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Advent Horizon posted:I'm going to get torn a new one for this, but I agree that you might look into the mortgage insurance/FHA route. Running our numbers, with current interest rates, it makes more sense for us to put down as little as possible (but pre-paying the mortgage insurance) and invest the rest of our down payment funds than to dump it all in at once. BUT, this is all based on the idea that we plan to stay in one place until it's paid off. If you can't say that, DO NOT BUY. I could be wrong, and please correct me if I am, but it sounds like you're talking about making a speculation on interest rates and currency devaluation as a part of your home ownership purchase decision making process. If that's the case then I think you need to re-prioritize the factors to make sure that someone isn't using a mortgage as some kind of weird forex play - and maybe hoping with their pinky finger that the dollar will devalue and their wages appreciate faster than the rate of interest that they're paying. It's nice to imagine that we're all buying at the bottom and that the next great housing market began yesterday, but betting the bulk of your earnings on that fact for the next 30 years is sheer madness. In general, I guess I'd tend to agree with you - but on the aggregate, it's going to be a surer long bet to put as much down as possible - 20% being a minimum guideline - because honestly, most people who get wiped out because they overextended themselves in any asset class get wiped out even if they put down 20%. It's exactly the same thing as buying stock on margin - which anyone would tell you is super risky.
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Nov 19, 2012 02:28
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e. I was thinking of shorting stock (on margin), so disregard what I had here at first. Borrowing money to buy a house is like borrowing money to buy stocks, sure. Except you can live in your house, and mortgages are usually pretty good deals compared to unsecured personal loans. In many states you also have protection from the debt via bankruptcy, which can allow you to preserve your home. Of course you can still face foreclosure, and your equity serves as a buffer between you and a foreclosure... but as long as you can afford the payments, being underwater or not only matters if you're forced to sell. Which is the other reason why this isn't at all like buying stocks on margin. The difference between putting 20% down and 5% down is just the fact that you have to pay mortgage insurance. Otherwise the two scenarios are similar: in one you start with more equity than the other, but that's also true of paying 20% vs. 50%. It's a matter of degree, not a qualitative difference. The point which Advent Horizon is making is that people should maintain a cash reserve for emergencies, and trying to make sure you don't pay PMI is not a good enough reason, by itself, to wipe out all of your cash reserves. But if you are in that situation, you should also seriously consider not buying a house yet. Mandals posted:Rats. Well, I've got until March 31 to have closed on a place Why? Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Nov 19, 2012 |
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Nov 19, 2012 02:42
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Yes, I am speculating about interest rates/stock market rates of return. Not currency devaluation and wage increases, as you should never expect to make more money than you are now. Just ask a legacy carrier pilot how that's working out for them. I am also saying that it makes more sense for us to put less down and do other things with it. Short term, it allows us to put more money into retirement accounts earlier (return speculation here) as well as do other things with the money like sink it back into the property for things that could potentially result in a return much faster (such as hiring an electrician to split the house and mother in law apartment utilites). Also keep in mind that our credit is good enough that we're being quoted as low as .18% annually for mortgage insurance premiums. If we were going to be paying much higher I'd definitely pay down the debt faster.
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Nov 19, 2012 03:03
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Advent Horizon posted:Yes, I am speculating about interest rates/stock market rates of return. Not currency devaluation and wage increases, What's the difference between interest rate speculation/stock market speculation and currency devaluation speculation and/or wage increase speculation?
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Nov 19, 2012 04:44
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I think we may be looking at the way things are worded differently. Say you have money in the bank. You have narrowed down what to do with it to two options: Keep some liquid or put it all toward a down payment. Now, say you are listening to the crap the bank says about what they'd loan you on a house and you start looking at stuff way outside what you can reasonably afford. If you put all your money into the down payment and have no reserves, you'll probably refocus on something with payments you can afford. Now, say you start eyeing a house that you probably ahouldn't get into. You think to yourself that if you borrowed more, your payments wouldn't go up *that* much. It's more than you can afford, but you'd be able to use those reserves to make up the difference for, say, 5 years. You're making the assumption that at some point in those next 5 years you'll be paid enough more to make up the difference to get into that McMansion today. Now onto our situation: My wife got into her position before our state changed retirement plans. She is eligible to put money into a saving account, ostensibly for retirement but without penalties for early withdrawl, that earns a guaranteed 4.75%. If we are paying less than that on our mortgage (including PMI) it is a reasonable option to put our money into that account instead.
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Nov 19, 2012 05:21
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How much should I budget for general restoration of a unit post purchase? The unit is 8 years old. It's ~82 square metres, loft with 5m ceilings. I'm thinking stuff like painting, installing blinds, that kind of thing (it's a lot of area to paint given the high ceilings and there's a 5m high window). Is $5000 enough? (In Australia dollars)
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Nov 19, 2012 09:58
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willkill4food posted:Why can't you get an FHA loan? Paying for Mortgage insurance isn't ideal but neither is raiding your 401k. Most of the places I'm looking at don't do FHA loans. Not to say none of them do, but the pickings are slim.
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Nov 19, 2012 15:07
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gregarious Ted posted:How much should I budget for general restoration of a unit post purchase?
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Nov 19, 2012 17:46
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I recently did this to my house. I cheap out wherever I can, but I won't sacrifice aesthetics for price. Here's what I paid, in general. Prices are in US dollars.gregarious Ted posted:How much should I budget for general restoration of a unit post purchase? PER ROOM: ~$100 to $150 Paint: Home Depot's Behr paint is $35/can of eggshell, higher sheens are more $. You need at least 2 cans per 8x10x10 (width x length x height) room, 3 if you're doing a dark color, 4 if you accidentally bump into the ladder that has the half-full paint can on it and knock it off to splatter all over the floor... Do the math for each of your rooms and get a total square footage (or square meterage, whatever), then add 10% to account for waste. Calculate how many cans of paint you'll need for that room, round up to nearest gallon unless you want to do the whole pint thing. Hint: pints are a lot more expensive than gallons. You'll also need general supplies: Paintbrushes: $10 for good ones at Home Depot Rollers: $5 pack of 6 at Bargain Outlet, you need at least 2 packs for a whole house Tray: $3 at Bargain Outlet Tray liners: $4 pack of 10 at Bargain Outlet Sandpaper/sanding block: $5 for a 100 grit sanding block at Home Depot Hopefully you already have a screwdriver to open the paint can with and a hammer to shut the paint can when you're done... Oh, do your walls have holes in them? Previous owner might have hung up paintings on nails in places you don't want them, so you'll need to remove the nails (got that hammer?) and spackle over the holes. Add $6 for a small can of drywall spackle, $3 for the spreader (get the metal one!)... It all adds up, and you're going to find things that you'll need to fix, or you want to add a shelf here, or hang a painting there... gvibes posted:Do never underestimate the cost of custom window coverings. If you just want something to keep the neighbors from seeing your junk when you walk around naked, go to Walmart and pick up a $10 single rod and a $9.99 panel for each window. If you want decent looking curtains, you'll need to shell out some money. PER STANDARD WINDOW: $66 Double window rods: $20 at Target Inside curtains: $8, you need 2 panels, Christmas Tree Shops Outside curtains: $15, you need 2 panels, Christmas Tree Shops That's $66 per window, and I went to a lot of stores, online and B&M, trying to find a good deal in decent colors/patterns for each room. God help you if you've got windows that require more than 2 standard panels, and I hope you have a sewing machine or like hemming by hand because those windows are probably not going to be exactly 52" or 86", the usual panel lengths...
