I remodelled an elementary school that is now my house AMA

this is what i used to daydream about when I was in a boring class. the mezzanine above the gym was always my room. and the wall across from it was a huge movie screen.

you are technically living my childhood dream.

pictures please!!!

edit: spelling

Still gathering some up. There was a local news article about it but it makes me nervous posting exactly where the location is.

Now I see the dream is possible. Are your rooms absolutely huge? How many classrooms are in there?

Can you make one into a ballroom to hold masquerades?

this is sooo cool.

The building was built in 3 sections, 50s,80s and 90s. Guess which is the best construction? There's a garage, wood shop....there's a pool in one of the rooms because when we moved we had a Koi and pond plant business and needed somewhere to keep the fish until we could sell them. Most have been utilized.

*Edit *Koi....not lion.

Had LAN parties in the gym when i was in high school.

Which section has the best construction? Genuinely curious, because I have no idea.

The 50s part.

Just because it seems to have the best construction doesn't mean it does.

A building in the 50s in southern California seems very stable and well-made until an earthquake comes along and knocks the thing down, while the neighbor's house that was built in the 90's just laughs with its improved codes.

I can believe it.

They're up there in the edit.

http://imgur.com/HLNKE

Do you ever get creeped out or scared for no reason just because it's an old school?

Absolutely. The gym and that part of the unremodeled house creeps me out. I've had 2 people tell me a kid actually died in the gym, fell on the floor, cracked his head open but I e never found any proof if it. Sometimes when you're walking it echoes off the walls and sounds like someone is walking right behind you.

Are you going to home school your kids? If so... I don't know.

No, my parents are actually looking to move to Florida, so I have no idea what' going to happen when that time comes.

As someone who spent the first 22 years of her life in Florida, may I recommend not following your parents to Florida?

I love West Virginia. It might not be the best state, but I love it too much to leave. Trust me, I've tried.

Do you have unusually low toilets? I... I had to ask.

Down toword the gym yes. elementary school size, adorable little toilets. That part isn't remodeled.

Wait wait wait... you have URINALS IN YOUR HOUSE????????????????????????????

/dreamhouse

You can buy them at lowes or home depot. Make your house your dream house.

I have a urinal in my house!

The rest of my family calls it a shower.

You're just saving water, good on you! Thinking about the environment like a baus.

Holy shit.

There are SOOO MANNYYYY!!!!!!

Damn expensive though.

If you're gonna piss, you might as wel llook like 1000 bucks while you do it. AmIright?

http://imgur.com/a/K3cnt#0

Here's an album for everyone. I can take some more tomorrow when it' light out what does everyone want to see?

Did yout dog eat those rolls on the counter?

No, she used to just eye food on the counter so hard. Is made a sandwich once, turned to put up my fixins and when I turned back around it was fucking gone. Didn't hear her take it and it was eaten by the time I found her. Crumbs all over her mouth. She was pretty sneaky.

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Also, taking some celing tiles down, someone left a glove up in the ceiling on a wire, damn near had a stroke when it poped down.

The electrical pannel on the inside says "sex toys" for one of the switches. It took about an hour to figure out what it actually goes to.

... what does it go to?

A set of outlets on the side of the house

Did you ever figure out what they meant by that?

I wish. It made for some really good laughs, when AEP (our power supplier) came in they laughed about it too.

Will you make a followup post if you end up finding a secret sex toy dungeon?

Reddit will be the first to know.

When you do find out please dont sell the rights to Oprah

Promised.

Like I had mentioned everyone that lives around here went to school out here, so people stop by all the time to just look around and tell stories about when they were there. there's been quite a few "I got my nose stuck in that corner for being bad" kind of stories.

does it hurt to be that awesome?

It's pretty damn painful * sunglasses on*

That's pretty clever k4713k. I'd say you really took him to school. sunglasses

Fuck. Yes.

Does the intercom system still work?

Dinnertime! -time-ime-ime^-ime

Sadly, they crucial parts were tripped before we got settled. I want some pretty bad. It echos well so a good shout sometimes works. If not you have to kind of yell, walk, yell some more and then ask what room they're in because "I'm right here just doesn't work well."

