bag.

The roof, well, shockingly it's not leaking. I'm looking at epoxying the sucker to make sure. The windows very from great to ****ty. (mostly where the window units leaked on the frames all those years) The siding is in surprisingly good overall condition it just needs paint pronto. The ceilings are 11 foot. Most of the original woodwork, if it was ever there, is long gone. The wood floors could be in decent shape under that 40's/50's vinyl. Could.

I've spent the past two weekends clearing brush and cleaning out the living room. Nasty stuff left by the "tenant."

The attic had a nice surprise other than the complete and utter lack of insulation and the original cedar shakes are still underneath the tin roof. The ceiling up there for the majority of the square footage is around 10 feet. And there's a second chimney in the kitchen apparently. ( It no longer goes through the roof.)

[url=https://flic.kr/p/GwVLHf][/url]2016-05-24_01-22-30 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/GwVK3G][/url]2016-05-24_01-22-09 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

One last post for the night; a rough floor plan.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/GwWeGf][/url]Sketch by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

(no shortage of doors, eh?)

It's got an aggravating two front door set up somewhat common in homes like this. As much as I would love to use the main front door and close up the other, I can't think of a better use for the two front rooms than utilizing the side door to enter the living room. The left side of the house is VERY dark and always will be and the right side can be opened up front to rear if I get ambitious.

The attic seems to show the central spine as the only real load bearing interior wall... if that. The size of the lumber in the attic laying on that central spine seems to suggest that the 2x4s up there are only to hold up the wood plank ceiling. (not sure yet)


Priority 1 right now is getting the house water tight, er, water tight-ish.

Looks like you've got a fun project there! FWIW I'd try and keep and refinish the original doors since that might be all that's left of the interior from when it was new.

Definitely will be doing that.

We're in the same boat. Will be watching your progress.

looking forward to this thread

Paint it purple!!!!!

Watching!

You have my attention.



and my bow

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Paint it purple!!!!!

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NO!

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You have my attention.



and my bow

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I could probably use a flamethrower too.

I could not find the address on the old deed. I wanted to google it to see the location.

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Paint it purple!!!!!

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NO!

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That's what ALL the cool kids in KW do.

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I could not find the address on the old deed. I wanted to google it to see the location.

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It's in lot and block with distance from Main Plaza thrown in too. Nuts.

Really no point in thinking it wouldn't take 30 seconds to find it in BexarCAD anyway so no point keeping it a "secret." {Removed address}

Holy hell, Google Street View just updated too. It was just before I waved at the car going by, too bad it missed that.

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Paint it purple!!!!!

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NO!

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That's what ALL the cool kids in KW do.

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I'm leaning with staying with a brighter color since the lot is so dark. I hate yellow and red and they just painted the very nice renovation across the street the color blue I liked. I'm trying to find a lighter green right now.

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Paint it purple!!!!!

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Puro San Anto approved!

Open Culebra Meat Market #12 in the back yard and add a Spurs mural on the side for even more SA cred.

Sideyard?

Chumps.

Rotwilder / pitbull fence.

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I could not find the address on the old deed. I wanted to google it to see the location.

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It's in lot and block with distance from Main Plaza thrown in too. Nuts.

Really no point in thinking it wouldn't take 30 seconds to find it in BexarCAD anyway so no point keeping it a "secret." 406 Mission St.

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Thanks. Spent most of my time parked on Mopac last night trying to find the place since I thought it looked familiar. Some good friends used to live on King William between Beauregard and Turner but I had no idea the King William area extended South of Pereida. Good luck on the renno!

Why haven't we seen any pics yet!

That's going to be a nice place when it's done. I love houses in historic districts within walking distance to activities.

That's right near an old favorite getting crunk spot on first friday. Hope the art walk hotties are still hot.

No photos yet. Effin rain.

I'm going to try and clean out the house this weekend. 15 cubic yard dumpster enough? It's a bed, treadmill and about 2 or 3 rooms of crap.

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No photos yet. Effin rain.

I'm going to try and clean out the house this weekend. 15 cubic yard dumpster enough? It's a bed, treadmill and about 2 or 3 rooms of crap.

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Get the largest roll-off you can. You will be surprised the space junk takes up.

Plus, if you need to start removing stuff (carpet, walls, etc.) its already there.

~egon

Agreed. This is a quick in and out for her junk though. Got several other jobs to do before real demo starts.

I ordered the 15 cubic footer, drop off Friday, pick up Monday.

...and sorry to ask for advice and totally do my own thing anyway. I HATE when people do that. I ran out of time this morning and had to make a quick decision.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HHELj3][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/HHELj3][/url]
OI000066 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

There's still another 5 to 10 feet of bamboo in the back that needs to go, but I ran out of energy, rain-free time and space at the curb for brush pickup.

I had to get them to come out a second time ( and pay them $100) to pick up the second weekend's brush cutting. Even larger than the first.

Neighbor came by, had a beer, and gave me a crepe myrtle. It's a walking neighborhood, so I've met most on the near block already. I planted it in the dead spot on the left in front of the neighbor's airbnb in the backyard.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HPpcPb][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/HPpcPb][/url]
OI000063 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

That before photo of the front really doesn't do justice to the amount of tree/brush along the left roofline before. It was unbelievable the amount of work it took to get it all off.

From Google just a couple of months ago:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HPqhvo][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/HPqhvo][/url]
front by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HSpz5t][/url]
OI000059 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

The King William District and the City Preservation department have so far been very easy and pleasant to deal with.

I had to get approval for the fence removal. I went there in person (the have a central all-in-one permit/planning/code location about a mile from the house) but I'll be able to do the rest by email.

The rusted out gutter took a direct shot from a heavy dead limb and looked even worse than before:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HHEEmb][/url]
OI000083 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

So we removed it without clearing it with them first. We'll see if they notice, or care. ( I doubt it)

Sucker was held on by 9" nails. The second gutter will be removed when it comes time to replace them. I'm not brave or stupid enough to get on this roof.

That ash tree will need to be removed pretty soon too. It's rotting badly. I'm hoping it makes it through the winter at least.

Lovely, and now gone:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/GWJDVp][/url]
OI000080 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Once we removed all the vines from the front fence we found a rather nice Rose of Sharon bush that I kept.

The fence was home to a thriving population of ants, in fact, they're everywhere on the property. I'm going to have to deal with that very soon. I have yet to turn the water on, so that'll have to wait.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HSppiV][/url]
OI000081 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr