My wife saw the house of her dreams advertised. We are going to look at it today. Pray for me.
23 thoughts on “February 20, 2016: House-hunting”
Just as long as she doesn't meet the man of her dreams, you should be safe!
I got that covered.
She doesn't always sleep well at night. Coincidence, I'm sure.
first bullet dodged. She was deeply in love with the house after her first date with it (yesterday). But today, with both of us there and in daylight, merely infatuated. And I pointed out a bunch of problems with a house that would have been a (smallish) stretch for us.
If we are gonna stretch at this point in our lives, the house had better be damn near perfect, and this one was not.
*It has two different roofs -- a beautiful slate one on the main house, and composite shingles on an addition (as well as a detached garage) that are in significant need of replacement.
*It has a pretty small master bath, with only one sink and no separate commode area, meaning we could not really use the bathroom concurrently.
Our current master bath has a door to a commode alcove, and an open area with 2 sinks, shower, and bath. I pointed this out as a significant flaw, given that we are both 10+ years away from retirement.
*no fan in the master bath, and the only window had been fixed shut. Current code requires either a window or a fan that vents outside for all bathrooms. This struck me as something that would have to be changed.
*One of the bedrooms had like one electrical outlet (two-prong only). The house was built in the 1930s, and it appears that not all of the wiring has been redone in the modern era. We saw some knob-and-tube in the basement area (no idea whether it was still live).
*carport in front of a smallish garage, narrow driveway. The garage could only accommodate one car, the carport two. Not a big deal, but not ideal.
*a really crappy installation job done on kitchen tile. The tile was high-end stuff, but the installation was uneven (some high edges, for example). It would have driven me nuts eventually.
*a small basement space under a portion of the house (the rest is on crawl space) with a wine cellar. In which I could not stand upright. Uh, no.
*some other minor cosmetic issues
We both agreed that if we are going to stretch financially for what likely would be the last house we will ever buy, it should be all but perfect for us.
On the other hand, this exercise has introduced us to a very good, local realtor, who already has identified another house (not yet on the market) that she thought we might be interested in. Sh!t is still getting real.
We're off to see a house early next week. Could be a good deal, but we live in a city below sea level.
we are at 69 feet above, on average. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.
Ours was built in the early '20's. Always plenty of things to repair/replace, that require special skills that I don't have. Since we've been here (+11 years now) we have replaced the roof (slate to shaded asphalt), the broiler, the water heater, the washer, dryer, dishwasher, brickwork on the chimney (and new inserts) and now the seal is out on the fridge. I've repaired/replaced all of the window shutters, and this year I get to learn how to glaze windows.
Heck, we've been in this house (built in 1996) since 2000, and have replaced the HVAC, water heater, stove, and dishwasher, and had the exterior (stucco) painted. Concrete tile roof, so that should not need replacing for like forever. But even in a newer home, there is stuff that wears out and has to be replaced. Particularly with Developer POC line stuff.
Yeah, builder-grade POS is right. We replaced our two cheap AC units (upstairs/downstairs) with larger ones and cut our electric bill significantly.
So, this morning was eventful:
(Hopefully that worked)
Wow! Everyone ok?
Everyone's ok. It happened overnight. Someone got up on the hood and threw a brick through the windshield. They tried the driver's side window first, but it didn't break (needs to be replaced, though. Along with the back door on that side, probably.) They stole two credit cards (of which I've told my wife not to leave in the car many times) but left $40 in cash, so not the most brilliant of criminals/teenagers.
You cant re-up ones amazon prime subscription with cash =p
But more serious, that stinks.
Heh, I'm actually a bit disappointed they haven't tried to use it today.
Ugh. Sorry, cheaps.
I've got a $500 deductible, so it isn't disastrous, but yeah, not the ideal way to spend this great weather. I did decide to brew though, so I'm making up for the dumb by getting drunk and making beer.
getting drunk and making beer
This seems like it might be in the wrong order.
it's like chain smoking -- you use the old drunk to kick-start the new drunk.
Nailed it.
We went to visit Runner daughter's newborn godnephew (is that a thing?) this morning, and while driving down a wide street a car 20yds in front of me clipped a deer, which pirouetted across our lane and dropped in the grass along the side. The sad thing was seeing it in the side mirror as it attempted to get back up again. I intentionally took a different way home.
That reminds me of the time a deer with CWD died at the edge of my back yard. Tough to watch.
Flipped on the Wild-Blackhawks alumni game and my gosh those North Stars sweaters are glorious.
Filed federal taxes today, after 3 hours of futzing to convince myself that I'd finally done the educational expenses stuff correctly. Turbotax, you still have some work to do in getting the directions clear.
But, we are getting the biggest federal* refund we've had in as many years as I can remember (thanks to two in college, mostly). So, yea?
