Amish House

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My husband and I are looking at house that is for sale. The house was built (only one year ago) and is currently being lived in by an Amish family. So there is no electricity, phone, septic (it does have a 300 ft new well). It is on eight acres and has a four year old barn and three other out building on the property. Just wondering if anyone elese out there has ever bought and/or upgraded a house such as this. Or know of anything in particular we should be looking for while checking the house over. The one thing my husband did notice was that on the second story the floor joist are 2 X 10's instead of the required 2 X 12's. Since the second floor is plywood floors and the dry wall is not finished he thought he might be able to rip it up and reinforce them some how. Any thoughts or suggestions would be great. thanks

-- Sheila (shelala007@yahoo.com), July 05, 2000

Answers

Was it truely built by amish or just contracted by amish. Kinda strange an amish family would be abandoning a home. Many homes are often wedding gifts from community and you spend your life there. Also how was the home able to pass inspection without electric and plumbing? Did the amish have a special variance on the house because they were amish? WIll you retain that variance? Will an lender loan money on a house with no plumbing or electric?

Does the house have a basement? If so plumbing should not be an issue to the first floor. Second floor make take a bit more work. Electic is going to be an issue since that means that drywall is going to have to be torn out. Again if a basement is available you can minimize drywall work.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), July 05, 2000.


Sheila: Personally I can't comment about the first part of your post but 2 x 12s "required" for floor joist? Are you sure about that as a code requirement? If the floor joist are 2 x 10s on 16" centers over even a 16' span I'd think they'd be adequate unless you plan on parking your tractor up there. I'm not a builder or architect so I may be wrong but I think it would be an exercise in overkill to beef them up to 2 x 12.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), July 05, 2000.

Thanks for responding. As for the joist on the second floor. They used the 2 x 10 and I forgot to mention that instead of spacing them out the required 16 inches they spaces them out even further. So when you walk up there you can feel the floor going up and down. The house does have a full basement. The Amish that live in it bought the land and first built a little house, four bedrooms, on the property (which comes with the deal). The husband runs a sawmill on his property for income. So I'm sure a lot of the wood must of been acquired through his sawmill. So they built the bigger house themselves. They say that the reason they are leaving is to either move to another town (30 miles away) were they have family, or move to Michigan(Which is the next state)???? Someone told me that there were other Amish families in that same area and they have moved as well. So I really dont know whats going on to make them move.

-- Sheila (shelala007@yahoo.com), July 05, 2000.

I would get several contractors out to look at the house and give you an estimate for what you think needs to be done to modernize it. Floors can probably be fixed by scabbing on another 2"x10", so you end up with 4"x10". If the house was built with sawmill lumber chances are it is not sized for what's available commercially, such as a full 2"x4", rather than the 1 5/8"x3 1/2" or whatever one is today after it has been dressed. Also, unless the lumber was cured, there will be constant problems with shrinkage and warpage. You didn't mention if any insulation was used. My gut reaction is retrofitting it will be rather expensive. I'm also wondering if they skimped on the joistes between the floors, what are walls and roof rafters like. Maybe they are moving because they realize the house has serious structural weaknesses. Just because they are Amish doesn't necessary mean they are honest.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 05, 2000.

Sheila.... I have purchased and bought such a home....It was built in 1988 by the amish and we bought it in 1992....

Gary it is very common for amish to build new houses and decided to up and move... at least it was very common my this community.

I bought this house at a great price.... 5 acres and a metal barn newer than the house... however, unless you are really handy at things or have enough extra $$$.... it is expensive to update an existing home. Most folks in this area that have bought amish houses completely gut them out and then go from there...

I choose to update as I had $$....and we didn't gut the house... due to the inner walls not having insulation... we ran electrical wiring from the attic down and basement up... with the basement.. plumbing was easier. The septic came later... we used the amish's set up on greywater and used the outhouse ourselves for 3 years. All the updating we have done ourselves expect the septic system... and the water well was in.

The most expensive was the bathroom and kitchen... I used freestanding cabinets for cupboards for years. Like I stated.. I used the pay and go method... the tub/shower combination I got from a plumber.. kinda of a dent and scratch thing... at the back of the tub surround is a 1" break... a bit of silicone keeps water from getting down there and I had a tub/shower for about nothing.

My house was not constructed the best... tho it is new... this amish man used "used" materials throughout the whole house and that's okay... however....he didn't take alot of care in how he used them. Floor joists still have nails in from the previous use... the bowed ones are used and broken ones were scabbed together...but we haven't fallen through yet.

