In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by BRENDA:
Cable, internet people coming tomorrow morning and I should be back on tomorrow night. If all goes well.

---

Why have I not heard Brenda mention anything about luxuries such as HEAT, or HOT WATER?

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

I'm already beginning the process of finding people to take whatever furniture they want. I'm not looking to take much with me whenever I'm ready to go. Some of the stuff I have is really nice, but I never bought any of it. As long as I have a couch, a bed and a few dressers, I'm good. I don't need all of this clutter, and the next house I'm buying is going to be tiny compared to this one. As for the rest of my stuff? Except for all of my tools and electronics, if I haven't used it in 2 years, it's going to good will or the trash. I hate moving, and I'm not carting a bunch of crap to another house.

The porch is history. I had been talking myself into believing the last few weeks that I could save it, but I got to tear it down. It's out of level, the "support" structures make no sense and stuff that I would think was load bearing isn't even touching the ground. I'm liable to kill myself if I try to do this on my own, and there's no guaranty that I could even if I tried.

I'm definately not going to pay somebody to do it, since I'd never recoup that money without doing a ton of other work to the house. The money I'd spend getting the necessary structural repair work done, or building a new one from scratch would be far better spent putting a good furnace in there and finishing the upstairs and basement and some light touchups on the first floor.

I think if I do a tear down and fill in the hole, re-side the side of the house that will expose, and pull up the patio pavers the ants destroyed and put down a nice bed of river rock there instead, I could probably get away with $20,000 in repairs/upgrades and expect to see around $80,000 for the house (since it won't have an updated kitchen or bathroom).

I'll lose a little bit on that if it works out that way, but can't forget the 8 years of basically free living. I should be able to move where I want and get a finished and dry 2 bed/1 bathroom house with a small lot for 3/4 of that price and live right down the street from my brother.

We'll probably go see a movie at the local 2 screen theater every week. 5 bucks a show, even on weekends, and 8 bucks if you want pop and popcorn with it.

I've got a busy summer ahead of me...

Do Right, Be Right. :)

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Yard Sale.

Get rid of a bunch of stuff, it gets hauled away for you, you get some money. You could take pics of stuff too big or heavy to take to the yard.
Make a pitcher of lemonade, relax outside under some shade, take everybody's money.

Adding a 2nd bathroom can add a pile of value. Sounds like your basement has room. Shower, toilet, sink from discount or Restore can be very cheap, or even just toilet, sink, cabinets. Or even convert one of your closets, or under stair areas.
Leave the heat issue to next owners - let them make the decision they want instead of being stuck with your decision. They might want a certain type of heat, and/or A/C, High Efficiency, Solar Panels, etc. They might get Tax Incentives or allow the Government to buy them a new system.

Same with any remodel - whatever you choose won't be liked or appreciated by somebody, narrowing your market.

You still working?

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

SIX, you're forgetting one big thing ... job??? Do you have a job to go to? Because it all sounds real sweet and nice where you're moving to, but it's not going to work out unless you're gainfully employed. Seems almost as impulsive as your mom and step dad.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

All I'd need is any near minimum wage job out there if I can buy a house that's water tight and won't fall apart with cash. Some of my step-mom's family live down there too. That's how my dad found out about the housing for my brother. My step cousin runs a landscaping business. I'm sure I could get some work from him too.



No yard sale, I'm afraid. Spent 3 days having one at my parents house and only sold 1/5th of the stuff they had and had to dump the rest anyhow. Only made about $450. People buying furniture that was thousands of dollars for IKEA prices. I'd rather people I liked get the stuff for free.

Quote:

---

Adding a 2nd bathroom can add a pile of value. Sounds like your basement has room. Shower, toilet, sink from discount or Restore can be very cheap, or even just toilet, sink, cabinets. Or even convert one of your closets, or under stair areas.
Leave the heat issue to next owners - let them make the decision they want instead of being stuck with your decision. They might want a certain type of heat, and/or A/C, High Efficiency, Solar Panels, etc. They might get Tax Incentives or allow the Government to buy them a new system.

