Uh, oh! The structural engineer has more to look at Saturday AM. At least it will be worth their fee : |

Sheetrock has been removed & I can see a lot more of the structure - or lack thereof - in the house.

I wasn't too surprised to find wires above the ceiling joined with only tape that was coming loose.

I was more disappointed to see how the addition was built, when bath & kitchen were added to the house.

Let's just say there's not much support. Like no headers over the doors that were cut through the original exterior wall - just little stuff like that.

It should be a VERY interesting meeting with the engineer. May need to rethink rehabbing vs tearing down! But, it's not a buildable lot - too narrow, so not much chance of selling it. The "only" thing I can do is rehab. Or maybe sell it to a flipper.

we'll se.....

My houses didn’t have headers over doors either. Doors were just framed in with the door jamb and cripple studs above. No king studs or trimmers

/ Jack studs.

But, I am learning how to add them in....

I do have to use rough service bulbs for any front or back door light fixtures until I reframe all of them. Regular bulbs cannot handle the vibrations from door movements.

Thanks, y'all - you help me hold out hope.

It's really more a matter of what my expenses will end up being vs how much I'll be able to rent this place for.

You can build your own headers and add them yourself.

The engineer can tell you how big they need to be.

As long as the foundation and the rest of the structure is pretty good then you should be fine.

I can't even begin to remember how many old houses I've seen and rebuilt that I've wondered how they even were standing. Just a few examples:

No foundations at all. Floor joists just sitting on rocks, bricks, cinder blocks and even old one gallon paint cans. Windows and doors just cut through anywhere with no headers or anything - just nailed through the sides to studs. No insulation at all. Spliced together wires everywhere. Shingles 40 and even 50 years old, yet still did not leak even though edges all curled up. Tarpaper on the sides several years old.

Yet, despite all this, many were built in the 1930's or earlier, some even in the 1880-1900 era and they are still standing and sometimes even in use.

Most anything can be fixed, it's just how much it costs.

If you're in it for the long haul, it all seems to be negligible after a few years.

I've got some class C types that are from the 40's that I bought real cheap and haven't really put that much in them as well as older mobiles from the 50's through the 70's that return 30 to 50 percent of my entire cost that I have in them every year ($6000-7200 in rent yearly and I have only maybe $10,000 total in them).

However, this year most of them will be sold as prices are up a lot and it's time to cash out before the government makes things even worse.

I am interested to learn from the engineer - what he has to say. I have seen your quality work and would like to see how this one balances out