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Queen Victorian posted:Generally, make sure you have tools and cleaning supplies handy when you move in. I've got most of these already just from what I've accumulated over the years renting and having weird hobbies where various tools/etc. would be useful (and places that had a yard, but rent didn't include upkeep of said yard). quote:For cleaning stuff, just make sure it's packed so it's easy to pull out right away. Otherwise, having some paper towels and/or shop rags, a bucket, and some general purpose cleaner (like Pinalen) immediately on hand is good. Oh, I know. I was just trying to figure out if a paid cleaning service was worth the money or if they're more likely to just do stuff I'd do myself anyway. quote:The gray on the walls seems a bit dark to me. If I were you I'd paint the walls, but mainly because I hate gray. But if you like gray, I think a paler warm gray would work well. Then again the existing colors are hard to gauge - sometimes it looks like it's cool gray, then warm griege, then almost taupe. Not sure if they actually used multiple shades or if it's variance in lighting. It's mostly the lighting. When I toured the home and they had all the blinds/curtains open to let the daylight in it looked a lot more uniform (also I'm weird and like gray). quote:I am a fan of the cobalt blue bathroom and the knotty pine (I have a giant soft spot for knotty pine). Yeah, I liked that, too. Maybe not so much the knotty pine, but that was in the weird separate room that's in the carport (that they currently use to have their chest freezer and oddball storage stuff in). quote:For furnishings, avoid large squishy pieces like in the listing photos - they visually shrink the space like no one's business, especially with the 8' ceiling. Stick with smaller, sleeker pieces with clean lines for an airier, less weighty vibe. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to do some research on this. EDIT: Quoting for the hilarious page snipe. Deviant posted:crossposted, but
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Jun 22, 2021 20:09
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FWIW, duct cleaning companies are super sketchy... we hired one that ended up barely doing anything to the crap in the ducts. I went in there later with a long shopvac hose and managed to pull out a ton of stuff they missed. It's definitely hard to vet them, since they all claim they're doing such a good job, etc. I'd probably suggest just getting the HVAC itself cleaned by a HVAC company (also a good time to get some routine maintenance done), and make sure you replace the filter.
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Jun 23, 2021 02:02
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devicenull posted:FWIW, duct cleaning companies are super sketchy... we hired one that ended up barely doing anything to the crap in the ducts. I went in there later with a long shopvac hose and managed to pull out a ton of stuff they missed. You shouldn't really need to clean ducts if they've been sealed, and sealing is usually worthwhile anyway (depending on ducting material). If you have crap falling into the registers, just pop them off and pull out the shop vac. The main lines should be a relatively closed system, so pretty much nothing would get in there.
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Jun 23, 2021 02:39
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Queen Victorian posted:
I wouldn't change any paint until you have all your furniture and such in place who knows what that gray looks like in real life anyways if you have a specific color theme or palette you are using for your living room, a white with that color as an undertone will always work well. gray can be really good for bedrooms where you don't want sharper contrasts actionjackson fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Jun 23, 2021 |
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Jun 23, 2021 03:10
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Thats great advice, there are only so many choices in furniture and upholstery but paint can be anything. Always pick paint last. Edit: we did our guest bedroom in pink, I'm convinced that people look better in pink lighting.
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Jun 23, 2021 03:22
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StormDrain posted:Thats great advice, there are only so many choices in furniture and upholstery but paint can be anything. Always pick paint last. And if you want nice rugs you pick them even before the furniture.