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Nov 19, 2012 19:19
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So we ran into major problems with the house build today.  Here is where we are at: Foundation is done. Framing is done. Roof is on minus the shingles. Windows are in. Electrical is mostly in. A/C is in and mostly done. Plumbing is mostly in and done. We met with the cabinet guy today and he asked me if I wanted the cabinets all the way to the ceiling. I told him that would look pretty silly with 10 foot ceilings and he said "well these are 9". My heart sank. The ceilings are 1 foot short. I'm still in shock, as I can see the repercussions and possible solutions in my head and none of them are good. In our contract we specified 9 foot ceilings in the outside bedrooms and and house base board with the center of the house and joined formal living, kitchen and dinging room at 10 feet. This was not going to cost any extra because all it does is eat up attic space and leave one small slope in the dining room. Well... when the builder drew up the plans he made the walls 8' and 9' and the poo poo is framed now. We had no idea it was wrong until today. In this picture from last month you can see how it is done. In this photo your standing in the kitchen looking at the pantry, utility room and two bedrooms. Don't let the photo fool you though the house is much farther along now.  So what the hell do I do now? The builder has clearly screwed up in the most monumental way possible. I feel that I have him over the barrel but I don't want to. We quickly talked about moving up the ceiling in the formal rooms and putting a tray in the master bedroom but all my secondary rooms will still be 8 feet unless we changed the base plate which would basically mean going back to the foundation. I doubt my builder can even afford to take a hit like that. If it came down to getting ugly I expect we would get tied up in court while nothing is getting built. If I concede to 8 foot ceilings I'm not getting the house I paid for and a house with shorter ceilings is valued less on the market. (but more importantly we WANTED tall celings) I'm as screwed as the builder honestly. I don't want to spend the time to start over. He dosent want to spend the money obviously. I told him that I'm a reasonable person and we can find some sort of compromise. I suggested that we could possibly make it up in some other way, like a garage. He said he is going to get with the framer and see what the hell is even possible. Christ. Don't loving build. Citycop fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Nov 19, 2012 |
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Nov 19, 2012 19:42
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Can someone help me out with understanding the workflow for buying a house? I am currently under contract, and trying to secure financing. My dad has said he wants to help, but the mortgage broker is telling me he can only help if he gives me 10% or more of the downpayment. Anything less and I have to provide it all myself. Is there a difference if he just deposits the money into my account (his name is on the account anyway) and I cut the check from there, or is there a part of the closing process where someone can step in and gift a check to cover some of the costs? Please advise, thanks!
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Nov 19, 2012 20:57
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The 10% or nothing thing doesn't make sense. As long as you can show you can afford the monthly payments, I wouldn't think it's any issue if your dad helps out with the downpayment and provides documentation to show where you suddenly got that extra money from.
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Nov 19, 2012 21:13
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ZentraediElite posted:Can someone help me out with understanding the workflow for buying a house? I just bought a place and both me and the missus had parental help of much less than 10% and our lender knew and gave no shits. Maybe your mortgage broker thinks your dad wants to co-sign or something? Either way, they can't prevent your dad from giving you money, and yes you'll generally cut a big check or get a direct fund transfer from one account at closing.
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Nov 19, 2012 21:20
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My wife and I got our first mortgage while we were in the process of getting married. As a part of that process, she moved $80,000 from her own account into a joint account right before we tried to buy a house. I assumed that would be great and that I could use the money in a joint account for my down payment. I was only partially right and I was denied credit for this particular house. The banks ask for statements for your cash accounts for a reason. They're looking for exactly this type of thing and from their point of view, it makes sense. Is it really sensible to lend someone $600,000 based on the fact that they had $80,000 moved into their joint account yesterday? I've been told the best way around this is to get the money from your dad and "season" it. Let it sit in one of your accounts for at least 2-3 months OR have your dad move it into a joint account and let it sit for 2-3 months. Once the money is seasoned I'm pretty sure the bank will treat it like it's yours. If it's a joint account they'll require a letter (possibly notarized) from your dad stating that you have access to 100% of that money. Slappy Pappy fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Nov 19, 2012 |
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Nov 19, 2012 21:21
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Wouldn't a gift letter cover it? We were gifted money for our down payment from my father in law and all the bank asked was that he sign a gift letter to ensure that we wouldn't be taking on more debt and increasing our debt to income ratio.
