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Residency Evil posted:https://www.amazon.com/Yale-Security-YRD226-CBA-619-Connected-Touchscreen/dp/B07GQ372JP I'll second the Yale recommendation. I'm don't trust any wireless locks and keyed locks mostly aren't great either if we're being honest so I went with the version that has no wireless module or keyhole, can't seem to find it on Amazon but Lowes carries them. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Yale-Secur...reen/1000338543 If you decide you want wireless later they are upgradable but aside from the security issue you're also saving money not getting that feature. I have 2 of the above and 1 older but otherwise identical model feature wise. I bought the first lock in late 2015 according to Amazon, in that time I've had to change the battery just twice and the other two which I installed in the summer of 2019 I haven't had to change yet at all. When the battery does get low the lock will audibly tell you the battery is low when you use it so you shouldn't' be caught off guard but even if you were somehow there're 2 contacts for a 9 volt battery at the bottom of the lock so that's all you'd need to temporarily power it on if that's your only way in. They all have a lockout feature if someone tries to bruteforce the code and you can have up to 8 digits. You can set multiple codes, up to something crazy like 25 I think, so giving access to family members for instance is easy peazy without having to share codes.
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Apr 14, 2021 02:25
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I’ve been happy with my Kwikset 916 smart code zwave lock. I mainly bought it because it ties in nicely with my home alarm system and SkyBell. They all talk so I can unlock the deadbolt from the Honeywell app while viewing the doorbell feed. It was easy to rekey to match the rest of my locks A few minor dislikes, it eats 4AA batteries about every 6 months. I just throw Costco alkalines in there, a set of lithium would last much longer probably. You have to enter 2 random digits before unlocking on the keypad. It’s a security thing so the smudges don’t give away the code. It takes a few seconds longer to get in the house because of that. I did verify it can handle 4-8 digit codes and has a 30 second auto lock feature, but I don’t use it. Access codes sync with my alarm system so when you unlock with your code the alarm disarms. I’ve had mine almost 3 years now. No complaints.
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Apr 14, 2021 04:44
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I have the kwikset 955 I didn't want to spend the extra money on Smart.. and frankly sometimes smart isn't really all it's cracked up to be. Although realistically a lock is a deterrent not a security feature I wanted a code lock so when I go hop on my bike it's 1 less thing to worry about. you can do 1 time codes if you know family and friends are dropping by or I have a code set that I use for them (I assume they're not breaking into my house). Eventually once everyone's back in the office I might have cleaning company come again to do bathrooms and kitchen like I did in apartment (it's fantastic spend of 80 a month), they'll get a code I can revoke instead of dealing with a key.
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Apr 14, 2021 12:20
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RE: Paint chat from a few pages back. I'm getting all of the walls in the house (baseboards and ceilings are fine, roughly 1600sqft) plus three external doors painted for $2400 including paint, and then the entirety of the brick exterior plus trim painted for $4000 plus paint (which is estimated to be about $500). Seems somewhat reasonable for the level of prep work they have to do to the outside. 
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Apr 14, 2021 15:58
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Honestly that seems low for the exterior. Get another quote and get a line item list of the prep steps they intend to do.
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Apr 14, 2021 16:10
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Remember the closet I was thinking about DIYing? With the weird nook? We're so tired of spending money and dealing with house stuff, we decided to just go "gently caress it" and add some interior storage to the rod and shelves that are already in there. They're kind of ugly, but they're very sturdy and already installed. So we decided to keep our Closet World appointment and get a quote for the full closet and also just to add a door (which is absolutely must have, but not right this second). We contemplated cancelling the Closet World appointment and just living without a door for now until our finances recover a bit. Closet World guy is now half an hour late. This non-problem may have solved itself. Edit: it did, called them and said they couldn't find my appointment. Problem solved, except I'll eventually need to find someone who can install a very large, possibly custom closet door, but that's a problem for future Maggie. Maggie Fletcher fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Apr 14, 2021 |
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Apr 14, 2021 18:29
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One general contractor guy I'm working with came in at $1700 to sand/refinish about 600-700 sq ft of engineered wood floors. This is lower than all other estimates I've gotten by about $1k. Hope he doesn't screw up my floors, but I think I'm going with him? Also I'm glad about the smart lock chat, I think I will go with a smart lock to replace what's currently in my condo door (facing a hallway) after I close.
