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Homeowner/House Thread: It's going to cost more than you expect
That_Guy
I don't wanna be that guyRegistered User regular
I don't wanna be that guyRegistered User regular
I see SE has one of these who why not us. Have you found yourself $250,000 in debt to a bank you've never visited? Do you have just one more project before it's livable? Doing remodels or renovations? Did you find the perfect place in the perfect location and just wanna gush about it? This thread is for you. Here we can discuss the trials and tribulation, the ups and downs, the adventure that is home ownership in a post recession economy.
Home Hunting Resources
zillow.com
trulia.com
realtor.com
Credit Resources
creditkarma.com
annualcreditreport.com
mint.com
Mortgage resources
mortgagecalculator.org
www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/mortgage-calculator.aspx
Loan advice
Find a small local broker. They are going to work the hardest to make sure you find just the right loan for you. The big banks just don't have as much of an incentive.
More to come
Home Hunting Resources
zillow.com
trulia.com
realtor.com
Credit Resources
creditkarma.com
annualcreditreport.com
mint.com
Mortgage resources
mortgagecalculator.org
www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/mortgage-calculator.aspx
Loan advice
Find a small local broker. They are going to work the hardest to make sure you find just the right loan for you. The big banks just don't have as much of an incentive.
More to come
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I sent the info to the roofing contractor but radio silence since then. Hmm.
Edit: It was a for sale by owner deal too. Everything went so smooth. Being able to communicate directly with the seller was SOOOOOOO much easier than working with a realtor. I had tried out a few people before I came across this place. Just wasn't working for me. I found this place on Zillow and had it under contract the day after I saw the place. My broker said it was the simplest contract he'd ever seen. It was simply the agreed upon selling price and when we wanted to close. A few tweaks later and here I am. A happy homeowner.
Now the real hell begins, right?
Yup. Got a full home inspection even before the appraisal had happened. They found nothing major, just a few minor items that will be cheap/free to get fixed.
It's an older building, but buying a place in Yellowknife is crazy expensive. To buy a manufactured home on a small slice of land in a neighbourhood that's all gravel starts at about $400k. A home with an actual foundation that's blasted into the bedrock that is the Canadian Shield? $500k and up. My condo was $250k, and is a 3 bedroom, 1075 sq ft place that's actually in a p good location. I can walk to work and it's a quiet neighbourhood.
I'm saving up to do some renos around the time that I have to renew the mortgage (In Canada, mortgages are for five years at a time. The full term might be 20 or 25 years, but every five years you have to basically refinance at whatever the current interest rate is at the time). I'd like to do the kitchen first, then the bathroom. Everything else is in pretty good shape.
EDIT: Oh, and my condo fees are $900 a month.
Yeah.
Hopefully anyhow.
Sometimes I look wistfully at new builds. Sometimes.
We got a USDA loan for our home almost exactly 4 years ago. It was kind of surprising that the area qualified, and it didn't a year or two after that, so we lucked out. It was really great since we had saved the down payment for the potential FHA loan that was now pretty much ours. We even got money back after closing. I definitely recommend people check for those when looking to buy. The only real downsides to them are they have a monthly fee similar to PMI (but much lower) that doesn't go away, there's like a $5k fee they tack on to the selling price, and it takes a bit longer to close (I think ours was around 60 days, and they got it done fast).
Our home is now about 10 years old, so we're kind of approaching the point where things will start to go out, which has me a little worried. We've had some minor repairs so far but nothing too bad. Youtube is a huge help when pretty much anything goes wrong.
I absolutely love my house, though. We really lucked out with finding it and having our offer accepted, especially in the market we have here. I guess the worst thing is in the 4 years we've lived here, our appraisal value has gone up about $70k, making our taxes about $100 more per month. That's been kind of rough.
Well, it worked well enough that I'm installing the rest of it (mostly today).
It's worth noting that reviews are saying trees that drop small particles/material clog up the cells in the foam. I don't have that problem where I live, so I think it'll work out.
At the end of the day, I'm doing the whole house for under $300; so even if I get 1-2 years out of it, it's worthwhile. Anything that wins me back gutter cleaning time is a win.
Here's the link for what I'm using. I got mine from HD.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/GutterStuff-GS-K5-Foam-Filter-5-in-W-X-4-ft-L-For-Use-With-5-in-K-Style-Gutter/22217418
My only issues have been: having to replace the AC unit because of the dog; replacing the Hot water heater because of the dog; buying a fence during that time; wasps; and this is VA loan specific, but it requires you to have that place as your primary residence for 5 years minimum. After having bought the house, now I want to make money off of it while I move somewhere else. So having to wait for that 'okay' is maddening sometimes.
