Is Deerfield, IL a humid place? It has mold inside and out.

The curb appeal is charming but the rest is a pass from me. A lot of things in the inside creep me out.

One could save it if one had the skills. But few do, or the time to put to it. Whether one would do it or not would depend on the ability to make a profit, or if it was a labor of love. My grandmother's duplex was built by my deceased uncles and was formerly a chicken coop on their property. It was always well kept when she lived there, nice but nothing fancy. Functional. Then the next set of owners let it go to heck, run down, and become structurally suspect. It was also sitting at the base of a hill that had eroded up to the back door, needed major shoring up. Sadly not worth the effort IMHO. But some retired guy bought it and has been working on it for years. Like I'm not sure how many but at least eight. Still not done. He got one half done and then not sure what is happening, every time I go by there some new construction bits are on the property. I talked to the guy once, and he said his wife didn't understand it either, but he liked the challenge . . . takes all kinds.

If it had mold, it would have to be taken down to the studs. Just to give you an example of how much that might cost, my husband's house had to be rebuilt down to studs after a fire due to smoke damage, and that house was no where near as nice, and it cost 350K. The thing I like about the pictured house is the wonderful size of the rooms! I live in a tiny cottage now so I would love it when it was fixed up, but I can imagine few folks who would be willing to attempt such a feat. Particularly in today's automated, throw-away, shrinking and pinched economy. Deerfield is nice, but most would go for the lot and tear down. It's way overpriced in any event . . .

It‘s a Northern suburb of Chicago, so the humidity is not that bad, any humid days are preceded and followed by beautiful days.

I think it will take a real old-house lover to take it on. I’m sure the village would rather it be restored, what with the historic “village” across the street.

Any house can be saved if you have enough money and desire. If you look carefully at the photos you will notice that there will be asbestos removal, lead paint removal and a complete systems redo. Just the systems redo could be more than $50,00 and up. All windows etc would need either replacement or refurbishing $35,000 and up. And I think those estimates are low. If it is in a landmarked district, which I think it is every exterior detail must be approved and meet historic standards. A lot of dollars. All this to say I hope someone saves it, restores and updates it without destroying it's charm.

Pink, Deerfield is nice but the taxes are killer. Good schools, though. That little neighborhood is locally known as “Poet’s Corner“,with streets named for Kipling, Longfellow, Whittier, and Byron. (There’s also a “Hermitage, don‘t know where that came from.) Wouldn‘t you love to be able to refer to your neighborhood that way?

Hcbm, I don’t think the neighborhood is land marked. It‘s a mix of houses from the 1920s, early 1940s, postwar, 1960s, and turn-of-the-millennium.

Saving it would be more expensive than building a new house. Saying that though, if it goes up for auction and sells for a song...

I know what you’re thinking as I’m the same. Sometimes the souls of these old homes just call out “save me, I‘m not done living”.

I love this home!

Ahh, I love this house! I’d love to fix this beauty up. :)

I always look at homes on google maps, street view. I suggest you all look at it from above and get a load of the trees. Someone forgot to prune. :) No wonder there's mold, probably along with a leak too.

Bpath, I love the neighborhood! I would do it only if I had the money to afford the best of the best professionals. Half the trees would have to come down and that will be thousands and thousands of dollars.

Also, if you look on google maps you'll see the pool is blue, like it's already been drained and filled. On street view there's a builder's dumpster in the driveway. But the trees are so bad I could only see the bottom half of the house. lol

Here is the owner's obituary from a few years ago. I think it's odd that there was a mortgage on the house and odd that the heirs let it go into foreclosure. The husband had an unsual name and it appears that he was a successful neurosurgeon.

https://www.kelleyspaldingfuneralhome.com/obituaries/obituary-listings?obId=2638667

I do google research for work, I can't resist getting to bottom of things like this. Also, I'm tired of covid walks, organizing, cleaning and netflix.

Looks like water damage which would explain all the ceiling/paint/wall crud. It's not too far gone if there's still viable electricity according to the photo with it lit up.

