Seven years ago Quasi Missus and I bought a home from her Grandfather's Trust that has been in her family for well over 125 years. We were able to buy in at the right time but did not get a better than family discount, all in all we got more home and value for our investment.
We have done a few DIY projects. Renovation of one bathroom, adding a master suite, addition of a second bathroom, fancy fire resistant She Shed out back. We added a LOT of value since the initial purchase. Like 4 times.
Her parents are still with us, both around 80. We have five children and five grand children. Even though it's a bigger home it's not 15 people plus at the dinner table so we have decided to put an 875sf addition on to the rear of the house. Technically the addition is larger by over 200sf but we will get into that shortly.
We ran into many delays from improperly filed Trust and Assignment paperwork to our credit union literally dropping the ball for 30 days on our loan to our initial builder going bankrupt and finding a replacement quickly. But we are on the path and ground breaking started Monday!
QuasiMofo (John Brown) said:
Seven years ago Quasi Missus and I bought a home from her Grandfather's Trust that has been in her family for well over 125 years. We were able to buy in at the right time but did not get a better than family discount, all in all we got more home and value for our investment.
We have done a few DIY projects. Renovation of one bathroom, adding a master suite, addition of a second bathroom, fancy fire resistant She Shed out back. We added a LOT of value since the initial purchase. Like 4 times.
Her parents are still with us, both around 80. We have five children and five grand children. Even though it's a bigger home it's not 15 people plus at the dinner table so we have decided to put an 875sf addition on to the rear of the house. Technically the addition is larger by over 200sf but we will get into that shortly.
We ran into many delays from improperly filed Trust and Assignment paperwork to our credit union literally dropping the ball for 30 days on our loan to our initial builder going bankrupt and finding a replacement quickly. But we are on the path and ground breaking started Monday!
how many of those sq. ft will be dedicated to parking/shop space?
875 sq. ft sounds like a fairly small garage by GRM standards 
Monday:
The first about 3 foot of soil is removed behind our home. We are able to watch through our back yard Ring, so we have decided to call it the Bob the Builder Comes to Climax! show.
What a beautiful day for a little digging!
Bob the Builder, can we dig it? Bob the Builder, YES WE CAN!
What are you looking at Bob?
Bob left his friend for me to DEFINITELY not jump on and pretend to dig holes with!
Tuesday:
Bob is back!
Bob brought his fried Stick Stickelson!
Dig Bobby, DIG!
Wayment... hold up Bob... Whatdafuq is THAT!?!
Oh my.
In reply to ClearWaterMS :
None!
Literally just an open plan living and dining room attached to the south end of the kitchen.
Bob the Builder, I need liquor Bob the Builder Tequila quick!
1/4 of the way there for a swimming pool instead.
So the tank is a gasoline tank. It has not been used in at least 35 years. I'm glad it's out of the ground. I am angry that no one from the family mentioned it at all.
Today we find out what it will cost to dispose of it because, well it was a professional company and they do things properly where I would have punched a hole in it drained it and cut it in half and scrapped it.
why would there be a burried gas tank? was the property an old filling station or something? seems odd but luckily it sounds like you got people who know what they're doing otherwise I'm sure things could get ugly.
In reply to fidelity101 :
It's a 150 year old farm.
They had tractors and gas trucks. In the pole barn they had an elevated 2500 gallon diesel tank until 10 years ago.
Lose the pictures before the EPA shows up on your doorstep.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
They are already in the loop sadly. Professionals doing responsible professional things and all. Currently expecting a bill of $5000, less if the volume is less than 20 gallons of actual fuel. I was frozen overnight into today so there's a good chance that it's just got condensate and a minor amount of gasoline.
I assume Miss Dig came out and did their thing before the digging started? Kind of a big miss for them, don't they have metal detectors?
I went to dig footings for a new barn and discovered the spot the farmer chose was where he had buried the remains of an old house he had torn down years earlier. So we filled the hole and moved over 200 feet only to find that was where his dad had buried a barn that had burned down a generation earlier. Good thing I was by the hour.
In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :
Miss Dig was and swept within 4 feet of the area 
the new construction is technically 8 foot from the wall that we can see. The tank was 5 foot in diameter and 2 foot from the wall...
Bob the Builder has been banging it out. Down to drywall, flooring and paint, then finish cement work and leveling and reseeding the yard.
In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) :
dang, that looks nice!
I love home construction projects - the wood smell......this looks really cool.
For 3-1/2 years of high school and full time summers I worked for a builder and swept out garbage and cleaned the houses until the closing. I learned a lot.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) :
dang, that looks nice!
It's deceptively giant as well. The center peak of the room is at about 12 foot, I thought that it was going to be a drafty nightmare. The heat sits at 58° and it feels quite warm. That's without one layer of barrier (drywall). We ordered three couches (one is a sleeper) for the west end and a 132" table and 14 chairs for the opposite end. We are racing to see if they will be here before the floor is done.
Looks awesome, John! Now to make sure my wife never, ever sees this thread... 
It's only 60 miles, y'all should just come see it!
First time I've seen this thread. When you posted the picture of the tank, I thought, "oh crap!" That is one of the things I used to do when I was still working. I also did the Phase I ESA where we were looking for those tanks before you bought property. It's never pleasant when you miss one.
So the 1000 gallon tank has about 22 gallons of liquid that is primarily water and leaded gasoline that is varnished. We have been given a few options, all reasonable.
Fun stuff. One of these days I'll throw some money at adding on to our house so I can have more garage and a more separated guest room arrangement.
In reply to Harvey :
I wish we would have had our E36M3 together 3 years ago to do this. There was literally a $120,000 difference in cost.