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Nov 19, 2012 21:28
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RheaConfused posted:Wouldn't a gift letter cover it? We were gifted money for our down payment from my father in law and all the bank asked was that he sign a gift letter to ensure that we wouldn't be taking on more debt and increasing our debt to income ratio. This is what we did, as well. They wanted a bunch of supporting docs for it, though. Copies of the checks, certified copies of bank statements, etc.
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Nov 19, 2012 21:31
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ZentraediElite posted:Can someone help me out with understanding the workflow for buying a house? We had to prove that we, without help, had 5% of the purchase price. The way we proved it was I believe 2 months of pay stubs and asset statements. If anything big (didn't ask about the threshold of big as we wound up covering it) came in during those 2 months, it needed to be traceable. This meant statements showing it entering our checking account AND statements leaving the other account, whether it be our investment account or a parents' account. Furthermore, they wanted documentation called a gift letter saying that you were not under obligation to pay it back. Otherwise it counted as liability for our debt-to-income ratio. I'm not sure if you can say you are free and clear if you have parents pour money into your account then wait four months, as they also ask for 2 years of W2s and permission to pull 2 years of tax returns. No idea if they do black magic to figure anything out from that, perhaps someone else can comment. Our lender was pretty candid and helpful throughout, so if you have a good lender perhaps they will spend some time with you explaining the rules some more. Without outright advocating mortgage fraud, the woman basically said that they just need to collect the documentation like the gift letter, and that after closing we were welcome to do whatever we wanted with our money. That's all I can think of, and again your lender is the best to answer the specifics about what accounts and names are allowed or disallowed, but figured this might help a bit.
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Nov 19, 2012 21:38
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Citycop posted:So we ran into major problems with the house build today.
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Nov 19, 2012 22:50
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Citycop posted:I told him that I'm a reasonable person and we can find some sort of compromise. I suggested that we could possibly make it up in some other way, like a garage. He said he is going to get with the framer and see what the hell is even possible. Christ. Don't loving build. If you can get a garage out of it, I'd say that's a decent compromise. I'm sure a garage would add more value in the end compared to an extra foot of ceiling
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Nov 19, 2012 23:46
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ANGRY TEEN posted:My painter does all kinds of poo poo. He's more of a general handyman, but painting is his specialty. Getting another quote Tuesday. But in the meantime we've discovered more problems, this time electrical, that were simply missed by the inspector. The house is a tri level, so the attic is at two different heights. The lower attic is accessible from the garage. The inspector got up there and his report includes two photos in that area. He noted "exposed wiring in attic: not present". The problem is, apparently the upper attic is NOT accessible from the garage, only from an attic door in the upstairs hallway. I didn't realize this, I thought he walked over the whole thing. So this weekend we go up to install a new bathroom fan and find the wiring for the two fans are just laying across the insulation in the attic. There's a random wire is seemingly cut with no capping, the other end disappears into the insulation. There's two junction "boxes" just laying on top of the insulation.  So what the hell do we do about this? I mean, in the short term, I've called an electrician, but do I go back to the inspector? To our realtor, who recommended him? To a lawyer? Or just suck it up and be glad I found it before the house burned down?
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Nov 20, 2012 17:00
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Citycop posted:
Well, it seems like this situation is a big enough gently caress up that you shouldn't be expected to just bend on. It's the builder's mistake. If he's a pro, he'll fix it or offer you a reduced rate or something like that. How could he charge you full price when he hosed up? Built into his billing should be room to fix mistakes. If that's not the case, then this needs to be a learning experience for him. The fact that he doesn't want to spend the money seems moot. You didn't want to spend 10 foot ceiling money on 9 foot ceilings. But honestly I have no idea. good luck and keep us posted.
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Nov 20, 2012 17:50
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alucinor posted:Getting another quote Tuesday. But in the meantime we've discovered more problems, this time electrical, that were simply missed by the inspector. If you're still pissed off enough once it's fixed, send the inspector a copy of the electrician's invoice and a strongly worded certified letter expecting him to pay it. If he doesn't, then you can decide whether you give enough shits to keep after him. At least I hope you could get the inspection fee refunded in small claims court if you feel like going to the trouble. (Assuming the repair costs more than that) I also hear people say that bitching to the realtor can help. Haven't tried it myself. Bitching to your friends will make you feel better, though, I can recommend that from experience.
