In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
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Quote:You might want to ask a RE agent about that. Here in CA you're required to disclose known defects (but of course there may be unknown defects.) OTOH there's probably a way of selling a house "as is", so it might be a tossup if the porch is a "feature" or a "bug". Expert advice might be useful!
Maybe at that point, I'll at least tear down the porch since I can't afford to rebuild it or even stabilize it in any meaningful way that wouldn't potentially leave me open to legal action after selling the thing.
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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 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:You might want to ask a RE agent about that. Here in CA you're required to disclose known defects (but of course there may be unknown defects.) OTOH there's probably a way of selling a house "as is", so it might be a tossup if the porch is a "feature" or a "bug". Expert advice might be useful!
Maybe at that point, I'll at least tear down the porch since I can't afford to rebuild it or even stabilize it in any meaningful way that wouldn't potentially leave me open to legal action after selling the thing.
Yeah. I don't know if I'd trust what one of the "experts" said even if they told me it was alright.
Both family and a friend told me that I should just fix up the porch, cover everything up tight and pretend like I didn't know any better. Because, it's not as if I knew how bad the situation was when I bought it.
Not only is that pretty shady, but I just can't imagine I wouldn't possibly be held liable if something bad were to happen. I bought the house as a foreclosure/rehab with flood damage. I could just play dumb. But I don't trust my own mouth when heat comes down. I'm not a good liar. That's also putting a lot of trust in other people not to say anything either.
So I've decided my only two options are selling it as-is with the porch floor open, or tearing down the porch, filling in the hole and re-siding the house before I sell it.
For sure I will be getting the advice of an agent or two on that before I make the decision.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey Jack!
Just breathe. The house is still an asset.
I know in your situation you can't see fixing it up. Though because I think, long-term, it would be completely doable, it's kind of a shame you're in such a hurry. Be that as it may ...
Houses are sold all the time as 'fixer-uppers'. Like Signy, I do think you need to talk w/ a realtor who knows the applicable laws for known (and unknown) issues.
And I agree, you need to talk with someone who can give you some starting figures, and maybe run a few options by - what would it mean if I did this ... or that. Generally though, I think if you're to going to sell a place as not immediately livable, it's not much use putting a lot of money in. People who want to fix a place up want to put their own stamp on it. Also, clean and tidy is cheap and goes a long way.
Does it have any particularly attractive features? Is it a nice style people would like? It might be worth fixing up one room to be particularly attractive - paint, elbow grease, curtains, and so on - to give people an idea how NICE it could be, to sell them on the future. I know someone who did that with a Victorian(?) with serious structural issues, and it worked! A young couple - apparently with money to burn - fell in love with the house on the strength of one room made to be really pleasant looking, and bought it for a good sum.
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I did that with a house we wanted to seel. There was nothing SERIOUSLY wrong with the house... but the previous owners did a terrible job on the bathroom, kitchen, and one bedroom. I pcked the ugliest room, whihc happened to be the bedroom, and ..
Well, imgaine rust red and mustard brown as the dominatn colors. Wlls and celing: mustard brown. Trim and doors: rust red. Carpeting: mustard brown and rust red outdoor carpet squares.
I fixed the water damage in the (plaster) crown molding, The window trim looked ... lumpy. I was afraid of what I might find under it, but I gritted my teeth and got out the paint stripper, and underneath was beautifully-detailed trim in pristine condition. I painted it white. I stripped the doors ... and underneath the painted doorknobs and plates was crystal and brass. The doors. ceiling, and trim were also painted white. The walls were a lovely sky blue. I stripped off the horrible capreting and cleaned the wood fllors and threw down an oriental-style rug, in pale blueand gold (on sale fromm Sears!) and the room became a picture of loveliness.
The dad of the family that bought it told me that that room sold the house.
Hmmm... I wonder if you could "stage" a room?
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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 .
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Oh, and I'm sorry to go on and on ... get some el cheapo lead-test kits, and check wherever you're going to do stripping and/or sanding. I think the age of your house puts it beyond lead paint, but it never hurts to check.
