[Greenbuilding] Rebuild or Refurbish or..?

[Bruce Donelson]

Here is my situation and a question I would like to pose to you all...

I purchased my house in Austin about 5 years ago. It's a 1300 sq foot
2-1 built around 1940.  It has gone up in value since
I purchased it and I do have some equity in it.  While it's not in
terrible shape, it's starting to develop some issues. Also, even if the
house
didn't have any issues, I would like to build a custom (green) home.  I
do like my location and neighborhood and I see this area as continuing
to appreciate
and I would like to keep the lot I am on.  Most people tell me it is
crazy to try and build a new house where my old house sits now and that
I should just add-on and refurbish my old house.  I see some problems in
doing that but I am open to it if it was more economically feasible AND
I could achieve the same results.

Reasons and problems with my house now:

A. House is small and 2-1 so it will never appreciate or be worth as
much as a larger 3-2 in this neighborhood
B. We could use more room and more storage
C. A laundry room was added on to this house that was a disaster..
poorly built and it leaks water (moldy)
D. My wiring is original cloth covered aluminum wiring + a dishonest
'contractor' screwed up a lot of the wiring in my house.  Most issues
are inside the walls and I don't see any easy fix for this.
E.  I'm pretty sure I have all lead paint under the more recent paint
F.  I may have asbestos insulation under the fiberglass insulation in my
attic (how can I find out if this is true?)
G. I've recently developed some roof leaks and have noticed that some of
the boards on the roof are rotting or damaged.
H. The plumbing is as old as the house and it's developing some problems
too.
I.  The windows all around the house are large old style windows that
are very drafty and in pretty poor shape. They are the kind on vertical
hinges that can be opened out with levers at the bottom. They really
need to be updated. You can see daylight through some of the cracks as
they don't seal.
I.  I could come up with similar laundry lists for each room and how
integral parts are starting to wear out OR are just too small (bathroom
tile, kitchen tile, no room in kitchen for dish washer, small counter
top space, and so on)

So it seems I have several options:

1.  Sell the house to someone and have it moved from the lot and build a
new one on the lot
2.  Tear down the house, recycle what parts can be re-used and build a
new house on the lot
3.  Refurbish and add on to my current house which might mean removing
everything except the foundation and floors and even some of those would
have to go such as in the laundry room.

Which is the most feasible economically or otherwise??

Just recently a crew started working on a house down the street from us
that looks similar to ours in age.  It looks like they completely
removed the walls and roof of the house and replaced the supports and
studs and then are going to rebuild the walls and roof from scratch.
And they appear to be adding on a room to the back of the house.  This
seems like an OK idea although from my perspective it looks like they
all but tore down this house so I am wondering if there is an advantage
I don't know about to not completely tearing the house down?

I'm also interested to know where I should start with all this...
should I figure out the cost.. or talk to the city about what I can
do... or talk to an architects..
I figure maybe it was best to start with some people like you who might
have gone through something similar and could tell me what to expect.



WELL, I'm not there but it looks like the only system that is working in
this building is the foundation. YOu have problems with the wiring,
plumbing, insulation, framing, and the roof. You have probable contamination
with lead and/or asbestos. You might try having the fire department burn it
down for practice. That would still leave you with possible lead
contamination. Or you could Demolish it, saving what you can, which is
likely to be only some 2x4's. The demolition may be expensive if you have to
take care of pollution issues about lead and asbestos. You should also check
out the soil in the yard, especially under the windows, for lead paint
contamination. You might be able to see flakes of lead-based paint in the
soil.
Anything you build will be an improvement. You could talk to your neighbors
about what went into their decision about remodeling. Sometimes it is
cheaper to "remodel" than to "replace". Often that means retaining one wall.
This has to do with permit costs, and building/planning departments. Your
neighbors probably learned a lot about the local ordinances.
Best of luck,
Bruce Donelson
A Better Builder