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Nov 20, 2012 18:01
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Citycop posted:I told him that I'm a reasonable person and we can find some sort of compromise. I suggested that we could possibly make it up in some other way, like a garage. He said he is going to get with the framer and see what the hell is even possible. Christ. Don't loving build. Don't be a pussy when it comes to this big of a purchase. You make sure that contractor does his job. If he can't afford to gently caress up then he shouldn't gently caress up. It's that simple. It's not like you're going to be building another house next year, and oh well, better luck next time. What I've learned through this process is that these people, realtors, builders, contractors, etc, are not my friends. They are people I am paying to enact my will via their know-how and equipment, and when they can't do that properly they are a broken tool, and nothing more.
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Nov 20, 2012 18:50
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Doesn't the building contractor carry insurance for exactly this kind of situation?
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Nov 20, 2012 18:59
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Not only has Nationstar (my mortgage lender) been loving up my additional principal payments, lately they have been having their Indian telemarketers spamming my phone to "help me" to get on a reduced payment plan or to refinance my loan for a lower rate. Moral of this story: Do not ever willingly go with Nationstar as your mortgage lender.
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Nov 20, 2012 19:06
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Even if you're reasonable and don't want to sue, I'd still get a lawyer right away. Whatever your agreement ends up being, you absolutely need to make it legally binding, and you need to modify the original contract and formally resolve the outstanding legal issues. If you try to do it yourself it will end up a huge clusterfuck that will be a nightmare to sort out if there are further issues.
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Nov 20, 2012 19:13
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ANGRY TEEN posted:If he can't afford to gently caress up then he shouldn't gently caress up. I'm inclined to agree with this... it shouldn't be your worry whether the contractor takes a total loss on your project. My god, ceiling height seems like such a fundamental thing to be quadruple-checking while you build. I'm not sure what I would do in your situation, but I really don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to pull out the entire roof and frame and start over. I'd also expect the contractor to be looking to cut corners to save cash on your house from here on out since he knows he already looks like a fuckup and it's all about minimizing losses at this point. I hope it works out (Definitely am impressed you're trying to be reasonable about this though, I would probably go postal)
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Nov 20, 2012 19:19
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My dad was a builder and I'm sympathetic with your builder (everyone makes mistakes) but I have to agree with the "talk to a lawyer" approach. This is a HUGE mistake. If nothing else you need to understand what your rights are. Being a nice guy could end up costing you a ton of money and it's just not worth it. I'm not for being litigious and if you can work out an amicable solution for both then go for it. Just don't give in without understanding your rights.
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Nov 20, 2012 19:28
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Konstantin posted:Even if you're reasonable and don't want to sue, I'd still get a lawyer right away. Whatever your agreement ends up being, you absolutely need to make it legally binding, and you need to modify the original contract and formally resolve the outstanding legal issues. If you try to do it yourself it will end up a huge clusterfuck that will be a nightmare to sort out if there are further issues. This too. I'll bet the builder is being extra nice and communicative right now, because he is trying to tap dance his way out of your job yesterday. He wants you and that house in his rear-view mirror with your money in his pocket. Don't let this happen unless the issues are addressed.
