Let's talk home projects!

[Dave Gray]

Hey all,

Been working on the house and I'd love to hear about what projects you got in the works or on the future timeline.

I have major drainage problems.  The family that lived here before me had poured concrete garden paths in the back yard.  When they moved on from that and wanted grass, the just laid sod over the concrete.  I discovered this well after I'd moved in.

In that time, I removed the gutters from the house to get it painted and the gutters can't be reattached because they were kinda jerry-rigged on there.  I need a new roof anyway, so I'm doing a roof and gutters together, which will keep all the water from pooling on my back porch.  At some point down the line, I may have to do some more serious yard-leveling to dig out all of that concrete.

I'm also paying to have floors done and my daughter's room is all cleared out while we replace.  But everything is on back order, so the house is in big disarray right now.  It will be nice to have it all done and I can get my garage back.



On my own, I recently insulated the roof over the garage as well as put insulation panels on the garage door.  The garage is less hot, because it gets the full afternoon sun, which just makes it nicer out there, but it's also supposed to help with general A/C costs for the house.  We have an garage refrigerator for drinks and backup so we go in and out a lot.

[Tenshot13]

I'm in the process of selling my home, we just signed the offer last night.  It all depends on the inspection next week.  We got $20k less than we asked for, but all in all our take home profit is more than we bought the house for...2x over 8 years isn't bad.  Over those 8 years, I laid the floors myself, had contractors remodel two bathrooms and my kitchen, had the exterior and interior painted and redid the plumbing.  I am ready to move into a house that is turn key, where I don't have to do anything.  The only exception is we are looking at canal houses that go out to the bay.  I would take another fixer upper if we could find one for the right price.

[Dave Gray]

I'm in the process of selling my home, we just signed the offer last night.  It all depends on the inspection next week.  We got $20k less than we asked for, but all in all our take home profit is more than we bought the house for...2x over 8 years isn't bad.  Over those 8 years, I laid the floors myself, had contractors remodel two bathrooms and my kitchen, had the exterior and interior painted and redid the plumbing.  I am ready to move into a house that is turn key, where I don't have to do anything.  The only exception is we are looking at canal houses that go out to the bay.  I would take another fixer upper if we could find one for the right price.

Why and where are you moving?

Houses where I live are going over asking, in cash, with no inspection.  Shit is crazy.  And even if you sold your house, you can't find a way to buy another one, so you better be leaving the area.

[Tenshot13]

I live in Tampa and drive 100 miles round trip for work every day...it's killing me, so I'm moving closer.  Unfortunately in my area the market has plateaued a bit.  If you look at comps in our area, we probably did a bit better than we should have, I think we may have listed too high.

[Dolphster]

Why and where are you moving?

Houses where I live are going over asking, in cash, with no inspection.  Shit is crazy.  And even if you sold your house, you can't find a way to buy another one, so you better be leaving the area.

Same here in the Dallas area, Dave.  A coworker of mine just sold his house in a Dallas suburb for more than what he had it listed for and the buyer waived the inspection.  My buddy didn't even ask them to waive it.  The buyer himself brought it up and said they wanted to waive it before someone else came in and gave a higher offer.

[pondwater]

Plenty of shit for me to do around here with this house. I'm just being lazy, there's no hurry though. Plus it's too fucking hot out.

In this market I could sell and make out pretty good but will still have to turn around and buy something else that's overpriced. Or wait until the bubble pops and sell for less and buy something for less. Kind of a catch 22. Only way it makes sense is to sell now and lease something until the bubble pops and then buy. But there's no telling how long that will be.

[Phishfan]

I need to cut my grass

[Tenshot13]

Plenty of shit for me to do around here with this house. I'm just being lazy, there's no hurry though. Plus it's too fucking hot out.

In this market I could sell and make out pretty good but will still have to turn around and buy something else that's overpriced. Or wait until the bubble pops and sell for less and buy something for less. Kind of a catch 22. Only way it makes sense is to sell now and lease something until the bubble pops and then buy. But there's no telling how long that will be.

Or if that will be.  The difference now vs when the last time the bubble popped were loans being issued to people that couldn't pay them.  Those sorts of loans aren't issued nearly as much, however, there are people who can't pay because of COVID, so if a bubble pops maybe that would be why.

