# 9 acre foreclosure. Construction in the Spring... Hopefully



## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

Here is our project. We purchased the land about 10 months ago on foreclosure. It's just under 9 acres. Complete with Foundation, septic system, electrical service, and half framed house. The framing materials were rotten and the property had a lot of junk scattered around. 


Here is how it was when we purchase it. (View of walkout)


Front of the structure

Here are some pics the bank was able to give me from the loan file when the foundation was poured. 


That beam is a monster! Why so big?

Here's why! These are the plans i found in the basement. Go big or go home... he went home. Unfortunately for the original builder he just couldn't swing it and back to the bank it went.


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## Guest (Feb 27, 2014)

Someone's wants was a lot bigger than their budget . Nice foudation to build on though .


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

Yeah very nice guy, a little on the eccentric side. The walls are 10' high 8" thick. The interior poured walls are a but overkill but i'm assuming he wanted them to support the H-beam, if i remember right the beam is 20"H x 12"D x 30' L 3/4" steel. Anyone have an idea what that weights? I might get rid of it once i remove the decking?


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Without even building a structure, just roofing over the basement would give you a REALLY nice earth sheltered home!
Am I reading the shadows right? The courtyard side _is_ south-facing, right?


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

Trust me the idea has been kicked around but the view is too good on top. Yes the walkout faces the south.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

Did you get the El Camino too? At least it looks like an El Camino. What a cool ride that could be.


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## blooba (Feb 9, 2010)

logbuilder said:


> Did you get the El Camino too? At least it looks like an El Camino. What a cool ride that could be.


Not sure in this case, but usually when you buy property with a vehicle on or in it you have to report it to the police as an abandoned vehicle because it has a seperate title than the property. This applies to abandoned storage units and what not also.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

That is a nice view. Did the Ranchero and the JD mower come with?

That beam should be worth a lot. Might be able to trade it for your lumber or some such. Or, for smaller beam(s) suited to what you plan to build.


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

MO_cows said:


> That is a nice view. Did the Ranchero and the JD mower come with?
> 
> That beam should be worth a lot. Might be able to trade it for your lumber or some such. Or, for smaller beam(s) suited to what you plan to build.


Blooba is exactly right, so i didn't get the three Ranchero's and four other car on the property, although two are still there. 
The mower is a story all in its own. It should have came with the property but mysteriously vanished before i closed the deal.


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## whipsaw (Jan 1, 2014)

Heckroy said:


> Blooba is exactly right, so i didn't get the three Ranchero's and four other car on the property, although two are still there.
> The mower is a story all in its own. It should have came with the property but mysteriously vanished before i closed the deal.


The previous "owner" probably snagged the mower and whatever else he wanted.


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

whipsaw said:


> The previous "owner" probably snagged the mower and whatever else he wanted.


Nope! Long story short crooked banker that has a problem with telling the truth. He took what he wanted before the deal closed...


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

Tearing down the framing last summer!

Came down a little too easy! Perfect!


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## whipsaw (Jan 1, 2014)

Heckroy said:


> Nope! Long story short crooked banker that has a problem with telling the truth. He took what he wanted before the deal closed...


I'd actually find out where he lived, then try to get pictures of the mower. I'd then show him the pictures of the mower on your property, then his property, and ask him how he planned on explaining that to his employer and in court.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Are you going to use that plan?

....James


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

whipsaw said:


> I'd actually find out where he lived, then try to get pictures of the mower. I'd then show him the pictures of the mower on your property, then his property, and ask him how he planned on explaining that to his employer and in court.


Like i said long story but I decided it wasn't really worth my time. I really had no recourse since it happened before we closed on it. After we closed i let him know he was a d-bag and left it at that. Turns out he was the bank president no less. I'm sure the bank board would have liked to hear about his shenanigans.


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

jwal10 said:


> Are you going to use that plan?
> 
> ....James


No we are going with something a little more modest. A single story Ranch style home. We are currently working with a local lumber company that is drawing up our plans.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

Heckroy said:


> Like i said long story but I decided it wasn't really worth my time. I really had no recourse since it happened before we closed on it. After we closed i let him know he was a d-bag and left it at that. Turns out he was the bank president no less. I'm sure the bank board would have liked to hear about his shenanigans.