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Nov 20, 2012 19:31
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(Short recap: My builder built the ceilings in the house one foot too low and we are almost ready for inspections before insulation and drywall). I met with the builder today. He was pretty nervous, his voice was shaken and he brought his partner with him. I told him that this was a major screw up and it's going to take some fixing on his part. He agreed and said it was the biggest mistake he has ever made. I told him that my wife wanted to start over and get what we agreed on in the contract. He said that was not an option because it was too expensive and it would put him basically out of business. (I think we both know that it is indeed actually an option even if it involves time and court costs). I told him that if we went that route it would cost both of us in time in money, me in rent, interest, utilities and time, but it would cost him much more. I told him that I was willing to listen to what he has to save the situation for both of us. He said we could vault the ceilings up to 9 foot and 10 foot. He proposed to basically vault all the walls that touch the exterior walls of the house. This is a massive undertaking that will require hanging the already installed AC unit from the rafters and moving everything while it's re-framed. Time estimate is three days for framing, then probably a couple more to put the electrical and AC back. All of the bathrooms and hallways will remain at 8 feet celings, only the living areas will be changed. My problem with this solution was that it was going to look dumb, and possibly cheap and I'm basically taking a hit on what I wanted and getting nothing in return. I said ok I'm willing to start considering that but I'm walking in your direction to meet you, but I need you to walk in my direction and give some as well. He said ok what is it that you are wanting. I said garage. He said no that's too expensive. I asked about adding a den onto the back of the house, he said it was still too expensive ($15000 or so). And I said ok where exactly are you at then, because I'm heading back towards starting over. At this point he said I can add architectural things to make the house look better and be worth more. Obviously he wanted to go in a direction where he uses more cheap labor and less materials. So I offered this.... Instead of vaulting one wall in each room vault all four with three false vaults so it looks like it was designed that way. Add crown molding around the entire room where the vault starts and paint the walls a different color than the white ceilings. Add crown molding to the entire house, this was originally budgeted for just the living room. Where the pass-throughs are from the hallways to the living areas add large arches. In the entry way add another wall with a large arch to make a true entry (and to hide the vault that now cannot be fixed to the front door). Paint the kids rooms any color that the wife wants, originally we were budgeted for only three colors. He said ok and we shook on it. He is going to make a written change order to document the changes so they don't change later. He seemed relieved. I didn't show it but I'm actually pretty pleased and I think the new vaulted ceilings and crown are going to add a lot of visual appeal and value to the house. He said three days or so to fix the framing. They are starting on it right now. I'll post pictures of the new ceilings in a few days. The wife was really hung up on the fact that the house does not match the contract. She wanted to be able to put a ruler to the wall and see 10' not 9' at the edges. There is no real rational basis for this. I don't have any 10 foot tall items that will not fit in the house because of the changes. Functionally nothing is different. I think it's important to keep some perspective and consider that when your building a house there are going to be things that will change and as long as your ok with it and you feel that your getting what your paying for then it is actually "right". There is no "wrong" unless it's just not functional. We have been standing in this house thinking that it was right for over a month and the ceilings were at 9 feet. That's a fact. The fact that they are moving up and it will look better (IMO) is great. If we had said in the beginning that we wanted 10 foot ceilings with them vaulted on all the edges then it would have cost more, no doubt. If I didn't think that these new ceilings were going to be a good value for what I'm paying we would not be agreeing to do it. At this point I'm happy and I think eventually the wife will come around too when she sees it. She has a hard time visualizing the finished product. I sure hope it is going to look as good as I'm thinking because if it's not then I'll never. ever. hear the end of it. Citycop fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 19:54
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Citycop posted:vaulted ceilings I have these in the upstairs bedrooms. They look a little dumb around the edges, but you stop noticing them very, very quickly because OMG THE CEILING IS 13 FEET TALL!!! (Also, my drywall guy was practically crying, but he did a damned good job about it.) That being said, I wouldn't have settled. You paid for a house to be built to your specs, and what you've got is not built to your specs. It's not your fault that the builder would go out of business fixing his fuckup, and he drat well better have insurance for exactly this reason. He does have insurance, right??? When you're in customer service and you gently caress up, you STFU and fix it. End of story.
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Nov 20, 2012 20:23
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Ever.
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Nov 20, 2012 20:24
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A loving foot too short, how the gently caress? Can't they slice the roof off and raise the whole thing up a foot? They do that here all the time with houses that have like low basements and they want to finsh them so they just slice the house and put it all up on blocks and then build the walls up an extra foot or so.