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Jun 23, 2021 03:29
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actionjackson posted:I wouldn't change any paint until you have all your furniture and such in place Matte black is a fantastic choice for bedrooms when you work third shift but still want a window open for a crossbreeze/whole house fan breeze 
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Jun 23, 2021 03:31
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StormDrain posted:Thats great advice, there are only so many choices in furniture and upholstery but paint can be anything. Always pick paint last. also, once you decide on a general color idea 1) look at the light reflective values of the paints you are interested in. Generally the more light you have coming into the room (both natural and artificial), the lower the LRV you want. For the large living and kitchen area in the GA house that was posted, I would expect something around 60 would work well. In my space, since there is only light coming in from one wall, I'm using something brighter (this one has a brown undertone - the undertones are usually hard to see unless you see it in a color deck next to other browns) 2) eggshell is the best sheen most of the time for living rooms (and most other room walls). I had a friend make the mistake of doing flat paint, and to make matters worse, her living room doesn't get a ton of natural light. so it ended up being too dark. 3) after looking at sample cards, get maybe five different paints you like in those little cans (they are like five bucks at home depot) in eggshell, and paint squares at least 1x1 foot large on the walls. Make sure to put each color in several different areas with different light exposure, and keep them up for a few days so you can observe them in all natural lighting conditions. 4) never trust how a color looks unless it's on your walls in front of you actionjackson fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Jun 23, 2021 |
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Jun 23, 2021 04:16
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Good lord I must have the most ghetto rear end house of all time because the only thought I put into it was "I need seating for like 7 people in this room"
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Jun 23, 2021 04:34
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Good lord I must have the most ghetto rear end house of all time because the only thought I put into it was "I need seating for like 7 people in this room" We have seen your house.... Are you only just now realizing this?
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Jun 23, 2021 04:42
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Get out of my house, goons!
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Jun 23, 2021 05:07
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The sound of doom: whooshing in the walls with no water going. There's a hot water leak in a wall/ceiling/slab. Getting the guy with the thermal camera to come look but fingers crossed we're not opening up *all* the walls/floors.
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Jun 23, 2021 06:37
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Get out of my house, goons! I would like to request one of the 7 spots 
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Jun 23, 2021 18:49
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I posted earlier about how to clean up after house renovation with (particularly concrete cutting and drywall sanding for silica particulates) and did the dry wiping, followed by wet wiping, and also stuck some fans out windows a bit as recommended. We are now living upstairs behind a plastic tarp with zipper in our sanitized area, but downstairs still has ongoing work with another day or two of sanding coming up, and we still have to walk through there to get to the door. I bought a Wirecutter recommended air purifier with HEPA filter for the space we are staying in and have it running almost all the time, and am thinking about getting a second one just for downstairs immediately after the work since the cost is about the same as what I would be paying for just 20x20 HEPA or MERV14 filters anyways. We'll still wipe everything down, but I figure running it the evening after work will grab a lot of the silica and other particulates still in the air. My question: is HEPA filtration actually legit, or is it a lot of advertising of optimal unrealistic performance? It's saying 99.9% percent particulates between. 3 microns and 1 micron, but those are just numbers that don't mean much to me. They're advertising clearing smoke so I'm assuming it should be good for silica plus everything else (no asbestos or anything) but don't want to waste time, money, and energy if it's mostly hype.
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Jun 24, 2021 03:51
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It is legit. Furnace manufacturers warn that you will not get the same performance when you use too strong of a filter such as a HEPA filter. It's harder to pull air through because its so tight. Worse when it's dirty too, dirty filters stop more particles, since those are closed airways, and reduce airflow.
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Jun 24, 2021 04:09
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StormDrain posted:It is legit. Furnace manufacturers warn that you will not get the same performance when you use too strong of a filter such as a HEPA filter. It's harder to pull air through because its so tight. Worse when it's dirty too, dirty filters stop more particles, since those are closed airways, and reduce airflow. Thanks! I think thread said the same and recommended running the central air for a day maybe with a strong filter then putting back in a normal one.
