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cruft posted:Yeah, my first thought was also fire and/or flooding. It turns out there are actually laws all over the place preventing insurance companies from setting rates based on risk. This is why there is still a lot of coastal construction happening. As these laws slowly get overturned, insurance rates are beginning to reflect the actual risk of a place, and we're going to an increase in migration even beyond what's already happening after a neighborhood gets flooded 3 times in a 10-year period.
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Nov 2, 2021 16:31
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I assume from the exhaust that's a gas heater. If so, the county requires plumbers to work on it for a very good reason: keeping amateurs from killing their whole families.
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Nov 2, 2021 18:08
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Rythe posted:Two big projects are hiring painters to paint the entire interior, original home owners of 15 years and the paint shows plus we got $5k knock off the price of the house too. Thankfully we've will have a full week from closing to when my movers come and pick up everything and deliver it all the painters have plenty of time. Any kind of home contractors, including painters, are run off their feet right now. Do you already have somebody scheduled? If not, and you're closing in a few days, it is too late. If you do, you need to be prepared for the possibility that at the last minute they'll be unavailable. Have contingency plans. Can you move all the furniture into one or two rooms, leaving the rest free to be painted? Can you move your larger things into storage if you need to? What sort of trees are there in your new back yard? There are a few varieties of tree, most notoriously walnut, that kill all other plants in their root zone. Leaving that aside, look at all your small trees, and ask yourself if they'll all fit at their mature sizes. It's cheaper to take out an out-of-place sapling now than to wait until it's full grown and spindly because it didn't get enough light. What climate do you live in? Fall is a great time to sod if the sod has a chance to settle in before the frost hits. Assuming it's at least a week until you take possession, there are a lot of climates where it's already too cold to plant sod this year. If so, try overseeding; grass seed is way cheaper than sod, and it can't hurt to try. Have fun!
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Nov 4, 2021 02:02
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SpartanIvy posted:I'm pretty sure this leak has been around for months but we're playing it safe by cutting the gas at the meter at night, and we don't get any whiffs of gas anywhere during the day except occasionally from the water heater closet. I have a natural gas detector in there though and it's never shown a PPM reading or alarmed. Once I pull the water heater out I can cap the line and perform a real pressure test on it with my test gauge too.
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Nov 8, 2021 21:12
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Enos Cabell posted:My wifes oldest sister and her husband had an 18% 30 year loan on their first house in the early 80s. I don't remember the mortgage rate on my first house in the '80s -- definitely in the high teens -- but I do remember that it was adjustable.  e: Also, it was a "jumbo" (large) mortgage, which had higher rates. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Nov 15, 2021 |
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Nov 15, 2021 16:53
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skipdogg posted:The flip side of the 80's rates was CD's actually paid a ton of interest as well. My wife deals with old people all the time discussing the days of earning 15% on a CD while they complain that todays rates are like 0.55% The inflation rate in 1981 was 10%. That's why CDs paid so much interest, and people tend to forget that.
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Nov 15, 2021 17:13
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The Bosch I had to special-order in August because only the ADA-compliant model will fit under my low cast-marble countertops ... sob! sob! has not even made it on the boat, and the appliance guy says he doesn't know when it will. Bosch doesn't give him any notification at all until he suddenly gets "Yeah, it's on the boat." . This is totally fair and reasonable given all the current crises, but we just did Thanksgiving with no dishwasher and it was hell.
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Nov 26, 2021 18:24
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I just found out that these exist, and I am happy as a clam. We have an old (at least 1960s) set of cabinets with a solid poured-stone top that would be Hell to modify. This would let us get use out of the space currently wasted in the blind cabinet without replacing the cabinets. I am also looking very, very covetously at this because our sole pantry is a set of wooden shelves in what used to be the back porch, and we need to get out of the things-lost-in-the-back trap.
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Dec 4, 2021 20:41
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MrYenko posted:
This is especially annoying because this is an ADA-compliant dishwasher, which happens to be the only form factor that will actually fit under our cast-stone countertop. It's not as if anybody's going to have that one in stock.
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Dec 8, 2021 21:16
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Vim Fuego posted:Embrace the PO mindset. Cut a hole in the floor and inset a normal height dishwasher underneath the stone countertop. What are a few joists between friends, anyway?
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Dec 8, 2021 21:48
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In the case of this house, it's 90-year-old virgin redwood, and it's difficult enough to drive screws into it.
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Dec 9, 2021 00:09
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a dingus posted:Thanks. I figured painting might not the worth it. We bought the place pre-pandemic and I keep the cabinets were cheap but I hate them a little more every day. Good to knew Ikea is worth looking at Somebody mentioned this in another thread, and I think it's genius. You can buy custom wood doors that fit on Ikea cabinet carcasses. Hey presto, pretty kitchen for cheap! The brand I heard mentioned was Semi Handmade. https://www.semihandmade.com/
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Dec 9, 2021 03:05
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I just remembered my best PO story. When you drained the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom, sometimes it would leak. Only if the tub had been full. If the tub had been half-full, no leak. The shower never leaked. We were very confused. When we stripped the floor down, it turned out the PO had managed to saw vertically through the top of the waste pipe. Not the whole thing, just the top. So when the water filled the pipe, it reached the open saw slit, and hey presto.