How much did it cost? The school itself and the remodel? And yes like everyone else said pics would be great!

Around 35,000. The remodel has been really off and on for about 7 years now. When we first moved in someone before us was starting to making a nursing home out of it but got caught taking money from the loan and buying building materials for thier own bank and were caught for laundering money. However, the work they had done was minimal at best. I stayed in a room that had been carpeted and the rest of my family stayed in another room at the other end of the house that is now our garage.

Are we talking US dollars? If so, mind = blown. Good on you.

There are some parts of the country were you can get property/buildings insanely cheap.

It was part of the reason for the housing bubble that developers in certain states could buy houses for 30k, fix them up, then flip them for 5-10 times as much as they paid.

We had our house on the market for about 3years with no solid buyers. People would come look and try to haggle down to 100,000, or they just wanted to come look which was a huge HUGE inconvenience.

Isn't that incredibly cheap for such a huge building?

Yes. But, location and the fact it was listed as commercial building...

Any permit issues with converting it to living space?

A lot actually. It's also been damn near impossible to insure.

Interesting. I thought of looking into this in the future, after we have some money saved up. I am worried we won't be allowed to convert a commercial building in a comercial zone into a home. An old school is something I hadn't thought of. Are the property taxes high?

A bit, mostly because of the acerage attached.

Acres were included with the property?

5 acres of land. It ads to the overall property tax.

Why did the school shut down?

There were other schools built in not such a rural area, more centralized schools.

Any unusual expenses with your domicile? Taxes, garbage, electric, water? I can't imagine it would be cheap to heat it in the winter.

Heating in the winter gets a litte crazy. But where it's all brick and block it stays about 66 in the house all summer kind of like a cave.

The down side of it being like a cave is down toword the gym the floor has a tendency to sweat, it's like a go and mop once a day kind of thing.

Wait. The floor sweats?

I've been to clubs and I've seen the ceilings sweat from condensation but how do floors sweat?

It gets warm in the halls and the floor stays really cool so it sweats.

Serious question: What gave you the idea to do this and what is your favorite ex-school room that has now been converted (Gym, music room, theater etc...)

Joke Question: Is it a lot easier to lure kids into your house when it looks like a school?

We do a pretty big haunted house ever year. Kids pile up into the back of pickup truck to trick or treat here because everything is so scattered out here, so we get them by the truck loads. Favorite room is probably the hallways. I'm a grown-ass woman and I still am a little freaked out to go into the gym by myself at night.

There's also kids that come and ask to play basketball from time to time.

Do you let them?

We do, but were cautious as to who we let in now because we've been targeted for break ins so many times. But the good thing about living rural is everyone knows everyone and you can find out who did what fast. The home alarm actually has sirens on top of the roof to draw attention just for that reason.

you should get some more big badass dogs to protect your shit and walk with you to that scary ass gym

My dad laughs at me because I do take the dogs with me.

does anyone else think this looks like a great scene for a horror movie? with the gym and whatnot?

On Halloween I actually get a legitimate excuse to chase children with chainsaws.

Are there any creepy ghost stories about the former school?

I used to live in school-house that was built in the 1850's.. it had it's own interesting problems.

That to me is more interesting that what I'm living in.

Have you ever seen a stranger just standing still in the hallway not saying one word?

My dad has done that to me, he's also that horrible kind of person that thinks scaring people is fucking hilarious.

Why do you have a plant in the way of your bathtub? I'd find this extremely annoying. Getting out of the bath only to be attacked by leaves, it's like being clung to by a shower curtain, but more nature-y.

No no. It's not even halfway done. It's sitting in there because I was watering it and it needed some light. That's a bath at the end of the hall no attached rooms or anything. There were 3 diving walls between the toilet and the bath...tore them out, got the walls painted and tile laid down. The plant is just sitting in there to get some light.

Have you ever played silent hill?

Yes. And givin I'm I'm west Virginia and that was where the movie was set, is say It's pretty fitting.

Do you inadvertently keep to the boys/girls restroom? Or do you use the (opposite gender of yours) room just because you can?