Otherwise, it's just too much house for the dog and I. I love having a yard and garage in the city but I should have just kept renting. I want to downsize and use the house to generate income. Oh also, since I have an out of this world mortgage rate, I can essentially never refinance, ever, because I'll never get a rate close to or better than what I have now.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
You can rent a place with all of that too
Having your own washer and drier is really nice. I had a cheap set that I got from a used appliance store at my old apartment. In my new place I picked up a front loader set for cheap from a friend of a friend. Now it's like having the laundry mat in my own home.
So i wondered if there was a website that could tell you at what point renting vs owning becomes sensible on a pure monthly cost level (like that it would be stupid to pay $2,000/mo rent because mortgage plus fees on a reasonable house would be $1,800 or something)
Those calculators are reasonably accurate if you know how much you want to spend on the house and where it is. It's hard to factor in things like utilities though.
I think ultimately having a complete control over the place that I lived is what swayed me. I did well property value wise as well but really its the "it's mine" factor trumps all.
I have that in my gutters. It needs to be hand cleaned still of tree debris or it starts growing little trees. Also it seems to attract insects because it is damp most of the time. But it works better than nothing and is cheaper than gutter shields.
but they're listening to every word I say
The worst part of home ownership is finding the right people for the projects you can't do yourself. Tip from my experience: if you're getting someone to reseed your lawn instead of doing sod, buy the seed yourself. I had the guys doing it do so, figuring they know more. Looked great for a few months, and then it turns out it's more of a local breed which goes dormant in the summer, which...yeah. :-/
Good to know. I will take that under advisement
One of the long-standing things which I'd been planning to do after we bought our house was removing a hedge. One three day weekend, I tackled that, heading out early before the heat of the day and taking it out in segments. Turns out there was a mouse nest in it, so I got rid of them at the same time, the hedge had actually been weighing down the fence to where if I hadn't removed it it probably would have collapsed (as-is, it lasted through the winter until we got a bunch of storms where the wind finally pushed it mostly over. The whole thing is replaced now, with cost split 50-50 because another section was also leaning in the other way because our neighbors had been storing a bunch motorcycles and such leaning on it).
It's such a small, silly thing. Removing a hedge. But that damn thing took hours and hours of work, and it felt so good once it was gone. I'm getting a similar (lesser) feeling this weekend with the drip irrigation - it's working again. not fully done (need to stake it all down, a couple places we want to change what the nozzles are doing, etc), but done enough to where the plants which weren't getting water are getting water again now, at a better pressure than when we bought the place. It's super satisfying, particularly after having gotten a quote from a sprinkler repair place and balking at the price...knowing we saved ourselves that, too.
Been a home owner for a couple years here in the Denver area, meaning our home value has skyrocketed in that short time. It's a starter home, and we're putting as much into the equity as we can (along with saving money on the side) so that we'll have a nice amount to put down when it's time to upgrade in a few years.
Agreed, yards suck. We kept a small bit of grass in the back, but the second and third tiers (our back yard is on a hill) we got rid of any grass and put in mulch plus a bunch of bushes that don't need watering. Now if only I could get rid of all the Aspen trees. They do not do well at this elevation, and their roots push up little baby shoots all through the yard. It's annoying.
Lawn care is the devils work.
My parents essentially rebuilt their house, and I ended up with a free natural gas furnace in the process. So far this has cost me $50 for a flexible gas line and a drywall saw.
Made an access panel on the left side of the garage. The house's existing furnace is located in a little closet in the garage directly above the area I cut out. Sadly, I wasn't able to get the drywall piece out without damage for reasons that will become clear shortly.
A convenient gas line! I need to grab a valve at Home Depot tomorrow so I can shut off the extension separately.
What kind of dumb contractor hangs drywall with nails and a shitload of glue? Impossible to get the piece off without destroying it, so I'll have to get a 41"x48" piece cut to replace it.
To do:
- run power line
- run gas line
- set up thermostat
- set up exhaust
- check connections and test fire
- cut replacement drywall panel and install
- optional: insulate the back wall
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
Our sump pump has been short cycling since last week (the last round of storms on the East Coast). I checked it and there's a break in the line that sends water out of the house. The result is the water that doesn't make it all the way out of the basement back flows into the sump, which causes just enough of a level increase that it turns the pump on again.
I was able to push the piping back together and that helped a bit, but it's not a fix.
The kicker is that this sump was put in about 10 years ago when the previous homeowners installed a french drain system. When they did that, the installing contractor buried part of the sump pump drain line when they re-cemented the floor. And, of course, the break seems to be about 2-3" along the length of the portion that's under the cement.
