there's something pretty significantly
wrong here this is not a brick wall this
is
that was uh not on purpose
we're in goshen new york and behind me
is an 1892 victorian that needs a ton of
work
so this house is listed at 299 000 and
similar size homes are actually going
for more than double that cost my name
is nick schiffer i own ns builders we
focus on high-end remodeling and new
home construction
so this home is a 5 bedroom 3 bath 4 000
square feet and today i want to walk
through the space room by room and
figure out what it would take to make
this home livable
when we make our way around the house
we're going to want to go around and
make sure that the masonry is sealed
it's cleaned well it's repointed and
just structurally sound throughout the
entire space really great window sills
solid material the basement kind of
flares out giving it that almost column
feel and then as you go up you start to
see all of the brick details great
detail here where you know at the bottom
of these windows it's square and then it
cuts on an angle up so you're kind of
softening the the space between the
windows and then above the windows here
you're getting these small arches which
if i were to guess i would assume that
when you start getting into the home
you're going to start seeing more and
more arches because you're starting to
get those details here on the front
additionally the roof is a slate roof
which i love it's an expensive roof in
the beginning but the overall shape of
it is probably a b-plus going around and
just doing some miscellaneous repairs on
that slate roof that roof will last
another hundred years if it's kept up
well one of the things i would probably
uh recommend and i don't think it's
necessarily removing the we'll call it
the medieval fieldstone but maybe
restoring the front porch here the
woodwork detailing is really nice a lot
of this can be cleaned up if it is
indeed solid but then you can come back
and do a traditional wood handrail
fairly inexpensively obviously pulling
off the greenery and the shrubbery is
going to really open up this front porch
and make it just a more inviting detail
let's talk about cost number one the
masonry realistically we're probably in
that 20 30 000 range to get the facade
of this house updated cleaned up and
prepped for longevity we talked about
the front porch you're talking about
having a carpenter on site and then just
reviewing all of the framing for the
porch making sure the columns are
structurally sound and then detailing
out and talking about replacing those
railings with a more period accurate
detail so at that rate we're probably
somewhere around another 10 000. i'm
stoked to get inside look around see
what the condition of this house is even
more important what the potential is
[Music]
first impressions wow there's huge
ceilings in here you can see the
continuation of the arches you have this
awesome almost gothic landsat window
type molding here where you have
basically an arch that comes to a point
at the very top this is something
interesting this is actually a detail
that we've used in a lot of our new
projects you have this herringbone
pattern and the herringbone is
essentially pointing your way into the
home and psychologically i believe that
when you walk through the front door and
you have this floor kind of guiding you
to bringing you into the home you're
almost like forced to walk forward if
you have say a flat seam that you're
walking it's almost like you're tripping
over the seams if it was vertical and
you were running down it's almost the
bowling alley effect so really cool
detail something i would absolutely keep
in this place
let's talk about the rooms in the front
here you have some really great rooms
that are really grand you have a
continuation of the arch a lot of
natural light it does look like that
some of these walls have been
updated with new plaster the moldings
you can obviously see an abundance of
recessed lighting i'd probably change
that i think that for whatever that
recessed lighting was installed for
it is overdone and it's interesting to
see that
actually this this pulls over here as
well that gothic window where it goes up
to a point really interesting to see
this above a fireplace so i'm curious to
know
frankly how that fireplace was vented
because typically your fireplace would
have a flu directly up and out but it
would be interesting to know if they
constructed this way back in the 1800s
with masonry that
led the flu up both sides of this window
but really cool really interesting
detail another thing i noticed is the
floor there's something pretty
significantly wrong here you can't tell
but
i'm at a much lower elevation here than
i would be over there the floor is
buckling to me that says structural
issue structural issue doesn't
necessarily mean it's you know an
exorbitant cost but it's a cost the
benefit of buying a brick house is this
is probably a localized problem this
wall here is a structural brick wall so
if this floor fails it's just failing
from the brick wall the brick wall is
not also failing this is another actual
indication this paneling here that
paneling is still in great shape it's
still straight but here it's not so to
