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Pham Nuwen posted:I am finding that I have a poo poo-load of anxiety about this whole process -- I never used to consider myself "anxious", used to make pretty big decisions immediately, I swear it's a disease some of us gave ourselves with cellphones... quote:I suppose if I step back and look at some of the poo poo still standing in places like Alameda, where some hippies bought a house in the 60s for $1000, hung a Dylan poster in the window, and then just kinda left it alone for the next 50 years... there's perhaps not quite as much urgency as inspectors make it sound. e: Learn from mistakes of the rest of us and have the house painted and stuff done to the floors before you move in. It is much, much harder to do those things after you're in the house.
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Sep 8, 2023 00:42
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Good post. I also don't think that Pam understands that the contractor they hired to do the "inspection" has two jobs, one is to tell you "this place is uninsurable, so you literally can't buy it because you won't get a mortgage" and other things along those catastrophic lines.......and then since most houses aren't that the second job is to produce documentation by the pound about largely superficial bullshit so that you, the buyer paying their fee, can use it for negotiations. I think the latter is be confused for the former.
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Sep 8, 2023 00:47
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I finally fired the landscaper who has had my back yard scraped to the subsoil for over a year! One of my neighbors has a guy who did his landscaping; the guy came over and they talked about, instead of doing the slope as terraces, filling in two flat level surfaces one below the other, with another retaining wall in between. My neighbor also encouraged me to have his guy redo my septic system, to which I answered a hearty no. I would like this to be done to code and not to have to tell the next buyer that "oh, yeah, the complete septic system is unpermitted, byyyye!" Waiting until late October to have the septic experts come evaluate things and give me a bid won't kill me.
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Sep 8, 2023 00:55
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Motronic posted:Good post.
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Sep 8, 2023 00:56
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I finally fired the landscaper who has had my back yard scraped to the subsoil for over a year! One of my neighbors has a guy who did his landscaping; the guy came over and they talked about, instead of doing the slope as terraces, filling in two flat level surfaces one below the other, with another retaining wall in between. My neighbor also encouraged me to have his guy redo my septic system, to which I answered a hearty no. I would like this to be done to code and not to have to tell the next buyer that "oh, yeah, the complete septic system is unpermitted, byyyye!" Waiting until late October to have the septic experts come evaluate things and give me a bid won't kill me. What % of American homes use a septic tank? I only ever hear about them when I'm on the forums and it seems like every goon has one. Is it way more common or do a lot of us just not live in cities?
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Sep 8, 2023 03:43
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Lol most of the HOA developments in the Nashville suburbs are on septic. it’s insane because I can guarantee the city will force them on to sewer here in 5-10yr when they get around to it and definitely on the homeowner’s dime
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Sep 8, 2023 03:58
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VelociBacon posted:What % of American homes use a septic tank? I only ever hear about them when I'm on the forums and it seems like every goon has one. Is it way more common or do a lot of us just not live in cities? Had to google it, and I was surprised at the answer. 25%.
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Sep 8, 2023 04:18
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^^ I guess Canada probably has even more then if it's just homes that aren't in cities.right arm posted:Lol most of the HOA developments in the Nashville suburbs are on septic. it’s insane because I can guarantee the city will force them on to sewer here in 5-10yr when they get around to it and definitely on the homeowner’s dime Surely that ends up being better/cheaper/less issues in the long run? As far as the home is concerned and all the plumbing and piping, it's all the same right up to the septic tank right, just the piping is probably on the 'wrong' side of the home vs going out to the street or something? Or maybe it's already almost out to the street so the tank cleaner people can access it with their trucks?
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Sep 8, 2023 04:22
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VelociBacon posted:What % of American homes use a septic tank? I only ever hear about them when I'm on the forums and it seems like every goon has one. Is it way more common or do a lot of us just not live in cities? The hard truth of it is that the forums have a fairly skewed income curve compared to the general population of USA. When income goes up certain things are correlated or elastic to that, housing expenses tend to go up and people tend to move further from city centers, that’s part of it anyway IMHO.
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Sep 8, 2023 04:47
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Septic systems have a lot to chat about and regular sewer hookups don't. Regular sewer doesn't require and weird maintenence to learn, it just works. So I think septic gets discussed more often than the percentage of people on it.