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If I put up trim, window frames and closet doors, I have two bedrooms that are re-done. I resurfaced the hardwood floors and they're beautiful. I fixed a few very large cracks in the ceiling nearly 8 years ago now and they still hold up. I re-painted the rooms using $60 a gallon Benjamin Moore Aura paint that is a matte finish that is washable with soap and water without leaving stains.
Additionally, the walls were really bad because there was, no joke, around 15 layers of paint on them. The reason I knew this is because there was a large bump on the wall in the small bedroom and when I sanded it down it looked like rings of a tree with all the different colors. Walls had some minor cracks and were far from smooth since anybody painting didn't know how or didn't give squat about preparing the walls first.
I'm a perfectionist. They were completely flat before I painted them. They still look as good as they did the day that I painted them (minus 3 holes in the wall for paintings I wish I had never hung up now since I'm fairly sure the small amount of paint I had left over isn't good anymore.
Out in the hallway, I put a hole in the wall that gives access to the relevant area you'd need to do any work on the shower from behind. This would allow the future owners to get to it without having to tear down the shower kit in there now (or a tiled shower if they really upgraded the bathroom. After doing some research, and using the Benjamin Moore Aura paint, the access panel I have there blends completely into the wall and after a year or so I have forgotten that it is even there. The paint may chip a bit now since I don't have A/C in the summer and it's probably been 7 years since I've used it, but it looks great and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than destroying the bathroom to get access.
I also extended the electric junction box at the top of the stairs to the second floor closer to the 1st floor to hang a chandalier in the center of the "box" that is formed in that stairwell beneath a high point in the attic.
I just never bothered putting trim or the closet doors back up. 
I should try digging up some of the old pics. I don't know if whatever site I hosted them on to originally post them here years back is even still around anymore, but they might still be up here.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Well... Here's some depressing old pics.
This is NOT what my porch and raised garden look like today.
Never used the raised garden after the first year, and it's just been a bed of weeds ever since. I actually tore down the conduit backing I had up there with the nets since I shredded the net on the bottom over the years with the mower and I decided I wanted to actually be able to cut the grass all around it.
The good thing about possibly sticking around long enough to tear out the old patio and put rocks down instead is that I'll have one more layer of patio pavers to build it up. That would actually give somebody clearance to mow underneath the damn thing.
Talk about bad engineering because I was too cheap to buy 10 more bricks. But to be fair, with all the dead grass around it I was originally able to mow underneath it.
Don't even get me started on what the ants did to that patio....
Or what my idiot neighbor let happen to that wooden fence in the back. At least the lawn isn't 4 damn feet high back there anymore. I'm sure he doesn't live there anymore. I don't know if the bank owns it now or what.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Here's what my kitchen looked like when I bought it.
I didn't do much to fix it, actually. Just pulled down that horrible border and painted it all white.
Here's a pic of the finished floors and walls. You'll note that none of the trim is back up, and still isn't to this day. Most of it had to be thrown out since it was original junk and painted over a dozen and a half times.
Oh... some before pics of the ceiling and after pics...
(Note, the ceiling didn't look THAT bad when I started. That's all part of the process of fixing it up the right way and the reason why there are still no cracks to this day (even more amazing still with the obvious settling the house has been going through in recent years).
For some reason, I have two layers of sheetrock on every original wall and ceiling of the house. One of them is a concrete wall as well. So those screws holding in the ceiling at the splits to keep the crack from coming back are 2 1/2" drywall screws. It's the only time I've ever had to use drywall screws that long in my life.
Bathroom shower access before/after:
Oh... and the switch for the overhead light inside this room was an addition by me. When I first bought the house, it was outside of the room (because the room had been expanded at some point and nobody bothered to put the light switch in the room where it belongs I guess. I know I have pics of the process somewhere if I can find them. 
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Gotta start getting ready to go out...
Taking a trip to the hardware store. I've got some lumber to buy and a new step to build for my front door access.
Hoping I can fix the larger step by just replacing the legs and not having to build an entire new one. It's in much better shape than the lower step was in.
I'll take pics.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey...
Maybe Wishy can bury the hatchet and post in here too?
Got a bit nostalgic looking back at those old threads and regularly talking with JO, Wishy, Frem and Rionaeire.
Anybody ever talk to Rionaeire? She was a real sweetie. I hope life is going well for her.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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