I wouldn't worry to must about the 2x10's... unless your zoning requires 2x12's... you don't get that much weight in 2nd floor bedrooms to cause concern. My main living area only has 2x10's.

The common joke here has been... he (the amish) didn't use a level, tapemeasure, and square... so it has created extra work in working with doors and windows. The trim has been a challenge... seems most of the amish in this community didn't put up door and window trim... and of course, I just use pine 1x4's for my trim...then stain and mount. And I'm still doing the house... I'm down to one bedroom... yippee!!!

If you wooden floors... I would suggest sanding and finishing them before moving in... due to the work and MESS involved. Again, we sanded the floors ourselves and oiled them. I don't care for polyurthane as it scratches to easily in this sandy area we live in. Danish oil was cheaper too. Its not shining.. but that's okay for me!! The rental of the equipment ran me about $150.00... and we worked hard for a day. But the bigger work was cleaning the dust from everything.. we didn't do it until 4 years after we were here. Tho we hung blankets and sheets to prevent extra work... the dust travelled into the kitchen cabinets and such!!! and we had done just the living room at that point. ITS amazing how that dust flies.. even behind closed doors.

Just make sure most studs are on center (a major problem in this house)...I have them range from 12" to 16" to 18" to 24" and beyond!!!!! or things might not work the best... in my kitchen I have a 40" window... no middle studs under the window,(didn't know until the kitchen cabinet was installed)... so that 40" window was hanging by the good graces of the studs 40" apart!!!!! It had studs above the top of the windows but not below.

My main center beam running the complete lenght of the house is off 23" from one end of the 50' house to the other end.... hmmmm I think I could have eyeballed that one better.

The house didn't have attic insulation.. course they burn wood, like I do... but I don't like cutting wood any more than I have too... so insulation went in pretty quick... we moved here in the summer and the black roofing and no attic was .... unbearable almost.

If you sign on the dotted line for purchase.... just make sure that you have them clean the place (buildings and grounds)and be specific... that has been the BIGGEST complaint of friends and neighbors buying these amish homes. The amount of junk left in the buildings and grounds. It took me 5 years to finally get all the junk hauled to the landfill. The metal from the building of the barn was just flinged into the woods and it was all over those pieces... iron, steel, old machinery... the house wasn't much better. Looking back I would have been ahead renting a huge dumpster to dump all this stuff into and thus spared the countless trips to the land fill with a truck and trailer.. and a good size trailer at that!!! Call a scrap iron man for the recycable stuff. These people like to "collect" things badly!!!!

I'm not trying to sound pessimistic... but if you are willing to work at it... it can be a great buy!!!!



-- Mary Ann (peanut@wi-net.com), July 05, 2000.



Hi Sheila,

I bought an Amish house in northeast Ohio. I was fortunate in that the house had a full basement and an unfinished (plywood sheeting) second floor. So the electrician lifted the plywood and went in from the second floor and also went in from the basement. He didn't have to rip any walls. The furnace installation was a snap, also. The home had full indoor plumbing with septic and a gasoline driven well pump in the basement. There are a lot of amish homes purchased in this area by "yankees" and also yankee homes purchased by Amish. When that happens, the Amish simply have the telephone and electricity disconnected at the utility pole. There are a few banks and contractors here that are used to this sort of thing. So good money and professional help are easy to find. But, like everthing else, you have to do your homework. There are no required housing inspections, so the buyer beware. The bank simply required that we submit electrical and heating bids before they approved our mortgage, that was it.

As far as the 2 x 10s. Kens "scabbing" idea sounds good. I had an architect look at the barn and tell me what would be required for the raised floor to support a car. His answer was to simply double the number of joists and add an extra plywood sheet to distribute the weight. The same idea of weight distibution can be applied to your second floor. Not to hold a car mind you, but to avoid ripping out what's already there.

My moving in experience was different from Mary Ann's. Our purchase agreement stated that the house would be in a condition for immediate occupancy. Since there are no required housing inspections, you have to state in writing what you expect. What the Amish owners did when they were ready to leave was to get several of their family and friends together and they scrubbed the house and barn top-to-bottom. The house was so spotless, it was embarrasing. You could eat off the barn floor. The property was immaculate.

The reason the Amish sold to us "yankees" is that the wife needed an operation. Since they don't have medical insurance, they needed the cash fast. So, there are as many reasons for moving as there are people. Anyway, we're here and we love it. A jewel of a little house. Good luck with yours.

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), July 06, 2000.


It is very common for them to up and move to a different community.I know of several such family doing it in our area . Good luck

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), July 09, 2000.

Did you make a decission ?

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), July 13, 2000.

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