Scrapping out a house!

The story so far:

So, I just got a call from my grandmother about a house she's been "renting" out. She's been letting my aunt and uncle live there for the past year or so. My uncle had cancer and they were there to be closer to some specialized clinic. Now that the cancer is gone, they're moving out in May. My grandma said the house wasn't worth it and she's "seriously considering" having it torn down. She said I could scrap it out for all it's worth if she decides to get rid of it. You all have no idea how psyched I am.

This is an old house, so everything is copper: the water lines, wires, etc. As far as I know, there's no PVC pipe or whatever the new stuff is called. The furnace, water heater, boiler, and everything else has to go. The only catch is that I can't have the stuff that's good enough to furnish another apartment she owns. I'm hoping to make at least 1k if I scrap everything. That means ANYTHING that can get a quick buck on craigslist. I'm starting to save my 5 gallon buckets. I'm going to need them.

I'm gonna try to post pictures every few days and make progress reports once I start, kind of like Instaed did with the mobile homes. Also, if anyone knows of a cheap company near Binghamton, NY that takes down houses, please send me a PM with the company's contact info. I told her she should burn it down and collect the insurance instead of paying someone to take it down LOL.

On a side note, I made my first official trash day find. A bit of duct work, a bathroom vent, some aluminum trim (the stuff you put under doors) and a small peice of aluminum drain pipe.

No, no, I'm not the one who's going to be tearing it down. She's hiring another company to do that. As for asbestos, it's not THAT old.

Originally Posted by parrothead

many places you can get a tax right off by donating the old home to the fire department to burn down. You still keep the property. They just burn it and use it for training purposes. Check into that for her. They may burn it and put it out a few times before they let it all go down.

That's a good idea, but there are other houses and trees around it.

I was planning on selling the doors and everything else separate. The doorknobs are just standard cheapies and not worth selling separate. I think there's some drop ceiling tiles in there too.

Saroro- I'll send you a PM in a sec

I was just gonna sell the knobs with the doors.

Originally Posted by NJSouth

Just got an oppurtunity to do the same with a friends "in law" house out back. A converted garage-to-house that they are tearing down. I'm on my way to pick up some inital scrap but will be getting all the copper wiring and pipes in the house. I'll give you a report when I get back.

About what size is it (sq. ft, stories, etc)?

I just got the O.K to start. I'm hoping to start today or tomorrow. I'll post pictures when I get there

Here's the house:

The bottom part towards the front is the garage. There's a wall between the two sets of doors. The right side is full of tools and most of the garbage that needs to go. Then there's a hallway after that where most of the goodies are; water heater, furnace, steam(?) radiator, some other unknown items, and lots of other junk. Towards the back is the basement where the washer and dryer were. I've started my piles back there. The second floor is the living room, kitchen, 1 bedroom, bathroom, entrance to the basement, stairs, and back porch, in that general order. The third floor (starting from the stairs and going forward) is a small closet, bathroom, general purpose room, small walk in closet, 2nd bedroom w/ closet, and master bedroom. Get the picture?

Today was spent cleaning out the left hand side of the garage. We basically took everything out, put the good stuff in the right side of the garage, I started some piles in the basement. We threw away a bunch of wood scraps, a grinding wheel, and a bit of other stuff. There's still more stuff in the hallway.

I found quite a few tools: screw drivers, wrenches, a tool box, and a pair of massive bolt cutters. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

I didn't get the chance to take many pics today. I'll try to be better with that tomorrow.