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Nov 20, 2012 20:30
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Citycop posted:The wife was really hung up on the fact that the house does not match the contract. She wanted to be able to put a ruler to the wall and see 10' not 9' at the edges. There is no real rational basis for this. I don't have any 10 foot tall items that will not fit in the house because of the changes. Functionally nothing is different. I think it's important to keep some perspective and consider that when your building a house there are going to be things that will change and as long as your ok with it and you feel that your getting what your paying for then it is actually "right". There is no "wrong" unless it's just not functional. We have been standing in this house thinking that it was right for over a month and the ceilings were at 9 feet. That's a fact. The fact that they are moving up and it will look better (IMO) is great. If we had said in the beginning that we wanted 10 foot ceilings with them vaulted on all the edges then it would have cost more, no doubt. If I didn't think that these new ceilings were going to be a good value for what I'm paying we would not be agreeing to do it. At this point I'm happy and I think eventually the wife will come around too when she sees it. She has a hard time visualizing the finished product. I sure hope it is going to look as good as I'm thinking because if it's not then I'll never. ever. hear the end of it. This reminds me of a case in 1L contracts where there was a similar situation with a builder, but it involved plumbing. From what I faintly recall it was about remedies, because the homeowner wanted all the plumbing ripped out and replaced with whatever the contract specified, and the builder was like 'that is crazypants'. From what I remember the judge agreed with the builder and ordered money damages (but not nearly as much as it would cost to rip out and replace the plumbing, I can't remember how they determined what damages should be, exactly).
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Nov 20, 2012 20:40
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I dunno, a week's worth of extra work and cosmetics seems like wayyyyyyyy less than it would cost to redo. Do builders have insurance for these types of scenarios? Throwing in a garage that would cost you $20k doesn't seem unreasonable, but what do I know. I have a friend that did a lot of his house himself and made a similar error and ended up with edges a foot or two lower than the ceiling all around his open concept kitchen/livingroom. He put pot lights in there and it looks pretty good and intentional. e: haha there is the wife factor to consider as you point out. Probably your biggest worry here. Pweller fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 22:53
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Pweller posted:I dunno, a week's worth of extra work and cosmetics seems like wayyyyyyyy less than it would cost to redo. Do builders have insurance for these types of scenarios? Throwing in a garage that would cost you $20k doesn't seem unreasonable, but what do I know. Second biggest worry would be the sonic boom produced by the builders' high-fiving each other after the meeting causing the hastily constructed vaulted ceilings to collapse.
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Nov 20, 2012 22:57
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Any advice on homeowners insurance? We have had Travelers forever, we have never had a claim but they are not renewing us because suddenly we live in a "high brush fire risk area". We live in the suburbs in San Diego. I have never had to actually shop around for insurance before since our agent took care of it when we bought the house.
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Nov 20, 2012 22:58
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Kali11324 posted:Any advice on homeowners insurance? We have had Travelers forever, we have never had a claim but they are not renewing us because suddenly we live in a "high brush fire risk area". We live in the suburbs in San Diego. I have never had to actually shop around for insurance before since our agent took care of it when we bought the house. I bought my house in the suburbs of San Diego (Park Village Estates in PQ) and had a really tough time getting homeowner's insurance for the same reason. My agent said of 23 different underwriters/providers he contacted the only one he could get was through Chubb. So now I have the Chubb Masterpiece coverage. I haven't made any claims but they have their own fleet of fire trucks so that's pretty cool. My premium is about 50% more than it would have been without the brush fire risk. Chubb  
Slappy Pappy fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 23:15
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Spamtron7000 posted:I bought my house in the suburbs of San Diego (Park Village Estates in PQ) and had a really tough time getting homeowner's insurance for the same reason. My agent said of 23 different underwriters/providers he contacted the only one he could get was through Chubb. So now I have the Chubb Masterpiece coverage. I haven't made any claims but they have their own fleet of fire trucks so that's pretty cool. I'm in RB. poo poo. This sounds like it will be fun.
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Nov 20, 2012 23:20
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Citycop posted:Ceilings Man what a lovely situation, but I'm glad you've come to an agreement that you're somewhat happy with.
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Nov 21, 2012 16:44
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