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There wasn't a single straight line in that room. The house was built in 1921, so the roof joists didn't meet at the peak, they were offset on either side by one board width. So I couldn't just put in the cross braces for the can lights, I had to run stringers down each side attached to the joists, then put the braces in. The two skylight windows weren't installed the same distance from the peak, either. And the side walls are two different heights. It had been just a regular attic, converted to a "finished" loft, by idiots. Where the railing is use to be just a big plywood box, that's why there's a piece of unfinished drywall. Still have to get carpet put down. Honestly thinking of just dropping $500 off the price of the house, since anywhere I've looked for installation is at least 4 weeks out.
LVP/EVP is crazy easy to put in and increases the value of your house much more than the cost of the materials.
Hadn’t realized how much it’s been weighing on me til I saw the forecast and wasn’t suddenly stressed.
Behold the power of proper drainage.
Depending on how stable they’d be in a typhoon or storm with strong gusts of wind, I’ve thought about extending panels into the back yard as a ‘roof’ to the classic pergola that is popular in landscape architecture today. Adds shade in the back yard and increases square footage of power production.
Edit:
Given the amazing results in the series of photos above, I’m tickled a little bit that carpet is where you drew the line on the rest of the project (Seriously I get it though, lots on the plate, and it’s worth the money to not need to finish the floor as long as the house sells)
Just epic job on the renovation.
Nest installed and functional!
Shitty screen door repaired enough to last until I replace the whole damn door!
Wow the Nest is worth every cent so far. It's replacing a 3M thermostat that I'm pretty sure required a blood sacrifice in order to be programmed...
It would be a bit more complicated than that. Your ceiling joists are likely 16" OC, meaning you'd have to cut one of the joists down and box it out with proper headers and joist hangers. Since it's non load-bearing up there you don't have to worry quite as much, since all it's doing is holding up your ceiling, but you'd still want to do it right since it would be supporting you + a hatch and ladder. And likely a joist might not be perfectly centered above your closet so it might be difficult to fit in there depending on the layout. Boxing it out correctly would also probably mean removing more ceiling drywall than would just be for the hatch, then re-drywalling to your new opening. Might be easier if you could do the work from the top if you could get over there from your existing access hatch.
Fuck.
My girlfriend and I were having dinner in the back yard, and Little Dog went off for a sneaky pee on the lawn (back yard has a big lawn bordered by rock areas, and we're trying to get the pups to potty on the rocks). I get up to give him a little hassle about it, and all of a sudden the back yard sprinklers erupt!
Scare the hell out of Little Dog (he's deaf to boot, so didn't even hear them engage), which was both hysterical and teachable (hoping he starts to think peeing on the lawn turns them on?). I jumped up and cheered. My partner looked at me like an idiot. But whatever, the controller works!
So here's my theory: In the process of installing the Nest, I had to shut off power to the HVAC. Rather than fuck-around-and-find-out, I just killed the mains (this house has two separate HVAC systems, a condenser and furnace for the basement and main floor, and same for the upper floor, so I wanted to be sure). Anyway, I'm guessing killing power to the controller may have been the trick.
I still think I'll upgrade the controller, since they seemed cheap-ish at the store, and the one I have is pretty unintuitive.
Ugh. While not un-doable that sounds more like a job I need to contract out.
Working in attics is the worst.
ALSO I totally replaced the hinges on a cabinet today (and it's level and in the correct place tooooo) and I feel like a million dollars.
With the current climate I’m hesitant to leave myself with less than like, 50k, but websites don’t seem to advise being quite so cautious (though just because they say that doesn’t make it a good idea)
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
Like $3000. I'm kind of dumb. Probably wouldn't have done that in the middle of a pandemic, though.
However a window on our top floor started leaking.
*weeps in home ownership*
Except the screen door I just spent more time than I'd like to admit fixing. Fuck you, screen door.
If you’re putting 20% down, you can usually also get a home equity line of credit to get back some of that 20% down money at a slightly higher interest rate if things get really bad.
Although I’d say 10k is probably a fine number to shoot for, provided your income is high enough that you are saving money every month even with the new mortgage payment. If it isn’t, well there’s probably bigger issues.
We also had the benefit of knowing my job would be guaranteed stable for another eight years or so.
We were pretty similar to this.
Though we had enough contributions in Roth IRAs that we were comfortable that we could pull without penalty if there was an unexpected maintenance or something issue early on
It worked out extremely well for us, but it was dependent on a lot of unique factors. Job with strong raises and borderline guaranteed employment, a family safety net if we miscalculated, and nothing major went wrong after we moved in. If we’d had to do some major appliance repair right away things would have been tight.
There was a period during the escrow where we were essentially just cashless, which was tense even with all the above.
If you’re going to be cash-strapped to accomplish the purchase and intend to do so anyway, I suggest literally sitting down with a calendar to work out day to day cash fluctuations you face on a monthly basis. Overestimate by 10% or more, and include literally all expenses.
Not a real finance guy, but that’s how I managed our money and my anxiety.
I have not yet bought a proper single family house but I am currently in the market. It seems like the general consensus is that people are pretty cash strapped after purchasing a home. I feel I lean a bit more towards your side of things in being more cautious rather than less. From my own perspective, 50k as a minimum would probably be more than what is needed. I think 30k (10k for immediate home repairs and 20k emergency fund) would be pretty comfortable depending on how confident you are in your job situation.
I'm not sure if you've considered a coop or condo but if your finances are a paramount concern then I think you would do well to research coops or condos in your area. Your costs will likely be much lower and you should only have to worry about minimal maintenance costs for your particular unit. Obviously owning a coop or condo does not always fulfill everyone's needs when it comes to home ownership but I think they can be excellent stepping stones for people.
In my own case I bought a small coop which has appreciated in value by somewhere between 20k and 50k. This will allow me to have a much larger amount of cash after I make my next house purchase to the tune of 50k to 80k depending on circumstances. While I don't want to imply that these results can necessarily be replicated, purchasing my coop was an infinitely more economical option compared to renting and has provided me the funds to comfortably make the jump to a house.
In case you're still interested, I just saw this on Reddit. A little different since the guy already had an access hatch, but shows how he had to cut the joists and re-create the headers. https://imgur.com/gallery/EkWSBg4
Also, just mowed with the greenworks pro 80v for the first time and I would definitely recommend it.
Mine feels like a flimsy plastic piece of trash, but I think it's because it's on an uneven hill, and would probably feel better on a flat surface.