What to do with the basement

[Greg Allen]

I'm really hoping some of you who are experienced at rehab can point me in the right direction. I'm about to pull the trigger on a 3000 sq ft ranch style house, built in the late 80's. It's 40K. That's not a typo. It's structurally sound. Will need some roof decking replaced, and new asphalt shingles. Everything else is just cosmetic. It will likely take three dumpsters to get all the beer cans out of the structure. The house is very ugly. The first story is cement block, and the upper story is wood siding. They tried to make a basement, but it's really just earthpushed up against the sides. I'm thinking about pushing the soil back, and simply exposing the lower floor. I would want the front entrance to be at the lower level. So, to my question. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the ugly blocks on the lower level. Cover them in stone? Cover the entire strucure with the siding? The ARV will be around 200K. Any ideas?