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Post by Dr. Rumak on Aug 1, 2017 20:14:01 GMT -5
So at this point, I am trying to find the appropriate local government contact to file a complaint. If these bees are inside the walls, they could spread into our attic as well, and cause MASSIVE damage to the units. (You would think the HOA would be more concerned about this too? Apparently not so far.) I also may need to look into when the next HOA meeting is to bring my complaint to them directly. Use certified mail to both the HOA and to the owner (if you have their address). If the bees do spread and cause damage to your unit, you want proof that you notified them to take corrective action if it comes down to a court case. |
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Aug 3, 2017 7:40:11 GMT -5
So:
1) The survey of our property came back. Because of the way our lot is shaped, it would be extremely difficult to get the house we wanted onto the lot. I had already started with a house that was 24' wide. I'm not sure how much narrower I can go. Part of the issue is that the rules have changed since this house was built, so new construction cannot even be as wide as the house currently is.
2) The neighbors on either side of us have indicated that they are going to make this difficult. With such limited space on either side of us, it was going to be hard to get construction equipment in and out without buy in from the neighbors.
3) The cost of building the house is just way more than what stuff is selling for. Yes, it would be nice to have new construction, but financially, we could give this house away, buy something that is the size we want in this community, and still have money left over for renovations.
So we're back to looking at existing houses in the community to buy. We're also going to figure out about the cost of tearing this place down and converting it back to an RV lot, or just keeping the non-trailer part, because RV lots are selling (and that's really what this particular lot is sized for). But if it's too much, as I said, we could literally afford to give this place away if we have to.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Aug 3, 2017 13:22:26 GMT -5
So: 1) The survey of our property came back. Because of the way our lot is shaped, it would be extremely difficult to get the house we wanted onto the lot. I had already started with a house that was 24' wide. I'm not sure how much narrower I can go. Part of the issue is that the rules have changed since this house was built, so new construction cannot even be as wide as the house currently is. 2) The neighbors on either side of us have indicated that they are going to make this difficult. With such limited space on either side of us, it was going to be hard to get construction equipment in and out without buy in from the neighbors. 3) The cost of building the house is just way more than what stuff is selling for. Yes, it would be nice to have new construction, but financially, we could give this house away, buy something that is the size we want in this community, and still have money left over for renovations. So we're back to looking at existing houses in the community to buy. We're also going to figure out about the cost of tearing this place down and converting it back to an RV lot, or just keeping the non-trailer part, because RV lots are selling (and that's really what this particular lot is sized for). But if it's too much, as I said, we could literally afford to give this place away if we have to. BOO |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2017 13:35:33 GMT -5
Bees Update - I had my wife forward me the email chain and reviewed it. The problem was not, as my wife understood it, the HOA not being concerned, but them hitting a brick wall when it came to getting permission from the tenants to inspect the bee situation. The pest control company visited, only a child was home, so he left his card and asked to have his parents call, which nobody did. (Either the boy forgot, or the tenants misunderstood, or they blew it off, whatever. They're nice people, they don't speak a lot of English though.)
I emailed the HOA this morning and confirmed where we stood on it, and apologized for our stress about the issue, explaining that our townhome is our home AND an investment for us, so we just don't want to end up in a situation where the building is damaged.
The HOA rep called me back five minutes ago and said she got the owners' contact info (a property management company in the Bay Area) and left them a voicemail asking either for permission to inspect, or contact information for the tenants, and contacted the pest control guy again to see if she could get him to schedule a visit so they can put a 24-hour notice on the tenants' gate to get in there.
So yeah, looks like it was a misunderstanding and they will hopefully get it resolved soon!
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Post by Incense on Aug 3, 2017 21:48:03 GMT -5
Okay everyone, hold a good thought in your hearts for me. Tomorrow morning around 8, someone is supposed to come out and hook up my dishwasher and get my hot water going in my kitchen again. I found him on Angie's List, and he's very well reviewed, and while I am mostly pretty chill about this, I am a little tense and nervous. I mean, it's been a rough week in the plumbing arena for me.
If you would, cross your fingers, make a wish, light a candle for me that this is going to fix the situation properly.
Edit: The gentleman who came to install the dishwasher this morning was a class act; a kind, polite, conscientious older man who showed up at 7:59 (he said he'd be there at 8), quietly, gently, painstakingly though quickly, first got the hot water running back in my sink, and then installed the dishwasher. Then he left as quickly as he came, and I am at work 45 minutes earlier than I told everyone I'd be here.
Tonight, I'm going to run a load of dishes and clean up the kitchen. And my world is restored. Everything I had the tiniest care or worry about, he addressed and took care of immediately.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 18:51:08 GMT -5
Okay everyone, hold a good thought in your hearts for me. Tomorrow morning around 8, someone is supposed to come out and hook up my dishwasher and get my hot water going in my kitchen again. I found him on Angie's List, and he's very well reviewed, and while I am mostly pretty chill about this, I am a little tense and nervous. I mean, it's been a rough week in the plumbing arena for me. If you would, cross your fingers, make a wish, light a candle for me that this is going to fix the situation properly. Edit: The gentleman who came to install the dishwasher this morning was a class act; a kind, polite, conscientious older man who showed up at 7:59 (he said he'd be there at 8), quietly, gently, painstakingly though quickly, first got the hot water running back in my sink, and then installed the dishwasher. Then he left as quickly as he came, and I am at work 45 minutes earlier than I told everyone I'd be here. Tonight, I'm going to run a load of dishes and clean up the kitchen. And my world is restored. Everything I had the tiniest care or worry about, he addressed and took care of immediately. Congratulations! I'm so glad you finally got it settled. Our water heater just stopped working completely last night. So yay, now we HAVE to get it replaced. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 4, 2017 19:46:47 GMT -5
Okay everyone, hold a good thought in your hearts for me. Tomorrow morning around 8, someone is supposed to come out and hook up my dishwasher and get my hot water going in my kitchen again. I found him on Angie's List, and he's very well reviewed, and while I am mostly pretty chill about this, I am a little tense and nervous. I mean, it's been a rough week in the plumbing arena for me. If you would, cross your fingers, make a wish, light a candle for me that this is going to fix the situation properly. Edit: The gentleman who came to install the dishwasher this morning was a class act; a kind, polite, conscientious older man who showed up at 7:59 (he said he'd be there at 8), quietly, gently, painstakingly though quickly, first got the hot water running back in my sink, and then installed the dishwasher. Then he left as quickly as he came, and I am at work 45 minutes earlier than I told everyone I'd be here. Tonight, I'm going to run a load of dishes and clean up the kitchen. And my world is restored. Everything I had the tiniest care or worry about, he addressed and took care of immediately. Congratulations! I'm so glad you finally got it settled. Our water heater just stopped working completely last night. So yay, now we HAVE to get it replaced. Did it explode (ok, fail and badly leak) all over the floor like ours? That was fun. |
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Post by Incense on Aug 5, 2017 8:19:35 GMT -5
Oh no, ABz B👹anaz. I hope you're able to get someone in right away. God, though, this just had to happen on a weekend for maximum expenditure, didn't it?  |
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Post by Not a real doctor on Aug 5, 2017 9:44:54 GMT -5
Although this could go in the various anger threads: I had to drive 8 hours round trip to do a wire transfer of my down payment from my savings account at old bank to my checking account at mortgage credit union. Hey Incense, guess which bank it was. |
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Post by Incense on Aug 5, 2017 10:42:15 GMT -5
Although this could go in the various anger threads: I had to drive 8 hours round trip to do a wire transfer of my down payment from my savings account at old bank to my checking account at mortgage credit union. Hey Incense , guess which bank it was. I have no idea, I just can't ... OH WAIT WAS IT FIFTH FUCKING THIRDWell, that is truly a shock, given what an unbelievable inconvenience born of either incompetence or callous disregard for its customers that is. EIGHT HOURS PLUS to do something that should have been easily done without much effort? Jesus. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2017 20:53:18 GMT -5
Oh no, ABz B👹anaz . I hope you're able to get someone in right away. God, though, this just had to happen on a weekend for maximum expenditure, didn't it? Thankfully the company that I've been asking for advice about this issue for the past six months is a 5-star Yelp company that doesn't charge extra for nights or weekends. So we booked them for tomorrow. I submitted a request for water heater quotes to one of those aggregate sites that sends you responses from five companies, and this one was the ONLY one to actually answer all the questions I asked, and continue to provide follow-up info at no charge, so I am hoping tomorrow goes well too. |
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Aug 6, 2017 15:45:28 GMT -5
So we're back to looking at existing houses in the community to buy. We're also going to figure out about the cost of tearing this place down and converting it back to an RV lot, or just keeping the non-trailer part, because RV lots are selling (and that's really what this particular lot is sized for). But if it's too much, as I said, we could literally afford to give this place away if we have to. And, as I mentioned elsewhere, we found a place and came to an agreement on price. Still working on the paperwork to be officially under contract and we'll need to do 3 different inspections. But yeah, we got a 3 bedroom on what is a double lot (so twice the size of what we're on now) for roughly 35K than it was going to cost to rebuild, and that doesn't even account for the demolition costs (which we had not determined yet). While it does need some work, it's in pretty good shape, and includes a hot tub. So if we can sell the current one for almost anything at all, we'll be in much better shape. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2017 18:25:46 GMT -5
Update Update - Our water heater is working intermittently. The guy came out to replace it today, and proceeded to point out all of the things about our current setup that were out of code. I was concerned that this was going to be an attempt to upcharge us, but the total to fix everything was still under the max price of the original quote, so I said go for it...
...but found out the office had written down the wrong info for our heater, and he didn't have the right unit, and had to go back to the local storage facility to check. Nothing there either...he apologized and said if I needed to call someone else to get it done today that'd be understandable. Nope, if they can get a unit ready by Tuesday afternoon we can do it then instead.
Two more days (hopefully) of crappy water quality! (Our current water heater is from 1998!!!)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2017 9:32:43 GMT -5
Final water heater update - It's done! From the guy's arrival to job completion was less than two hours, including draining and removing the old heater, drilling two holes in the wall for new outside drains, installing a leak pan and new electrical shutoff box, putting in the new heater and cleaning up. Baby B got her first perfect bath in months, and both Mrs B and I were able to shower without running out of hot water this morning! Hooray!
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Post by Incense on Aug 9, 2017 9:54:41 GMT -5
Final water heater update - It's done! From the guy's arrival to job completion was less than two hours, including draining and removing the old heater, drilling two holes in the wall for new outside drains, installing a leak pan and new electrical shutoff box, putting in the new heater and cleaning up. Baby B got her first perfect bath in months, and both Mrs B and I were able to shower without running out of hot water this morning! Hooray! Yeah!! That's fantastic. Here's to many years of issue-free hot water! We have both been lucky with the home stuff this week. (Well, after initial bad luck.) |
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Aug 14, 2017 16:14:47 GMT -5
Etiquestion: A house is listed as FSBO. I would like very much to see this house and buy it, potentially. How long should I wait with no response between attempts to call this person? I called Friday--should I wait for him to call me back, and give up on it if he doesn't, or should I try again, and if so after how long? I'd just call today, Pat. People forget about shit over the weekends. |
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Post by Not a real doctor on Aug 15, 2017 9:34:27 GMT -5
Welp, I'm leaving to go close on a house. So, here's to using my 1,000th post about spending all the money I have plus a bunch I'm now really counting on getting in the future!
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Aug 15, 2017 11:27:40 GMT -5
Welp, I'm leaving to go close on a house. So, here's to using my 1,000th post about spending all the money I have plus a bunch I'm now really counting on getting in the future! I just want you to know, good luck, we're all counting on you. |
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Post by Not a real doctor on Aug 15, 2017 11:35:59 GMT -5
Well, that went smoothly. The place is only ~5 minutes from my apartment so I'll start doing some work on the place this afternoon to get ready to move all of my worldly possessions later this week.
The master bedroom of this place is a hilariously hideous burgundy color. I think they were going for "passion in the budoir" but landed on "murders prostitutes."
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GumTurkeyles
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Post by GumTurkeyles on Aug 16, 2017 10:11:15 GMT -5
Oh good. The buyers want to extend again. At this point, we were supposed to close end of July, now it's looking like end of September. The interest I'm losing is $570 per month. So at this point, I can try renegotiating. I was going to put $6k toward closing (and increase the sale amount so I'm not losing this), but I want to knock that down to $5k, since they've cost me over $1000. The problem is they can walk away, and I need to decide if I want to go through the selling process again.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Aug 16, 2017 15:05:58 GMT -5
Well, that went smoothly. The place is only ~5 minutes from my apartment so I'll start doing some work on the place this afternoon to get ready to move all of my worldly possessions later this week. The master bedroom of this place is a hilariously hideous burgundy color. I think they were going for "passion in the budoir" but landed on "murders prostitutes." You're going to need a second mortgage to afford enough primer to cover that burgundy before you paint over it. |
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Post by Incense on Aug 16, 2017 15:09:11 GMT -5
Well, that went smoothly. The place is only ~5 minutes from my apartment so I'll start doing some work on the place this afternoon to get ready to move all of my worldly possessions later this week. The master bedroom of this place is a hilariously hideous burgundy color. I think they were going for "passion in the budoir" but landed on "murders prostitutes." You're going to need a second mortgage to afford enough primer to cover that burgundy before you paint over it. Behr Paint + Primer, friends. It's the good stuff. |
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Aug 16, 2017 15:44:45 GMT -5
Oh good. The buyers want to extend again. At this point, we were supposed to close end of July, now it's looking like end of September. The interest I'm losing is $570 per month. So at this point, I can try renegotiating. I was going to put $6k toward closing (and increase the sale amount so I'm not losing this), but I want to knock that down to $5k, since they've cost me over $1000. The problem is they can walk away, and I need to decide if I want to go through the selling process again. If you refuse to change the closing date and they walk away, do you at least get the earnest money? |
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Aug 16, 2017 19:40:37 GMT -5
I know it's only been 10 days, but it feels like it's been a month since we went under contract. Tomorrow is finally inspection day. I will be sure to tell the inspector that we're all counting on him.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Aug 16, 2017 19:57:42 GMT -5
So less than 24 hours after posting my basement in-law suite on Airbnb, I have one confirmed booking for the weekend of Riot Fest and half a dozen inquiries for stays up to 5 months. Fingers crossed, this is really fun.
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GumTurkeyles
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Post by GumTurkeyles on Aug 17, 2017 10:17:17 GMT -5
Oh good. The buyers want to extend again. At this point, we were supposed to close end of July, now it's looking like end of September. The interest I'm losing is $570 per month. So at this point, I can try renegotiating. I was going to put $6k toward closing (and increase the sale amount so I'm not losing this), but I want to knock that down to $5k, since they've cost me over $1000. The problem is they can walk away, and I need to decide if I want to go through the selling process again. If you refuse to change the closing date and they walk away, do you at least get the earnest money? Just spoke with the realtor about this. I wouldn't, but if/when I sign the extension, I can add a clause about them forfeiting the deposit. There's only two ways for the buyer to get back his/her deposit; inspection and issues with the loan. This would fall under that second option. If we modify the purchase and sales, though (which I'd do on the extension), I can then make it so they can't up and leave. |
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Aug 17, 2017 12:56:23 GMT -5
*Sigh* Mold. And they put paneling in the basement, so we can see the mold on the outside of the paneling, but it's impossible to know how bad the problem really is, since we cannot get behind it. Not sure what we're going to do.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2017 12:59:27 GMT -5
*Sigh* Mold. And they put paneling in the basement, so we can see the mold on the outside of the paneling, but it's impossible to know how bad the problem really is, since we cannot get behind it. Not sure what we're going to do. GAH! Walk away! (Sorry) |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Aug 17, 2017 13:49:20 GMT -5
*Sigh* Mold. And they put paneling in the basement, so we can see the mold on the outside of the paneling, but it's impossible to know how bad the problem really is, since we cannot get behind it. Not sure what we're going to do. GAH! Walk away! (Sorry) Yup. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2017 13:56:44 GMT -5
That reminded me - Update on the Bees Situation:
I emailed the HOA for an update on Monday. The Pest Control guy finally got access to the neighbors' last weekend. There were apparently three vent holes the bees were using, though I only ever saw them using the far one. The guy covered up the other two holes, and installed a "one-way cone" on the main hole.
By Wednesday, it appears that the bees are climbing in and out of their hive through a gap in the wood under all of these holes. Yeah, great job, dude.
At this point I am probably resigned to waiting until their entire wall falls apart before this problem is actually handled. I just hope that happens BEFORE they spread into our unit.
(Side note, the neighbor was out washing his car a few days back and said hi, and pointed out that the guy came in for the bees. I'm hoping he told me just as a point of notice, and not because either the HOA or the pest control company told them we were complaining, which would be pretty rude of them.)
This morning, after leaving my backyard light on at night again (I've been keeping it off at night to keep the bees away, but Mrs B hates having it off for security), and this morning the light was covered with 15-20 bees again. (And two on our sliding door frame.) They're not aggressive, and I've swept them out of the way before with minimal problems, (pretty sure they only stung our dog because she stepped on one by accident) but it is still very annoying.
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