The "Looking to become a homeowner" Thread

[George]

Nice. Hopefully you can avoid meeting the warranty company's lowest-bidding "hvac dude" with the 15 year old work minivan (as previously joked about in this thread) with five ladders strapped to the roof with fraying bungee cords and bubbling, purple window tint.

That's another crack at home warranty companies, not the hard-working people who fix our stuff.

The house next to us is for sale for the fourth time since we've lived here. They had an open house on Saturday and I assume an offer was (or a few were) made that day. Houses around here sell in just a few days, usually. Apparently that's common in the USA lately, and in part driven by investors buying private homes sight-unseen in the hopes of reaping ever-increasing rent revenue in the coming years and decades.

I'm working from home today and right now in their yard there's what looks like a family with two teenage boys (*shudder*) and an older guy who I assume is a home inspector prowling around and pointing at stuff.

[Yeti]

I haven't been getting much done at my place, but that's just how it is with work these days.

I did finally get the bathroom back together. New plumbing and shower.

https://i.imgur.com/mewBSiJ.jpg

Bathroom still looks like hell, but nothing short of a complete gut is going to change that, and ATM I just don't care enough. The bozo who put the drywall up in the 80s used roofing nails like they did in the 50s, didn't tape half of his joints and just slobbed layers and layers of mud, and made corners by simply scoring the back of the drywall and folding it.

The basement bedroom is finally done-done, since I moved all of the junk out of it and got the last bit of trimming and painting done in and around the closet.

https://i.imgur.com/rvyxMzQ.jpg

I need to get a bed, tho.

I also decided to make use of the drywalled space outside the bedroom, so I slapped down some carpet squares and baseboard. Before and after:

https://i.imgur.com/XuUa7Qj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JlfgTcf.jpg

The furniture is still at my parents house, maybe I'll bring that over this weekend. I also threw out the remainder of my moving junk and cleared the basement to a somewhat usable space

https://i.imgur.com/EXyxNBr.jpg

But none of that stuff really matters, because....GARAGE! And driveway:

https://i.imgur.com/JI2C4Cl.jpg
Driveway is about 70 feet from the sidewalk to the garage slab. and 16 feet wide. My neighbor took the opportunity to replace part of his fence, which makes things look nicer.

https://i.imgur.com/iLn6w0r.jpg
With some concrete poured between the garage and house as well. I had them rip out the old walk and back stoop, which had sunk due to a subpar installation. In the continuing theme of every person who worked on this house from the 70s until I bought it being an absolute clown, notice how they ripped out a line of the cap bricks on my foundation so the stoop pour would kind of go in there. Terrible idea, and now I have to find some matching bricks to fix that before I can put some steps up. The siding damage was there when I bought the place, also a victim of subpar installation.

GARAGE!
https://i.imgur.com/tKRrRxy.jpg

Curbed 24x24 slab. Due to the slope in my backyard, the back of my slab is nearly waist-height from grade, lol. The garage is going to be nothing special. 24' square, 8' walls, 16' door on the front, 2x4 framing, and a gable roof. But it's a goddamn garage, which is all that counts. I'm having the sparky pull 6/3 out there so I'll have about 50 amps to work with, and installing a panel. I'll be insulating it, and installing a Mitsubishi mini-split heat pump. Eventually I'll finish the walls with half-inch hardwood ply, assuming that stuff ever stops being 50 bucks a sheet :lol: Special guest appearance by my neighbor's unfinished, highly illegal shed. I'm not saying shit about it, because eventually my garage will completely hide my view of his whole yard, but I have a feeling the inspectors who show up to look at my garage will take an interest.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Where’s the garage? I don’t see nothing! :p

Anyway, just used up a LOT of concrete!!!

Yeah, that neighbor’s shed is really something…

[Yeti]

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Framers started work today.

[George]

Looking good, Yeti. :up:

[Crazed_Insanity]

Okay, yeah, it's beginning to look a lot like a garage! :p

BTW, may I ask how much does it cost to build a garage from the ground up these days?

[Yeti]

It costs Too. Damn. Much.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Covid caused labor shortages and spiked material cost, so I guess that’s expected! :p

[Cam]

Just before we had the new fence installed, we cut all the foliage away from the old fence for easy access. There was so much that we even rented a large dumpster to haul it all away. Unfortunately, the stumps of all the bushes and trees were left. We have been slowly digging them up, doing a little bit at a time. It's better that way, right? :lol: This morning, I dug up ten stumps on one side of the driveway. It took me about two hours and I nearly died. Wow, it was really difficult work. At one point, I lied down (collapsed, really) into the driveway from exhaustion. I'm fine now.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Gee…, take care dude. Please don’t kill yourself while killing plants! :p

[Kchrpm]

That reminds me of stories of older men dying from heart attacks while shoveling heavy/wet snow. Take care of yourself, Cam, you're a treasure.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, I’ve already heard 2 separate stories of retired engineers having heart attacks and died mowing their lawns.

When I retire, I will hire gardeners to take care of my lawn.

Maybe I should start now. :p

[Cam]

I just need to keep fit. Yard work is one way.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Just don’t over do it to the point that you need to take a nap on the driveway okay? :p

[Kchrpm]

I just need to keep fit. Yard work is one way.

Might I suggest turning up the force feedback in iRacing? Get yourself some Popeye arms!

[Yeti]

Just waiting on the sparky to do his thing, then the project is complete. And by complete, I mean the contractors are done and I get to start working :lol:

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[Cam]

:cool::up:

[George]

Fantastic. Now it's time to start a garage band!

[dodint]

And a lathe.

[Cam]

Hey, that’s my shtick! ;)

[Cam]

We recently encountered a problem with our water. We noticed irregular spikes in our water usage. To cut a long story short, we realized our neighbour is hooked up to our water supply. I went into the crawl space today to find, what I believe is, the pipe that goes to the other house. Very bizarre situation due to the history of the property. We are going to have a plumber put a valve on the pipe, just in case I am wrong about where it goes.

Backstory about the property that we have heard from multiple people who have lived in the neighbourhood for decades: The house we live in and two adjacent properties used to be all one property. Apparently, a medical doctor that worked at the nearby hospital used to live here. His daughter, a veterinarian, lived in the adjacent building; the building that we believe is hooked up to our water. The properties were since sold to others.

Shortly after we moved in, aforementioned adjacent building was purchased by a young couple. (We outbid them on our house.) We kind of got to know them because the lady of the couple also worked at the university in a department near to Lori's. As far as we could tell, they were not using our water.

Fast-forward a couple of years and the property in question got sold to a property management company that pretty much rents it like an Air B&B. Last summer, the city installed digital water meters throughout the neighbourhood, including ours. We can monitor our usage via a phone app. At the end of last year, something went wrong with the adjacent property's waste water system and the city had to completely redo it. Around the same time, there were plumbers doing some major work in the yard at some point. Since then, Lori noticed the odd spikes in our water usage, like 40 gallons in a single hour, that we did not use. We could also hear a hissing in the pipes as if someone in the house was using the water, even though we were not. One time recently, the app showed 250 gallons in a single day. Lori used her contacts at the city to have someone try to figure out what was going on. Some workers came out and did some cursory investigation, plus replaced the water meter. In the end, they could not find a problem. The problem still exists, but the city rep seems unwilling or incapable of comprehending the evidence presented. Lori is still working that angle. There is no one at the adjacent property at the moment, so we are not getting phantom water usage.

Just a strange thing to be happening. :shrug:

We had our real estate agent visit today about possibly selling. Market here, especially in this neighbourhood, is really hot right now. She has 30+ clients waiting to buy. The average time for houses to be on the market right now is a mere three days! We would not even have to put our house on the market. She could sell it immediately and get 30-40% more than what we paid for it five years ago.

[mk]

And you are still waiting.
Who knows what is going to happen next.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Unless you have better uses for the money that you're profiting off of..., it'll probably be a better idea to keep your property as hedge against inflation.

I'm itching to sell my LA home for such high prices as well, but I've also heard having a low rate fixed rate mortgage is a good hedge against inflation. My mortgage payments won't ever go up, but the rent I'll be receiving will go up over time... while the home value should also continue to climb, in the longterm of course... in the near term, I can't help but feel that there's a crash coming soon...