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Apr 14, 2021 18:36
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Inner Light posted:One general contractor guy I'm working with came in at $1700 to sand/refinish about 600-700 sq ft of engineered wood floors. This is lower than all other estimates I've gotten by about $1k. Hope he doesn't screw up my floors, but I think I'm going with him? I had someone who just does floors quote me $2k for a similar job so it is not that far off.
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Apr 14, 2021 18:38
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Sorry for the frequent homeowners insurance chat, but I think I've figured out the major price difference between the two I'm looking at. For a savings if $1k a year, we would be'downgrading' from an HO5 policy to a HO3 policy. Best I can see is it changes from an all risk policy to a named risk policy. Named risks seem pretty comprehensive so I'm wondering if there a common issue that could be Problem that HO3 may not cover? Edit, looks like the difference between HO3 and HO5 apply to personal property at opposed to the house itself, which I'm not really as worried about. PageMaster fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Apr 14, 2021 |
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Apr 14, 2021 19:34
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I'd recommend having a nice conversation with your insurance agent about what is and what is not covered, and what they recommend. Then balance the cost against your personal risk tolerance.
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Apr 14, 2021 20:17
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Maggie Fletcher posted:Edit: it did, called them and said they couldn't find my appointment. Problem solved, except I'll eventually need to find someone who can install a very large, possibly custom closet door, but that's a problem for future Maggie. Honestly, if you're willing to live with it as it is or with some storage you can hang off the bars (they've got "shelves", shoe racks etc) that you can pick up at target or whatever for cheap for the time being you'll be a lot better off than trying to get any sort of construction work done at the moment. The supply chain is screwed, labor rates are through he roof, tons of projects are getting delayed or outright stalled in the middle due to lack of supplies.
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Apr 14, 2021 20:34
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skipdogg posted:I'd recommend having a nice conversation with your insurance agent about what is and what is not covered, and what they recommend. Then balance the cost against your personal risk tolerance. Thanks! I have been doing that but I figured I'd check with some impartial experts since both competing agents have told me they have the best insurance versus other policies and I'm not entirely sure they know what the different policy types are (for example both have said theirs is better because it's H05 but their competitor is only H03 and they can't both be right...).
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Apr 14, 2021 21:48
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Motronic posted:Honestly, if you're willing to live with it as it is or with some storage you can hang off the bars (they've got "shelves", shoe racks etc) that you can pick up at target or whatever for cheap for the time being you'll be a lot better off than trying to get any sort of construction work done at the moment. The supply chain is screwed, labor rates are through he roof, tons of projects are getting delayed or outright stalled in the middle due to lack of supplies. Yeah we're just going to get some interior drawers and shelf units from Container Store or whatever. We've installed something similar in our old place, and it's pretty easy. We have all the tools and skills to do some basic installation. And if by chance, the space for the doors is standard enough that we can just buy a door and have someone install it, there are tons of local handypeople who moonlight and can hang it for us. For now, though, the door can wait, because it'll require a track to be installed over a handsome bamboo floor that we don't want to ruin, so we can wait for a really solid handyperson. If the door must be custom, eh, we will deal with that once we've organized the inside. Next up is the Murphy bed. Hopefully we can get that without too much trouble; it will save a ton of space in our multipurpose room and we don't have guests over enough to have the bed out all the time. I just hope it can fit the mattress we have, which is pretty soft and squishy. That's something we can't DIY but is sorely needed.
