>>509177343 (OP)>>509177621Im from Illinois, so we have quite a few of these buildings preserved. Yeah they are built like tanks, but if its 80F outside it will be about 140f on the 2nd floor; they have their issues as well its not like they are better than modern homes, just more durable, certainly not anywhere near as cost effective. You can still build a granite or sandstone foundation. That concrete basement and foundation probably was done on a shoestring budget for $50-75k; doing a granite or sandstone basement of that size would cost $500k-$1m depending on how remote it is,etc. Its not like the technology has been lost, its just a lot more expensive. The reason houses dont have granite foundations is because people generally dont want to spend $1m on a foundation for a home.
I can already see lots of build quality issues on that house out on a prairie; and funny enough a lot of them were probably caused from LACK OF CODE ENFORCEMENT. This house looks like somebody's dream retirement home that they built on a shoestring budget on a big plot of land they bought in the middle of nowhere. Those types of counties typically are very lax in their code enforcement and let people do whatever they want as long as it isnt a matter of life and death. The house has water damage because they completely cheaped out missing decks,..... no gutters?!?!? wtf, that wouldnt pass inspection almost anywhere. That is a very cheaply built "kit home" you can buy the plans for these, basically saves you from having to hire an architect, and the company that sells you the plans will often connect you with a materials provider as well, and those materials tend to be of dubious quality.
No gutters, and poor water management caused a lot of unnecessary damage to this structure, which funny enough could have been avoided with code enforcement. Lot of the issues were clearly caused by severe cost saving/corner cutting.