[Cam]

Had a plumber cap the mystery pipe. Hopefully, it solves the water usage issue. As a side note, he did say that it's not unheard of for this kind of thing to happen, especially with older homes. He was a pretty cool guy, actually.

[Crazed_Insanity]

So that means the other property is now without water?

[Cam]

Maybe. Half of me feels bad, but the other half is like, "Not our problem."

[JoshInKC]

I mean, generally their prepurchase home inspection should have caught it if they were not getting water from the city, unless private wells are really common there.

[Cam]

This issue was totally not readily apparent and would not be noticeable with a cursory inspection. You would have to dig up the pipes to figure out what was going on. We only deduced the problem with judicious observation and inspection. Knowledge of the property's history was very helpful also.

[FaultyMario]

Yeah, you said it before, it was not until you had the new internet meter that you guys were able to catch the consumption spikes in real time.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Anyway, just thought attempts should be made to warn the neighbor(s) at least. Perhaps you can even share the cost of the plumber?

Naturally you don't owe your neighbors anything since you've been paying for their water use for all this time, but just imagine you come home to your house and found out there's no more water and have no clue what's going on? ;)

Now, if your neighbors are knowingly ripping you off, then surely you gotta do what you gotta do...

[Cam]

Lori already attempted to contact the company that owns it. We received no reply. It sucks for the people that may be currently staying there. As far as we know, it is a short-term rental situation. No longer our problem, I hope.

[Crazed_Insanity]

If attempts were made and they ignored you, then that's a different story of course. You've done your part. Maybe they are knowingly ripping you off.

[Cam]

Lori boldly knocked on the door and talked to a woman staying there. It is a short-term rental property. The woman asked, "Do you guys have water?" Lori told her what happened. So yeah, the "fix" worked. :D

Apparently, there is no water in one of the bathrooms, so half of the house has water. That is why the city could not see any problem.

[JoshInKC]

That's a fun twist. Usually, in these situations you'd be supplying the whole house, which is why I thought they should've noticed it wasn't on city water.

[George]

I'm no plumber, but as I've followed this discussion, I've been thinking if the other house had tapped into Cam and Lori's water, that pipe would only go to only one faucet at the neighbor's house. I was imagining something like a utility sink in a garage or laundry room. I guess a bathroom is where it went. Maybe that bathroom was an addition to the original house? It seems like the kind of thing we sometimes hear about when someone does their own work without pulling permits and having the work inspected to make sure it meets code. But even then, it makes no sense to me to run the water from a nearby house, even if you own all the houses and land in the area. Very odd.

I recently heard about this situation: someone put an extra bedroom in their house while finishing the basement. They added drywall and a closet and an overhead light and power outlets and enough room for a bed and some furniture. They now have a four bedroom house instead of three, right?

Well, not so fast. Apparently septic systems are rated for a number of bedrooms, assuming two people per bedroom. They can't "legally" call their house a four-bedroom house unless they install a new, larger septic system that accounts for two residents per bedroom. Nothing prevents them from using the new room as a bedroom, but they can't claim it as one when they sell and increase their home's value accordingly unless they get a new septic tank.

This is of interest to me because we have what most folks would agree is a bedroom in our basement. There's a door and a window and a closet and overhead lights and outlets and plenty of room for a bed and other furniture. There's also a full bathroom attached, like a master bedrooms often have. Our realtor explained it wasn't a bedroom, however, because there is no escape ladder in the window well to climb out of the basement in case of a fire or whatever.

This is on my list to research before we eventually sell our house. We're on city water and sewer but I'm betting there's more involved than just installing a ladder for about a hundred bucks (https://www.homedepot.com/s/basement%2520window%2520well%2520ladder?NCNI-5), or the last owner would have done that when they had the basement finished.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Best to talk to your city to see exactly what needs to be done to get the permit. If you have the permit for the room or bathroom addition, then you can call it a bathroom or bedroom. If you did it without any permits, legally that room simply doesn't exist. Some buyers may not mind having a permit-less phantom room. Just don't expect buyers to pay a premium for all illegal DIY additions. :p

If the ladder could get you a permit legalizing that room, I'd say go for it. Otherwise, why waste the money? Unless it'll really make you safer in case of fire?

[George]

Well, the funny thing is there's a ladder on one of the other window wells in the basement. It's maybe fifteen feet away on the same wall. I could just move it over, but the fact that no one before me has done that makes me think there's more to it than just a ladder.

But there's no rush now. I bet our property tax would go up if we had it brought up to code as another bedroom years before we're ready to sell.


Some buyers may not mind having a permit-less phantom room.

We don't mind it at all, and I like that name: The Phantom Room!

[Crazed_Insanity]

:lol:

"The Phantom of the Opera is here... inside this room!" :sing:

Yeah, I'd think most buyers will be fine with having a bonus phantom room. If they really wish to bring it up to code, they could just do that themselves.

[JoshInKC]

You're absolutely right that if it was as simple as moving a pre-existing ladder, they'd likely have done it - It could easily be a 'paperwork' thing like unpermitted work, or a non-obvious code compliance issue like the window being to small to count as an egress or insufficient ventilation. Unfortunately there's not a good way to know unless you either know the former owners or are good enough friends with a general contractor or inspector to invite them over for a beer and say "Hey, why do you think this isn't a bedroom?"
Also, some localities are pretty strict about counting living space in non-walkout basements.

[Yeti]

I’ve finally done some work in the garage. I wired it up to my personal preference and ended up with:

- Duplexes every 4 feet around 3 sides, all of them 2 feet off the floor. Two 20-amp circuits.

- 3 Duplexes 1 foot down from the ceiling on the east wall. Mostly there so I'll have some power available on my shelves.

- Duplexes every 4 feet on the south wall and six double-duplexes on the west wall, all 1 foot down from the ceiling and all on a switch by the door. The 'fun stuff' receptacles. 20amp circuit.

- 3 switched duplexes on the ceiling for linkable LED shop lights.

- 25A 230v circuit and disconnect for a mini-split heat pump.

All wiring done in 12awg except for the mini-split circuit, which is 10

Now I’m tackling insulation. Took the Kyaraban and got some rafter vents and stapled them up:

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And getting this home required two trips in the Silverado:
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R15 for the walls and 38 for the ceiling, faced so I’ll have a vapor retarder. I’m going to do the walls on my own this weekend and I’ve taken some time off next week and wrangled an extra pair of hands to help with the ceiling. Can’t wait, nothing like wearing gloves, masks, and long sleeves in summer to handle fiberglass :| Sheeting the ceiling and getting lights up will be the next task, assuming I find motivation to do it before winter :lol:

Also, my basement video game cave is as done as it will ever be - Ps5 controller barely visible in the back.
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EDIT: apparently our board turns square iPhone photos sideways. I ain’t fixing that.

[CudaMan]

Wow that's a lot of outlets! I thought I was living the luxury garage life with an outlet near every corner. :lol: My house came with just 2 garage outlets.

Basement cave looks cozy and fun. :up:

[Yeti]

I'm going to regret having that many outlets to cut around when I sheet the walls, for sure...

[dodint]

My two bay garage has one normal outlet, and an overhead outlet to run my door opener. And it's all on the same circuit as my gym so it trips the breaker when I turn on my air compressor. Much sad. :(

[Yeti]

I hate insulation. Even with long sleeves, eye protection, a mask, and gloves I still managed to get the stuff on me :lol:
Got the walls done plus 8 or so batts in the ceiling.
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[Phil_SS]

Our water heater went kaput. Which isn't a surprise as it is like 20 years old. We kept saying, "you know, we should replace that" and then just moving on. Oh well, not like we didn't know it or expect it.

[JoshInKC]

Ehhh, that happens. Both my waterheater and furnace are a bit over 20 years old. I've got them set up for as easy a failure as possible, with a drainpan under the water heater and sensors to let me know when it happens. But about every year or so I do a little research to keep myself up on what their replacements will be so it will be as quick and painless as possible.
The real trick of it is that I'll replace both when the first one fails - I want/need to go to higher efficiency units which will require different exhaust solutions than the current setup is capable of.

[TheBenior]

Mine was probably 15 years old when it started taking a lot longer to heat water back up than it should, but it had also been in a couple of basement floods. So I figure that 15 years was a pretty good run.

