'Starter home' needs to start over somewhere else

Mid-Plains Community College wants to give away the house at 1111 E. Fourth, across the street south of Barnett Hall on the McCook Community College campus. It has to be moved; the college will keep the garage. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

McCOOK, Neb. -- The little house would make a great "starter" home. It just has to start over some where else.

Mid-Plains Community College owns the house at 1111 E. Fourth in the neighborhood south of McCook Community College. MCC officials envision the lot as "green space," a grassy place where the college's CDC (Child Development Center) youngsters could play on a sunny spring day, cooled by a giant shade tree and corralled by decades-old lilac bushes.

The college wants the lot, but not the house. It is giving away the little house to who ever moves it from the lot.

The house's kitchen. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

The 712-square-foot house was built in 1940 and has two bedrooms, one bath, a combined living room/dining room, closets and a small kitchen.

It has a milkman's tiny delivery door built into the east wall of the kitchen. It has original 1940-vintage light fixtures.

The basement has a bedroom, space for yet another bedroom and an unfinished utility and storage room. But that doesn't matter, because the house has to be lifted off its foundation and moved somewhere else.

An original 1940s light fixture. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

The interior of the house doesn't appear to need a lot of work. Although the windows and window frames need to be replaced, the walls and ceilings are solid, Darin Morgan, director of physical resources at the college, said during a walk-through of the house Wednesday afternoon.

Yes, the kitchen is small, but it would be easy to transform the kitchen into a mud room/laundry room and build on a large kitchen/family room or a kitchen and another bedroom on what is now the east side. Darin said that moving the basement stairway from the existing kitchen to the closet between the dining room and hallway to the bedrooms and bath (and reversing the direction the stairs enter the basement) would free up about three more feet in what could become the laundry room.

"There's nothing wrong with the kitchen cabinets," Darin said. They're not really deep because they were custom-built to fit the kitchen, but they don't deserve to be ripped out. They just need to be cleaned up and painted, Darin said. They'd work fine for a laundry room.

A milkman's door. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

With the house in good condition, it's hard to justify demolishing it, Darin believes.

Darin said that moving the house shouldn't be much of a process. It's small and the house sits way above grade, so beams to raise the house should fit easily under the floor joists of the house.

The key to a successful project appears to be tackling it as a "do-it-yourselfer." Darin said several interested buyers have been surprised by quotes from contractors for building a new basement under the little house.

"There's lots of potential here," Darin said. "It would be hard to demo a house like this."

For a walk-through of the little house, contact Darin Morgan at the college, (308) 345-8113.