The Oil City Photo Trip - You can ride shotgun (Penn: sale, rent)

[Cosmic]

Originally Posted by Need_affordable_home

Youve mentioned the regulations several times before. Is that the deciding factor why you wanna stay in Ohio? Do you think Oil city is "worth it" if you can comply with the regulations just fine? Think maybe you could get a house that dont need much fixin' for $30k in Oil city because you want a smaller house, right? No point building a house unless you get the materials free

Gotta save up the $1500 I need for the trip and have a steady income in order to relocate. Trying different business ideas, one of them is im building a website about Oil city, should get lots of traffic and ill be offering my services on that website to earn money.

Whew im off to take cold shower, its 82 degrees in my bedroom and im sweating up a storm and I dont smell swell

I don't think you understand how many smaller towns are?? Some can be extremely anal. Rules for having rules. PA is way too much like MA for me. My BIL was born and raised in PA, he know exactly what happens, can be some paperwork chases over just about nothing. He is not about ready to go back to PA.

In Monroe County if you buy the dog license and don't rob banks, they pretty well let you alone. Very difficult to find. Even if you live inside the town limits of Woodsfield, you will have a lot more rules, taxes, petty stuff. Very difficult to be a free spirit in the USA today. Everybody wants to put a lot of peeps in jail and hassle them for nothing. I didn't look for the jail in Oil City, bunch of things I should have found.

What is going to be on this website for Oil City??? Aren't you going to have to be an expert???

Is it ready, can we see it????

[Need_affordable_home]

Hmm I will have to learn about the Oil city rules and laws. Im sure our rules/laws in south FL are as bad and none of us had a problem. Website not yet done.

Wish you had gone inside at least one or two of the houses in Oil city to check what condition they are on the inside. Guess im gonna have to find out for myself when I visit Oil city as soon as April and hopefully no later than mid summer. That all depends how my online business does and how well my Oil city website does, how much traffic it gets.

If I had to imagine......most of the Oil city houses need little or no TLC. Ive seen $15k houses that were updated and only had cosmetic problems like a little rotten wood, some damage to the walls, floors but still move in condition. At least thats what the sellers are saying. Maybe you could be the inspector before I buy a house and I could pay you for the repairs, your an expert at it

[ElizaTeal]

Thanks for the ride lady! Reminded me of upstate NY. Nice details on some of the older homes.

[Cosmic]

Originally Posted by Need_affordable_home

Hmm I will have to learn about the Oil city rules and laws. Im sure our rules/laws in south FL are as bad and none of us had a problem. Website not yet done.

Wish you had gone inside at least one or two of the houses in Oil city to check what condition they are on the inside. Guess im gonna have to find out for myself when I visit Oil city as soon as April and hopefully no later than mid summer. That all depends how my online business does and how well my Oil city website does, how much traffic it gets.

If I had to imagine......most of the Oil city houses need little or no TLC. Ive seen $15k houses that were updated and only had cosmetic problems like a little rotten wood, some damage to the walls, floors but still move in condition. At least thats what the sellers are saying. Maybe you could be the inspector before I buy a house and I could pay you for the repairs, your an expert at it

I don't know where you are getting any of that information. I could just drive around and look at the electric service. Most of those older houses had ancient service. Probably 30 - 60 amps for the house, no standard modern setup with the service cable in conduit and the meter outside. Some a ratty old cable just disappeared into the house, probably going to the basement and the meter would be inside with maybe four fuses and old knob / tube type wiring. Suicide type living old wire rayon covered with rubber. I have seen a zillion cases of it. Tons of it in Woodsfield. I had it in the house I bought here. Got to be all ripped out and done completely like a new house construction. Typical cost 8 - 10K, most places prevent the home owner from doing any of it. Licensed electrician with permits only.

Below you see the service cable surface run, that is illegal in most places. That is probably 60 amps feeding two meters, probably lots of jury rigged stuff inside. Some of these may have modern romex wiring mixed up with old BX or rubber coated wire. Usually a total mess. You can see it all over Woodfield as well.





Here is one with the standard modern setup. Conduit down to the meter, probably 100 amps service. Probably modern romex wiring inside.





Here is probably a 200 amp service, good setup, conduit, you can just see the meter. This is what you want, everything installed correctly with the right stuff.





Lot of them fancy houses had old service entry. Again probably 60 amps. Some I could not see the service, either it was coming in the back or maybe underground. Lots of houses you could not see the meter outside anywhere. Usually a bad sign. I want everything in conduit with a head, power wiring, telephone, cable, etc.

You may find a house for what might be cheap money. The rehab costs can go out of sight quick, especially if they require permits and licensed only work.

Just wiring, plumbing, heating can easily cost 30K or more for just a basic work over. In Monroe County it was legal for me to do it all, the entire rehab should wind up costing maybe $9K. That includes total gut on kitchen / bath and redo walls / paint / paper, new appliance, new furnace. Complete new wiring and plumbing job.

Don't know how I was to get inside houses, most of the peeps would not even look at you or wave back.

You can tell nothing from afar, must get up close and personal. I doubt your ideas about prices and costs have any bases at all. None of it agrees with what I was seeing. The newer construction was all standard and probably up to code. Most other houses, if you looked long enough started to pick up code violations. Those building codes can just go nuts, a lot depends on how they are enforced. Usually what happens if an area turns around enforcement is increased big time as more places get redone. Once they start hiring additional inspectors it is good nite Irene.

[sdmlions]

Hey Cosmic when did you live in Zanesville??? Crime there is pretty bad for a smaller town these days. Lots of drugs and prostitution, particularly south of I-70. Decent parts in the north of town though.

[Ronzou]

Cosmic is right NAF.

If you do move into one of these houses and plan to remodel. You might have to update the house to code to make sure it can meet the new standards and EPA guidelines as well as city/state standards.

It could be very expensive.

[Need_affordable_home]

I am assuming if the owner whos selling the $50k house is living in it and having no problems that means the house is move in condition. Whats so bad about old wires except its 60 amps? Thats enough for my computer, fridge and a few light bulbs I will make sure there is no code violations and if there was, the owner selling the house has to fix them before I buy.

[Cosmic]

Originally Posted by sdmlions

Hey Cosmic when did you live in Zanesville??? Crime there is pretty bad for a smaller town these days. Lots of drugs and prostitution, particularly south of I-70. Decent parts in the north of town though.

I was there in the 60's. Pretty good then. I do want to stop in there and see what it is like today. Same what I am hearing, the south side not to good.

Had a lot of fun there before I moved to the big town in Columbus.

[mystree]

Still plenty of snow/ice and the locals think its cold. 50 degrees arent cold

Actually at the end of winter 30 starts to feel nice and 50 is a heat wave,car windows rolled down and lovin life...lol

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

Nice pictures, Cosmic!

Definetly not my tastes (yes, I love my McMansions and sprawling suburbs) but I suppose some like it. It would've been nicer if the sun was out, everything seems so dreary...

Typical Zonie statement. Always gotta point out the fact that other states dont have as much sunshine as AZ. But thats ok, we dont look like catchers mits (aka Alice Cooper). Oh, look at the set of pics below your post... sure looks like crystal clear blue skies to me!

Cosmic, nice thread! I FINALLY got to see this town. Some parts look ok, others look bad. Its definitely not someplace Id want to move though, it looks like taking a big step back in time, but the hills are beautiful!