The downside was that to get the same capacity, I had to get a short heater which wasn't in stock. The heater that was there before had a slight downward angle on the exhaust, which is not how it should've been.

[21Kid]

Did you get a heat pump water heater to replace it?

[Phil_SS]

Negative for me. Just a standard water heater. Looking up what a heat pump water heater is, I don't believe I have the space for it.

I also looked into a tankless a few years ago but it wasn't worth the extra cost and construction necessary to make it work.

[Yeti]

OSB is down to like $15 a sheet.

Plywood is still about $45 though.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[George]

Yeti, great pictures! I haven't seen them before today.

This thread reminds me that our "new" water heater is fourteen years old. I know that because the last one "bled out" (thankfully the basement drain near it did its job) on a Sunday evening soon after my wife had given birth and her mother was staying with us. I had to call around on a Sunday night to find a plumber who was not only working but had an appropriate water heater on hand while retail stores were closed. It all worked out but it wasn't fun at the time.

And I've always wanted to have the tank moved over about three feet from where it is, but I figure hiring a plumber to come change the pipes around would be too costly. Maybe when we get a new one...

[21Kid]

Negative for me. Just a standard water heater. Looking up what a heat pump water heater is, I don't believe I have the space for it.

I also looked into a tankless a few years ago but it wasn't worth the extra cost and construction necessary to make it work.
Gotcha. I've been considering a heat pump when we need to replace our A/C & furnace (after we get solar installed). And I just learned that heat pump water heaters were a thing. Was also considering tankless before that. I was wondering if they were worth looking into. Although our water heater is pretty recent, so we probably won't be replacing it anytime soon .

[JoshInKC]

Based on my research (mentioned above) the 'hybrid' or heat pump whs are pretty good, and improving year-by-year. Some can be a little noisy (like having a extra refrigerator or freezer in the house), but they're apparently very efficient.
They're on my list of considerations, and would absolutely be at the top of that list if I already had an electric wh. As it stands how, my old gas-powered heater is in the basement (noise not an issue), and is in the same room as my electrical breaker-box, which has enough open spots to easily drop another 220v in if I decide to go that route.

[21Kid]

Based on my research (mentioned above) the 'hybrid' or heat pump whs are pretty good, and improving year-by-year. Some can be a little noisy (like having a extra refrigerator or freezer in the house), but they're apparently very efficient.
They're on my list of considerations, and would absolutely be at the top of that list if I already had an electric wh. As it stands how, my old gas-powered heater is in the basement (noise not an issue), and is in the same room as my electrical breaker-box, which has enough open spots to easily drop another 220v in if I decide to go that route.

Cool. After we get solar installed. I want to convert our HVAC, stove, dryer, and water heater to electric.

Noise is one of the concerns regarding our HVAC conversion. CA homes don't have basements. So the cold air return is usually in a closet, or in our case garage, where the furnace & blower are on the main floor.

In our case, this is right by the family room. So the noise increases quite a bit whenever the A/C or furnace kicks in. Luckily in SoCal, we don't need either much. But when we do, it is rather annoying. I'm hoping that... since the heat pump will be outside, the noise won't be too bad. Unfortunately, I think the majority of the noise is from the blower fan. So maybe we can move the cold air return when we update the rest.

[JoshInKC]

I'm given to understand that a lot of people in warm enough climes have good luck at putting the heat pump water heaters in their garages- so if that makes sense with your floorplan, it might be an option.

[speedpimp]

Had the furnace replaced four years ago when I had the central air installed. Good thing about that is that whenever there is an issue with the furnace I don't need to worry about the tech saying "your unit doesn't have a serial number, but I can get the part". Glad those days are over.

[Random]

Cool. After we get solar installed. I want to convert our HVAC, stove, dryer, and water heater to electric.

Noise is one of the concerns regarding our HVAC conversion. CA homes don't have basements. So the cold air return is usually in a closet, or in our case garage, where the furnace & blower are on the main floor.

In our case, this is right by the family room. So the noise increases quite a bit whenever the A/C or furnace kicks in. Luckily in SoCal, we don't need either much. But when we do, it is rather annoying. I'm hoping that... since the heat pump will be outside, the noise won't be too bad. Unfortunately, I think the majority of the noise is from the blower fan. So maybe we can move the cold air return when we update the rest.

We just had solar installed and are also looking to convert the water heater, stove, and HVAC; probably also looking at heat pumps for the HVAC and WH. WH is only 10 years old though, so maybe we'll do the HVAC first? Got a "free" L2 charger with the solar install, so maybe we'll do EV first and then appliances? We'll see.

Our air handler is in the attic, which helps quite a bit with noise--might check that out if your house is set up for it.

[mk]

Our water heater is 300l and fused 3x16A/240V.
It's enough for four persons.
But since total input is not enough it swaps with sauna.
Means that whole evening of party will end in chilling situation.

HVAC is single air to air plugged in thing and taking real juice only when heating heavily.
It's behind 16A/240V fuse but can only take less than 2kW when operating.
Rest of the heating is direct electricity or burning wood.

Here air to water HVAC total energy source is usually 9kW or more.
Actually that is also only a partial heater, no matter what, alternative method must be available.
Monoblock is unregulated but must be protected against freezing.

HVAC air noise can't be avoided but own outdoors ground stand and quality vibration rubbers will do much.
Our air to air >15y wall mount Panasonic outdoors unit is still silent.

Stove has always been electric and 3x16A fused, nowadays many are 2x16A only.

[21Kid]

We just had solar installed and are also looking to convert the water heater, stove, and HVAC; probably also looking at heat pumps for the HVAC and WH. WH is only 10 years old though, so maybe we'll do the HVAC first? Got a "free" L2 charger with the solar install, so maybe we'll do EV first and then appliances? We'll see.

Our air handler is in the attic, which helps quite a bit with noise--might check that out if your house is set up for it.

We only have an attic over 1/2 of the house. We'll probably have to move some things around when we change the HVAC anyway though. So, that's something to look into.

I'm thinking of getting an audit of our house before we do anything to see what the best course of action would be.

Nate Adams has a lot of good info, and a good book too. (Thanks Lori. :))
https://www.natethehousewhisperer.com/

[Yeti]

Last week I hit the light switch for my laundry area and got a tripped breaker for my trouble. Tracked it down to the wire from the switch to the junction box in the laundry that the lights were wired into. coated cloth insulation had worn through and shorted right on the end of the conduit.

Over the weekend I bought some stuff and got to fixing it.

- Ripped out all of the old remaining basement conduit that had the cloth wire in it and ran new romex. As far as I can tell, that was the last of it, most of the house has romex everywhere, probably from when it was 'updated' in the early 80s. I did find some 12ga plastic insulated copper wire in a black sheath in two places (going to the kitchen and going to the basement light switch. I thought it might have been copper-coated aluminum but it's solid copper, so IDK. At least it isn't cloth insulated. None of the wire at the breakers is cloth insulated either...not sure why the bit I had to replace was left behind.

- That light switch now controls two switched receptacles in the laundry area, and all lights are LED.

- For some reason (the reason is probably '1952') the furnace was on the basement light circuit. That's now on it's own dedicated circuit per code.

- I found two abandoned circuits (that were live) that probably went to the enclosed patio this house used to have on the back. Romex with bare ends just stuffed into the basement sill :lol:

- Put in a dedicated circuit for my dehumidifier.

- Replaced about half a dozen worn out receptacles on the main floor, and replaced my two backsplash receps with GFI's.

[21Kid]

Yikes :eek:

Nice work. I've been putting off replacing some of our outlets. They're "loose"... IDK how to better describe it. When you plug into the outlet the receptacle moves back and forth.

I can do minor stuff like outlets and light switches on my own... But one of our breakers keeps tripping whenever Shannon uses the hair dryer in the bathroom. I've never worked on the breaker box before, and I'm not confident that I can do it myself. I think we'll hire an electrician for that bit.

[JoshInKC]

It's surprisingly not hard to add breakers and circuits, but best not screwed with if you don't feel confident about it. I actually need to do the same thing for the same reason, but have been putting it off simply because I'm not sure how much of a pain it'll be to fish from the 2nd floor to the basement ceiling through a wall with other wiring and plumbing in it.

[dodint]

We had a storm blow out a bunch of our breakers. They do go bad. They're also really easy to swap in and out. I pulled one out, took it to the electrical supply store and showed it to the guy at the counter. He sold me new ones and I went home and swapped them in.

Start halfway through this video to see the process:


https://youtu.be/jKAPpxK5T2E

[JoshInKC]

Yeah - it's really not hard, but the consequences of screwing up are severe enough that I'm hesitant to tell a novice to do it.

[dodint]

Right. But if I could wire an outlet I can do this.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Everyone could do it, but not everyone should! :p

[Yeti]

Yikes :eek:

Nice work. I've been putting off replacing some of our outlets. They're "loose"... IDK how to better describe it. When you plug into the outlet the receptacle moves back and forth.



What? Are they all in the same room? Are they moving a lot?

That almost sounds like you've got a thicker wall than you used to (going from 1/4 paneling to 1/2 drywall maybe?) and whoever did it couldn't be bothered to either move the boxes or get mud rings for them and just left the actual receptacles floating slightly on their mounting screws :lol:

[Yeti]

I should've just hired some tweakers from outside Menards to drywall this thing instead:

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I'm going to prime/paint the ceiling and install LED lights before tackling the walls. I'm just using cheap sheathing OSB. Should look decent enough with two coats of oil-based Killz and 2 coats of paint on it.

Annoying unforseen obstacle: It was about 65 and humid when I went out to start working, but inside the garage was like a meat locker - thanks insulation! As soon as the outside air hit the cold concrete it started sweating like a beer can and I had to deal with a slippery floor for several hours. At least the sawdust helped!

[SkylineObsession]

Yeah i ain't never mucking around with the wiring in our place. Plus i'm not sure its legal to do so here?

But on that note, i've decided to get the electrician to do a whole lot of work to the house while i can still afford to (just).

- Getting the main switchboard modernised and redone with safer and easier to work with parts ($1-2,000)
- Getting an arc breaker in the garage to prevent any electrical fires ($250 per breaker)
- Getting a couple new plugs installed in the house (he replaced every single light switch and plug in the house a couple years ago, after i bought a whole lot of dark grey high safety rated ones)
- Getting the back water pump/sump looked at to see why its not going
- Getting our new security cameras installed (4k wired cameras to replace wireless battery 2k ones)

All up, the estimate alone is nearly $5,000. Glad i was sitting down when we got that email.

[Cam]

HVAC went out over the week-end. Got our regular company to service it, but it took a few days of diagnosis and waiting for parts. Anyone that lives here will tell you that having AC is essential. It's 90-100F here every single day for five months in the summer. I didn't iRace last night because it was too warm in here. $1000+ later, it is working again.

[Tom Servo]

That's one thing I'm finding with our new HVAC units. The ones that were here when we bought the place were the original 1974 units and basically just ran, but occasionally needed a freon topup until they finally started to crap out a few years ago. We replaced them with some new ones from Carrier, which I thought was supposed to be pretty good, but goddamn if we haven't had to spend ~$1,000 twice now to replace parts on them. It's like once every 18 months they need some kind of expensive repair, and it's not like we even use them all that much.

Am realizing that all the HVAC techs we had out before that told us to hang onto the old ones for as long as we could were on to something.

[Yeti]

Carrier units usually have a 10-year parts warranty on them, assuming the serial numbers were registered at installation...

I found Carrier AC's to be very reliable, especially after they switched to aluminum coils (from rifled copper) around 2013 or so. Hell, the one I installed for my parents 12 years ago HAS the rifled copper coils and has never needed any attention. Electrical/electronic failures can happen to them but that's the same as every other brand out there.

source: I worked the entirety of my residental HVAC career at a Carrier 'Factory Authorized Dealer'.

[Tom Servo]

That's good to know. We've had to replace a few capacitors and I'm trying to remember what it was that we had to drop another $600 on last time they came out, but don't remember.

Tech also insisted that our Nest thermostat was part of the problem, which seemed fishy to me considering how ubiquitous they are. If they caused problems with the systems they were controlling, you'd think you'd hear about it by now.

[Cam]

Our tech said the same thing about the Nest. We don't have one, but it was mentioned in conversation.

[Yeti]

If the capacitors cost 600-1000 to replace I sure hope they were the start kit ones on the Infinity models with their own relays and there was still other work involved. An impressive ripoff if it’s just a single stage unit with off-the-shelf caps.

Contact Carrier with your model, serial, and possibly product number to find out your warranty status.

Nests actually are pretty shitty…the Ford Focus of smart stats. If I had a Carrier Infinity system I’d use their control with it. If it’s a regular system the Nest should be fine if it’s set up right and not malfunctioning.

[Tom Servo]

In fairness, we have two units, one for the upstairs and one for the downstairs, so halve those numbers for the "these things are worn out." We had one with our upstairs unit where the claim was that the Nest thermostat had sent too much voltage to the condenser and damaged parts on it, but the other ones are just "these are worn out."

I'm not shocked that Nests aren't great, but even a Ford Focus is good enough for what it needs to do, and doesn't generally destroy things around it. We didn't really have much of a thermostat option, we had our existing Nest ones and when they (without asking) replaced our upstairs Nest, it was with the most basic Honeywell unit they still make.

[Yeti]

“the claim was that the Nest thermostat had sent too much voltage to the condenser”


Jeez. Lol. That’s not how that works. When I said Nests are shitty it’s because they’re cheap and don’t work nearly as well as they should. They can’t break a condensing unit or ‘send too much voltage’.


I dont like this contractor, whoever they are.

[Tom Servo]

They are pretty much the big HVAC company out here in LA, Brody Pennell (https://brodypennell.com/). This is very useful information and I very much appreciate it.

[speedpimp]

Upgraded the furnace and added central air(07/18) and it's almost paid off.
Lost hot water last week. Got it fixed yesterday. Thermal coupler on a Richmond hot water heater(plus a gasket kit) was corroded through on one of the heads. I've got hot water again. YES! Cold showers suck.

[Kchrpm]

Hey, my HVAC also stopped working! Less than a year after the enormous new heat pump was installed, it stopped blowing cold air. A switch was stuck according to the tech, it was ordered and is scheduled for it's ~4 hour replacement on Tuesday. No cost was mentioned yet, but considering it's been less than a year since the install that they'll cover it. Fingers crossed.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Pacific Northwest is having an uncharacteristic heat wave, luckily my 20yr old HVAC system still works. Prior to purchase, home inspector is telling us that we can expect it to crap out at anytime! 2 years in, so far still good! :p

Our LA home HVAC system broke down once, but warranty covered bad blower motor.

Because of our cats, we maintain a very narrow temp range at our house to keep them comfortable. So unless during spring or fall time, our system is almost always on! :p

I wonder if keeping them in frequent use is probably better than rarely using them? Probably like a car? You can't just park it there for extended period of time and expect it to fire up and run perfectly?

Anyway, back in LA, I bought my system thru Home Depot, not sure if my warranty was thru home depot or manufacturer, but it was a 10 year warranty. My motor crapped out in year 6 I think. Nowadays, I'm sure you'll get at least 1 year warranty? Hopefully you're covered Kchrpm. I can't imagine people can't back up their work, whether parts or labor, for even 1 year?

[Kchrpm]

We'll find out! But not tomorrow, because the part didn't come in. Good thing the daytime high is only going to be in the 80s for most of this week :) #firstworldproblems

[Yeti]

My system is coming up on 20 years and I intend to keep this bastard alive as long as possible.

Luckily for me, the previous owner being cheap in 2005 when they replaced their stuff means they inadvertently bought some of the most reliable equipment possible. Single-stage 80% furnace with (the important part) a tubular heat exchanger instead of a riveted clamshell. And a simple R22 single-stage AC with a piston coil.

[21Kid]

Our A/C is 13 years old, and the Furnace is at least that. I'm looking to replace them both with a heat pump next year. Fingers crossed it lasts that long.

[Kchrpm]

More than a month and I still hadn't heard from my HVAC company about fixing the A/C, and I'd left a message asking for them to call me a week or so ago. I called today: the part is still back-ordered. They're going to send someone over today to install window A/C units free of charge.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Wow, that’s nice of them!

