Buying A House: C or D?

For three years, the nascent Talking Heads lived in a loft with no bath or shower; they would just go over to friends' houses and, after a decent social interval, just ask "hey, do you mind if I take a shower?"

I feel like at some point it would be the friend asking "hey, do you mind taking a shower?"

Or "thanks for stopping by so i can complain about my problems. first, and this one is the least of it, but my shower broke. Have a seat. Shall i open a bottle of pepsi?" Etc.

I spent a good six months of my life bathing only in the river near our place, back when we lived off-grid.

Similar thing with our bathroom, man alive— whoever had done the reno before hadn't connected the shower properly to the main, so whenever we took showers for the first few weeks, water was spraying into the walls and ceiling. A real treat.

Movers are coming next week, after which we will be living with a bunch of staging shit. Gonna feel weird.

where are you moving to again?

Santa Barbara

!

Everybody surfs for a living there, right?

one of my bffs just move down there -- she works for a winery, no surfing

It will always be
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWIxNGExMDEtOGU1My00YjVkLTkzN2ItYmIzYWNiYjNhMDAzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjExODE1MDc@._V1_.jpg

(sorry if huge)

hahah every time I see A Martinez in a tv show, I think of Santa Barbara

When I was a little kid, I thought Santa Barbara (the show) was somehow linked to Hanna Barbara, so I would watch the first several minutes of it hoping to see cartoons.

it was on at 2pm (iirc) right before the cartoons and children's shows so ... it makes sense to me

got a quote of $160k for replacing a leaning retaining wall. this house likely not happening.

selling agent also gave us a survey, claiming it showed the wall on neighbor's property. It clearly has the wall outside of the neighbor's parcel line. So I think dude is just trying to scam us.

So dud, i guess

When I was a little kid, I thought Santa Barbara (the show) was somehow linked to Hanna Barbara, so I would watch the first several minutes of it hoping to see cartoons.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, September 17, 2020 2:58 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Me too! I mean, I learned after the first time though.

Damn there goes my plan of renting and/or buying Surfjan’s condo

well we are just asking the seller to pay for it. they likely won't want to. so a bunch of inspectors/engineers made money off us. and we will remain houseless.

My retaining walls are making me not want to own property. I have three of them, two where I'm the upside neighbor and one the downside. They are all slowly failing. One is serious. After being replaced once 10 years ago, my 80-foot redwood tree which is beloved by the residents of the entire block continues to push out my wall into the neighbor's deck. I know I'm going to have to take it down, but it's huge and is hanging right over their house, and it is in the middle of the block with no street access whatsoever, so the idea of trying to remove it gives me nightmares. And thinking about dealing with the 12 or so other owners on neighboring properties who will inevitably be angry about it also really stresses me out

yeah, I am permanently off retaining walls after this.

Retaining walls are pretty much a given in a lot of parts of my town because it’s so hilly. The upside of that is that there are a handful of excellent local stonemasons who really know how to deal with them. We have a couple of old stacked stone walls and a stone and mortar wall and all are holding up well according to the people we had look at them.

All mention of this gives me shivers. I am wondering what am I going to do. How liable will I be for damage to my neighbor's property? Can they really take a four-foot diameter tree in sections out through my house to the street? Because there is no other way

probs with a crane

depends on where you live? ... stonemasons are great in theory, but if you live somewhere earthquake prone? Not the best idea, I think the general material used is concrete in that case? ...Also, depending on where you live, the tree issue could be fraught, like ridiculously fraught.

on the plus side: if you have a whole bunch of fraught trees, you can grow apples

the velvetundergrowth of retaining walls

i'd get that checked if that's a problem for you, likely mold

the velvetundergrowth of retaining walls

Not many people have built a retaining wall, but every one of them started a band

hahahahah thank you!

every one of them started a lawsuit

offering on a different house built in the 1850s. But no retaining walls, thank gourd. it's funny how an old house built in the 1970s is gross, but you go back to 1850 and all the gross shit becomes "charming".

"You installed this floating bamboo floor 15 years ago? It looks like dogshit. This is the original farmhouse wood floor from 1850? How chaaaaaaaaaarming."

"my head hits the ceiling in this room! People sure were hobits back then. Chaaaaaaarming hobits."

as much as I like living in a city, if I were going to buy a house now I would buy one far away from everybody

this sentiment, along with low interest rates, is why we must pay a 20% surcharge in this market.

people from LA bringing their De Niro Heat scheme money my way to escape the Heat

:) my friends in rural northwestern Connecticut and in the Great Barrington area of Massachusetts (the Berkshires, one of the greatest places I have ever visited) have said that property there can't be had now because it is all bought up

Great Barrierington

the great city flight will result in lots of folks missing one million great food options.

and good jobs after zoom work hits the wall

I think cities still have a future

As skate parks

my experience of Great Barrington and Marlborough was that they had great food options

maybe if you like snowcones!

just kidding. I'm sure they are wonderful.

Philadelphia housing market is nuts right now, but that's mostly New Yorkers cashing in their chips to live in a cheaper city that remains close enough to NY

My friend in Richmond, VA listed her house at noon today, but said she couldn't share a link to the listing because it never made it that far. Immediate buyer!

jfc

I've stayed in Great Barrington and other nearby towns a bunch of times and there are def great food options up there. What you miss out on of course is the sheer number and variety of options that you can only get from density.

Oh hi just sold house in 48 hours with 5 offers over asking, some all cash. But now I will be a buyer in a hot sellers’ market so turnabout is fair play I guess. Oh and I will be competing with SG so that will be fun :)

yay quincie on the west coast!!! just remember that you are moving to a place with earthquakes