If I had the free time, I could probably fix it in a weekend, but we have a guy coming tomorrow to check it out (and hopefully fix).
I know this kind of work is within my capabilities, but I'll be damned if I have the time to focus on it. And that just makes me feel that much more inadequate having to pay someone else to do it.
Sumps can be a nightmare if they malfunction. Hopefully they can just put a smaller diameter pipe in the existing conduit or just repair the break. I'd be quite concerned if I had a sump and it was pumping water directly into the foundation. Good luck, man.
I borrowed an electronic detector from a co-worker out of curiosity and the levels from that initial test came back at 3 times the limit (Canadian limit being 200 Bq/m3).
I bought my own electronic detector because some google searches came back with a lot of negative reviews regarding high false readings on the one I borrowed. Unfortunately, the new detector all but confirmed that I have a Radon issue. The last 3 weeks have been getting week long averages for the kids bedrooms, basement rec room and crawl space.
I did some minor mitigation by covering the floor drain with a one way airtight rubber seal. It allows water to flow down it but blocks gasses coming up from the weeping tiles. Also, during my investigations I discovered that my crawl space that is underneath half of the house is likely the major source; measurements in the crawl space peaked around 1900 Bq/m3, with the week long average being ~900 Bq/m3. I also discovered some significant cracks in the concrete slab in there. The major cracks I found I filled with spray foam and the smaller ones sealed with a polyurethane concrete caulking.
I'm hoping that re-measuring the basement after sealing the obvious potential sources in the crawl space will get the numbers down to reasonable winter levels. If not I'll be calling in professional remediation and that is going to set me back a few thousand.
Ugh, houses.
Origin: theRealElMucho
Man, don’t be ridiculous. Value the personal time you are saving as worth paying for and appreciate that paying someone else to do these things is often much more efficient than futzing around yourself.
That's not good... all the daughter products are potent alpha emitters and very good at causing cancer. Do you have any way to vent your crawlspace? If you have crawlspace vents, are they open?
There are no vents in the crawl space and the entirety of the foundation walls in the crawl space and the basement are sealed with spray foam. But I believe I've sealed the major sources. The major sources being the laundry room floor drain, the smaller cracks in the crawl space concrete and the inch wide crack that ran the length of the crawl space (this one I could feel a draft coming up from).
The cancer risk is significant but from what I've read it's not an immediate risk, but more from prolong exposure. The Canadian Goverment recommends for my levels remediation within 2 years, so it's definitely become my priority as far as house expenses go. However, I'm going to make get some longer term readings after sealing the suspected sources before any major remediation.
Winter where I live is very cold, so for the majority of January/February the furnace is running constantly all that air going up the chimney was unfortunately being replaced by air being sucked up through the cracks and floor drain. Adding to this the previous owners installed new doors and new windows throughout the house and spray foamed the basement. Also my furnace does not have a fresh air intake. Basically, my house is a gigantic vacuum in winter, so I expect these readings are as high as they'll get. I'm hopeful that the sealed cracks will reduce the flow of air from the ground significantly enough to lower the readings.
If not, the remediation involves depressurizing the soil below the foundation slab. It's just expensive.
Origin: theRealElMucho
If you are not smokers, the 'risk' according to the EPA at your levels is 20 times the risk of dying in a home fire. So, significant but not terrifying. Best to take action with one of the fan based soil depressurization systems, it sounds like they are not absurdly expensive.
In the short term, summer is coming. Keep your windows open. That will cut your levels in half easily.
Local company charges between $2200 - $3500 for the soil depressurization install. So not financially crippling and a year getting a long term average will give us a chance to put some cash aside to cover it.
Origin: theRealElMucho
The issue I've read in regards to plugging holes is that it will often work for a while, but what happens is that new cracks keep on slowly opening up as the foundation settles and shifts. So your radon levels can jump back up again surprisingly quickly. By combining plugging holes with the fan it means that the small new holes are not risky to you, and so the problem can be resolved.
I'm wrestling with this a lot these days. In the last 6 months I've gotten hit with:
Water heater replacement
Furnace blower fan replacement
Garage door sensor short
Kitchen/bathtub drain clog
Garage door spring replacement
So far, I did everything myself except for the backed up drain. $250 here and $300 there adds up quick, so I've been doing as much as possible myself, but if I wasn't trying to pay down debt I'd probably call somebody more often.
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
A cinderblock wall.
It's the most basic building block construction kind of stuff, nope $100 a foot.
I hope you didn't do the garage door spring yourself. People die replacing those if they don't know what they're doing.