We wanted to keep that part of the house that way so there's still a girls and boys bathroom. We rarely go into that part of the house.

That's almost eerie.

Does it bother you to have a house that large with segments you don't even go to? That would just creep me out, somehow.

You sometimes just forget it's there, there's door dividing off that part of the house so it's easy to just look right over it.

How many square feet is the whole house?

Only thing cooler would be living in an old fire station like the one in Ghost Busters.

I still want to live in a fire station. Down side, regular houses make me claustrophobic. I recently moved back home and it was really driven home how nice it is for all your rooms to be at least 19x23.

Roughly 30,000

Any plans to build a home theater in a classroom?

We've always wanted to do one of the rooms into a theater room. Money is the only issue in this whole equation.

Does it smell like a school? You know, that gluey, crayons, and chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes smell?

I wish. I wish the old kitchen was still intact.

Schools are mostly classrooms i guess, so what did you do with all the separate rooms? Do you use them all?

Did the school have a library? Office area? what did you do with these areas?

We used all but what was the old kitchen and what was the science room. We did put up walls to decide some, for on suite bathrooms.

that sounds many weekends worth of projects :P

Would it be possible to sketch up a rough floor plan?

Blueprints on the way

Sure. I also have old blueprints. A once janitor brought us some a few years ago. Would have been super handy just starting out.

What's the square footage?

Have any pics of the gym?

http://imgur.com/a/K3cnt#0

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I had a few friends up in ny that proudly told me i was a redneck for living in a school. However that works.

I just tell them the house really and when they come pull up into the bus loop. It's just a house to me now.

How much did it cost?

The initial purchase of the school, not the remodeling.

35,000 ish

Please excuse me while I pick my jaw up from the floor.

Not that cheap after you consider all the remodeling.

100k in remodeling over the years, you still have a sweet house. My house cost 200k, and is 1/10 the size... >_>

That's what we tried to sell it for.

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We've thought about it, but that's where the red tape starts. You have to get papers stating you're a landlord, even if it's on your property in your home, covers your ass a little.

Can you post some pictures?

http://imgur.com/kYHDJ

That is most impressive. How much did it cost?

http://imgur.com/t3z1v

not going to lie, i laughed my ass off.

As did I. Fuck that's awesome.

More on the way

how many rooms? any stuff from the old school left behind? desks etc? i would love take all the old gym balls and bounce them all around one room

Cabinets. Turned one of the tops into a laundry room table. http://imgur.com/lQ6N5 http://imgur.com/rTCgc

How did it come you moved there in the first place?

The neighborhood we lived it was going to hell quickly, not that it's not bad out here at times. This place has been broken into more than a few times, once while we were all here.

How many of those times were idiots who just wanted to check it out?

Too many to count.

Really? People just walk in, realize it's a house, and continue to check it out?

We leave the doors open in the spring, kind of gets the air moving through the house and warms it up a little...so yeah, people have jut stood at the door yelling hello before. It'ss really way out of the way and people who stand in your door and yell usually aren't trying to cause problems. Everyone knows people out here are pretty well armed to the teeth so tend to not cause trouble.

Have you ever give them a tour and explained what the place is?

Many times. We all have it memorized by now.

Why is there a hammer in your bathroom?

That room is being remodeled right now, I was tapping the pins back in the hinges of the cabinet.

That is so awesome. Do you ever have wild parties over there?

Other than LAN parties, none.

Was this expensive? Should people who want a big house consider this kind of thing? Any red tape?

Edit - Nice kitchen :-).

It's a lot of work if you plan to do it all yourself. My parents are pretty handy people and passed that on to my sister and I. Now I know how to so everything from pluming to sheet-rock. The red tape was having it switched from commercial property to residential. Also, be prepared to do a lot of shopping for insurance, because you'll more than likely have to get it from somewhere that they'll insure it like they would a commercial building.

That's weird.. Why is it still considered commercial?

It's not the typical construction of a house, and that makes insurance companies nervous for residential.

SHould park your cars in the gym. No question, just that. Also, neat!

Had gokarts in there once.