me what that says is this is not a brick
wall this is
that was a not on purpose but
this is not a brick wall it's a wood
frame wall so that wood frame is not a
structural wall it's sitting on the
floor system and it dropped with the
rest of this floor you don't want it to
get worse you're stripping this floor
and you're reframing this floor
realistically it's about a week's worth
of work from demo to getting this place
back ready for the floor so a couple
guys for a week you know we're back at
that ten thousand dollar number to get
this floor repaired and ready for floor
finish so when you talk about value and
what you want to do here it really all
depends on what the end goal is so say
you do buy this property for under 299
000
and you do want to do a renovation and
say the top of the market in this area
is 700 000
that gives you about 400 000 wiggle room
which you can certainly invest in a home
like this what i would consider you know
the aesthetic to approach this the
stephen harris of of design you know the
level of detail were you know easily
five seven could be even up to a
thousand dollars per square foot from a
renovation cost now that's a lot of
money now i think of that another way
where if you were to say over invest in
a project like this and spend an
enormous amount of money you've
certainly narrowed who might be
interested in this home but you've
created something that is beyond just a
market value home you've created
ultimately a piece of art that someone
can live in
this could be a really great mud room
not really sure where the kitchen goes
yet but thinking that
with the layout of the home with the
more formal on the front this becomes
all of the entertaining space and
utilitarian space and this big glass
panel lends me to believe that maybe
this space was used for a commercial
space at some point i'm not sure in what
life or style home a big glass window
like that would be installed in a house
over here this looks like it could be
another maybe tv or den or some sort of
sitting room maybe a first floor office
again i'm thinking that this space may
have been used for commercial really
interesting above us with these ceiling
tiles where if you were to see them in
the photo you might think that they have
a beautiful coffered ceiling in the
space but in fact they're plastic tiles
from the local lumber store again the
floors are in really great shape i think
that's something that this house really
is benefiting from is that you know
there is damage to the hardwood but the
majority of it's in good shape and the
damage that is here can be easily fixed
similar to the walls the ceiling that
drop ceiling panel that would go as well
and i would just bring it back to you
know a really high ceiling plastered
one of the things that happens when i
walk around a house is my mind changes a
lot and as i walk back here i realize
that this is going to be a much better
space for not only the mud room i talked
about in the front space there but also
the kitchen over here we actually have a
really great spot for a proper mud room
the space in the front there while it
would work i'm flipping my thought
process here and saying that this makes
more sense because it's more private
it's separated you can tuck a powder
room back there you can have a bunch of
lockers and have all your stuff kind of
hidden away from your guests really just
open this entire back of the house up
into one space and building a grand
kitchen essentially eating kitchen or a
dining area that spills its way back
into those front rooms that then can
become the living and sitting rooms i
look at this back wall there's natural
light coming through these two small
pieces of glass here but maybe this
lends itself to being you know a big
piece of glass a slider some sort of
exterior door that you can walk out to a
private patio you could have a grilling
station out there you could have seating
out there and essentially you know
you're gonna have a big island maybe in
this direction or headed in the other
direction but this small room we just
get rid of all of this this all goes
away we open this wall up and this opens
up into what was that other fireplace in
that room with the glass wall so
originally i had talked about maybe
using that room as a mud room powder
room but in fact i think this becomes
the more informal eating kitchen more
modern way that we are living these days
rather than the separated or
compartmentalized kitchens and dining
areas so this house is over 100 years
old and we have to realize that we live
differently than you know they did back
then back then everything was
compartmentalized it was to create
privacy for possibly the servants in the
kitchen or the kitchen just wasn't a
place that people congregated and
nowadays that's the number one place you
know people entertain in their kitchen
they want to sit down around the island
they want to socialize and that's the
way we live
in respect to that dream home versus you
know what it takes to make this livable
we're going to be opening this space up
to lend itself to be more of a valuable
space in general building a kitchen
appliances cabinetry things of that
nature and also finishing that addition