Bpath, what are comps in that area for a house that's completely updated? I dunno, depending on what number is, a gut renovation wouldn't be that bad, all the ceilings and walls probably have to come out but it looks like a solid structure. New windows, HVAC, probably electricity. Could end up as a gorgeous investment property.

IFF the purchase price is low enough to then throw 200-300K into renovations.

Lovely home. It can be saved by someone with the desire. Hope you'll keep us updated.

Oakley, thanks for googling! Turns out my brother was good friends with one of their kids, back in grade school. I always thought their house was around the corner, I knew they had a cool old house, as my brother said. Nice kids, and I used to run into the wife and kids of another son at the playground with my son. I didn’t really know them, though.

I often watch the various 'home fixer uppers' on HGTV and am picturing what some of them might do to it.

This was included in the listing - "History buffs will love looking across the street at the Deerfield Historic Village, including Caspar Ott log house: the oldest surviving building in Lake County from 1837, with role playing and other fun events! A 3D Virtual Tour will be ready in the next couple of days, including a measurement tool which can help your contractors estimate costs quickly and easily. Also a survey has been ordered so the village building department will be able to answer questions about potential improvements (for example maybe building a detached garage). Please note the current tax bill does not include any exemptions and is based on the assessor's fair market value of $813, 643. Sold as is . Tax proration 100%."

As soon as you buy the house for less than the “market value”, you should report the purchase price to the tax assessor. That will become the new market value for the house for taxation purposes, at least until the next reassessment. But Deerfield does have high property taxes. I live in another area town and our tax rate is much lower. On the other hand, our school And bus fees are higher. But our kids are out of school :)

The ”history center”is quiet most of the time, it would be nice to look out on it. Of course, living across from the school, you get that traffic.

You could easily spend a million dollars restoring that home. It would have to be a passion project for someone because I don't think you could ever recover the restoration cost. It's common here for houses to be taken back to the studs and then completely reimagined, but if you wanted to restore that home, you would have to spend even more on demo to preserve fireplace surrounds, woodwork, bathroom fixtures, etc.

I really love homes like this and can see lots of potential. I hate the updates it’s experienced. If restored, it should be brought back to a more original looking condition. A true diamond in the rough

Bpath I used to go to the neighborhood garage sales in poets corner every year! I know that area well. It's hard to know what will happen to that house given the current "climate". Deerfield tends to be more of a tear 'em down and move on sort of town, less preservation minded than yours or other NS towns. Off to look at the listing.....

The proliferation of teardowns is why we left. Especially the may-as-well-have-been-a-teardown-the-renovation-was-so-extreme next door. And that annual Poet’s Corner garage sale was epic! People in small houses decluttering! I think I clothed and toyed my kids with that Sale! (My old neighbor fenced their entire backyard with the HP May Trash Days scavenges. So many houses were getting rid of the same type of fences, all he had to do was cut them to the same size.)

OMG, how the heck does a house even get in this condition? Was the roof just leaking like crazy? That's so sad! I say it's a tear down...so much mold!

Saved? Sure - with very liberal application of time and money. Even if the negative ROI wasn't a concern, the house and neighborhood don't really fit each other.

Gee, it even made “For The Love Of Old Houses“ today.

For the Love of Old Houses Facebook post

bpath do you follow Old House Life?
https://www.instagram.com/old_house_life/

I was thinking a good pressure wash on the outside but the top of the chimney seems to be askew. It’s not the vines giving that impression. I’m thinking this will end up an auction. Wonder what the land value is. Still, it is somewhat magical looking.

It's been listed since January. Chicagoland has a strong flipper market, and, as a foreclosure, it's not being marketed at this point to anyone who wants to save it. The heirs likely had no financial interest in maintaining it--that's not unusual. The homes surrounding it don't support an expansive and expensive restoration. It's a great area for Chicago in terms of school district and commute to the city, but not as a restoration project to the typical homebuyer.

What a magical place! Looks like an interesting setting for a novel or movie. If properly restored, I’d like to see a movie filmed in the house.