Same with any remodel - whatever you choose won't be liked or appreciated by somebody, narrowing your market.

You still working?

---

There's a toilet in the basement. The standing shower unit was busted, but the basin remains and there's plumbing that works... it would just go everywhere without any walls. I could find a cheap vanity and put it in there and call it a half-bath with the potential for a full bath. No ceiling and the room was never finished.

The bottom half of all of the walls in the basement are still gone after I got rid of all the mold. My friend knows a lot about plumbing and he says he'll advise me on getting the sump system properly backed up so I can finally put the insulation, walls and trim back up without worrying that it would just flood again. I'd probably want to do something about the bare floor in the back "bedroom" down there. The living area sometimes takes on a minor amount of water during huge flood seasons like we recently had with the two weeks straight of rain that left my back yard looking like a marsh, so no carpet. The rest of the basement living space has nice ceramic tile that looks as good as the day I moved in. Maybe just put some cheap vinyl in the last room and call it a day.

Finishing the second floor would only require putting trim up everywhere, and putting doors on the closets. I wouldn't bother putting any money into the bathroom except for re-caulking everything that was caulked. I had already ripped up the carpeting and repaired and refinished the hardwood floors, and repaired the walls and ceilings and repainted everything.

First floor could use some minor wall repairs and a quick coat of paint. Kitchen is outdated, but I'm not going to sink any money into that. Cheap tile floor looks like hell though. I might buy some bargain basement cheap tile replacements and put new stuff down. Also need a banister going from the first to second floor. Not having one of those is probably a big contributor to when I nearly broke my back about 4 years ago. I've heard it's against code not to have one and I'd probably have to sell the house as-is if I didn't put one in before selling.

I need gutters too. Never got around to doing them.


Yeah. I'm still working. Overnight shift hasn't changed yet, as far as I know. I'll know more on Tuesday.

If they won't work with me with the same schedule, I'm going to offer to work weekends. I can't imagine that many people would do that, so I can't see why they'd turn that down. I'll need my free time more than ever now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Just keep in mind that if the economy slows down, or we suffer a giant crash, landscaping jobs will be the first to go as people try to save money. Also, don't ASSUME that you can get a job with your step-cousin, you better ASK. And you better be sure of the answer you get, and that it isn't wobbly.

However, if a job is assured and your daily expenses would be about the same here or there, then job or no job would have the same impact here or there. in other words, jobless at your new place would be the same as jobless at your current place, and all you would need to do is be able to pay taxes to stay "homed".

So after that, it's just a question of preerving your wealth; you want to make sure you don't LOSE any money selling your current house versus buying a new one.

Look at Zillow.com or redfin.com, or trulia.com or other alternate sites
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100215/5-best-alternativ
es-zillow-trulia.asp
for "comps" (comparable sq footage/ number of beds/baths/ lot size) to get an idea what the prices are, if you haven't already. I don't look at asking prices, instead, I look at "recently sold". Just be aware that some sites (like zillow) dont't update as frequently as they should so some homes that come on the market may not show up for few weeks, also some homes sold or taken off the market. Also look at properties sold due to repossession: they really drag the price down.

The market is already sinking in "hot" areas (SF, Hamptons, Portland, Seattle etc) so ...

I agree about yard sales. I've had or helped with a couple of really successful ones (sold all our worldly possessions before moving cross country) but mostly they have been disappointing and not worth the effort. My most successful yard sale at had a bucket of machbooks, and when people tried to jerk me down from $0.25 for a $10 item I'd say "Pay the asking price and grab some matches" and it woked. The other successful one I helped run for ome friends, they just tok their stuff to an empty gas station lot at the corner pf two busy streets and sold nearly everything. So maybe there's something in there. call if "moving sale" and people will know there will be large items and you ight get better traffic.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME