|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jul 2, 2024 9:13:58 GMT -5
Our deck is at least 25 years old, and this summer it's starting to feel a little spongy. There's a builder's tag on it in one spot, and all this time I've assumed that when we were ready to replace it, I'd just call them. Of course, they are no longer located in New Jersey. So... now I don't even know whom to talk to about fixing this. I've reached out to some local landscape/hardscape designers and they don't do decks. Sigh. Sometimes home ownership is the worst. You prob need a carpenter or contractor who does decks. Good luck. Homeownership is so fun.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jul 22, 2024 8:22:14 GMT -5
None too soon, but we're replacing our couch finally - we ordered a custom one yesterday (it's not THAT custom, just specific fabric we wanted) and it'll be six weeks or so before it's here. Meanwhile the current/old one is just a hot mess, with sagging back cushions and seat cushions that are definitely on their last legs.
Next up is a new mattress... and then maybe I can convince TWBE to talk to a remodeler about our options for redoing the first floor -- nothing SO dramatic, just new surfaces - floors, countertops, cabinets. Our first-floor flooring is saaaad.
|
|
Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,677
|
Post by Baron von Costume on Jul 23, 2024 10:40:21 GMT -5
None too soon, but we're replacing our couch finally - we ordered a custom one yesterday (it's not THAT custom, just specific fabric we wanted) and it'll be six weeks or so before it's here. Meanwhile the current/old one is just a hot mess, with sagging back cushions and seat cushions that are definitely on their last legs. Next up is a new mattress... and then maybe I can convince TWBE to talk to a remodeler about our options for redoing the first floor -- nothing SO dramatic, just new surfaces - floors, countertops, cabinets. Our first-floor flooring is saaaad. I feel your pain, I've wanted to redo my first floor(ing) since moving in 9 years ago and it's getting to the point where I want to scream when I see the bad parquet in my living room getting worse
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Aug 7, 2024 9:01:17 GMT -5
We just discovered that a creeping vine/ivy sort of ground cover that's in our back yard (planted by a previous owner) is now growing up a column inside the windowseat that juts out over that ivy bed. As in, it's growing up through the seat of the window, inside the house. Jesus Christ, can there just be ONE day where being responsible for this house isn't a headache?!
|
|
|
Post by MyNameIsNoneOfYourGoddamnBusin on Aug 8, 2024 19:55:57 GMT -5
Hot heaters sure are expensive, aren't they?
|
|
|
Post by Powerthirteen on Aug 12, 2024 15:24:37 GMT -5
Hot heaters sure are expensive, aren't they? Cold heaters are a lot cheaper but they work like absolute ass.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 14, 2024 8:10:23 GMT -5
After years of discussion and delay, our street/HOA started replacing siding this week. It will take several months and if I understand the pattern correctly, our house will be toward the end in November-ish. TWBE's major concern is that this will interfere with putting Christmas lights up. Of course, I haven't told him that we're responsible for a special assessment. Which is about $8,000. We will have several options to pay it off - one lump sump, 12 payments over the course of a year, or monthly payments for 10 years. As much as the $92 monthly payments for 10 years is appealing, there are a couple caveats - first is that it adds on about $3k in interest over the life of it; second is that if we were to move/sell the house we'd have to disclose the assessment to the buyer and possibly pay the rest off then. So... I will probably just suck it up and pay it within a year and not tell him (We have the money in savings, it's just a pain.)
|
|
|
Post by Powerthirteen on Aug 14, 2024 16:32:08 GMT -5
After years of discussion and delay, our street/HOA started replacing siding this week. It will take several months and if I understand the pattern correctly, our house will be toward the end in November-ish. TWBE's major concern is that this will interfere with putting Christmas lights up. Of course, I haven't told him that we're responsible for a special assessment. Which is about $8,000. We will have several options to pay it off - one lump sump, 12 payments over the course of a year, or monthly payments for 10 years. As much as the $92 monthly payments for 10 years is appealing, there are a couple caveats - first is that it adds on about $3k in interest over the life of it; second is that if we were to move/sell the house we'd have to disclose the assessment to the buyer and possibly pay the rest off then. So... I will probably just suck it up and pay it within a year and not tell him (We have the money in savings, it's just a pain.) Count your blessings, when I had my siding redone last year it was $32,000 with paint.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 14, 2024 20:50:54 GMT -5
After years of discussion and delay, our street/HOA started replacing siding this week. It will take several months and if I understand the pattern correctly, our house will be toward the end in November-ish. TWBE's major concern is that this will interfere with putting Christmas lights up. Of course, I haven't told him that we're responsible for a special assessment. Which is about $8,000. We will have several options to pay it off - one lump sump, 12 payments over the course of a year, or monthly payments for 10 years. As much as the $92 monthly payments for 10 years is appealing, there are a couple caveats - first is that it adds on about $3k in interest over the life of it; second is that if we were to move/sell the house we'd have to disclose the assessment to the buyer and possibly pay the rest off then. So... I will probably just suck it up and pay it within a year and not tell him (We have the money in savings, it's just a pain.) Count your blessings, when I had my siding redone last year it was $32,000 with paint. Yeah, would definitely be worse in a single family home - these are townhomes. And no paint except trim. But good to know!