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Jun 24, 2021 04:29
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Been a banner week in home ownership. So far I have: -Spent 14 hours (so far) installing an exterior door. Finally got it in and a deadbolt installed by 8pm on a Sunday but it still wasn't plumb enough for the handle strike to actually fit in the hole. Called a local door installer and was going to have an expert come out next Monday to rescue me. Tinkered with the door again last night and was able to finally able to get it plumb enough to install the handle. Still have to insulate it all, custom cut some wood to extend the frame since the wall is thicker than the door frame, install trim, and paint. -Uncovered asbestos tile and mastic in the landing the door opens to. This is probably also under my kitchen and I'm looking at ~$2000 to remove it when I finally get to my kitchen remodel. I'm probably going to drop off a sample of my wall plaster to the same lab and pay another $100 to get that tested too, just to be safe. Gonna have to spend my evening tonight putting new flooring down on the landing to cover all the bad stuff back up. -Had a carbon monoxide detector go off this morning, and for a brief moment the thought that I'd need an emergency hot water replacement flashed before my eyes. Was probably just humidity from my shower though, maybe lol -Back has been hurting from the door install so I grab my foam roller and am laying on my back in my living room, staring up at the ceiling when I see the crack that I spent WEEKS filling, sanding, refilling, resanding, priming, texturizing, and repainting is back. My patch didn't even last 6 months. Hairline crack and it goes the entire length of the room. I might go scream into a pillow in a bit. Somehow it's only Thursday. I am very tired.
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Jun 24, 2021 16:04
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The fact that addressing a home ownership based injury caused you to realize another significant issue is quite something.
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Jun 24, 2021 16:09
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Sirotan posted:Been a banner week in home ownership. So far I have: What a week! Doors are hard especially something like a big front door. And cracks are a real pain in the rear end to fix. Ideally you keep your house from moving and replace the drywall, or reinforce the plaster or whatever. Not always achievable.
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Jun 24, 2021 16:30
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The crack basically follows the transition from finished space to knee-wall attic space on my 2nd floor. There was a roof leak once (which I discovered <1 week after closing on the home) and water came through the crack in one spot at which point I noticed old water stains, so I'm going to have a look into the attic the next time it rains just to make sure I don't have water getting in again. I would guess it is probably just temperature and old house related though. 80yo house with 1" thick plaster and cement board walls, the crack is where the conditioned space meets the poorly insulated, southern facing attic space which gets really hot in the afternoons. Fixing that is on my to-do list. I just can't believe after all that work the patch didn't even last 6 months. 
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Jun 24, 2021 16:44
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Home Ownership Thread: I can't believe after all that work it didn't even last 6 months.
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Jun 24, 2021 16:46
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Sirotan posted:The crack basically follows the transition from finished space to knee-wall attic space on my 2nd floor. There was a roof leak once (which I discovered <1 week after closing on the home) and water came through the crack in one spot at which point I noticed old water stains, so I'm going to have a look into the attic the next time it rains just to make sure I don't have water getting in again. I would guess it is probably just temperature and old house related though. 80yo house with 1" thick plaster and cement board walls, the crack is where the conditioned space meets the poorly insulated, southern facing attic space which gets really hot in the afternoons. Fixing that is on my to-do list. What part of the country? My last two houses have set on big piles of clay and so the seasons make them go up and down like a seesaw. Cracks were just a part of life, unfortunately.
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Jun 24, 2021 17:24
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:What part of the country? My last two houses have set on big piles of clay and so the seasons make them go up and down like a seesaw. Cracks were just a part of life, unfortunately. SE Michigan. Soil here is pretty sandy though. Since I obsess over these kinds of things and feel the need to absorb all potentially relevant information, I was browsing /r/HomeImprovement to see what other people did about their ceiling cracks. Stumbled across someone's long ceiling repair saga that really spoke to me. Looked at the username and it was me, written 4 months ago, after I'd finally gotten everything as perfect as I possibly could. 