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Apr 14, 2021 22:14
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Motronic posted:Honestly, if you're willing to live with it as it is or with some storage you can hang off the bars (they've got "shelves", shoe racks etc)
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Apr 15, 2021 14:51
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We just ordered a bunch of shelving/drawer units from The Container Store. It's not the solution I wanted, but I want it more than spending 5-6k on a custom closet, and at the end of the day we need a place to put our poo poo, and it needs to be organized. I'll be fine with it once we get a door on it. Another, longer-term project we plan on is going to a tankless water heater. A buddy recommended that we get one that back-flushes (I can't remember the term but basically it allows you to change the water direction so you can flush out the tank once a year or so). Can anyone remind me what that is called?
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Apr 15, 2021 16:48
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Welp, the refrigerator broke. Probably a compressor failure. Oh well, it's not like I needed 1300 more dollars in my life. Whoever said expect 2% of the home price in maintenance a year needs to be strangled. I've averaged 8% of the home's price in maintenance a year (admittedly not in a major US city, but still).
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Apr 15, 2021 17:16
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Blindeye posted:Welp, the refrigerator broke. Probably a compressor failure. Oh well, it's not like I needed 1300 more dollars in my life. As a bay area resident, thank loving god it's not 8%.  Is this your first year in the place, by any chance? I've noticed that most of my buddies who bought ended up with astronomical first-year maintenance costs once you added up all the things they wanted to change + all the things the previous owners hid / EOWL'd on them.
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Apr 15, 2021 18:24
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Sundae posted:As a bay area resident, thank loving god it's not 8%. Sorry, new to the threads here . . . what's EOWL'd mean?
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Apr 15, 2021 18:26
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End of working life
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Apr 15, 2021 18:27
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Costco has a CR-recommended whirlpool French door fridge for $1350 right now. If I had my poo poo together and had a place in the garage for the current kitchen fridge I’d have probably bought one by now.
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Apr 15, 2021 18:47
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Blindeye posted:Welp, the refrigerator broke. Probably a compressor failure. Oh well, it's not like I needed 1300 more dollars in my life. How old is the fridge? We had an old one die on us a few years ago. Replaced some parts for like $250 and got another 3 years out of it before we ultimately had to replace it. Might have some luck getting it repaired for cheap if its not 10+ years old.
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Apr 15, 2021 18:52
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Maggie Fletcher posted:We just ordered a bunch of shelving/drawer units from The Container Store. It's not the solution I wanted, but I want it more than spending 5-6k on a custom closet, and at the end of the day we need a place to put our poo poo, and it needs to be organized. I'll be fine with it once we get a door on it. Back flushing is an aspect of the install, not the heater itself. Your plumber should be able to set that up so you can easily flush it (but it'll be a manual process) https://www.drftps.com/wp-content/uploads/Rheem_tankless_flushing.pdf
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Apr 15, 2021 23:12
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My tankless has bypass valves/hose connectors right on the bottom so you can hook it up to a pump and run vinegar through it. Rinnai even gives you a full blown video on how to do it. I’ll let the installers do it next year since the first service is free but I already have a pump and hoses sitting in a bucket on top of it ready for use.
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Apr 15, 2021 23:17
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Sundae posted:As a bay area resident, thank loving god it's not 8%. Third year. The big one was a complete sewer failure that cost me close to 25k and turned my front yard into a warzone. Other stuff was lots of little things (some electrical work, insulation, windows, venting, bathroom fans, paint, finishing the garage space, new garage door, etc. It should start tapering off now (I hope). BaseballPCHiker posted:How old is the fridge? We had an old one die on us a few years ago. Replaced some parts for like $250 and got another 3 years out of it before we ultimately had to replace it. Might have some luck getting it repaired for cheap if its not 10+ years old. Fifteen years old. It's been well maintained but the only parts not new are the compressor/temperature control.
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Apr 16, 2021 01:01
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Blindeye posted:Third year. The big one was a complete sewer failure that cost me close to 25k and turned my front yard into a warzone. drat that is just bad luck. What happened? Did you have the plumbing scoped before buying the place?
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Apr 16, 2021 01:58
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hobbez posted:drat that is just bad luck. What happened? Did you have the plumbing scoped before buying the place? Yuuup, got it specifically inspected and they said it was fine. Natch, US law says they're not responsible for being wrong and insurance coverage of sewers even expensive ones can't make you whole in a lot of jurisdictions.