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Aug 20, 2024 8:22:42 GMT -5
When we bought our house (19 years ago!) our realtor raved about how lovely it was because a previous long-term owner had been a carpenter, and he'd lovingly done all these upgrades during the many years he'd lived there. There were the built-ins in the living room, the wet bar in the downstairs den, the huge deck, and so on. Upon moving in we discovered that this previous owner had been a shitty carpenter, and all of those things were of questionable build quality. The built-ins in the living room are sort of a blessing and a curse (they look crappy, but they work and take up the entire wall, so we've left them be), the wet bar came out as soon as we could address it, and the deck is fantastic but when we had a contractor in a couple of weeks ago to talk about repairs to it (it's showing its age now) he marveled at the construction of it. "I've never seen another deck built like this!" he kept raving, and I was concerned he was going to start taking photos to post to his social media, all, "Get a load of THIS insanity! Have you ever SEEN a stupider deck?" Because that would be very on-brand for our house and that mythical carpenter former owner. He did a lot more to the house than we were originally led to believe, structural stuff (most without permits), and it's like a cursed Easter egg hunt -- over the years we keep having new disasters pop up in unexpected places that require more expensive repair.
And now? Now we've found out what was wrong with the picture window in that downstairs den (of crappy wet bar fame). As previously posted, this is a big window with a deep sill, one that juts out a couple of feet over a bed of some kind of ground-cover vine in the backyard. And is the one where the ground-cover vine is suddenly growing up through the middle of the deep sill inside the house. We had a contractor out to look at it last week, and he discovered that the window is just sort of stuck onto the house. Like, the board underneath it is just... next to the wall. No flashing, no sealing, just... there. And in the decades since it was so slapdashedly attached to the house, it's developed a gap between itself and the wall of the house. That is now full of ground-cover vine that we never noticed was growing up there, because this window is only a few inches above the ground. If I ever get a chance to meet the guy who did all this shit to my house... I just don't know. No jury would convict me of whatever I did to him, though.
So now we're going to have to do exploratory surgery on the window and wall to see exactly how much vine has gotten into how much of that side of the house. I can't wait.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 21, 2024 12:00:04 GMT -5
Update: the siding work has begun (our unit won't be for awhile) and I got an FAQ about the project that casually notes that our houses, which were built in 1994, did not include house wrap. So, the work will include that, which is nice.
|
|
Gumbercules
AV Clubber
Get out of my dreams, and into my van
Posts: 3,033
|
Post by Gumbercules on Aug 22, 2024 11:04:31 GMT -5
When we bought our house (19 years ago!) our realtor raved about how lovely it was because a previous long-term owner had been a carpenter, and he'd lovingly done all these upgrades during the many years he'd lived there. There were the built-ins in the living room, the wet bar in the downstairs den, the huge deck, and so on. Upon moving in we discovered that this previous owner had been a shitty carpenter, and all of those things were of questionable build quality. The built-ins in the living room are sort of a blessing and a curse (they look crappy, but they work and take up the entire wall, so we've left them be), the wet bar came out as soon as we could address it, and the deck is fantastic but when we had a contractor in a couple of weeks ago to talk about repairs to it (it's showing its age now) he marveled at the construction of it. "I've never seen another deck built like this!" he kept raving, and I was concerned he was going to start taking photos to post to his social media, all, "Get a load of THIS insanity! Have you ever SEEN a stupider deck?" Because that would be very on-brand for our house and that mythical carpenter former owner. He did a lot more to the house than we were originally led to believe, structural stuff (most without permits), and it's like a cursed Easter egg hunt -- over the years we keep having new disasters pop up in unexpected places that require more expensive repair. And now? Now we've found out what was wrong with the picture window in that downstairs den (of crappy wet bar fame). As previously posted, this is a big window with a deep sill, one that juts out a couple of feet over a bed of some kind of ground-cover vine in the backyard. And is the one where the ground-cover vine is suddenly growing up through the middle of the deep sill inside the house. We had a contractor out to look at it last week, and he discovered that the window is just sort of stuck onto the house. Like, the board underneath it is just... next to the wall. No flashing, no sealing, just... there. And in the decades since it was so slapdashedly attached to the house, it's developed a gap between itself and the wall of the house. That is now full of ground-cover vine that we