We had to pay not only for all the filing fees, but we were required to hire a moving company for their belongings to be transported to a storage unit WE had to pay for under their name for 1 month.

If I double/triple the size of the property while keeping the old intact is that feasible?

Ex:  buy and hold, fix and flip, wholesale, notes, lease option, single family, multifamily, apartment building, developing, tax liens, hml, short sale, subject to, self storage, parking lots, reits/syndicate, senior housing, land contract, mobile homes, special needs housing, etc.There is a guru for each strategy very rare will you find someone that will do all of the above. 

Some even allow you to have out as many mortgages as you can feasibly sustain!

Mother believes everything in the house has value and wants to go through it and box it up for storage.

If you have a two story house that is not feasible. 

At the end the two of us were just shoving things in garbage bags and not caring what was ending up in his storage unit.  

An eviction action can always be vacated - but an eviction can never be made retroactive to when it 'should' have begun.As I see it:  as soon as you post notice the "28 day storage" clock starts running.  

Was thinking perhaps the tax credits would make it feasible to buy an old house. 

It could be anywhere - I just use it as office/storage/inventory for my business.