Varying questions regarding a house remodel

[Actor 123]

Hello all:

I am looking at purchasing a "fixer-upper" with significant land that can be used for additions. The house itself is not in bad shape, but lacks some of the amenities that I like as well as as much space as I want. I am not looking to do a teardown. Structurally, at most, I might open up a few walls to make additions. While I know a fair amount about remodels, there are some questions I do not know the answer to, and was hoping someone in this group could help, so I know what to look for before deciding whether to buy.

1) Many of my additions would require more electrical power (central air, jacuzzi tubs, etc.) I've added circuits to an existing circuit breaker before (or actually, had an electrician do it), but what are the ramifications if I run out of "slots" in the circuit breaker. I'm in a townhouse now where my remodels ran into that very problem (luckily there were just enough slots to meet my needs, but before we determined that, the contractor said it would cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to upgrade the breaker because the city would have to come out). Is this something I should be worried about in a house, or are all houses pretty much supplied with enough power and have breakers to spare?

2) The house, while not all that remote, is still in what is considered an unincorporated section of town. Probably because of that, the water supply is indicated as private/mutual. I'm going to be finding out more details on what exactly that means (well, etc.), but what are the ramifications of this. Is it that big a deal to put in a filtration system that would rival the cities? How about hooking up to the city's water supply?

3) The house has a wood exterior, and I've always preferred stucco. How big of a project is it to rip all the exterior wood off and replace with stucco? Am I insane to even think about it? I've never heard of anyone doing that. Pardon my ignorance, but it seems to me you could do it without affecting the frame of the house, so it just doesn't seem like an undoable project to me.

4) Are there any other considerations I should think about given that this is in an unincorporated part of town?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide

[jim]

yes, thinking about something seems like it is not too much to handle, but actually doing it is another thing.. i built a garage by myself and for 6 months had made up a set of plans and did the digging of the footing and had almost every part of in my head and it seemed like it would take me about two weekends to do it... well it too me alot longer and i got so tired of hammering all those nails into the wood i had to go buy a bigger hammer just to drive the nails in and let the hammer do all the work.... it did not seem this hard just dreaming and planning it.. i guess when i came time to do it i had alot of problems... especially doing it all yourself... too me alot longer than 2 weekends..

[MrAoD]

[snip]

Panel. Electrical panel.

Yes, but it's not as bad as your previous contractor said. Assuming sufficient power coming into the house you simply replace the existing panel with a larger one, or gang in a second subpanel.

OTOH if your house is of a certain age you might need to pull more power into the house - known as "heavying up" your electrical service. Look at the service entrance/weatherhead. Two wires means you'll probably need a heavy-up if you plan on adding a lot of power-hungry options, three wires means the heavy up's already been done.

[snip]

No experience of wells so I can't answer the filtration question but switching to city water is an option if the supply/sewerage lines are near enough to the property.

Depends on whether the existing wood exterior is structural or not. If it's the original siding it probably is. Rip it off without bracing and you're almost guaranteed to rack the frame if the house is stick-built or balloon framed. Sorta an unintentional teardown.

Best,

Marc