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Sep 8, 2023 06:52
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Also if there’s a problem with the sewer, the utility fixes it and nobody hears about it, but if there’s a problem with the septic, the homeowner posts about it here
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Sep 8, 2023 14:05
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Also if there’s a problem with the sewer, the utility fixes it and nobody hears about it, but if there’s a problem with the septic, the homeowner posts about it here At least in some municipalities, the property owner is responsible for everything from the building to the street. Sewers are not worry-free either.
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Sep 8, 2023 14:47
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nitsuga posted:At least in some municipalities, the property owner is responsible for everything from the building to the street. Sewers are not worry-free either. That's basically the same thing septic owners are responsible for up to but not including their $50,000 settling box, d-box and leech field/mound system.
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Sep 8, 2023 15:21
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Our good friends down the block from us got not 1 but 2 complete renovations of about 1/3 of their house courtesy of our city due to sewer backup. They are literally "down" as in elevation from us (we're talking a few feet over a 20ish house block) but at the end of the sewer line. There was a heinous clog at the junction there coupled with heavy rain and it backed up into their house. They got extremely lucky and scoped the sewer showing no material defects when it happened and the city admitted it had happened before due to some dumb engineering 70 years ago when the block was developed. Literal days before/after work completed it happened again. Install backflow valves folks.
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Sep 8, 2023 15:30
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Pham, Here's what a bad inspection report looks like.   e: added continuation of second picture Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 16:40
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Our home insurance randomly did an inspection on our house and is canceling our insurance in November because our driveway is cracked and they don't want to be liable for someone tripping and suing us. Fixing the driveway is not an option. Cement driveways are insanely expensive and my husband was laid off. Im assuming our only option here is to change plans. I hate insurance companies and what they are allowed to do. Will we have any trouble switching insurances? Do they have access to the report from Nationwide?
Carebear fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 16:52
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Carebear posted:Our home insurance randomly did an inspection on our house and is canceling our insurance in November because our driveway is cracked and they don't want to be liable for someone tripping and suing us. Fixing the driveway is not an option. Cement driveways are insanely expensive and my husband was laid off. Im assuming our only option here is to change plans. I hate insurance companies and what they are allowed to do. Will we have any trouble switching insurances? Do they have access to the report from Nationwide? You will not have trouble switching, but you will likely have at least a drive-by inspection within 30-60 days by the new insurer who may drop you for the same reason. There are only so many to churn through. An independent agent that's been around for a while may know which insurers may not care about this in your area. Alternately/in addition, what is the problem with the cracks? Are they too wide, or is the driveway heaved at the cracks (like roots growing under them). The later is the kind of trip hazard they would probably care about and can be addressed relatively cheaply with grinding rather than a complete replacement. If either of you are handy you may even be able to rent a concrete scarifer/grinder and do this yourself in an afternoon for a hundred bucks in rental fees.
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Sep 8, 2023 17:03
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I want to refinish this wood deck to protect against UV rads and typical north east weather. What's the easiest way to go about this? I was thinking of using my neighbor's powerwasher then using a waterproof sealant. Is this a decent method? Any recommended products? e: the deck is on the fourth floor, and the spigot is on the ground floor. Will this cause any issues with the power washer? Should I keep the powerwasher on ground level and run the hose up top, or should I bring the powerwasher upstairs and run the feed hose down to the spigot? 
Head Bee Guy fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 17:32
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Motronic posted:You will not have trouble switching, but you will likely have at least a drive-by inspection within 30-60 days by the new insurer who may drop you for the same reason. There are only so many to churn through. I've seen a lot of driveways/sidewalks where they've addressed offsets by just laying down more concrete to basically make a little ramp. Does insurance consider that too half-assed? Arsenic Lupin posted:Pham, Here's what a bad inspection report looks like. Well that does sound pretty bad. Did you buy the place in the end? Here's some more iffy poo poo from ours that I don't really know how to take, like where he mentions water stains or fungus on the cripple wall, and then recommends consulting a pest report for the mud sill: quote:One or more water stains, dry rot, and/or fungus were noted on the subfloor around the plumbing pipes (seller's pest report didn't mention problems with these things, I waffled on getting our own pest inspection until it was too late to schedule one, like an idiot) Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 17:40
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Pham Nuwen posted:I've seen a lot of driveways/sidewalks where they've addressed offsets by just laying down more concrete to basically make a little ramp. Does insurance consider that too half-assed? I'll leave the pest stuff for the experts in the thread; I do note that the recommendation is "have this evaluated" as opposed to "treat signs of active pest infestation".