*I still owe the state of California more money. Boo.
Just as long as she doesn't meet the man of her dreams, you should be safe!
I got that covered.
She doesn't always sleep well at night. Coincidence, I'm sure.
first bullet dodged. She was deeply in love with the house after her first date with it (yesterday). But today, with both of us there and in daylight, merely infatuated. And I pointed out a bunch of problems with a house that would have been a (smallish) stretch for us.
If we are gonna stretch at this point in our lives, the house had better be damn near perfect, and this one was not.
*It has two different roofs -- a beautiful slate one on the main house, and composite shingles on an addition (as well as a detached garage) that are in significant need of replacement.
*It has a pretty small master bath, with only one sink and no separate commode area, meaning we could not really use the bathroom concurrently.
Our current master bath has a door to a commode alcove, and an open area with 2 sinks, shower, and bath. I pointed this out as a significant flaw, given that we are both 10+ years away from retirement.
*no fan in the master bath, and the only window had been fixed shut. Current code requires either a window or a fan that vents outside for all bathrooms. This struck me as something that would have to be changed.
*One of the bedrooms had like one electrical outlet (two-prong only). The house was built in the 1930s, and it appears that not all of the wiring has been redone in the modern era. We saw some knob-and-tube in the basement area (no idea whether it was still live).
*carport in front of a smallish garage, narrow driveway. The garage could only accommodate one car, the carport two. Not a big deal, but not ideal.
*a really crappy installation job done on kitchen tile. The tile was high-end stuff, but the installation was uneven (some high edges, for example). It would have driven me nuts eventually.
*a small basement space under a portion of the house (the rest is on crawl space) with a wine cellar. In which I could not stand upright. Uh, no.
*some other minor cosmetic issues
We both agreed that if we are going to stretch financially for what likely would be the last house we will ever buy, it should be all but perfect for us.
On the other hand, this exercise has introduced us to a very good, local realtor, who already has identified another house (not yet on the market) that she thought we might be interested in. Sh!t is still getting real.
We're off to see a house early next week. Could be a good deal, but we live in a city below sea level.
we are at 69 feet above, on average. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.
Ours was built in the early '20's. Always plenty of things to repair/replace, that require special skills that I don't have. Since we've been here (+11 years now) we have replaced the roof (slate to shaded asphalt), the broiler, the water heater, the washer, dryer, dishwasher, brickwork on the chimney (and new inserts) and now the seal is out on the fridge. I've repaired/replaced all of the window shutters, and this year I get to learn how to glaze windows.
Heck, we've been in this house (built in 1996) since 2000, and have replaced the HVAC, water heater, stove, and dishwasher, and had the exterior (stucco) painted. Concrete tile roof, so that should not need replacing for like forever. But even in a newer home, there is stuff that wears out and has to be replaced. Particularly with Developer POC line stuff.
Yeah, builder-grade POS is right. We replaced our two cheap AC units (upstairs/downstairs) with larger ones and cut our electric bill significantly.
So, this morning was eventful:
(Hopefully that worked)
Wow! Everyone ok?
Everyone's ok. It happened overnight. Someone got up on the hood and threw a brick through the windshield. They tried the driver's side window first, but it didn't break (needs to be replaced, though. Along with the back door on that side, probably.) They stole two credit cards (of which I've told my wife not to leave in the car many times) but left $40 in cash, so not the most brilliant of criminals/teenagers.
You cant re-up ones amazon prime subscription with cash =p
But more serious, that stinks.
Heh, I'm actually a bit disappointed they haven't tried to use it today.
Ugh. Sorry, cheaps.
I've got a $500 deductible, so it isn't disastrous, but yeah, not the ideal way to spend this great weather. I did decide to brew though, so I'm making up for the dumb by getting drunk and making beer.
This seems like it might be in the wrong order.
it's like chain smoking -- you use the old drunk to kick-start the new drunk.
Nailed it.
We went to visit Runner daughter's newborn godnephew (is that a thing?) this morning, and while driving down a wide street a car 20yds in front of me clipped a deer, which pirouetted across our lane and dropped in the grass along the side. The sad thing was seeing it in the side mirror as it attempted to get back up again. I intentionally took a different way home.
That reminds me of the time a deer with CWD died at the edge of my back yard. Tough to watch.
Flipped on the Wild-Blackhawks alumni game and my gosh those North Stars sweaters are glorious.
Filed federal taxes today, after 3 hours of futzing to convince myself that I'd finally done the educational expenses stuff correctly. Turbotax, you still have some work to do in getting the directions clear.
But, we are getting the biggest federal* refund we've had in as many years as I can remember (thanks to two in college, mostly). So, yea?
*I still owe the state of California more money. Boo.
Opposite here: MO is helping us pay our federal.