in the back realistically we're gonna
wanna budget somewhere around a hundred
thousand dollars anytime we're doing a
kitchen it really does spill out into
the rest of that first floor that's
exactly what's happening here so all of
those portions are what spills out of
the kitchen design so i'm dying to see
the upstairs i'm not going to use this
back staircase i want to go up the front
one because i think that staircase will
stay and it'll be interesting to see so
let's head up there and see what we can
do
[Music]
so coming up here this lends me to
continue my thought about this place
being used for some sort of commercial
aspect you come up and you have this
double set of doors one that has a
keypad on it i think regardless of what
we do with the rest of the space up here
this just goes away you have a great
oval window directly across from the
staircase that wants to let light in
they tried to allow that with the glass
doors but it's just unnecessary for an
entire second floor of this home the
tile here very outdated unfortunately
they've installed it flush with the
hardwood so we would want to go and rip
this out and try to find something that
is going to match or maybe we can
salvage it from another area in the home
that may not have
hardwood in the future
this stuff is rotted this is not
repairable in the sense that we could
reinstall this this would be stripped
back and we want to look for areas in
the home that we can salvage some of the
hardwood and reutilize them we need a
couple bedrooms and a couple bathrooms
up here to make this a livable home
right off the bat i feel as though this
side facing the street has an enormous
amount of light lends itself to being
the primary suite again we have another
window above the fireplace super
interesting to see how this is built and
vented uh it does look like
i might have an animal up here but it
does look like it's active at some point
they've added gas but they must have
used the left chase for downstairs in
the right chase or vice versa to vent
this but the window above the fireplace
is really really unique i think simply
just you know again whiting out all of
the walls getting a more you know
uniform pallets which can make this
place feel a lot brighter lighter and
more modern
it's interesting because you have these
really square windows and on the outside
you do have this arch brick you want to
make sure that what you're doing on the
inside is not negatively impacting the
outside so in here i look at all right
well i have square casing i think one of
the more natural things and a relatively
easy thing to do is to just replace the
casing on the top of the window with
something that is arched and maybe plays
off this arch or maybe this arch becomes
modified or you could do one continuous
piece of molding that kind of captures
the two windows together and not these
two separate windows to talk about dream
home or the more expensive option is to
actually create what we call a juliet
balcony and i would increase the height
of the brick opening and i would
actually install a double wide door and
that door would open up and you'd have
just a railing across it's not a balcony
that you can step out but the nice thing
is you'd be able to open the door up and
you'd have this really great natural
light
one of the things that we're doing when
we're building and or renovating is we
want to understand morning routine when
you don't think about the flow of how a
suite works you can impact someone
else's sleeping pattern so for us we're
thinking about all right when you get up
in the morning
that flow should be through the bathroom
you know touch base in the closet and
then exit that space not in the bathroom
back through the bedroom into the closet
back in the bedroom back out we want to
think about it as a flow and kind of
this one continuous motion all the way
throughout so for me you know i see the
turret and naturally immediately say
that's an amazing spot for a bathroom
you don't need much space to get a sink
just a shower and a toilet now you're
lending yourself to having a really big
walk-in closet that you can access right
off the bathroom access the hallway for
the suite and then the office is
accessed also through the hallway or
possibly both so let's talk about dream
home because this i've been obsessed
with this area of the home since we've
started this conversation
i look at you know the the bathroom
especially in the primary suite as being
this ultimate experience this should be
the wet room the shower basically
playing off the shape of this round wall
getting rid of everything in here and
essentially having this massive rain
head that just kind of sits above you
all the walls are maybe a waterproof
plaster or a tile or something the whole
entire floor is draining as one big
shower i would even leave the windows
now i wouldn't leave the exact windows
that are here we would replace them with
a fixed unit and we would add privacy
film up to about shoulder height reason
i say up to shoulder height is of course
you need the privacy but when you're
able to sight through a window it
actually adds a level of depth that adds
a level of space it's not going to feel
as claustrophobic so obviously the