Such a lovely old home, love the barrel vaulted ceiling. But yeah, easily $1 mil to fix it up properly. Not only mold, but I bet there's asbestos in those tiles in the basement...and then the entire HVAC would need to be redone as would the electricity most likely. And every room would need a redo, and to bring that kitchen to life could be major bucks. Insulation is probably nonexistent especially with those stone walls, which also makes expansion very difficult. And the windows are probably in awful shape...and yeah the chimney isn't quite square any more.

If someone does though, I hope the retain the original tiles in the bathrooms...they're amazing.

Another one I used to check in on was Old House Dreams.

But yeah, amazing that the IL house went into such disrepair. The kitchen looks like it has inexpensive cabinets. Wish someone could restore it to its former glory.

I love it and with the time, skills and budget it could certainly be bought back to life. Sadly I no longer have two of those three any longer. I hope someone else restores it to its former glory.

The good news is there is no shortage of experienced craftsmen in the area who could do the work necessary on the house to restore the plaster, woodwork and brickwork. The bad news is doing that prices it out of the area to the extreme - as Feathers said, the are won't support that even though it's a very desirable area to live. And if you noticed, prior to the current fire sale conditions, taxes were over 23k and would well exceed that after reno. The floors can't be saved and they are narrow 2" strip in VERY long lengths - you can't replace that anymore. The pool is likely a total loss and can't just be filled in, code requires removal. I love the garage doors on the back and the front/back access and the buttresses on the garage exterior. Very sad to see a house like that allowed to deteriorate to that point.

Such a beautiful place! It almost makes me angry that there is still so little respect, or value, given to such structures in some communities - sure, cost to maintain is an issue, but then why didn't they sell it before it deteriorated so much?

That tear-down mindset has completely remade my former beach community - and that includes my former house (but I'll admit that it was an outlier, nothing to write home to mama about!)

Wouldn't it be great if a local historical society had the means to preserve it?

Raee, I was just thinking how nice if the historical society could take it, since they have the ”village” across the street (which sits on the site that held the 1912 school I went to for 2 years. It was torn down in about 1970, it was really falling apart, heat didn’t work in some rooms, railings and blackboards falling off walls, ceiling fell in on my class heading to music in the basement. But, it was a very cool building. There was a demolition sale, though, and while a CCC art project wasn’t saved, a stair railing from it was installed safely in my parents’ basement stairs. But I digress . . . ) Historical societies never have enough money unless, probably, it’s a place like Williamsburg. And no one is going to donate the house, labor, or materials to that extent.

Sigh. Probably a tear down. And the replacement won’t be nearly as handsome.

Not trying to pick a virtual fight here but...1 to 2 million dollars??? Curious how the folks who picked that number think a gut remodel of a 2500 SF house could rise to that level. I mean, that's wildly over what it would cost to tear it down and rebuild!

My thoughts, based only on my local knowledge of course:

Windows: 40K

Bathroom: 40K (2 full bath=30, half bath=10)

Kitchen: 50K

Roof: 50K

HVAC: 30K

Electric: 20K

Plumbing: 20K

Floors: 50K

Demo/

Replace Walls: 75K

Paint: 25K

Other: 50K

(Contractor fee, overage/unexpected costs)

So that's a total of $450,000. Let's be generous and assume the buyer pays full ask, all in someone would spend ~$800,000 for a house that is assessed on tax rolls at $813,000.

Again, I'm just not seeing how the work adds up to $1,000,000 to $2,000,000. What's different in the midwest?

That said, clearly there is something that doesn't add up since the house has been sitting on the market for months.

It doesn't look that bad.

It looks like there has been water damage, and water can cause problems in places you can’t see. Just looking at the basement, I worry about what it looks like behind the walls upstairs. That, I think, is the biggest issue.

It looks like the kitchen was renovated not terribly long ago. Granite countertops!

I guess it depends on how authentic a renovation you want to do. If there is mold behind most of the walls(probably not), then the plaster needs to be removed, lathe removed and re-plastered. Re-plastering is very, very expensive to do. Sheetrock is way cheaper. The floors actually don't look like there was a major water leak.

