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I’ve got a nice bit of acreage in Northern MN. 10 years ago (I’ve owned it for 7 years) the recently built retirement home there, located on a logical building site, burned to the ground, prompting the owners to sell and retire south. I bought the property knowing I could not build right away, and now I can, mostly DIY, and within a very tight budget. Two questions:
1) the footing & slab & topography remain from the walkout basement style original house. Seems to be in good condition, given 10 years time and is an adequate size (42×32 rectangle). It’s tempting to re-use it as a starting point for a new home. Is this a terrible idea? Would it be likely unstable?
2) The original well, located 10′ off one corner of the slab, is 200′ deep although water can be found anywhere here (swampy). A 5 or 6″ casing is visable, along with 2 wires coming from underground & down the pipe. I tugged on the wires and there’s no give. How likely is it that this well could be “re-started” successfully after 10 years? Or would you just dig a new well?
In other words, if this was you and you had to build as thrifty as possible, would you stick to this building site or would you consider it of no value and look at the property as a blank slate?
-Randy
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I've got a nice bit of acreage in Northern MN. 10 years ago (I've owned it for 7 years) the recently built retirement home there, located on a logical building site, burned to the ground, prompting the owners to sell and retire south. I bought the property knowing I could not build right away, and now I can, mostly DIY, and within a very tight budget. Two questions:
1) the footing & slab & topography remain from the walkout basement style original house. Seems to be in good condition, given 10 years time and is an adequate size (42x32 rectangle). It's tempting to re-use it as a starting point for a new home. Is this a terrible idea? Would it be likely unstable?
2) The original well, located 10' off one corner of the slab, is 200' deep although water can be found anywhere here (swampy). A 5 or 6" casing is visable, along with 2 wires coming from underground & down the pipe. I tugged on the wires and there's no give. How likely is it that this well could be "re-started" successfully after 10 years? Or would you just dig a new well?
In other words, if this was you and you had to build as thrifty as possible, would you stick to this building site or would you consider it of no value and look at the property as a blank slate?
-Randy