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Dec 13, 2021 17:02
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Involuntary Sparkle posted:Would this be the place to ask about window treatment purchasing? If you can trust yourself to do accurate measurements, go with Blindster.com. They are a pain in the rear end to install, there will be much cursing as you stand on a ladder and try to get things level, but they work.
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Dec 22, 2021 17:32
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Honestly, with a 12-plus (was it new when you got it?) year-old washing machine, this is only the first time it's going to break. Repair this, and there will be other parts near the end of their useful lifespans. Consumer Reports likes LG, both for features and frequency-of-repair reasons. I was about to buy one but then Costco ran out. The LG WM4000HWA, which they love, is a Best Buy currently at $948.00 - $1,149.98. GE is at the bottom of CR's frequency-of-repair list. As you value your life and your reason, stay away from Samsung. On the other other hand, the CR user reviews are negative. quote:I would NOT buy this washing machine again!
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Dec 29, 2021 21:48
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SpartanIvy posted:Most old washers and dryers are super repairable. The most expensive part that can usually break is the timer/board. You might try doing some troubleshooting to see what's broken and how expensive it would be to fix before buying new. 12-year-old washers are not as repairable as 30-year-old washers. There's a good chance (ask me how I know) that you can't find anything electronic the 12-year-old washer needs.
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Dec 30, 2021 04:42
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I vote for skulls of your enemies. Refill with lye periodically.
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Jan 6, 2022 00:47
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There was a big scandal in Charlotte in the '90s when expensive new stuccoed houses had been built without weep screeds, and the sills and studs rotted out. I think Toll House may even have been involved there.
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Jan 8, 2022 01:22
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Welp, had a guy come out to haul away the trash, he noticed there was moss on the roof, came down and showed me pictures, and there was definitely a lot of moss that needed to be removed. Today he came back with a ladder, and there are two vent pipes leading to nowhere over the bathroom and the dishwasher. Not connected to plumbing, as far as we can tell not connected to anything. He's going to give me contact info for a general contractor friend who does small jobs, because if the piping's still there we can put a fan in the bathroom and maybe even an exhaust fan in the kitchen. It's always something. e: Moss-noticing dude is a licensed contractor.
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Jan 11, 2022 00:54
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fyallm posted:Thanks. Just checked out bluejay and the maximum is so much higher than what I am considering but I still feel like what IM looking at is too high.. The standard rule of thumb is the 28/36 rule. “The 28/36 rule simply states that a mortgage borrower/household should not use more than 28% of their gross monthly income toward housing expenses and no more than 36% of gross monthly income for all debt service, including housing,” However, there are areas where nobody can afford housing unless they break this rule. Bear in mind that banks will be happy to lend you more money than you can comfortably pay back. I don't mean "can't pay at all", I mean "you'll be left with the bare minimum for all other expenses".
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Jan 18, 2022 20:41
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The small original bathroom in the house is awesome; it has a clawfoot tub and the original '30s sink, which is a wallmount. (Sadly, the toilet is a builder-special California ULF that I need to upgrade to one that flushes reliably.) There aren't any cabinets, or any room for them. I'd like to build a small box cabinet around the sink to provide a place for cleaning materials and extra toilet paper. Is that something a carpenter could do? I was thinking of facing it in beadboard and painting the beadboard to match the walls.
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Jan 30, 2022 20:53
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What PainterOfCrap said. That bathroom is absolutely beautiful, and may well be a selling point if/when you have to move. It's moved through the dangerous "outdated" valley and is now "classic".
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Feb 4, 2022 16:56
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falz posted:Maybe you can get by with some quality of life improvements like a tub or sink upgrade and keep floors and walls? It's amazing. 
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Feb 4, 2022 19:14
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Yowza. I was wandering around, as one does, and found this guy who'd restored his house and had a brilliant idea. A house easement. He'd done a lot of work to restore the house to its original condition, and he wanted to make sure that future owners didn't undo his hard work. Fair enough. I get it. Solution? quote:Each character defining feature you want to preserve must be identified and listed in the preservation easement document. Number and description of windows, porches and porch elements, wood siding, and exterior finishes, interior features such as non painted woodwork, antique kitchen sinks, even the land and landscape features that comprise the setting of the building. The character defining features that you worked so hard to protect will be protected when you are gone and/or the building is sold. I would not buy the most exquisitely restored piece of Steamboat Gothic (what we called it in Indiana; the rest of you can call it Queen Anne) if it came with yearly visits from a third party checking for authenticity.
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Feb 5, 2022 21:17
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Queen Victorian posted:Reminds of the time that tech gently caress Kevin Rose bought a historically registered Victorian, which was the nicest and oldest in a neighborhood full of nice old Victorians in Portland, quietly had it removed from said register, and made plans to tear it down and replace it with an ugly concrete bunker.
