Projects

[Schmeelkie]

Just talked to husband - they did all interior shots, but said we should get rid of the awning on the front window (that we've never used - 50-yr old maple gives more than ample shade) and put up matching shutters to the ones on the front bedroom window. So they won't take that last exterior shot, thus won't have the listing started until we can do this.... I wanted the house listed 2 weeks ago!!! Wish we could have asked them to take a pic now and just update it when we fix the stuff....should see if that's possible. I Just want one part of this over with...

[Schmeelkie]

Well, I trimmed soggy bushes Tuesday morning, then shopped with hubby. Got the awning down Tues pm. He painted a bit yesterday (because, of course, the paint was peeling under and around the awning attachments - annoying as the whole house will be painted in a couple of weeks), and we got a new light fixture up (but he's got to get some nuts as, of course, it wouldn't stay flush to the wall) and the shutters. Although, I had four screws in before I realized that you had to run the screws though the caps so the screw heads won't rust. Ah, well. Nothing is ever easy.... At least the shutters were plastic, so it was easy to hold up and align with holes and such.

Anyway, the house should be on the market by this evening!!!

Now we get to do the fun part and start looking at other people's houses!!

[barfle]

The baseboards went in pretty easy. It's amazing how the right tool can make the job go well, and my neighbor's compound miter saw was the right tool.

We've had an ongoing project (seems like a couple of years now) where bar removed the wallpaper in our bedroom. Unfortunately, the walls had not been painted before the wallpaper was hung, so the drywall has plenty of dings in it. I've been patching and smoothing and patching and smoothing and patching and smoothing. We primered it last weekend, and I believe it's ready for paint.

[Schmeelkie]

Yeah for paint!
We looked at a house yesterday - agent said enthusiastically that the whole upstairs had been torn out and redone. Good job, except the bathroom walls - didn't look like they were prepped properly. I'm not an expert, but the paint seemed to have soaked in a little in some places - just did'nt look right. We had lots of other issues with that house anyway....
Our house will be on the market at some point today - still had paperwork to fill out over the weekend...

did go to 3 open houses - just to get an idea... Two of them had tons of weeds in the landscaping in front of the house ...just amazed me as I've heard for years how a first impression is so important in selling a house. Our landscaping is weed-free, and while we could use another bag of mulch, it's it much better shape than these two - and they're going for ~$20,000 more than our house. Anyway, it looks like we can afford more house, so next time we should see better quality for the SFage. Actually, a mortgage broker said we could afford a $300,000 house! Crazy! If we did that, we wouldn't be travelling or doing much other than working to pay for the house! And, as my work depends on grants, I'm nowhere near thinking we could afford that much - what happens if I get underfunded for a while (which might even happen this fall...) or am not funded at all for a while? So, figuring I make about 1/2 of what my husband makes, just on his salary we could go for $200,000, but we probably will stay below $175,000. Really - I don't need 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths to clean!! Who really needs that much house?!? Especially someone who hates cleaning if in the first place...

Anyway, I'm feeling good about the state of our current house and our ability to get it sold relatively quickly. Might even be able to relax a bit this week!

[Shapley]

We looked at a house yesterday - agent said enthusiastically that the whole upstairs had been torn out and redone. Good job, except the bathroom walls - didn't look like they were prepped properly. I'm not an expert, but the paint seemed to have soaked in a little in some places - just did'nt look right.

The paint may have been used to hide a bigger problem - like mold...

It may be a good thing that it didn't do it well, since it may be a tip-off of what lies beneath.

[Schmeelkie]

fyi - having 3 'looks' at our house today, one scheduled for tomorrow! Sounds great to me, but I don't know if it's normal or not... Have heard that 'first-time buyer' houses (around here under $150,000) are going like hotcakes, so, knock on wood, we probably won't have to wait too long to get an offer...

[Schmeelkie]

Well, we didn't have to wait too long...got an offer yesterday! Took it as, buyer had pre-qualification, amount was lower than asking, but above our 'break-even' point, and they were willing to move their closing date from 9/1 to 9/25 - hopefully giving us enough time to find a place... Husband is scouring listings and making appointments today. So, keep your fingers crossed for us that we find something soon and I can convince whatever school district we end up in to let Pumpkin start school before our closing as it's probably unrealistic that we'll be able to close before 9/2 when I think school starts. WOO HOO!!

[Shapley]

Congratulations! I hope all goes well with the purchase and the move.

[piqaboo]

Congrats and good luck!

[Schmeelkie]

Only a couple of minor issues came up on the inspection of our house. If it costs more than $500 to fix, I'll be surprised. So, nothing seems to be stopping the sale of our house!!

Husband found 3 more to look at this week, then we're hoping to put an offer on something by the end of the week. Two that we've seen are possibilities - we like them, just don't LOVE them. Minor issues, but just want to look at a few more in case one of those is the PERFECT house. And husband has come to terms with his issues on splits and ranches (at least raised ranches), since there really aren't a ton of colonials around here. At least not in our price range with 4BR (or 3 and a good space for an office).