[speedpimp]

The ignition coil on the water heater died in May. A week of cold showers sucked ass. Then in June a nut on a water supply line cracked causing water to drip underneath the house. Called one place out and he guy gave me an insane price($1700) and then made an excuse that he and his supervisor would have to come out at a later date to look at it. Truth is he just didn't want to work on it. Not a big deal.
Another plumber came out, looked at the leaking nut and said "this is obsolete! I'll have to see if I can get the parts. It'll take a few days." At least an honest answer. I set an appointment for the following Friday and a guy showed up and since they couldn't get the parts they converted both of the hot and cold supply lines to Pex and installed new boiler drains and we're good to go.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, the joy of home ownership… :p

[Kchrpm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJeSWbR6W04

[Kchrpm]

I called the HVAC company yesterday to ask when they were going to get the part and fix my system, or install a new system.

Someone came over today and fixed it. However we could not get the screen back in on the windows where the window A/C units had been installed.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Whoa! That's not good. However, it shouldn't be that difficult to put the screen back, right? Did they break something? You should've told them if you can't put the screen back, then you better put the AC unit back! :p

[Kchrpm]

No, I want the window A/C units gone, I can figure out the screen later. I almost never open my windows anyway.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, window A/Cs can be kinda unsightly.

In the pacific NW, most houses don't have A/C... so a lot of my neighbors are finding it difficult to adjust to 'global warming'. More and more of them are adding window A/Cs. Fortunately the house I bought came with central A/C. However, it's old though. Here's hoping older equipment can be more reliable. Efficiency is probably not very good. My utility bill can get kinda pricy. I was used to having solar back in CA...

My current roof shape unfortunately isn't ideal. Could not fit enough panels to cover my usage. I wonder if Tesla solar tiles could solve that problem... still, even if they do, size of my wallet may be another problem. :p

[21Kid]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJeSWbR6W04
Holy cow! Dude uses a LOT of electricity! $900 electricity bill every month? Yikes! No wonder he wanted to do that.

We are in the final stages of our solar installation. Our final inspection is on Monday. Hopefully we should be up and running in the next few weeks.

It has taken quite a while because California changed the net metering rules this spring, resulting in 75% lower payments for selling back to the grid. We weren't really expecting to do it so soon. But we didn't want to lose out on the net metering difference.

For reference, our system is like the one he was thinking about getting in his comparison. 17kwh or something. And we only have one battery. The only problem with the 1 battery is that the AC and car charger draw too much to be connected. We'd have to get a 2nd battery for them. The AC is only used when the sun is out anyway. We try to avoid it as much as possible. Usually open the windows at night. But the car usually charges at night.

It's only a hybrid w/30 mile range. If we get something more h4rdc0r3!, we might consider a 2nd one. But not any time soon. I think our payback time is 7-ish years.

The battery backup for blackouts will be nice though. Although I haven't had any issues with that at this house in the 2 years that we've lived here.

[21Kid]

We're also going to get rid of our gas appliances when we can afford to. Air source heat pump to replace the AC & furnace. Heat pump water heater., induction stove, and probably a heat pump dryer as well.

Unfortunately most of the appliances we have are new(ish) except for the AC & furnace. So those will be the 1st to be replaced.

[Tom Servo]

Dang, $900 a month? I'm not great about conserving, got the AC and my power hungry computer going the vast majority of the time and I have a hard time cracking $200 a month.

[Kchrpm]

His Tesla is by far the largest draw, FWIW.

[Tom Servo]

If that's true, then that's $700 a month over what I spend monthly that presumably is then all going to power my car.

Our tank-of-a-vehicle XC90 takes < $300 a month to keep fueled. Still feels a little dodgy.

[Kchrpm]

In the video he says he used about 54k kWh over the course of a year, and it would have cost $9.6k.

A quick Google says that the average house in New Jersey uses less than 9k Kwh/year.

I also see a site that says Teslas average out to 34 kWh per 100 miles. So to get from the average to his usage, that's 54,000/34*100, so almost 160,000 miles a year.

As the kids say, that math ain't mathing.

[dodint]

I've generally been supportive of electric vehicles and will likely own one eventually, I'm doing a garage remodel and including a 50A circuit in the electrical for that purpose. That said, from the start of all this I've been saying that the switch from gasoline to electric isn't free. Not only is it going to hit in the pocket book but it's going to raise electric rates for everyone. I know most folks in this discussion are smart enough to realize that on their own, but a large contingent of folks don't see it.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I think average US households use about 30kWh/day which typically amount to $150/month. My CA home was built in the 50s without insulation and wife likes to keep cats living in comfortable temp ranges so our electric bill is higher than average. When we got solar, we tried to squeeze as many panels on as we could. There is also a giant tree that'd block the sun near the end of the afternoon... Anyway, we were generating high 30s kWh/day during summer months and around teens during winter months. If it rains, we'd get practically nothing. So overall, we couldn't get solar to cover all of our usage in terms of kWh, but we were still able to push our bill down to zero due to electric rates being different on different parts of the day. Without AC on during the summer days, most of our usage is at night when rates are cheaper.

Later on when we leased the Honda Clarity EV, that thing can do 3 miles/kWh. So that means my 60mile commute will require 20kWh daily. Now, that's like bulk of our solar generation, but again, since we sell our solar energy to the grid for a higher rate and charge at the cheapest rate overnite, the hit wasn't too bad. We were still saving money overall. Sometimes I can get lucky and charge the EV on some free chargers around town. Sometimes using paid chargers. I remember my charging expenses were only like about 1/3 of gasoline. It's not free, only free on rare occasions, but definitely cheaper even if you have to pay. Yeah, electric rates will likely go up... same goes for gas though.

Anyway, that dude paying $900/month is not all due to EV driving I don't think... He's got a bigger home, probably doing blogging production stuffs all day... most likely probably mining some bitcoin as well? ;) Anywho, a dude who drivers Tesla Model S and has their solar tile roof and entire battery storage to be off grid... he is not a typical US household for sure.

In the pacific NW, I'm still contemplating whether to get solar since during winter months, it'll be raining all the time. However, maybe solar tech will improve?

If I have to return to office someday, I think I will definitely get another EV. For now, I'm still eyeing plugin hybrids... because EVs are just not suitable for road trips, especially while towing something...

[Tom Servo]

Oh yeah - when we looked into whether or not we could get a decent charging port in our condo garage, it turned out it'd be a "everyone or no one" gets it deal, and if we wanted it it'd be about 100K overall, so 10K per resident. That is not going to happen.

Bummer, though, it would have been kinda nice to get one of the T8 Recharge Volvos and do the vast majority of our driving solely on electric power.

[Crazed_Insanity]

With a smaller battery on your Volvo, you should be able to charge using regular outlet over nite during the lowest price rate. If you guys don’t travel much daily, overnight charging should replenish most of that battery. Should still come out cheaper than gas.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Not sure which thread to post in, but since this involves home solar, this is probably the right thread.

Anyway, recently I saw a job posting by chance looking for entry level sales with potential of making 100s of 1000 of dollar/yr from a solar company, which came knocking down on my door earlier. I didn't go thru with the install because my roof design wasn't ideal and they couldn't fit enough panels to zero out of electric bill. Anyway, job listing said flexible hours so I figured maybe I can use the opportunity to learn the solar business better and make some extra cash and eventually get an employee discount for myself? Of course I had zero sales experience, but hell, if JW and Mormons could do it, why can't a System's engineer like myself do it? Plus, ad does say they don't need experience! :p

Anyway, the company is called Lumio. They claim to be the future Amazon of solar companies, they actually want to be a home improvement company. Basically to eventually do everything they can to make your house greener while generating more green stuffs for themselves. So the initial 'interview' was just that sales pitch thru a zoom mtg to pretty much all the applicants. Eventually I showed up to one of their many regional offices for further 'training'.

I was the 1st to show up. Like 10 minutes early. Building was formerly some sort of bank in a corner plaza. They probably recently bought/leased it so it's only half remodeled. But inside has lots of gaming carnival stuffs? Like basket ball hoops and air hockey stuffs... Not sure why their employees need that nowadays? Anyway, then people slowly filed in... There was like 10 of us and 3 or 4 were coming in late. Some even ask if they have pen and paper so they can take notes? Then I totally felt like I'm back in high school again! Seriously, some probably were that young, but it really felt like a freaking HS class.