[masterfins]

I need to cut my grass

+1  I need to cut my grass, and do about 20 or 30 projects (some small, some big) that seem to accumulate from year to year.  The bigger ones are replace driveway, new gutters, and repaint the house since it's been about 15 years since the last time.

[Dave Gray]

+1  I need to cut my grass, and do about 20 or 30 projects (some small, some big) that seem to accumulate from year to year.  The bigger ones are replace driveway, new gutters, and repaint the house since it's been about 15 years since the last time.

Are you constantly doing something?  I have stuff like this, but I've kept at it so it's not building up.

[TonyB0D]

major home reno coming up.  redoing basically everything, and adding outdoor ktichen/bbq/pool area.  gonna be crazy...i'll probably have to live in the city for a year while the work gets done

[Tenshot13]

So it looks like our house is officially selling, the only hiccup left would be the appraisal, but I'm pretty confident it will appraise for the price we all agreed on.  We also got a new house, I'm pretty excited about it.  The inspection was yesterday, and unofficially the inspector told our relator there was nothing wrong with the house.  It's has a 3 car garage, huge beautiful master bedroom and bath, open floorplan on 0.25 acres backing up to a bass stock pond.  It was $100k less then we were planning on spending initially, so we get to pocket a lot of the money from selling our house.  The only thing we're going to do is get a pool, so no remodels which is nice.  There's a park 5 minutes away with a huge boat ramp too, I plan on getting a new boat soon after we move with some of the profit.  And the best part is it's only a 30 min drive to work.

[CF DolFan]

Things have certainly leveled in our area too. I just bought a house for 75k under original asking price and 40k under the current asking price. Kind of funny seeing as how back in April we were losing houses even after offering more than asking price.  It's an 80's house with 5 acres, a detached workshop, a pole barn and cows so I have a lot of new projects to complete.

This house has an oversized 2 car garage and I am looking to do what you did Dave as well as upgrade the attic insulation. My detached workshop has an enclosed loft area for storage so I want to insulate that as well as put in a small ac. I have a ton of holiday decorations and this is where it is all being stored.

[CF DolFan]

So it looks like our house is officially selling, the only hiccup left would be the appraisal, but I'm pretty confident it will appraise for the price we all agreed on.  We also got a new house, I'm pretty excited about it.  The inspection was yesterday, and unofficially the inspector told our relator there was nothing wrong with the house.  It's has a 3 car garage, huge beautiful master bedroom and bath, open floorplan on 0.25 acres backing up to a bass stock pond.  It was $100k less then we were planning on spending initially, so we get to pocket a lot of the money from selling our house.  The only thing we're going to do is get a pool, so no remodels which is nice.  There's a park 5 minutes away with a huge boat ramp too, I plan on getting a new boat soon after we move with some of the profit.  And the best part is it's only a 30 min drive to work.

We made an offer at asking price on a house but knew it wouldn't appraise (my wife is a mortgage underwriter). We made the offer because if you don't you won't even get a seat at the table to negotiate. The appraisal came back 15k lower but was a really bad appraisal and was rejected by the mortgage company. The sellers refused to believe it was a bad appraisal and said they wouldn't accept anything less so we had to back out 4 days before freaking closing. Because we are friends with their realtor too we found out their next appraisal with new buyers came back over 100k less than that one (my wife said that one is bad too). They ended up taking 15K less than we were willing to pay so they lost out in several ways as they were paying a mortgage on a house they were not living in. Finding appraisers who work with land is apparently pretty difficult.

[Dave Gray]

This house has an oversized 2 car garage and I am looking to do what you did Dave as well as upgrade the attic insulation. My detached workshop has an enclosed loft area for storage so I want to insulate that as well as put in a small ac. I have a ton of holiday decorations and this is where it is all being stored.

I'm noticing something: In my master bathroom, I have a warming lamp in the ceiling.  We call it the "hamburger light" because it's kinda like what they use at mcdonalds to keep the food warm.  Anyway, even when it's not on, if you hold your hand up near the lamp, it's hot.  I think that there's no insulation around the lamp and it's literally just a hole into the attic that's dumping heat.  I think that needs to be addressed.  When you're up there, keep an eye out for shortcuts where they just cut holes into the ceiling.