never noticed was growing up there, because this window is only a few inches above the ground. If I ever get a chance to meet the guy who did all this shit to my house... I just don't know. No jury would convict me of whatever I did to him, though. So now we're going to have to do exploratory surgery on the window and wall to see exactly how much vine has gotten into how much of that side of the house. I can't wait. The previous owner of my house was similarly "skilled" in DIWhy carpentry. There were two makeshift work benches in the boiler section of the basement. I was taking one of them down and was having some issue, when my wife noted that it was physically connected to the water line coming in the house. For some reason, the table was build around and supporting that line. The table itself was made of a door, with dozens of shims or other weird sections of wood used to level it out. There was a 1960's power saw that was built into the table to make it a (very unsafe) table saw. Fortunately, as far as we can tell, there was never anything structural modified.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Aug 22, 2024 11:09:45 GMT -5
The previous owner of my house was similarly "skilled" in DIWhy carpentry. There were two makeshift work benches in the boiler section of the basement. I was taking one of them down and was having some issue, when my wife noted that it was physically connected to the water line coming in the house. For some reason, the table was build around and supporting that line. The table itself was made of a door, with dozens of shims or other weird sections of wood used to level it out. There was a 1960's power saw that was built into the table to make it a (very unsafe) table saw. Fortunately, as far as we can tell, there was never anything structural modified. Oh my god, that's insane! Connected to the water line? That's even more nuts than the stupid shit that was done at our house! (And I love the term "DIWhy"!)
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 22, 2024 11:15:39 GMT -5
I can't blame any random DIYer for our house's issues, it was definitely cheaping out on the part of the initial builder (And then the previous owner never updating anything.) One mystery we may never solve: the door between our laundry room and our kitchen has a rectangular hole cut out of it. Not very neatly. Toward the bottom, but high enough that it doesn't really make sense as a cat door, although a cat could fit through it I suppose. It's a real head-scratcher.
|
|
|
Post by Powerthirteen on Aug 22, 2024 13:19:09 GMT -5
I can't blame any random DIYer for our house's issues, it was definitely cheaping out on the part of the initial builder (And then the previous owner never updating anything.) One mystery we may never solve: the door between our laundry room and our kitchen has a rectangular hole cut out of it. Not very neatly. Toward the bottom, but high enough that it doesn't really make sense as a cat door, although a cat could fit through it I suppose. It's a real head-scratcher. $5 says someone kicked a hole in the door, started the work of fixing it by cutting off the ragged edges, and then never got around to finishing it.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 22, 2024 13:21:49 GMT -5
I can't blame any random DIYer for our house's issues, it was definitely cheaping out on the part of the initial builder (And then the previous owner never updating anything.) One mystery we may never solve: the door between our laundry room and our kitchen has a rectangular hole cut out of it. Not very neatly. Toward the bottom, but high enough that it doesn't really make sense as a cat door, although a cat could fit through it I suppose. It's a real head-scratcher. $5 says someone kicked a hole in the door, started the work of fixing it by cutting off the ragged edges, and then never got around to finishing it. Yknow, that's entirely plausible.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 26, 2024 7:34:00 GMT -5
I gotta tell y'all, some of my neighbors are being kind of obnoxious in a way that's making me sympathetic to the HOA board.
We have lived here 13 years - in fact, we just hit the 13th anniversary. There are about 80 individual units on the street. The assessment has only gone up $120 in that time. They have done a lot of projects within the budget in that time - entirely replacing driveways, replacing roofs, smaller scale stuff like tree removal and replacement, drainage upgrades, fence repair, etc. The houses are 30 years old and replacing the siding has been a topic of discussion for at least 6-7 years. In that time, the costs of replacement have gone up, naturally. They finally determined we'd do it now, and that yes, a special assessment was needed so we didn't tap out our funds completely. There are currently 3 options to pay the assessment off - all at once, over the course of a year, or over 10 years with interest.
Suddenly, all these neighbors are coming out of the woodwork to complain. There's a Facebook group. People are big mad. It's the classic "why didn't you warn me?" Again, six years, it's been discussed regularly. They warned us there might be a special assessment. Nobody wanted to raise the regular assessment enough to pay for it ahead of time. Why were you not involved and going to board meetings earlier if you cared so much???
|
|