Homeowner Thread

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.

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?!

Cold heaters are a lot cheaper but they work like absolute ass.

Count your blessings, when I had my siding redone last year it was $32,000 with paint.

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. 

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.

Yknow, that's entirely plausible. 

As an update: My neighbors are probably dipshits.

Someone started a petition and put little papers in everyone's mailbox. The way *I* read the petition was that they wanted to feel heard by the board and wanted another repayment option beyond the 3 that were offered (in full, over 1 year, over 10 years). Instead, serving the petition to the board got them a special meeting for next week with a vote to CANCEL the special assessment.

Which would have serious legal ramifications, be a giant clusterfork, and I would like to emphasize that the work is currently underway and three buildings have been completed already.

They would need 75% of the homeowners to vote NO/against the special assessment in order to cancel it, and that seems unlikely, but .... I'm sorry, that's dumb. The work is happening! It will improve our houses! If you cared that much why didn't you show up to meetings or run for the board??

We've lived here 13 years and this is the first major drama - and I'm on the board's side! It's my neighbors who are morons. I like not having to worry about replacing or fixing exterior things or shoveling snow.

But, I get it.

And I get it, especially when it comes to condos or townhouses. Someone has to make those decisions. I always felt bad when we lived in between two retired couples who kept their lawns immaculate. I was the overworked young dad who did not have time for much more than mowing periodically. But I was glad they couldn't fine me or anything either.

One of my coworkers is also my neighbor - I discovered this when I started here; we hadn't met on our street yet (he lives alone and isn't out wandering around a lot) but now we are friendly and keep each other up to date on things. He is more plugged in to the siding drama than I am, and is part of a WhatsApp and Facebook group about it.

He forwarded me an email last night; all communications have been going through the service manager at the property management office who handles this stuff (they're local - the office is literally 2 minutes from the end of our street - and I should note that all of the HOA board members are also homeowners).

So long story short is, at the meeting next week, the board will be presenting another payment option, and also going through what would happen if my dipshit neighbors DID manage to cancel the assessment: they'd have to stop work immediately, because the board wouldn't be able to get a loan; the construction company would probably sue us; and our regular monthly assessment rates would go WAY up because they have to finish this work somehow. (I told you they were idiots.)

I sincerely hope that reason will save the day and people will be satisfied with the additional payment option.

My house is not in a neighborhood with an HOA, but my friend who lives a quarter mile down the road is in one, and from our conversations about it his appears to be quite reasonable. That's probably not the case for the majority of them, but I do think that there are, at least, a sizeable minority of perfectly reasonable HOAs that provide significant benefits. They're just uninteresting and get no traction on the internet.

WHEN DECORATIONS CAN GO UP?  Oh man, I would have to move.    How restrictive are they?  I've got Halloween lights up right now (although they are technically inside the house, but strung so as to be visible from outside.  I'd use that as my loophole if my imaginary HOA raised a stink...), but one house on my drive home from work already has six huge inflatable Halloween things on their lawn.  And... I kinda love them for it!