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Apr 16, 2021 02:45
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My town just finished a massive city-wide re-appraisal. The home's last appraisal value from the city? 190k. Bank appraisal when I purchased the home in Sep of 2019? 212k. Current city appraisal? 275k.  My tax bill will go up by over $2500. Not breaking the bank, but it's REALLY loving annoying. Especially since about a month ago my escrow just did a re-calculation to actualyl be slightly LESS than it was thee previous year, so...yeah, that's not going to work out well for anybody. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Apr 16, 2021 |
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Apr 16, 2021 14:11
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Do you not have an appeal process? Similar thing happened to me and well I just happened to have a purchase agreement and a comp report that showed fair market value better than their drive by. It was pretty painless, just fill out a one pager and attach my documentation annotated with highlights around the correct numbers.
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Apr 16, 2021 14:18
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DrBouvenstein posted:My town just finished a massive city-wide re-appraisal. Where do you live? I know it's all relative but it's still wild to me how much that is for a moderate increase in value.
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Apr 16, 2021 18:34
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Hed posted:Do you not have an appeal process? I do, and I started it, just got a voicemail to call back the third party appraising company to set up the official appeal meeting. And yes, I still have all my original paperwork from the home purchase including the bank's appraisal so hopefully that helps. StormDrain posted:Where do you live? I know it's all relative but it's still wild to me how much that is for a moderate increase in value. Burlington, VT. Total tax rate is 2.9578; the municipal tax is 0.90020, and the education tax is 2.05760. I do get a bit of a rebate/reduction due to a state homestead declaration where some some of math based off of home value and annual income might give you a rebate on property taxes. With the previous home value, I did get a small rebate, and it looks like if that new assessment value is kept and I lose the appeal, I will get more of a rebate. So the net increase will only be about $800 more. So maybe I shouldn't fret that much, but honestly, it's the principal of the thing that they raised it by that much. Edit: Well, I guess I also forgot that they might drop the tax rate since they CLAIM the re-assessment is designed to be "revenue neutral" but I'll just have to see. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Apr 16, 2021 |
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Apr 16, 2021 19:24
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Does anyone have a good recommendation on where to get quotes to refinance? I hit Better.com, Zillow, and Credit Karma already.DrBouvenstein posted:
This is pretty par for the course in Texas as well. We can pretty much count on our tax rate increasing 10% every year (~2.8% rate) (not more because it is capped at a 10% increase) due to the rising property values.
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Apr 16, 2021 19:47
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dalstrs posted:Does anyone have a good recommendation on where to get quotes to refinance? I hit Better.com, Zillow, and Credit Karma already. I was happy with my refi through Aimloan.com back in 2012, only reason I didn't use them for my new purchase is they apparently have a policy of not providing any form of pre-approval letters that selling realtors here basically consider a requirement.
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Apr 16, 2021 20:04
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devicenull posted:Back flushing is an aspect of the install, not the heater itself. Your plumber should be able to set that up so you can easily flush it (but it'll be a manual process) devmd01 posted:My tankless has bypass valves/hose connectors right on the bottom so you can hook it up to a pump and run vinegar through it. Rinnai even gives you a full blown video on how to do it. I’ll let the installers do it next year since the first service is free but I already have a pump and hoses sitting in a bucket on top of it ready for use. Thank you both!