My dh and I bought a 1920's house in 1983 which had been abandoned for at least 10 years. Chunks of plaster fallen off the walls and every pipe in the house had burst. Every window needed replacing. New well and septic needed. We did most of the interior work ourselves and spent about 50K to get it liveable.

It looks like the wall behind a shower has been cut out, that would indicate a burst pipe or other leak. And the water heater is rusted out on the bottom, it probably leaked. And we have had some nasty rains, there could easily have been infiltration from the outside, The peeling paint could be because latex paint was applied over oil, which will eventually peel.

I am lusting over the triple laundry sink in the basement, but 1), I’m not going down there without a hazmat suit on and 2) that thing probably weighs a literal ton.

Bpath, I spotted that sink, too. If they tear it down, we must save it.

Czarina, you make a very good point. I wasn't envisioning replicating the house to the exact state it was when initially built--so I wouldn't budget in to try to recreate horsehair plaster walls etc :).

My point was more that things can look pretty appalling without being unsalvageable. I did forget about the pool, that would probably add on 20K to drain and resurface along with possible plumbing work. Still not at a million dollar's worth of repair cost though.

running - the freeze thaw cycles the pool went through are different from a pool in a warm climate being left untended. I'm sure it;s beyond resurfacing and plumbing repair. Removal alone will be over 20k. I should add, the demolition is only part of the equation - in this area the fees for dumping material like this are very high.

Feathers, I had a double sink taken out of my laundry room in the old house. In fact, my regular handyman wouldn’t do it! He said I wouldn’t be happy and I’d be mad at him for letting me talk him into it. Well, I hired someone else. While I liked my new sink and cabinets and countertop, I still sorely miss that sink. You could do anything to it and it took the abuse like a trooper. But yeah, the guys who took it out had a bear of a time.

We had a double sink like that in our old house before we remodeled. Honestly I never missed it because it sat about 5' out from the wall and felt like the elephant in the room, always in the way. Now find me an old, deep, cast iron sink with a drainboard for my laundry room and I'm in! Of course I don't have room for that but as long as we're dreaming.....

Mold remediation would scare the heck out of me. That is the first thing I would investigate before doing anything at all. Then everything must go that has mold or mildew. Then address the electric and plumbing. Big jobs, and in foreclosure, the bank doesn’t care as a general rule.

If IL is anything like the NE states, all the requirements for handling toxic stuff like asbestos or mold will explode the cost of a renovation in the blink of an eye.

So I drove by the house today. Very dark and gloomy in rain, but still handsome. It sits sideways to its street, but it’s okay because the main driveway comes up to the left of the front, and turns to enter the garage or to continue past the garage and exit on the right side of the property. I suppose that when it was built it looked out on the main road, probably even owned the lots, but those were developed in the late 50s and early 60s.

dee, I had to have in asbestos remediation for a very small project at another property, and yes, there are strict guidelines and inspections and licensing fees for the business. My son commented on their plain white panel van. The confirmed our suspicions: no one wants to see an asbestos truck next door!

I wouldn't pay 800K for it brand new, so maybe that colored my understanding of how much money it would be worth to spend investing in a rehab as opposed to a tear down. I wouldn't spend 350K for a tear down on a buildable lot, but I see folks do it all the time in urban areas, like Washington DC or Los Angeles, for example. I'm often aghast at the prices the houses go for on the "Property Brothers" show or the "Love It or List It." Same for lakefront properties around here, folks buy a house and lot for 350K, tear down and put up a 1 Million dollar house. They have the money. The rest of us plebes around here who grew up in this small midwestern town do not, by far. You could easily pick up a house in town worth 300K fixed up, for under 100K but needing the work and no one having the money to invest. So they sit and rot some more. There's an historical home in my hometown that the folks want to give away to someone to rehab but they still have no takers, and the main thing that house needs is HVAC redo. They are scattered all over my home town. Homes that formerly housed a vibrant middle class, now rotting with large extended families renting and allowing to decay, or chopped into apartments with same going on. I imagine the folks of Deerfield wouldn't much like that going on, so possibly some rehabber might invest, or tear down and rebuild but I still don't see the math on a 350k lot . . . but I don't know the Deerfield market.