Buying A House: C or D?

lately instead of being terrified of owning a 110-year-old house I have been relieved - if it's still intact like it is after that long it'll probably be ok under my tenure

When I looked at my place with the realtor (exactly one year ago last Saturday) it had been raining for a week straight and the basement was totally dry which I took as a great sign. Some water showed up on the floor this fall and I panicked until I realized it was the kitchen sink drain leaking above it which is so much better than a crack in the foundation.

As for noise I live on a fairly busy but mostly quiet street, but the downside is that it's in the middle of hundreds of student houses. None within three or four blocks due to rules that limit the number of non-relatives who live together, but on weekend nights there are plenty of loud drunken people staggering through while party hopping late at night singing or yelling or getting in fights or whatever, and on home football saturdays there are suddenly thousands of people walking around en route to the stadium. Which isn't necessarily horrible, but just really took me by surprise the first I went out to walk the dog and there were a dozens of wasted college kids roaming around at 10am on a Saturday.

lately instead of being terrified of owning a 110-year-old house I have been relieved - if it's still intact like it is after that long it'll probably be ok under my tenure

This is similar to how I used to feel about the United States of America.

You never know how damp basements get until you use a dehumidifier. Our old basement was only maybe 700 sq ft and on some days we would need to empty out a liter of water every day.

marcos, I've had the same thought

if no one has wrecked this place over that many years, I don't think I have the special ability to do so now

or, going off pplains' rejoinder, someone's probably wrecked it in different ways and making a token effort is worth the try

Ha exactly

a liter? oh man, that's nothing. the humid season here and we're talking gallons

luckily I just have mine running to the floor drain

we got a dehumidifier with the hose attachment and just set it up to drain all the time, nice to not have to empty it

This was in Blyn, our basement was tiny. Gah, we should've had it run to a drain, it was always annoying to have to go down to empty it. I do not miss living in a house.

I've got a dumpster parked in my driveway so I can't pull in, I've got a bunch of siding/soffit material sitting in boxes in the yard, and it's sleeting so they probably aren't going to start working today. Hopefully I can find a route for the people putting in a new water line to make it to the back door on Friday.

It could be much worse of a mess, but.. sheesh

lately instead of being terrified of owning a 110-year-old house I have been relieved - if it's still intact like it is after that long it'll probably be ok under my tenure

― marcos

our house was built in 1920, before they put in the dams on the river. so if we get a flood, the basement will be flooded, but the house itself should be fine since it's built about 3 feet above ground level

I was specifically thinking about this after reading abt the Kauai floods

frantically cleaning before the BPO in an hour. It probably doesn't change anything but my mental state, but it is the ritual one must perform for the anxiety gods.

xpost our apartment in Chile is on the 10th floor. I worry a tad bit whenever I can feel an earthquake (5, 6's usually) but I figure since it's still standing after all the 7's and 8's, we'll be ok.

those chilean engineers are something else, they build differently there right

A lot of rebar and concrete? I don't know. I sometimes wonder why we know so many architects here and then I am like...oh yeah.

The tallest building in Latin America is a couple of blocks from where I live and when there have been 7s and 8s I think the damage has always been minimal (stuff falling off walls).

you live in providencia? santiago is a pleasant city imo

Yep. It's an ok city. Outside of Santiago is much more interesting.

brb coming over

getting a new roof and the house painted this summer so wish me luck with ocntractors

spent 1 hour cleaning up and reorganizing a storage space that the realtor never even looked at

I've only ever owned places that were built in the 1800s. sturdy as anything (except the twirly bits on the outside that are prone to falling off I guess). When I moved to sf I realised how many ppl live in what are essentially wooden sheds :-p

spent 1 hour cleaning up and reorganizing a storage space that the realtor never even looked at"

WHy didnt you say DONT YOU WANNA LOOK IN HERE!?!?!

to be honest, I was thrilled with the way she breezed through the process. We have some real "problems" (actually ongoing renovation) that she could have focused on. I mostly was trying to make nice conversation, since this is just another financial process that is somewhat arbitrary and biased in the way a decision will be made. She told me that she'd have to recommend something to be fixed in her report because the higher ups like it, so I was at least able to finesse her into hopefully recommending a sliding patio door replacement that we've already put a deposit on.

