Starting at Square One

Hi ya’ll! Its us, the Flores family, the crazy people that decided to take on a 1915 uninhabited home in Lincoln Kansas and completely renovate, remodel and MOVE it to turn it into our forever home. When we first toured the home back in January, we never would have imagined that life would take us on this journey, but alas, here we are. We are constantly growing and adapting to new challenges and opportunities that this house is giving us. We are committed to keeping anyone, and everyone, that has interest in our project, and in the home we are restoring, up to date with what we are doing during our renovation process. Without further ado, here is what we have been up to!

January 2022

We first toured the home January 16th, 2022. At that time, Kelly Gourley (Executive Director of the Lincoln County Economic Development) had been given charge to help find a person/family to take ownership of the home and move it to a new location to be used as a primary residence. She had had very little success in finding anyone seriously interested in not only the renovation aspect of the home, but also in the cost and effort it would take to move the home to a new location. Initial estimates to move the home a few blocks within city limits had come back around the $20-$30k mark. So, advertising the home as ‘free’ seemed to make sense since it would actually cost a pretty penny to move and make the home inhabitable. As soon as we stepped foot into the home Eddie and myself looked at each other and we just knew, this was home. There was never a doubt in my mind from that day forward about whether or not I could see us living there. The original woodwork, fireplace, flooring, staircase, rounded bay windows and overall grandeur of the home was absolutely overwhelming. We have always wanted a fixer-upper type project home, where we can create exactly what we want and still have that feeling of old-world charm, and this project was a home run. We took the tour of the home with my sister and her husband, who own another older two-story home in Lincoln, and while they were both impressed with its charm, they were less enthused about the promise this home gave of major renovation and rehab work. But no matter, we knew this was the house for us.

February 2022

On February 4th, 2022 the Instagram page Cheap Old Houses caught wind of what Kelly was trying to do in giving this home away for ‘free’ and they featured the home on their social media page that same day. The response from across the globe was amazing and overwhelming! People from all over the nation called, emailed and wrote inquiring about the home and how they could take ownership. The economic development was forced to come up with an application process that was made public so individuals that were serious about the home could apply to be considered as a possible candidate for receiving the home. At the time the home went ‘viral’ we had not made our plans for the house permanent, so we filled out an application along with hundreds of others to be considered for the home. After numerous elimination processes and further questionnaires being answered, we were notified on April 11th that we had been selected as the family that would receive the home! We were ecstatic, as well as completely terrified!

May 2022

Finally, in May we were given the keys to the home and started making official plans for moving and renovating. With the help of a local lawyer, we drafted an agreement this month that legally ‘gives’ the home to us so we can claim ownership, as well as liability and other fun stuff. We had 3 different companies come out and give us estimates for a new roof, as we knew it needed a new one asap before any more water damage happened. Estimates ranged from $10-$30k, yeah big spread there! We ended up hiring Kape Roofing out of Salina Ks, as they were able to give us incredibly long-lasting shingles at a great price. We also liked them because they do siding, and once the house is moved we can call them and have them come out immediately to get us started with new siding, gutters and trim for the entire home. We also hired a moving company to come in and move the house once we are ready. We will be working with the guys at Unruh, a moving company that specializes in moving homes all over the Midwest. They have been amazing to work with and we are so excited to see our house rolling down Highway 18 in the near future! Before we can talk about moving the home though, we decided that we wanted to build a basement on which the home will sit. This took a lot of thought and a million phone calls. We have family in Lincoln that built a basement recently out of ICF (insulated concrete forms) and when we toured their home and saw the benefits that ICF offered in basement construction we knew that was what we wanted to go with in our own basement. However, finding a company in the Kansas/Midwest region that was willing to construct an ICF basement for personal property was impossible. We made phone calls to at least a dozen different construction and basement professionals and every one of them either did not work with ICF or were not willing to travel to do our project. So, we switched gears and started looking for other options and found a company out of Salina that came highly recommended for constructing concrete basement foundations. We hired Wayne Holmes Basements, Inc and have been grateful for their willingness to work with us as we figure out this whole process of designing a basement and then moving a house onto that basement foundation.

June 2022

We got a new roof!! Guys, the first picture I saw of the new roof I thought the image was photoshopped because of how amazing the roof looked! It is only the first piece of our giant puzzle, but we are so happy to have it done and we cannot wait to keep going!