The 'instructor' didn't really teach us anything about solar, but gave us psychology lessons on how we need to gain trust eventually to gain sales. Good lessons, I agree with everything they said there, but was disappointed to never learn anything more in depth about solar.

Anyway, during the 'lecture', people also go in to have one on one chat with the regional manager. During my talk, the manager was frank with me that they don't typically have engineers like me showing up... and for some reason the flexible hours seemed off the table. He wanted me to physically show up to work with his team out in the field 8 hours a day at least 3 days a week. I could only offer him 1 day, but I guess I just couldn't close the deal. My work at home can be super flexible, but I just can't commit to working full 3 days/week with them. So that's that.

Few things I did learn from the experience is that the typical system they sell is about a 8.4kW. 21(400W) panels = 8,400w. 8 hours/day means you generate about (8.4kW*8h)=67.2kWh max. Of course that's assuming panels are aimed directly to the full sun. Also, duration of a day can vary. Winter days are much shorter. Back in CA, I had a 6kW system so in theory could generate 6*8=48kWh, but I don't recall it ever generated more than 40kWh/day. So if you also include rainy,cloudy conditions, one can probably only expect 60~70% of what the system can produce in theory?

My old CA system was nearly $28k and after tax incentives, after tax incentives to cut down my loan amount, I ended up paying only about $130/mon which was less than my ~$200/mon bill. Spending less to zero out my bill was a good deal! Now for this new typical system from Lumio. Selling price is way higher. Granted, it generates a bit more energy, but price is way higher than my CA system. Could be inflation? However, after tax incentives, one could still work out to be about $200/month payment for 20 years. So if that zero's out my energy bill, it's still a good deal to me. But my roof sucks, and couldn't fit that many panels, so no deal for me.

However, guess how much money the door to door salesman makes out of this typical $50k system?

$4000!

Total commission is actually $8000! They split that with the 'setter', the person who setup the appointment, which was the job I applied for, and then the 'closer' moves in to the customers to sign on the dotted line. So if you're experienced enough to be promoted to be able to do both, you could be making $8000/sale.

So just selling 1 system/mon means you could be making nearly $100k/year. Isn't that something? :lol:

The inflation reduction act is going to make some folks very very rich. Now, I'm not sure this is really a 'scam' because they are helping to make houses greener. Can't blame them for making extra green stuffs for themselves? Plus, I'm not sure how many doors one has to knock in order to sell 1 system? If I had a decent shape roof, they could've easily sold their system to me.

Another thing the manager reveal to me was that 'engineers' are usually the type who are very difficult to close the deal with... because they ask too many questions and their sales people probably couldn't answer! :p I am wondering perhaps the manager "pushed me" out because they don't want me to dig in too deep and eventually discover their scams?

Government policies can end up making certain group of folks very very rich I guess. Previously with 0% interests, that made the real estate and loan agents super rich. Selling expensive houses and refinancing people's loans to lower rates... again, these are not really scams. They are helping others to save money while making money. Solar is probably the next wave? However, solar will be a bit harder I guess... because in the real estate market, they don't really need labors. For solar, they could make many sales on paper, but if they can't find installers to get the job done, they can't get paid! We do have a labor shortage now. There's a favorite Thai restaurant of ours in our neighborhood recently closed down, not because they had poor business, but because they couldn't find enough staffs to hire!!! I've never heard of that before.

Anyway, still don't know how I'm gonna get my home solar panels, might have to build a large enough pergola in order to fit all the panels that'll meet all my energy needs. I have until 2032 to claim the full tax credit! :p

[Cam]

Word got out that we are moving. We now have multiple people interested in buying our home. We have not even said that we are selling :lol:

[Crazed_Insanity]

Good problem to have! :lol:

We’re trying to cash in and avoid paying capital gains tax by selling our former LA home. Renter just moved out. Hope we’ll have the same problems you’re having! ;)

If we can’t sell for a good price by next summer, our cap gains tax exemption would expire… then it shall stay a rental property forever I guess.

One hiccup is that our solar company is dragging its feet finishing our warranty repair. Hope they can fix it before we put it on market…

[Cam]

Yeah, there is no doubt this home would sell immediately. It is unusual for the neighbourhood. It has additions, a big yard and the large garage, of course.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Hope you sell yours with a good price!

I’m still trying to wrap my head around my LA home’s estimated price. If I could really sell for that much, I would more than double my money in 13 short years! Something just appears insanely wrong…, but I’ll take the money! :p

[drew]

Speaking of, we're closing on one in about 3 weeks. I fucking hate rent.

[Phil_SS]

Speaking of, we're closing on one in about 3 weeks. I fucking hate rent.

Guessing you are far enough North to get insurance? Or did you move out of Florida?

[Crazed_Insanity]

Wherever it is, congrats! :up:

[Yeti]

This weekend in home ownership:

Friday: Have the plumber from work drop his camera down the bathroom sanitary stack vent because I suspect there's an issue. There's indeed a big crack about 4' down from the roof. SHIDD. Plumber will be back in a couple weeks to do that job.

Today: Kick the AC on, notice I'm not getting any actual conditioning of the air. Great. Go outside, find the condenser fan still trying to run on a partial leg - contactor issue. Great. Also find that the compressor won't start. Double cap is out of spec. Fine. Also an easy fix. Then notice that the compressor isn't even *trying* to start even with 240v directly applied. Fuck. Get out the meter. Compressor not only has two open windings, but when I pull the top off the unit so I can verify the wiring at the compressor itself, I find a growing spot of compressor oil and hear the telltale hiss of refrigerant loss. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Looks like a new HVAC system is on the menu for next year, boys.

[Cam]

Lori and I decided to sell. We already had neighbours in. They are looking for a larger space to start a family. I am pretty sure we are going to get a real estate agent though.

[dodint]

If you have time, FSBO is the way to go. Hire an attorney to handle the paperwork. Otherwise you're giving 6% of the sale price to agents in a market where houses sell themselves.

[Cam]

FSBO?

[JoshInKC]

For Sale By Owner

[Crazed_Insanity]

However buyer agent commission probably can’t be avoided?

I personally have to hire an agent to sell our LA home since we’re no longer there… we just negotiated down commissions from 6 to 4%. 2% for each agent. If I were still in LA, I just might try to save another 2% by selling it myself!

[21Kid]

If you have time, FSBO is the way to go. Hire an attorney to handle the paperwork. Otherwise you're giving 6% of the sale price to agents in a market where houses sell themselves.100%

I've never understood how realtors justify 6-10% of the sale price. Maybe before the internet. But now it's really an overpriced thing that people just think they have to do. They also don't get you a higher sales price.

A real estate lawyer should be able to help with the sales contract.


There are companies that will list it for you on your local MLS.
You can get an appraisal if you want to know the value. Zillow/Redfin only give estimates based on sq ft, room count, etc...

Let me know if you have any questions. I've worked in the mortgage industry for over 20 years. Ana used to be in real estate too. Someone else on the forum was in real estate too. Although I think it was/is in Canada.

[Cam]

We are going with an agent for a few reasons I won't bother to talk about. We're basically hitting the easy button.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Ain’t nothing wrong with hiring agents. I don’t have time to stick around to sell my home as well.

[Cam]

Our house officially went on the market yesterday. Three interested parties have already looked at it.

I have not even looked at the listing. :lol:

[JoshInKC]

Nice.

[Crazed_Insanity]

LA market is kinda weird at the moment. We decided to put up our LA home for sale to see if we could cash in on the crazy high prices and to try to do it before the window of no capital gains tax closes since that was our primary home.

We bought the house in 2010. If we could sell at around current Zillow estimate price, we could use the profit to payoff the mortgage of our Seattle home too! The price has inflated so quickly in the past 13 yrs that they could pay themselves off! Unbelievable!

This, to me, doesn’t seem quite right. But that’s the crazy market according to Zillow.

However, the house has been on listing for 2 weeks, but no serious offer yet. We plan to list it for 2 months, if we can’t sell at those inflated prices, then it goes back to become a rental property again I guess. I’m thinking most people think we’re in a bubble and just waiting for prices to drop.