I feared inviting her into my precious storage space with a crazed look may have put all that in jeopardy

she looks at you like this

$ $
^
___

my childhood home for sale. it should really have a plaque on the front door stating that. it has a pretty tortured listing history since my folks sold it. they really made it white inside. like a snowstorm in there.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/167-Whisconier-Rd-Brookfield-CT-06804/57263196_zpid/

that's a cool house!

So our move to the countryside might be going ahead although it looks like we'll need to accept quite a lot lower offer on ours than we hoped :(
I think I need someone all-knowing to give me a reality check and confirm we're doing the right thing...

Saddest thing will be my son won't be going to school with his current best friend. Agh.

went to see a house last night at 7. bought it at 12 today

:O

Just had $20k sucked out of my bank acct for closing costs 0_0. Still stoked tho. The 5am construction noise at current domicile is making a move seem even more glorious.

xp whoaaaa congrats

feel a bit sick tbh. didn't really wake up this morning expecting to have bought a house : O

damn congrats!

I think everybody gets the what-have-I-dones after buying a house.

thanks !!

yes I would worry if you DIDN'T feel a lil sick!

for sure

it took me a long time

i love my house so much now

I'm going to be so happy when the painting is done on my place this weekend. Not that having bare siding and trim for a couple weeks is bad, I just want this cycle of the grand homeowner project to be done with.

I still need to get a couple window panes fixed. If anyone thinks "oh, I have an old house and never open this window or remove this insert, I'll PAINT OVER IT, like some previous owner did, please never do that. A few things had to be opened/removed and it was impossible to flex those suckers open without breaking anything.

I may still get all new basement windows to alleviate the fact they're all pretty much single-pane uninsulated junk, but I haven't gotten a second quote or accepted the first one because I just want to get through this round first

next up: some landscaping and a couple small indoor projects!

rip my wallet

I'm glad I remembered to call my home insurance agent because I'm saving, uh, .3% of what I just spent on improvements on my insurance now!

on the other hand, the city has a home improvement tax abatement so I'll hopefully be saving more on that front, should it all get approved

Did you do it yourself?

went to see a house last night at 7. bought it at 12 today

Did you have a suitcase full of cash or something?

bought it as in offer accepted. don’t have a mortgage yet and my flat isn’t listed either 😬

xxp oh heck no

I had a contractor who coordinated the roof, siding, gutters, etc and they were very reasonable and great with the level of communication and everything turned out great. I'd have gone with them for painting, but my family recommended a guy who is very reasonable

I guess I never updated anyone about the situation with me being an anxious idiot about money and improvements a couple years back! I let everything slide and forgot about that piggyback mortgage. Paid it off. Refinanced my house last year, keeping 20% equity in the home and pulling the rest out in cash. Spent all of that money on the exterior work I just finished, meaning I'm more than ahead right now. Still have cash to do a few more things.

My low water pressure, which I may or may not have mentioned, is an ongoing thing. Turns out the water line insurance company (HomeServe) the water utility contracts with is very reasonable, and my low pressure was covered under their policy. I've had the line from my house to the curb replaced, with the section from my property to the actual water line, across the street, currently under investigation. The contractor said it's nearly a certainty they'll cover that as well, but I don't have to be around when the street is torn up to fix it.

Despite all the "get me out of here" jokes I feel really good about home ownership right now and things are good.

my neighborhood is pretty regularly increasing in home value and the number of people buying homes similar to mine is still on the upswing, and the number of homes near mine having a lot of work done is significant. I feel like it's a neighborhood on the upswing, and can't imagine moving in fewer than a couple years.

Anyone kicked the tires and dealt w buying a foreclosure?

Have you got a realtor? There are some who specialize in foreclosures/short sales, but I know the process doesn't move as swiftly as a regular purchase.

i believe you are responsible for eviction? that always seemed scary.

hey we closed on our new house and we're under contract to sell our old one <3