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Sep 8, 2023 18:17
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The reassurances are really helpful, thanks everyone. Moved in about a week ago and I'm just reeling now. I have this ancient house with so much land and I feel like all the plants are going to die and the forest is going to take over and I broke the lawnmower and I'm barely sleeping because of a window with a weird shape that I don't have a curtain for yet. And I don't have the curtain because every day I have to do hours of hard labour to clean and repair and put away poo poo. Just feeling really intense about it but the comments here are helpful!
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Sep 8, 2023 18:53
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In good things, I have gotten a mini-split AC installed in my main bedroom which has let me set the temp higher in the rest of the house while still keeping it nice and cold in the one room I care about being cold. It works very nicely and over the next few days I should see how it affects my power bill. I also got a single-bowl kitchen sink installed, replacing the double-bowl in which both bowls were too small to wash any kind of pot or skillet. I paid professionals to do these because the consequence of failure is too high (I had posted about trying to do the sink myself a while back, but thought better of it). I also had three-quarters of a ton of pebbles delivered, and did the work of pulling weeds and grass and other trash plants from around my foundation and covering the area with pebbles, which looks nice and should make maintenance easier in the long run. In bad things, I got notification from my water company that I apparently have had a water leak ongoing for about a week now. There's been a steady flow of ~1.5 gallons per hour which seems very slow but still something I have to deal with. No idea where it is or where it's going 
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Sep 8, 2023 19:04
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Kylaer posted:Since the end of last week I have planted 16 small boxwood shrubs Also, an update to this, all of my boxwoods are alive. Some are growing better than others (a couple are really scrawny and I don't know why, I water them as much as all the others and they get about half a day of direct sun), but all have survived so far, and since it's been several months I think they should be out of the timeframe of dying of transplant shock.
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Sep 8, 2023 19:10
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Carebear posted:Our home insurance randomly did an inspection on our house and is canceling our insurance in November because our driveway is cracked and they don't want to be liable for someone tripping and suing us. Fixing the driveway is not an option. Cement driveways are insanely expensive and my husband was laid off. Im assuming our only option here is to change plans. I hate insurance companies and what they are allowed to do. Will we have any trouble switching insurances? Do they have access to the report from Nationwide?
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Sep 8, 2023 19:11
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Anybody want a fixer-upper in Jersey City, NJ? Needs some TLC. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2456-Kennedy-Blvd-Jersey-City-NJ-07304/2103316035_zpid/
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Sep 8, 2023 21:44
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Tuyup, go buy a large cheap curtain (maybe sized for doors), put up a cheap rod, and sleep in peace
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Sep 8, 2023 22:19
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Kylaer posted:that I apparently have had a water leak ongoing for about a week now. There's been a steady flow of ~1.5 gallons per hour which seems very slow but still something I have to deal with. No idea where it is or where it's going That's kind of incredible that they can detect flow that low. My meter won't spin at all under about ~3 gph. Is yours electronic or mechanical?
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Sep 9, 2023 14:19
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I honestly don't know. They emailed me so I called and got the details and I've scheduled a leak detector service to come out. As far as I can determine it is not happening within the house but this topic is far from anything I have knowledge about  I'm suspicious that I caused it by drilling an anchor into the garage floor in order to secure a ramp leading up to the door. I only drilled about 2.5" into the concrete and there's definitely no water leaking from the hole, but maybe the vibrations through the slab knocked something loose? The leak was detected after I did that. Welp. Kylaer fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Sep 9, 2023 |
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Sep 9, 2023 14:56
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My new HVAC has reduced my energy usage by 50% in the last 24 hours. Guess I should have changed them out earlier.
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Sep 9, 2023 14:59
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Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Anybody want a fixer-upper in Jersey City, NJ? Needs some TLC. So what's the story with this? What's the neighborhood and town like etc? Because I could see 1.4M being loving insane for a dilapidated but cool old house in a dead town that used to be economically vibrant a century and a half ago, and I could also see it being a loving steal in a neighborhood that actually has people living in it and where the expectation is a developer will snatch it up and re-sell it to some tech bro or whatever in six months for five times that.