shower would be amazing but there's all
of this additional space up here which
lends itself to its own special space
whether it's a quiet space or a
meditation room or something like that
and i can only imagine the views that
you have up there so it would be almost
wasteful to block it off and create just
a shower down here without understanding
how we could regain access to that space
and utilize it
again creating an additional feature in
this home that becomes an additional
talking point being able to capture the
primary suite on this end of the house
makes a lot of sense you have the work
from home potential office here in the
front and then over there this was
originally a five bedroom we want to be
able to capture at least two maybe three
additional bedrooms over there doesn't
get us back to that five number but we
do want to make sure that we're getting
the amount of bedrooms that this house
deserves being 4000 square feet but that
makes me wonder if there's additional
space maybe in the attic that we can
capture even more space
looking around the attic here one of the
things i'm looking for is daylight and
there's some small areas that you're
seeing daylight through the sheathing on
the roof whatever is below the slate is
either compromised or damaged or simply
just non-existent so those are going to
be areas that we want to adjust
or modify or make repairs on and that's
where we start getting into the
complexity of the roof repairs so being
a full height attic you know with the
two possibly three additional bedrooms
downstairs this lends itself to having
the ability to be possibly two
additional bedrooms up here
realistically to make the home livable i
think that this just kind of stays as is
certainly not an area that needs to be
adjusted but looking into that next step
or even dream home status you know
there's a lot of square footage up here
that can be utilized whether it's bonus
space additional bedrooms work from home
space
[Music]
this home is awesome there's a few
things i really like about it number one
as we talked about outside it's a brick
home in general the condition of the
outside from what i can tell is in
really good shape even up on the roof
the slate roof is something that can
literally last forever with the proper
maintenance just like the proper
maintenance of the brick from a fixer
upper say you're trying to do a flip or
maybe live here and try to do it in a
more inexpensive route we talked about a
hundred thousand dollars in the kitchen
realistically that's trickling
throughout the first floor there's a lot
of the first floor that you can leave
the floors a lot of the walls could be
simply just patched and repainted a good
majority of the trim can really be
patched and painted you're going to have
some rooms that do need to be boarded
plastered trim the bones of what you
have going on here truly do lend itself
to being easily brought to a point where
it's livable going back up to the roof
yes there are some leaks up there yes
there's daylight and there's holes
everywhere but i don't really see that
being this major deterrent as far as
like that's going to blow the budget
there's a lot of really great details
that i would love to hold on to a lot of
that centers around the windows and how
they're connected to the outside we
really don't want to impact that or
change it hardwood floors i think are
something else that they're going to
have a ton of character in them even
after they're refinished and then even
thinking about some of the archways and
the original millwork and the original
doors and even the staircase that i'm
sitting on all of those things should
remain but at the end of the day if you
wanted to get this house livable i think
a three to four hundred thousand dollar
budget to do that is certainly
obtainable you might look at this
project and wonder can you do this is
this a do-it-yourself type project is
this something a weekend warrior can
tackle in my opinion the answer is never
know but you know looking at a home like
this and the scale of work this is
definitely something that you're going
to want to pair up with a professional
now if we want to talk wild in the dream
home i think that you know we're going
to easily double or possibly triple or
even quadruple that with a million
dollars you'd be able to touch this home
in a way that from the outside you have
respected and restored what once was and
on the inside you've taken that into a
realm of a more modern day living with
more open concept on the first floor
more natural light throughout the entire
home and just really thoughtful approach
to the design to make sure that it works
for modern day living a good friend of
mine always says that you're basically
building a house with a house in the way
that couldn't be more true for someone
that is looking for a really cool
project this is definitely it i would
absolutely recommend purchasing this
property great location it's a great lot
it's a great home there's a lot here to
be celebrated it just needs another
chance i was going to say a second
chance but i think it's already had a
second and a third it really needs a
fourth chance at life and a thoughtful
one at that
you