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Jun 24, 2021 17:45
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Sirotan posted:SE Michigan. Soil here is pretty sandy though. House Ownership Thread: stumbled across someone's saga that spoke to me, and it was me
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Jun 24, 2021 18:13
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So far my only things in three weeks of ownership have been the following: painting the place and fixing the holes in the wall. Patching a section of drywall where exposed wires were visible through the mud when sanding, they were deactivated alarm system wires. I cleaned out all the rodent poop, dust, and cobwebs from the loft in the garage and put better plywood down so that I could use the space for storage and free up my garage floor space. Emptied out all the spare wood and other Added a gate to the fence so that my dog won't leave the yard when we let him out. I need to paint it so that it matches but it looks pretty good if I say so my self. Trimmed some of the vegetation around the front yard, still lots more to do. The city just came by and informed me they're trimming two of my trees for their proximity to the power lines. Removed a firewood storage box/rat hotel that was built into the back of the house. Cut down some of these arbors above the gates in our yard. They were ugly and heavy and the one was covered in ivy a little too close to the house causing a gate to lean. We'll have a new fence built at some point but I need this one to stay usable for a while. And I pulled down the ugly 80s track lighting. I'll replace it eventually. Thankfully it's all been cosmetic, nothing major yet.
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Jun 24, 2021 18:22
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actionjackson posted:I wouldn't change any paint until you have all your furniture and such in place Wait you don't pick wall color first?  The way I always thought about it was gauging the room itself, considering its natural lighting conditions, what type of vibe you want for it, how you want to handle the the artificial lighting, and floor finish/color, and THEN figuring out furniture/art. I figured that basing room color/design around something to be placed in the room was the case if you had a huge nice heirloom rug or an exceptional piece of furniture or art. I'm doing it for one room - gonna match the wall of the den to our vintage red leather couch and basically make it a David Lynch set. Otherwise just going off of desired vibe/tone of room and lighting conditions and not worrying about the furniture/decor just yet. Then again, all our good furniture (that isn't our old college hovel crap) is wood-toned and/or can be reupholstered, so can be made to go with whatever. Also, a lot of Victorian-era interior design sensibilities (that I'm following) kinda fly in the face of modern trends/tastes - they sure loved their layers upon layers of colors, patterns, and textures and were less into deliberate color coordination.
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Jun 24, 2021 19:35
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Sirotan posted:The crack basically follows the transition from finished space to knee-wall attic space on my 2nd floor. There was a roof leak once (which I discovered <1 week after closing on the home) and water came through the crack in one spot at which point I noticed old water stains, so I'm going to have a look into the attic the next time it rains just to make sure I don't have water getting in again. I would guess it is probably just temperature and old house related though. 80yo house with 1" thick plaster and cement board walls, the crack is where the conditioned space meets the poorly insulated, southern facing attic space which gets really hot in the afternoons. Fixing that is on my to-do list. I'm in Pittsburgh and we have a ton of houses here with plaster walls- the cracks go away in the summer for the most part when everything expands and then come back in the winter. That said... it's summer now and if water had been coming through that crack since an unknown time, there might be more to it than just seasonal expansion/contraction.
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Jun 24, 2021 19:48
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Queen Victorian posted:Wait you don't pick wall color first? Yeah that's very  to me. No.. I don't want to fill the rooms I'm painting up with stuff before I paint them.Wall colour picking will be a mini date night with my partner next week most likely, then I'll get to find out how badly I really suck at the actual painting(a tremendous amount of suckage, I estimate)!
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Jun 24, 2021 20:13
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Queen Victorian posted:Wait you don't pick wall color first? If you're starting from scratch, then yeah, pick out your wall colors, then add furnishings/decor that go with it. If you already have furnings/decor, though, then you need to pick wall colors that go with it, and while it's certainly easier to paint before moving all that stuff in, I can understand wanting to see what it looks like in the room first.