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Sep 9, 2023 17:43
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Cyrano4747 posted:So what's the story with this? What's the neighborhood and town like etc? Because I could see 1.4M being loving insane for a dilapidated but cool old house in a dead town that used to be economically vibrant a century and a half ago, and I could also see it being a loving steal in a neighborhood that actually has people living in it and where the expectation is a developer will snatch it up and re-sell it to some tech bro or whatever in six months for five times that. It's the second one, albeit with the catch that completing a reno on that place will be exceptionally expensive and will likely involve fighting the city. Here's why that won't matter to someone with the means to do so (red pin drop is that house):  The current state of it tells me someone who thought they had the means and/or clearly didn't understand just how much money, fighting and time it was going to take has given up on it.
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Sep 9, 2023 17:49
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Oh, yeah, that would do it. Not a project for you or me, but someone with the resources and from what you're saying lawyers is going to snap it up. Speaking of which, why is fixing it up going to involve fighting the city? Some kind of historical registry or something? City requirements about materials and aesthetics? I'm guessing not historical register because the interior has already been ripped up.
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Sep 9, 2023 18:08
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Hey greetings thread, this is a little off the beaten path for this thread but not too far. I've been posting to the mushroom thread about these huge fungi that have been growing next to my cypress hedge and what do you know, there appears to be a causal relationship here between them and the cypress trees dying. Anybody have any advice for getting rid of a parasitic mushroom killing your trees? All I'm finding so far on Google is instructions on how to prepare them, because they're supposed to be edible and delicious. Pics  
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Sep 9, 2023 18:19
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Cyrano4747 posted:Speaking of which, why is fixing it up going to involve fighting the city? Some kind of historical registry or something? City requirements about materials and aesthetics? I'm guessing not historical register because the interior has already been ripped up. Well, I suppose you won't have to fight the city if you're one of the right people. But Jersey City's building department is infamously corrupt. Choose one or more of the following: somebody else (who is a political donor) wanted it for something else/redevelopment, historic register (shakedown operation), "whoops, your foundation doesn't pass modern code and you're renovating a sufficient percentage that it needs to now" (shakedown), same as the former, but the framing or roof version, "you can't park that here, mate" (fighting for and paying for construction vehicle parking), union labor, work hours/noise, etc, etc.....
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Sep 9, 2023 18:42
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Motronic posted:The current state of it tells me someone who thought they had the means and/or clearly didn't understand just how much money, fighting and time it was going to take has given up on it.
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Sep 9, 2023 19:00
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Any quick diagnostics for this? How worried should I be/how urgently should I flip the breaker switch to off so my house doesn't burn down? Each flicker on this is when I push the start button on our microwave https://i.imgur.com/rAemM57.mp4 And this is just... happening sometimes on and off. Seems more common at night, but it's not like I'm running a ton of other stuff on that breaker. https://imgur.com/d08zcMe.mp4 We moved in this past May, this is a fairly recent development. We've already noted one rennovation/flipping project that was done pretty shoddily with the plumbing in the 2nd bathroom, but I'm pretty sure this kitchen has been a part of the house for a long time. road potato fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Sep 9, 2023 |
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Sep 9, 2023 20:51
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Double post. Quote ≠ edit
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Sep 9, 2023 20:52
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road potato posted:Any quick diagnostics for this? How worried should I be/how urgently should I flip the breaker switch to off so my house doesn't burn down? What kind of bulb is it? I ask because I wonder if it's a problem with the LED bulb they used or if it's something with the electrics in the home. You can swap in a normal bulb if you can find one and see if the problem remains.
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Sep 9, 2023 20:56
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Ya, cheap LEDs are really, really sensitive to voltage changes when other loads come on or go off.
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Sep 9, 2023 20:58
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petit choux posted:Hey greetings thread, this is a little off the beaten path for this thread but not too far. I've been posting to the mushroom thread about these huge fungi that have been growing next to my cypress hedge and what do you know, there appears to be a causal relationship here between them and the cypress trees dying. Anybody have any advice for getting rid of a parasitic mushroom killing your trees? Yes there is likely a causal relationship but are the mushrooms causing your trees to die, or is it your trees dying that is causing the mushrooms to fruit? I'm no expert but lots of mushrooms fruit after trees die, but don't cause their deaths, like morels are known to fruit around recently dead tulip poplars. Generally speaking, one theory is that the mushrooms have a symbiotic relationship with the trees through their roots/mycellium, and that after the trees die the mushrooms have to fruit to release spores and reproduce before they die. kreeningsons fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Sep 9, 2023 |
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Sep 9, 2023 21:05
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