We decided that I would weld in 3" angle brackets that would span past the bad sections to restore its strength.

Help us figure a way to get this house, restore it, and put people in there who will appreciate it.

I thought about how I would love nothing more than to rehabilitate the property and restore its original facade.

Usually the VA just restores the VA entitlement after the prior home sells before you can close/use the VA program on the new home.The cap for the VA program varies in each county as some counties have higher limits than others.

That is not a bad thing if your end result is an awesome 1800s restored home, but that might not be your goal.Your buyer might want that 1800s restored home and you might not have it if you make it modern.  

Eventually I'd like to do a conventional refi for the two rental properties and apply for the one-time restoration of entitlement.

I'll still be short of my goal of having $80k which is 20% of $400k so I may try and apply for lines of credit at other banks to get the rest or try to use my 401k account which I think I can take out up to $15k within 2 week period.

I recently found this on realtor.comLooks as though the home would need some serious restoration.

Restore and salvage yards have tons of great stuff and with just a little effort clean up real nice.  

I do Complete Rehab, water fire, mold damage restoration, mold inspections, (re-builds) drywall, painting, post construction cleaning, carpet installtion and tearouts, new flooring, property management, I have 11 certifications, 2 are Master Certifications.