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Feb 7, 2022 04:49
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Phil Moscowitz posted:Based on recommendations from this thread, when I had a partial gut renovation going last year I put in rockwool and I am very happy I did, for soundproofing alone. For the first half of this sentence I thought I was in the Medical Stories thread and was very confused.
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Feb 8, 2022 22:11
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My chest freezer arrived and it fits the space I measured it to fit!  (It's in a doored alcove carved into the back of the outside of house that's used to store things, and yes, the freezer is garage-rated.) I had ordered the darn thing in August. Costco run ahoy!
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Feb 9, 2022 20:32
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(A) because that patch is not going to last forever. Permanent fix for a permanent problem, thanks.
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Feb 18, 2022 21:12
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Some other options: Van Dyke Restorers https://www.vandykes.com/door-hinges/c/1626/ Historic Houseparts https://www.historichouseparts.com/door-hardware/door-hinges/butt-hinges/ Olde Good Things https://ogtstore.com/antique-door-h...20Hinges&is_v=1
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Mar 1, 2022 18:17
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Posting this here so you can all point and laugh. I have two annoying shrubs which are being protected from deer by a cage of (now-rusty) galvanized livestock wire. Not chicken wire. The kind with big rectangles to keep (say) a goat out of the garden. I tried cutting the wire with tin snips. I could manage it, barely, but the tin snips couldn't cope with the heavier wire at the top and bottom. So I ordered some bolt cutters. Today I pulled out the bolt cutters. I realized that the blades wouldn't open. I consulted my son, who agreed that the blades definitely wouldn't open. There was a metal bar across them preventing them from opening. I decided they must have been to protect the blades while shipping, and son and I removed the bolts and bar, carefully placing them to one side. Now the blades wouldn't do anything! They just flopped around. Then I looked up "parts of a bolt cutter" online and discovered that (A) the bar was supposed to be there and (B) you use bolt cutters by opening them really, really wide, wider than (say) tin snips or pruners. And when I put the bar back on, they worked very well! Now I am very tired, having managed to free three top-to-bottom strips from the plants . It's slow work because of all the branches that have grown through the cage. 
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Mar 14, 2022 21:04
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BadSamaritan posted:This is kind of what I figured. I’m in agreement about natives- that is what we’ve done slowly with our front garden. The side garden just has a big row of boring stuff that has gotten big (an azalea, the half dead spruce(?), a wintercreeper that I hate).
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Mar 28, 2022 18:57
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Pollyanna posted:Oh I can certainly get repairs and maintenance done, and they’ll happen. I’m just afraid of taking on more than I can handle, or improperly handling what I get, or hiring people to handle it who clearly can’t. Ending up with a leaky roof because of hosed up flashing or a flood because someone drilled through a pipe sounds nightmarish to deal with…and that’s for people who know what they’re doing.
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Apr 17, 2022 16:52
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This might not work for you. I moved to a very small area, and had a great realtor. After we moved in, I got tips from her for electricians, plumbers, a medical practice, and more I misremember. Everybody she recommended was good. It's worth asking your realtor if they have recommendations for construction stuff; they may, because they deal with houses being fixed up for sale all the time.
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Apr 17, 2022 23:48
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MrYenko posted:Ya’ll wanna see something horrifying? I would say give her a Viking funeral, but. At least pour out a frozen daiquiri for her.
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Apr 20, 2022 22:42
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You want rose-pruning gauntlets. Leather or a puncture-proof synthetic, and reaching to the elbows. They look like this. https://www.amazon.com/Pruning-Goatskin-Leather-Gardening-Gauntlet/dp/B01K119OAY/?tag=aim-gg1-20 Not endorsing the brand, just showing an example.
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Apr 24, 2022 01:17
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IOwnCalculus posted:Home Zone: injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected MODS.
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Apr 25, 2022 19:04
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I used to keep a list of people I'd called and the date with '"left message". Today I rejiggered the journal. Each repair/maintenance person I need to call gets one line with the contact info, then three blank lines below for me to write in 5/3, 5/10, 5/19 ... because just leaving a message ain't worth poo poo. I did find out today that the person who'd promised me in November she'd have a slot to reupholster my chairs in January now has ten other projects ahead of me and is working slowly because of illness. Sent off an email to a guy I found on Nextdoor.
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May 4, 2022 03:11
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Welp, the reupholsterer just wrote me back and said his shop burned down the day after Christmas, it'll be at least three months before he's back in operation. Rough year.
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May 4, 2022 21:17
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Does it matter which brand of toilet seat I buy? (pause for chorus of "Not to me, it doesn't!") The toilets are builder's special round-tops, so I don't have to worry about fit issues. I was planning on getting a non-plastic quiet-close and calling it a day.
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May 9, 2022 19:50
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Anne Whateley posted:also, ymmv but I prefer plastic because it's easier to clean. MDF ("wood") can get very nasty I associate "plastic" with the thin kind that breaks easily. I'm out-of-date, probably.
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May 9, 2022 20:00
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