[Schmeelkie]

Well, put in an offer on a house last night - about halfway between their asking price and the assessed value. So we'll hear by tonight.... then we have to do the inspection....then I can think about relaxing a bit. Have to schedule something fun this weekend to get my mind off house stuff!

[dai bread]

The photographer who took the shots of my place made it look like a mansion. I almost cancelled the sale!

[Schmeelkie]

Time and another almost $3000 and we've signed a contract for the house we want. The sellers were getting some bad advice from a relative who used to be realtor - wanted to have a mortgage committment from us in less than 3 weeks. In this market that's not happening. The assessors are booked and it can take 3-4 weeks to schedule the assessment from the bank, so if you're lucky you can close in 6 weeks, but it can take up to 8 weeks, sometimes longer. Attorneys are busy too. Not anything we have control over, and luckily their agent was able to make the sellers see the light. So we're on track (assuming the inspection goes well this week) for closing on or before Sept 25. School in the town we're moving to starts the 8th or 9th, so I just have to see if we can get Pumpkin started in 1st grade there - it's only 3 weeks, so I'm hoping they go for it. Going to make that call some time today...

Hoping everything is settled so we can visit my parents while they're camping on Seneca lake next weekend.

[piqaboo]

Just give the school district your new address, and give them a PO box mailing address.
I cant see they'd have any problem with it.
( I cant see they'd look closely enough to care).

Good luck with inspection and closing!

[Schmeelkie]

Well, we're back to the drawing board house-wise. The inspection report was 38 pages long - the summary of major issues the inspector thought should be taken care of took up the first 4 pages. A bad sign in and of itself. The roof on the garage has 4 layers of shingles, 3 layers over the house (construction codes, at least around here, say no more than 2 layers), missing flashing and shoddy sealing work around various vents, and squishy spots - probably due to the fact that at least one bathroom fan vents into the attic. So, just that suggests an entire new roof. And that's just for starters. Also a bunch of electrical issues (major safety problems), a foundation crack and possible mold in the attic. Those are just the big items we sent back to the sellers ... didn't add in that the furnace has a crack, the hot water heater is in imminent risk of demise, windows with broken sash cords, I could go on.... We could handle a few repairs, but wouldn't have that kind of money to sink into a house just after purchasing. I figured the furnace wasn't a big deal as I would want to put in A/C next summer and could replace the furnace at the same time, and figured we could save up for a couple of years and get new windows. But this is just too much!

Needless to say, we're assuming (hoping really hard) that they'll look at our list - probably at least $15,000 worth of work - and call it off. Unforturnately we can't just say we don't want it, we have to give them a chance to fix stuff.... but I kind of doubt they will as apparently they had an offer earlier this year - we saw the summary sheet from that inspection - and it doesn't look like they made any of the repairs mentioned there. Gave our realtor another list of 5 more homes and will be looking at them over the weekend. SOOOO FRUSTRATING!!! But, as everyone tells me, us getting that house wasn't meant to be - and we'll find something eventually. I feel like we're being overly picky, but the plan is that the house we're looking for now will be the one we'll stay in until they cart us off to the nursing home, so I don't want to just 'kind-of' like it... Hopefully I'll have good news on Monday....

[piqaboo]

New roof's a drag because you wouldnt be able to get homeowner's insurance til you fixed it AND the mortgage company can get snarky about it too, since they insist on you having insurance.

[Schmeelkie]

Well, my instincts were right. The sellers weren't willing to make the improvements/repairs - offered to lower the price a measly $2000. Yeah, right. So we're out of that deal, TG.
Wish us luck this weekend as we're back on the hunt!

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Good luck on the renewed House Hunt. May all the Luck fairies smile on you.

That roof was about as bad as I've ever heard of, for an occupied dwelling. Depend on it, for everything you did know about and the inspector documented, there'd have been another thing you would have only discovered hiding underneath a defective wall or roof or structure that you just tore out to fix. If the roof had leaks, there'd be rotten places in a wall, somewhere. And you haven't even mentioned plumbing - there's a rich source of future amusement...

Just mention plumbing to the Tenors, and stand back.

[dai bread]

Sounds like the first place I liked when I started investigating Cambridge houses. A lot if them have short-run roofing iron. Roofing iron has been long-run for years, so short-run is nearing the end of its life. Sure enough, the builder's report highlighted leaks. $15000 for a new roof, and the vendors wanted to pro-rata the cost over the 3 years the builder estimated the roof had left. No thanks. Now I've got concrete blocks and tiles.

[analog]

Keep on looking..... You'll find one that belonged to someone fastidious., with leaf guards over the gutter and reels for the garden hoses........

A friend and I are presently re-vamping up an old house ...... It's one of those good deeds that's not going unpunished. What was expected to be just a cleanup has turned into a major rebuild - new roof, fix water troubles at foundation, new windows and doors.

It's a financial disaster. To have any hope of break even we had to rearrange an awful floor plan. That required we alter the roofline to increase square footage and turn windowless cave-rooms into open areas.



Well. so it goes....