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Must get very cold in the winters-- I can't imagine what it would cost to heat most of that space. I'm also impressed at how permissive the local zoning rules a

Must get very cold in the winters-- I can't imagine what it would cost to heat most of that space. I'm also impressed at how permissive the local zoning rules are. I guess in parts of the country that are struggling economically and seeing population declines, they can't be too difficult. The property taxes are probably super low as well given then very low purchase price.

gonzo41 7y ago
I'm not going to lie, the very first thing i thought about was the rates they'd be paying. And the utilities any problem they have is at a commercial scale. I'd be interesting to see what their insurance looks like too. Either way. Good for them.
egb 7y ago
"It’s not bad at all!! We have 6 separate central a/c units and 8 separate central heating units. We can pick & choose what parts of the building to heat/cool and to varying temperatures. Our highest gas bill this past winter was $330 and that included almost an entire month of subzero temperatures. The building is incredibly well insulated." https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/e4r2ap/my_house_is_a_20000_sq_ft_1926_former_freemason/f9f8baa/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/e4r2ap/m...
- tylermac1 7y ago
  That's incredible. My gas bill in the winter for a 100yo house is more than that. Very jealous.
- LeoTinnitus 7y ago
  Wow, that's awesome! Obviously anytime someone looks at this they wanna get cynical immediately (as I did). One thing I'm curious about is the property taxes. I could find it online if I really wanted to so I truly wonder if they took that into consideration. Also the upkeep. If I were them, I would try to rent out a portion of it and then eventually turn it into a rental property.
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
A lot of conversions wind up with heating problems. Especially converted warehouses or industrial garages. One solution are to create cubby like warm rooms, or go Asian and use kotatsus, which is how I handled it in southern China (not a conversion, but no indoor heat meant the same thing). Still sucks. These things work better in milder climates like the LA or the Bay Area.
Touche 7y ago
Strangely no one has brought up cleaning, that place must accumulate a lot of dust. I would assume they hire cleaners but I have no idea what that would cost.
- robodale 7y ago
  Yea, at 20000 square feet...by the time you finish cleaning the entire thing, you'd have to start over, since where you started is already dusty.
  - war1025 7y ago
    Having kids, any room I clean is in need of re-cleaning the next day. We've solved that by lowering our tidiness standards.
    - ta999999171 7y ago
      Your mom didn't teach you the cleanup game..?
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Rooms or floors that don't get used don't need to be cleaned very often. Dust accumulation is basically nonexistent in the absence of human activity. If the building uses anything other than forced hot air for heating the dust accumulation will be lesser still. A couple janitor would have a commercial building that size cleaned in a night of work. There's no reason the owners can't use the same techniques one Saturday a month.
soylentcola 7y ago
This is what I was thinking about. When I was looking around for my first home, I definitely fantasized about buying some big, old building that was cheap/in need of work but still livable (for some definitions of livable...basically I don't mind if it's grungy for a couple of years while I work on it). Unfortunately, even in my city (which is not in good financial shape) there weren't too many of these legally zoned for residence. Sure there are the old warehouses and de facto "lofts" where artists and crust punks live off the radar or with a wink and a grin (suuuuure, you're just working there and not living there...) but most of the big places were either in such poor shape I couldn't really consider living there or not legal to use as a residence. On top of that, even the ones in really bad shape were selling for $200k or more. For someone with a $400k budget and somewhere else to live for a year that's fine because you can get the whole thing gutted and renovated. For someone like me with a $200-250k budget it was a no-go. Any cool "fixer uppers" I found in the $100-150k range were bought for cash within a few days of listing--prime targets for cash-rich developers who can clean them up and flip for profit. In the end I compromised and found a place for $170k that had not been maintained, still needs loads of work, but was livable once I got all of the trash and cat stank out of the place. It's a reasonably large (though nothing like the Mason Lodge) 100-ish year old townhouse and I've been slowly renovating and repairing over the past couple of years. Even then, it was difficult to get homeowner's insurance. My initial provider dropped me as soon as they found out I was working on it while living in it. Unless I could show them a timeline and refer them to a general contractor (who wasn't me learning as I went along) they didn't want the risk. Ended up getting some community insurance that wasn't nearly as expensive as whatever my lender would've forced on me but also wasn't too much worse than a "traditional" provider. Still loads of frustration, it will take forever at the rate I'm going just getting in a day or two per week of real work. But I must be a glutton for punishment because I still think it's cooler than just taking out a bigger loan for something that was already renovated by someone else. At the very least, I can pay for supplies and hire contractors when I have the funds, but I'm not on the hook for a higher mortgage payment every month if some unforeseen circumstance leaves money temporarily tight. And it's pretty cool learning by faking it until I make it. I'm still no craftsman but I'm a lot better at some of this stuff than I was a few years ago. Maybe in another few years I'll be vaguely competent!