[dodint]

Homeowner things:

Pretty fun recap video of the floor install my Dad, brother, and I did in my garage over the summer. It looks better and is way more functional, and as Ashie says "Oh my god, it doesn't smell musty in here anymore!"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyoBOkPVlKc

Now I just need to wire up the electrical and install the flush mount lift. Then add wall coverings, fix the garage door height, move all the tools up from the basement, etc., etc. It's never done, really. :lol:

There is an Easter Egg in there for George if he watches closely. ;)

[George]

I saw it at 7:28. :up:

What a project! Thanks for sharing that.

I really like those wheel dollies under the Saturn in the same spot in the video. We could use a set to push Ol' Red over to the wall when we aren't working on it.


Ashie says "Oh my god, it doesn't smell musty in here anymore!"

You just need to have the guys over for beer & poker night a few times to get the smell back.

[dodint]

They're for my Dad's '65 Mustang but they're slumming on that Saturn for a spell.

I was surprised how sturdy they are.

[Freude am Fahren]

We just put an offer on a house we expect to get accepted (it's the second after an initial counter). This will be both my and my wife's first house, we've both been renters out whole lives.

Not a great time to buy obviously with the rates where they are (and prices not really coming down around here), but with a baby due in the new year, we want in before he arrives. We're super excited, and super anxious about the finances over the next year with the baby and her out of work.

Unfortunately we had to pass on the 3-car garage house we liked for one that suited all of our other needs better. I also sold the M2 to help us make it work now instead of next year. :(

[Crazed_Insanity]

Congrats in advanced? ;)

Yeah, not a great time to buy anything, but you gotta buy what you gotta buy I guess. Hope you guys get it.

Boy you're life is gonna get hectic... new house and new baby?!?!? Hope you're also ready for the challenges ahead! Things will get very interesting and exciting for sure! :p

Our attempt to sell our LA home at sky high price probably won't happen. So far no serious offers anywhere close to Zillow's estimated prices. With such high price and high interests, I don't think even I could afford to buy my own house now! :p So I guess it'll go back to be a rental property for now.

[dodint]

Garage Update:

After working all year to put in a new floor, the lift is in and functional:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ADCreHdFS9d_qp8odzs_tExvJ2jIuk2C7luvOwlH9cceXlIRyv jxak9ze7hFTYCUgVkA9m01qHP6rjCLqrpeaTv3JafHwOpTFinu ttQ94q2qHfBBxJUyrFUS2qbFGORDjOkY9t88Wh1I0TZNzBoaGR YiyqTBjQ=w1241-h931-s-no-gm?authuser=0

As a reminder, this is what that space looked like in June:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ADCreHeckosJMDYiarIqOAJXYII_vS2w0ZHgYczgpyVAo07YtS bJMNofZoHT_asuWI9XeArL7DrTFckizkbjUyrS3dcaWLSLU4RH LCaLBRwhspBEhio9xVrBP1ikJ6fDlyNQgPlbWl22K0cRrsG1iO vS_OsmxA=w1655-h931-s-no-gm?authuser=0

I just need to wire up the lights (purchased) and heater (purchased), and then put the walls on to give it a finished and functional look (going to do a combination of drywall and pegboard).

It's starting to snow now so this might be the end of work for a while. We'll see.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Wow! Lowering those things you get a completely flat floor? That’s cool! I want something like that in my garage!

[dodint]

Yeah, they're flush to the floor. One less thing for my clumsy feet to trip over.

[CudaMan]

That is super cool. How is it controlled? Is there wiring under the floor to a switch on the wall?

[George]

Wow! I'd be hitting you up for garage time if I lived closer. :D

Congratulations.

[21Kid]

Very cool. That is a lot of light fixtures! :cool:

[dodint]

That is super cool. How is it controlled? Is there wiring under the floor to a switch on the wall?

There is a console. It's the big gray box in the background here, next to the air compressor:


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ABLVV871k6QvQhU25yckeGANDx40zX7KOfAZR-EXTH1fqe1fb31LJC40aMISkslqQEEtq3YzjvETxCg_s9ze7xjI DE725m4bGvewzKBZxeJCEkQqEwPjNEoU3Y2U81NEJPtRk0Ykwl LxON4Gmk5wk1-jvyrbBA=w689-h919-s-no-gm?authuser=0

Power runs from the sub-panel on a dedicated 25A circuit to a safety cutoff switch (orange cable in, black cable out on the wall above the console) and then into the console which houses the switches and pump unit.
There is a hydraulic hose line and an airline that runs from the console into some PVC piping under the concrete slab, you can see it coming out of the cement in the photo below on the lift side:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ABLVV85dJB_UT424gG6iOMtY8XxmfdDktYK6k8en6Thppb-fjBPQLFez-zJ-6LqIn1gk1e0QODtuvQUWQ0iXSrUWGwhiLac3L-1E8IeoH3Gb_Gm2E9C9wG_uu96cUx3Fx5WZljAaYskzJuWCiVw-3RrIOxNFEQ=w1225-h919-s-no-gm?authuser=0

The hydraulic lines raise and lower the lift, and the airlines use compressed air from my air compressor (which is always attached to the console) to pop the safety locks out of the way when I'm ready to lower the car.

We had to order custom made extended hydraulic and airlines because the kit that comes with it only allows you to move it 4ft from the lift and that didn't make sense for my setup.

Pardon my mess, until we get the walls up things are going to be out of sorts. I'm just happy to have most of my tools in the garage instead of scattered in the basement, breezeway, garage, etc. :)


Very cool. That is a lot of light fixtures! :cool:

Those were tossed up there as a stopgap to use when I only had one outlet in the garage. They're going to be moved and clustered above my work bench as work lightning. I have already purchased 10 8ft LED lights that will be mounted in the rafters for area lighting. I haven't installed the switches or ran the wiring yet so they're in a box in the corner.

[Cam]

Our house did not sell, so we started renting it.

[Crazed_Insanity]

High prices along with higher interest rates made it difficult for buyers. Our LA home almost got sold, but the buyer gave us kind of a low ball offer... it was still a reasonable offer just at the low end of Zillow estimate range, but we figured it's probably better to just rent it out for now so we can have it as protection against inflation...

I just hope the roofer repaired our roof properly last year so that the current down pour won't cause our tenant any issues... Our house is kinda old so dealing with repairs is kind of a drawback of being a landlord...

[21Kid]

Did you use an agency or rental company to take care of the day-to-day?

[Cam]

No. Luckily, it was someone in our neighbourhood who was looking for a temp spot to live while their house is being renovated.

[Yeti]

Well, I've finally hit the limits of my patience with this neighborhood. There's been a few problems since day 1, and things came to a head back in September/October. They have since been resolved (and the big troublemaker is dead lmao), but I'm now kind of soured on living here.

I'm going to be paid off by this time 2025, and this house was always meant to be a stepping stone, so I guess my plans haven't changed too much. My original plan was to pay off, hang around for 4-5 years to save as much money as possible, and then buy a different house - the last house, ideally - and sell this one at my leisure.

My new plan is to pay off, empty the house to do some updates and fixes in prep for sale, and then just lay back in the cut until interest rates are more reasonable/I've saved enough money that interest rates don't matter as much. I'll throw the rest of my crap into cold storage, sell, and my parents are okay with me staying at their house for a while as I shop for a new place - I'm a good renter :lol:

I'm making about 50% more than I was when I bought this place, and still have 4 steps to jump on my new pay scale, so I think this is a good time to start thinking about buying the last house.

These guys sold a month or two ago in my price range and both fit the bill for what I'm after - Out of the city, large lot with distance between me and the neighbors, natural gas service already into the house, and either an extant big garage or room to build one:

4242
(note donut marks :lol:)
4243

[Crazed_Insanity]

I like that log-cabin style house! Looks so cool! Of course the 4 car garage is great too! ;)

You've put yourself in a great position! Very cool! Hope you find your dream home!

[neanderthal]

Well, I've finally hit the limits of my patience with this neighborhood. There's been a few problems since day 1, and things came to a head back in September/October. They have since been resolved (and the big troublemaker is dead lmao), but I'm now kind of soured on living here.

I'm going to be paid off by this time 2025, and this house was always meant to be a stepping stone, so I guess my plans haven't changed too much. My original plan was to pay off, hang around for 4-5 years to save as much money as possible, and then buy a different house - the last house, ideally - and sell this one at my leisure.