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Apr 16, 2021 20:42
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DrBouvenstein posted:Edit: Well, I guess I also forgot that they might drop the tax rate since they CLAIM the re-assessment is designed to be "revenue neutral" but I'll just have to see. Our county JUST did this. If you get a tax hike, it's because your home was under-assessed to begin with and you had this coming. The way to think of this is that you've had many years of under-paying your taxes, and they're not asking for that money back. Soooo many people bitched and moaned about it around here, but nothing much really came of it. Our taxes went up like $100 or something. The tax assessed value went up a ton, but the county's tax rate dropped to compensate. edit: OK so the reason this is happening is because hot markets are causing rich areas to be under-assessed. Basically, their values are going up, but that's not being reflected in the taxes because it's happening so fast. The result is that not-so-hot areas (i.e. lower value areas) are comparatively over-assessed and paying proportionally higher taxes than they should be. To preempt, this is not a commentary about the pros/cons of property taxes. This is about making the current system as fair as possible. If you don't like property taxes, lobby your government. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Apr 16, 2021 |
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Apr 16, 2021 20:45
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DaveSauce you familiar with this NYT article? I guess this is paywalled but hopefully you have a subscription, it's the bees' knees. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/opinion/sunday/property-taxes-housing-assessment-inequality.html
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Apr 16, 2021 21:10
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Hey guys, I have somewhat of an interior design question. Please let me know if there would be a better place to ask this. My wife and I have been thinking about renovating our kitchen, and we are in the "planning & budgeting" phase (a.k.a. we are sitting pretty waiting to see if the huge jump in contractor costs starts to drop off at some point). There is a home that showed up on Zillow that my wife looked at the photos of and mentioned that she really loves the kitchen aesthetic**. In the normal times I'd go to an open house so I could actually look closely at the materials and appliances they used to try to figure out what it all is, but we are unable to gain access to the home and I only have the pictures from Zillow to work with. The pictures are below. I'm a complete novice when it comes to knowing the names of different materials or designs, so I'm not sure what to start looking up to figure out what to ask a potential contractor for when it comes time to renovate the kitchen. This bit me in the rear end awhile back when we had our master bath renovated since that was an emergency situation and we didn't have time to really sit and think about what we wanted. What kind of tile is that on the floor (and the backsplash?). What kind of material is that counter? What do I call that sink? What brand or design are those appliances? I know that this place was renovated recently, so that stuff can't be that old. I also love those doors, but I'm pretty sure I could just point to a picture and tell someone "those" and they'd be able to figure out what I wanted.       **My wife actually spent that last week trying to convince me to just buy this house since it has more than just a kitchen that she's in love with, and we could probably afford it, but talking to the realtors today gave me the most insane story, which I'll post shortly in the house buying thread. The summary is that this house cannot be purchased because the housing market is not even following any logic anymore in Riverside.
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Apr 17, 2021 09:41
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Anonymous Zebra posted:Hey guys, I have somewhat of an interior design question. Please let me know if there would be a better place to ask this. My wife and I have been thinking about renovating our kitchen, and we are in the "planning & budgeting" phase (a.k.a. we are sitting pretty waiting to see if the huge jump in contractor costs starts to drop off at some point). There is a home that showed up on Zillow that my wife looked at the photos of and mentioned that she really loves the kitchen aesthetic**. First off, the thread you want is the Interior Design Q&A thread in HCH: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3955916&perpage=40&noseen=1 To be brutally honest, the only thing I think is good about this kitchen in particular is the stove, which looks like a vintage O'Keefe & Merritt from the 40's or 50's (please get a vintage stove and let me live vicariously through you (my husband wants a modern one  )).HOWEVER, I think the general vibe she might be after is a sort of rustic vintage Craftsman deal. This can be a very good look for a kitchen except it's executed pretty poorly in this house. Come on over to the Interior Design Q&A thread and we can help you out.
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Apr 17, 2021 15:07
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Queen Victorian posted:
What are your thoughts on these? https://www.williams-sonoma.com/m/products/la-cornue-cornufe-stove-ivory-white/
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Apr 17, 2021 16:22
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H110Hawk posted:What are your thoughts on these? I really like them in the right context (high end super traditional designs) but they have a completely different vibe from the mid-century vintage stoves. I think the vintage ones are more versatile - they look super good in everything from knotty pine rustic kitsch to high design modern, while the the La Cornue will look incongruous in a lot of settings.
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Apr 17, 2021 20:19
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Queen Victorian posted:First off, the thread you want is the Interior Design Q&A thread in HCH: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3955916&perpage=40&noseen=1 Do you mind sharing how it is executed poorly?
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Apr 18, 2021 03:21
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