gonzo41 7y ago

I'm not going to lie, the very first thing i thought about was the rates they'd be paying. And the utilities any problem they have is at a commercial scale. I'd be interesting to see what their insurance looks like too. Either way. Good for them.

egb 7y ago

"It’s not bad at all!! We have 6 separate central a/c units and 8 separate central heating units. We can pick & choose what parts of the building to heat/cool and to varying temperatures. Our highest gas bill this past winter was $330 and that included almost an entire month of subzero temperatures. The building is incredibly well insulated." https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/e4r2ap/my_house_is_a_20000_sq_ft_1926_former_freemason/f9f8baa/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/e4r2ap/m...

tylermac1 7y ago
That's incredible. My gas bill in the winter for a 100yo house is more than that. Very jealous.
LeoTinnitus 7y ago
Wow, that's awesome! Obviously anytime someone looks at this they wanna get cynical immediately (as I did). One thing I'm curious about is the property taxes. I could find it online if I really wanted to so I truly wonder if they took that into consideration. Also the upkeep. If I were them, I would try to rent out a portion of it and then eventually turn it into a rental property.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

A lot of conversions wind up with heating problems. Especially converted warehouses or industrial garages. One solution are to create cubby like warm rooms, or go Asian and use kotatsus, which is how I handled it in southern China (not a conversion, but no indoor heat meant the same thing). Still sucks. These things work better in milder climates like the LA or the Bay Area.

Touche 7y ago

Strangely no one has brought up cleaning, that place must accumulate a lot of dust. I would assume they hire cleaners but I have no idea what that would cost.

robodale 7y ago
Yea, at 20000 square feet...by the time you finish cleaning the entire thing, you'd have to start over, since where you started is already dusty.
- war1025 7y ago
  Having kids, any room I clean is in need of re-cleaning the next day. We've solved that by lowering our tidiness standards.
  - ta999999171 7y ago
    Your mom didn't teach you the cleanup game..?
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Rooms or floors that don't get used don't need to be cleaned very often. Dust accumulation is basically nonexistent in the absence of human activity. If the building uses anything other than forced hot air for heating the dust accumulation will be lesser still. A couple janitor would have a commercial building that size cleaned in a night of work. There's no reason the owners can't use the same techniques one Saturday a month.

soylentcola 7y ago

This is what I was thinking about. When I was looking around for my first home, I definitely fantasized about buying some big, old building that was cheap/in need of work but still livable (for some definitions of livable...basically I don't mind if it's grungy for a couple of years while I work on it). Unfortunately, even in my city (which is not in good financial shape) there weren't too many of these legally zoned for residence. Sure there are the old warehouses and de facto "lofts" where artists and crust punks live off the radar or with a wink and a grin (suuuuure, you're just working there and not living there...) but most of the big places were either in such poor shape I couldn't really consider living there or not legal to use as a residence. On top of that, even the ones in really bad shape were selling for $200k or more. For someone with a $400k budget and somewhere else to live for a year that's fine because you can get the whole thing gutted and renovated. For someone like me with a $200-250k budget it was a no-go. Any cool "fixer uppers" I found in the $100-150k range were bought for cash within a few days of listing--prime targets for cash-rich developers who can clean them up and flip for profit. In the end I compromised and found a place for $170k that had not been maintained, still needs loads of work, but was livable once I got all of the trash and cat stank out of the place. It's a reasonably large (though nothing like the Mason Lodge) 100-ish year old townhouse and I've been slowly renovating and repairing over the past couple of years. Even then, it was difficult to get homeowner's insurance. My initial provider dropped me as soon as they found out I was working on it while living in it. Unless I could show them a timeline and refer them to a general contractor (who wasn't me learning as I went along) they didn't want the risk. Ended up getting some community insurance that wasn't nearly as expensive as whatever my lender would've forced on me but also wasn't too much worse than a "traditional" provider. Still loads of frustration, it will take forever at the rate I'm going just getting in a day or two per week of real work. But I must be a glutton for punishment because I still think it's cooler than just taking out a bigger loan for something that was already renovated by someone else. At the very least, I can pay for supplies and hire contractors when I have the funds, but I'm not on the hook for a higher mortgage payment every month if some unforeseen circumstance leaves money temporarily tight. And it's pretty cool learning by faking it until I make it. I'm still no craftsman but I'm a lot better at some of this stuff than I was a few years ago. Maybe in another few years I'll be vaguely competent!