My new plan is to pay off, empty the house to do some updates and fixes in prep for sale, and then just lay back in the cut until interest rates are more reasonable/I've saved enough money that interest rates don't matter as much. I'll throw the rest of my crap into cold storage, sell, and my parents are okay with me staying at their house for a while as I shop for a new place - I'm a good renter :lol:

I'm making about 50% more than I was when I bought this place, and still have 4 steps to jump on my new pay scale, so I think this is a good time to start thinking about buying the last house.

These guys sold a month or two ago in my price range and both fit the bill for what I'm after - Out of the city, large lot with distance between me and the neighbors, natural gas service already into the house, and either an extant big garage or room to build one:

4242
(note donut marks :lol:)
4243

Garage almost the size of hte house. Priorities in place.

If I could get a 1300 sq ft 2 bedroom (i like big rooms, sue me) with a 4 car garage tall enough to put lifts in, in all 4 bays, sign me up.

[CudaMan]

The world does need more houses like that. Even non-car people would find them useful - they could use 2 garage bays to store all their stuff and still fit their 1 or 2 cars in the garage instead of banishing all their cars to the driveway or street. Everyone wins.

Yeti, preliminary congrats and let us know what you end up in! Exciting times.

[George]

The world does need more houses like that. Even non-car people would find them useful - they could use 2 garage bays to store all their stuff and still fit their 1 or 2 cars in the garage instead of banishing all their cars to the driveway or street. Everyone wins.

+1

[21Kid]

Sounds good... except for the gas line. I'm looking to go fully electric and get rid of my gas line completely. With electric technology still on the rise, solar & battery will power our house entirely.
I know in the Midwest there aren't as many incentives, but being in HVAC, do you do many heat pump installs? They're handy for both heating & cooling here in CA. We're planning on replacing our 15 yr old A/C & gas furnace soon.

The world does need more houses like that. Even non-car people would find them useful - they could use 2 garage bays to store all their stuff and still fit their 1 or 2 cars in the garage instead of banishing all their cars to the driveway or street. Everyone wins.

Yeti, preliminary congrats and let us know what you end up in! Exciting times.Most houses have basement storage in the Midwest. I wish we had more of that in CA. I hate having so much stuff in our garage.

[Cam]

Get rid of stuff?

[Yeti]

Sounds good... except for the gas line. I'm looking to go fully electric and get rid of my gas line completely. With electric technology still on the rise, solar & battery will power our house entirely.
I know in the Midwest there aren't as many incentives, but being in HVAC, do you do many heat pump installs? They're handy for both heating & cooling here in CA. We're planning on replacing our 15 yr old A/C & gas furnace soon.
Most houses have basement storage in the Midwest. I wish we had more of that in CA. I hate having so much stuff in our garage.

Heat pumps were an impossible sell here back when I was working residential HVAC. Expensive initial cost, thirsty guzzlers of electricity, and NG is cheap here + NG furnaces are pushing 99% efficiency these days. Plus, a heat pump isn't that useful when the REALLY cold weather hits. I'm willing to have a heat pump in my non-critical garage, but not the house.

They are a good solution in places like CA and the southeast though.


The world does need more houses like that. Even non-car people would find them useful - they could use 2 garage bays to store all their stuff and still fit their 1 or 2 cars in the garage instead of banishing all their cars to the driveway or street. Everyone wins.

Yeti, preliminary congrats and let us know what you end up in! Exciting times.

Thanks! I'm not sure how long it'll take for the market to reach a point where I want to go for it, but at least there's a plan in place.

[dodint]

We have a heat pump. We could probably save some money on cold winter days if we used propane as aux heat instead of electric, but other than that it's been fantastic.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, heat pumps are supposed to be way more efficient. At least that's what my local utility company's trying to tell me to upgrade to. However, perhaps initial cost may be a bit high. When time comes to replace my HVAC system, I might consider heat pumps. Especially if I go solar and with battery storage later on...

[speedpimp]

The house I've been in for the past twenty one years was built in 1981. Various improvements have been made over the years(new windows, deck, central air/furnace, rubber roof, metal roof) and other than a few leaks here and there things have been good with the plumbing...until this week. Considering the age of the house and that it still has the majority of the original water lines, things have been good...until this week. It started with an odd plop plop sound when there was zero noise in the house. Then the water started getting really hot, really fast. Uh oh.
On Sunday I pulled up some skirting and was greeted with a spray of hot water. Mother fucker. I scheduled an appointment for Monday and Monday afternoon it was fixed...until early Tuesday morning I got up to use the bathroom(old man bladder and all) and after nearly tripping over the cat I thought I heard the sound of water running...after work on Tuesday I got home and pulled up some skirting and found two new leaks and it was still the hot water line because I could see steam rising off of the ground. Good grief, Charlie Brown. I called the plumbers who'd done the work and they scheduled us in for a morning visit. Great thing is it was the same guy who'd been here on Monday. He fixed the leak and installed a new shower head.
I got home from work and checked under the skirting and there were no leaks.
The plan is to keep checking for leaks every few weeks.
Why check for the leaks so often? Because the water lines(Quest) have been obsolete for years and have been replaced by Pex(which seems to be the greatest thing since sliced bread). So every repair over the past year has required newer Pex to be spliced into the older Quest lines. If the leaks persist the next option is a complete retrofit from Quest to Pex. The good thing is I can cover the cost of that. The bad side is I miss a leak and a floor collapses(which will not happen).
Why do I stay here? I hate moving, moving sucks, I hate moving, moving sucks, property taxes are $40/yr.
The only time I've felt any anxiety in the past few years has had to do with household repairs and my parents' health. Funny how some leaking water can freak you the fuck out.
Such is life.
What's next?

[Crazed_Insanity]

My parents’ house was built in 1928 and my old CA home was built in the 50s. Never had any plumbing leaking issues. Could be because older construction materials were more solid? Or perhaps SoCal had pretty mild climates, no extreme temperatures?

Anyway, now in WA, our neighbor had burst pipe to the washer, which ruined their living room floor. A friend had burst pipe in kitchen which ruin her kitchen floor. Another friend had a burst pipe from an upstairs toilet which ruined multiple floors! All those incidents happened while they were on vacation or out at work…

Our current home was built in 1999. Not really sure what kind of pipe we have, hopefully it wasn’t cheaply built…

We’re thinking of hiring a plumber to install an WiFi controlled water shutoff valve. Supposedly it can automatically shut water off whether if it’s a burst pipe or slow leak.

Of course moving would be the easiest fix, but maybe you can DIY a shutoff valve like that for peace of mind?

[speedpimp]

Billy, there are multiple shutoff valves(hot water heater, one for each line to the washer, one at the toilet, one under the bathroom sink, one for the outside water and one under the kitchen sink). So that is covered.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I meant a main valve that can sense leaks and automatically shut itself off. I’m still doing some research whether to do this or not, considering what has happened to my neighbor and friends, I thought it could be a worthwhile investment?

Something like this:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/MOEN-Flo-0-75-in-Smart-Water-Monitor-and-Automatic-Water-Shut-Off-Valve-900-001/309096191

I wish it has better ratings. That’d make my decisions much easier… :p

[Cam]

Our apartment rent is going up by 14% this year. :|

Thankfully, we are making pretty good coin renting our home in SC, but it is still something we need to think about. Our renters extended their stay by a couple of months, but they are still moving out by the end of the year. Our pest control service has gone flaky, so we need to find a new one. Kind of annoying to have to do stuff like that remotely. I would like to sell and be done with it, but I think my wife got dollar signs in her eyes when she realized the income potential of renting our house.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Hire property management to take care of it for you.

Having a house, especially with low rate mortgage, is a great hedge against inflation though.

I tried selling my home back in LA, but couldn’t get a high enough price, so I’ll just keep it for now. Currently rent can easily cover its payments.

[Cam]

Our real estate agent asked if they could show the house. The wife initially said no, but I convinced her to be on Team Sell. :lol: Funny thing is, we did not even talk to the agent about selling. They just had a client who was interested. We didn't even put a price out there. Although, I am willing to entertain any offer at this point.

[Cam]

We are officially relisting our house.