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Jun 24, 2021 20:38
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Sirotan posted:Been a banner week in home ownership. So far I have: House Ownership Thread: The never ending cycle of injury and repair
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Jun 24, 2021 21:04
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PageMaster posted:I posted earlier about how to clean up after house renovation with (particularly concrete cutting and drywall sanding for silica particulates) and did the dry wiping, followed by wet wiping, and also stuck some fans out windows a bit as recommended. We are now living upstairs behind a plastic tarp with zipper in our sanitized area, but downstairs still has ongoing work with another day or two of sanding coming up, and we still have to walk through there to get to the door. I bought a Wirecutter recommended air purifier with HEPA filter for the space we are staying in and have it running almost all the time, and am thinking about getting a second one just for downstairs immediately after the work since the cost is about the same as what I would be paying for just 20x20 HEPA or MERV14 filters anyways. We'll still wipe everything down, but I figure running it the evening after work will grab a lot of the silica and other particulates still in the air. It's realistic from reputable manufacturers using actual filter media. Your mileage may vary from "too cheap" online stuff. Note that a 20x20x?? HEPA filter may have FAR MORE filtration lifetime than whatever standalone unit you are buying. You're putting them in a worst-case scenario - people actively sanding particulate into the air. What lasts "6 months!!!*^+" may last you literal days or weeks in a really bad environment. What they're saying with those lifespans is "with X amount of pollutant, it will last Y time." Like the AustinAir units I've fallen in love with over this past year cost as much up front as 5 years of filters for the "wirecutter recommended" unit, and have a warranty to back it up. (How you would possibly claim that warranty I don't know, but there you have it.) I wouldn't use them for known paint/drywall/plaster sanding jobs though, I would stand up some disposable 10x10x2 or whatever box fans and discard the filters when I was done.
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Jun 24, 2021 21:23
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Thanks, I didn't think long term cost since we're only looking at another 3 days tops of sanding, but considering the state is on fire twice a year it might not hurt. That being said, I can't seem to find many 20x20x2 HEPA filters online, and the ones I did find cost almost all much as the standalone air purifier so I'm sure there had to be like a warehouse where contractors can buy them.
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Jun 24, 2021 22:02
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Insulating and weatherproofing a 800 sq ft attic is absolutely something I should do myself and not pay a couple grand for someone else to do, right? The current insulation is shallow, loosely scattered, and old.
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Jun 24, 2021 22:05
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vs Dinosaurs posted:Insulating and weatherproofing a 800 sq ft attic is absolutely something I should do myself and not pay a couple grand for someone else to do, right? The current insulation is shallow, loosely scattered, and old. How old? 
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Jun 24, 2021 22:06
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if it's old enough it could be vermiculite which is potentially an asbestos hazard. Otherwise, its not that hard and you can rent a blower or spend a couple hours rolling out batts to save yourself a lot of money.
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Jun 24, 2021 22:30
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Sundae posted:How old? We really need an asbestos emoticon
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Jun 24, 2021 22:54
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SpartanIvy posted:We really need an asbestos emoticon We have 
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Jun 24, 2021 23:07
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Sirotan posted:
This seems concerning. Does your alarm have the numbers on it to show the level?
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Jun 24, 2021 23:12
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vs Dinosaurs posted:Insulating and weatherproofing a 800 sq ft attic is absolutely something I should do myself and not pay a couple grand for someone else to do, right? The current insulation is shallow, loosely scattered, and old. Fuuuck that. Attics suck. Idk where you live but the last time I went in mine it was a limit of about 5 minutes because it was 130 degrees in there and I was drenched in sweat. Couple that with the need for gloves and long sleeves and a hat and safety glasses so you don't get itchy.
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Jun 24, 2021 23:21
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my HOA’s management company is trying to charge me monthly assessments when my ALTA settlement statement and signed closing forms say they’re due on a quarterly basis. they’ll start charging me late fees and poo poo July 15th. is this what title insurance is for? I called my title Insurance’s 800 number and left a voicemail, but I’ll call again tomorrow. I called my escrow officer and they confirmed that HOA payments are quarterly, and they said they’d talk to the HOA management company, but that was close to end of business here. the management company is seemingly based in California and I’m in Texas, so they’ve been emailing me and sandbagging the pdfs I’ve sent that say “HOA Dues 1st quarter” among all the other line items from closing.
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Jun 25, 2021 01:30
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