This could have been avoided by listing in the offer contract what was to stay on the farm. Just because you see something on a piece of property when you first look at it, don't expect it to be there when you close. Put it in the contract. Otherwise by default it is owned by the prior owner.

Imagine this. When you put your contract down on the land and there is a nice above ground swimming pool. Nothing is said about it in the contract. Do you expect it to be there when you close?


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

logbuilder said:


> This could have been avoided by listing in the offer contract what was to stay on the farm. Just because you see something on a piece of property when you first look at it, don't expect it to be there when you close. Put it in the contract. Otherwise by default it is owned by the prior owner.
> 
> Imagine this. When you put your contract down on the land and there is a nice above ground swimming pool. Nothing is said about it in the contract. Do you expect it to be there when you close?


Yeah your probably right however this was a foreclosure and the deal went down fast. Besides i was dealing directly with a bank not a homeowner so you would expect a certain amount of professional ethics to be involved... anyway while it would have been nice i'm not losing sleep over it. Lesson learned.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Nice....James


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

Just a quick update. Not much has been going on lately on the future homestead. Winter just doesn't seem to want to loosen its grip here in central Iowa. Anyway... back in November I did feel it was necessary to heat the foundation over the winter in order to prevent frost heave. A small mobile home furnace (propane) was already hooked up so we got it running and set the thermostat at 35 F and hoped for the best not sure how much it would kick on in the bitter Iowa winter. 
My family and I started thinking about alternative energy and decided to build a beer can furnace for the hell of it to supplement the heating. 
We started with the one on the left as a prototype just to test the theory and was VERY surprised by how well it worked. It worked so well my brother, dad, and I built another roughly twice the size to really test the limits of this little piece of hillbilly magic. 
I can go into details if people are interested but we hooked them up in series and WOW does it crank out some heat when the sun is shining.


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## Solar Geek (Mar 14, 2014)

Not sure if your plans are complete, but if you have any desire to save a ton of heating and cooling costs, your orientation will allow you to have what is called an *'AGGRESSIVELY PASSIVE SOLAR HOME'.*

We live in central WI and just built in 2012. We had some solar engineers look at our plans and with a few totally free tweaks, (you just pay for their time when plans are being developed and they can take a standard plan and work with it), we now heat on any sunny day to 75F easily the entire time the sun shines - as long as up to 10 am-5 pm in dead of winter. YOU know the terrible snowy, cold winter we have had up here.
Yet, we were toasty and did not use our standard heat or wood stove (usually the wood stove) till 7pm or so. 

We entertain all the time since we live 15 minutes from the middle of nowhere so if someone comes to see us, they often stay overnight. None could believe how well the sun heated the house.

In summer, the engineered roof overhangs totally protect us from ANY sun entering. So we have the beauty of the view but not the heat from the sun.

Anyhow, just wanted to mention it as it really was done with south facing orientation and roof overhangs. 
We also have solar PV panels and some thermal but that was separate from the passive solar aspect of the home.


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## Heckroy (Feb 17, 2014)

So last spring the wood wall that separates the finished portion of the basement from the crawlspace failed. The wall was constructed from non treated 2x8's and 1/2 in plywood. 
You can see in the picture of the foundation when it was newly finished that there is a step up in the foundation where it goes from the full 10' wall to 4' wall where the crawlspace is so there is about 6 feet of fill in the crawlspace. From the removal and excavation it looks the fill is about 3' of pea rock with about 3' of sand on top of that. Once we exposed the footing i can see there is form-a-drain around the footing. Wondering if this is the proper backfill for this tile? I am going to block up a wall where the wood wall was, any special considerations for this? Good idea to insulate and waterproof behind before i back fill? Also thoughts on rebar and slugging the block how much etc. I am thinking about 1/2"rebar at the ends and 1/2" rebar every 6' and slugging every other core... not a mason (the wall is 24' long between two poured walls). Here are some pics from the weekends activities... Thanks.


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