The things they don't teach you when you buy a house.

z31maniac said:

Duke said:

TR7 said:

SoonToBeDatsun240ZGuy said:

Learn how to paint - inside and outside - my house is 23 years old and some rooms have been painted 3X and are due to be painted soon.  Why? I live with Martha Stewart and she updates.  Invest in good tools, sticks, pans; crappy tools makes the job suck.

I have painted my walls so many times for my own Martha Stewart my rooms are getting smaller. 

See, this is why you ALWAYS paint your walls in a very neutral white / off-white with white trim.  I guarantee you're going to get tired of that trendy accent color.

New throw pillows are cheap.  Painting is a PITA.

 

My ex-wife wanted to repaint so much I finally just said, "I'm not doing this again. If you want to repaint for the 4th time in 15 months, call a friend."

With my fiance and in our current house, we use accents and art on the walls vs repainting or shiplap or whatever is trendy at the moment. 

Before we bought our first house I told the wife. I do not wallpaper. I do not paint. Anything to do with either of those, you are on your own or you can call a pro. 

Our current house had a noncommittal white on the walls when we bought it. Other than two bathrooms that she painted and one of my son's rooms that he painted, it's still the same color it was 12 years ago.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

z31maniac said: I don't do any house stuff.

A strong argument for apartment living. /dad joke

To be fair, when we were both WFH permanently at the beginning of the pandemic. If we didn't have animals, I would have sold our place and started renting so it would be easier to move. Also, living in a nice downtown place with tons of stuff within walking distance is pretty awesome.

When I had my place in downtown OKC, I was a 15 minute walk from an amazing array of restaurants, bars, concert/comedy venues, and our Triple A baseball team.

This was something I wanted to also touch on in some "lifestyle" threads, about how important learning trades can be.

Eventually at some point SOMETHING will break, and it'll break in the worst way imaginable. If you have no concept of how it works, it'll be a very expensive bill potentially for something you could easily fix- had you known about it previously.

I had this with a sink where all the handles on the water supply broke on me, one after the other. Was it not for my stepdad, I'd probably have had to spend for an emergency plumber to come out for $200+ of work for a job that took seconds for a short-term fix that kept me from shutting off my home's water.

Toyman! said:

Before we bought our first house I told the wife. I do not wallpaper.

No one should ever do wallpaper.  Ever.  Unless you are doing a slavishly period-correct restoration of a true Victorian house, you should never put up wallpaper, and you should tear down any existing wallpaper you encounter.

No wallpaper.

Ever.

Seriously.

Hire your own home inspector. Make sure they don't suck.  
 

next place i'll be with the inspector so they dont half-ass it like my current house that had an active roof leak. 

GIRTHQUAKE said:

 

Eventually at some point SOMETHING will break, and it'll break in the worst way imaginable. If you have no concept of how it works, it'll be a very expensive bill potentially for something you could easily fix- had you known about it previously.

 

During Covid I had to replace the Roof, Heater, Hot Water Heater, and Dryer.  I replaced the washer two months ago.

And since I disposed of said cooked bird, the smells in the basement are gone.

In reply to Duke :

My dad had a big 2-story home he built in 1970.  Every room had some type of wallpaper.  

A neighbor wanted to buy it in 2014 and during a walkthrough she commented about every room having wallpaper and it all coming down.  

It was the thing in the 70's - he taught me how to put it up so I got that going for me.  

Toyman! said:

Before we bought our first house I told the wife. I do not wallpaper. I do not paint. Anything to do with either of those, you are on your own or you can call a pro. 

Our current house had a noncommittal white on the walls when we bought it. Other than two bathrooms that she painted and one of my son's rooms that he painted, it's still the same color it was 12 years ago.

 

The only 2 things I put my foot down with my wife were:

1) No hyphenation of last names.  She could keep hers or take mine, but no "I can't decide/won't commit hyphenated last name BS".

2) No GD berkeleying wall paper! Ever!

secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:

The only 2 things I put my foot down with my wife were:

1) No hyphenation of last names.  She could keep hers or take mine, but no "I can't decide/won't commit hyphenated last name BS".

2) No GD berkeleying wall paper! Ever!

Fortunately I didn't even remotely have to, but those both would have been deal breakers for me too.

On a side note, in the US it's never people who would have simple hyphenated names like "Smith-Perez" that hyphenate them.  No, it's always the ones that have 2 long, complicated names that insist on jamming them together, "Williamson-DiFrangelico".

I worked with a woman who got married and her husband offered to hyphenate their names.  She said, "Eww, no, that name sounds like a disease.  I'm fine with taking yours."

Sorry for the OT bit.

SoonToBeDatsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to Duke :

My dad had a big 2-story home he built in 1970.  Every room had some type of wallpaper.  

A neighbor wanted to buy it in 2014 and during a walkthrough she commented about every room having wallpaper and it all coming down.  

It was the thing in the 70's - he taught me how to put it up so I got that going for me.  

Wallpaper was the thing all the way into the early 90s. All the trendy houses had wallpaper in the kitchens and baths and you would change it every couple of years. I remember it as being the worst fight my parents ever had.

Personally, I'd rather do something like this and let it age as it wants. 

GIRTHQUAKE said:

This was something I wanted to also touch on in some "lifestyle" threads, about how important learning trades can be.

Eventually at some point SOMETHING will break, and it'll break in the worst way imaginable. If you have no concept of how it works, it'll be a very expensive bill potentially for something you could easily fix- had you known about it previously.

I had this with a sink where all the handles on the water supply broke on me, one after the other. Was it not for my stepdad, I'd probably have had to spend for an emergency plumber to come out for $200+ of work for a job that took seconds for a short-term fix that kept me from shutting off my home's water.

This.

I have replaced both fan motors on our AC units (inside and outside) with nothing more than the skills I've picked up working on cars. Careful diagnosis, attention to detail, researching replacement parts, all leading to a successful repair. Probably saved me $2k at least. I also re-plumbed our tankless water heater condensate drain (thank you PEX). I've done countless other home repairs thanks to skills I learned working on my cars.

My cheapness drives my desire to do home repairs myself. Oddly that also translates to my cars.

The only thing worse than removing wallpaper is removing wallpaper that someone has painted over.

Same for popcorn ceiling. If it's starting to fall down and your solution is to paint over it so it becomes the next guy's problem, you are a bad person.

I will do anything that's a one man job - ie, plumbing, electrical, etc. 

I will not do anything that is usually accomplished by a team of people - big landscaping jobs, drywall, etc. 

There are times when it's just not worth spending all of your free time working on your house, and there are times when it is. 

TJL (Forum Supporter) said:

Hire your own home inspector. Make sure they don't suck.  
 

next place i'll be with the inspector so they dont half-ass it like my current house that had an active roof leak. 

And hire one whose nickname is "the deal killer" - not the one recommended by the realtor who can already taste the commission. 

The  strong opinions about the last name thing is kind of weird to me. I'll leave it at that, if someone wants to start a separate thread. 

In reply to Duke :

I agree but the trends in decorating I've seen in my life is staggering.  I have a customer that still has that grass wallpaper in their office - remember that?

• A neighbor paid me to paint her dining room blood red on 1985.
• 12"x12" mirror tiles was a big thing in 1980.
• Kmart Building Materials sold a lot of styrofoam beams you glued to the ceiling to create a rustic look. 
• also a lot of super crappy paneling 
• yellow plastic 2'x4' panels you put in the ceiling grids.  

slefain said:

I have replaced both fan motors on our AC units (inside and outside) with nothing more than the skills I've picked up working on cars. Careful diagnosis, attention to detail, researching replacement parts, all leading to a successful repair. Probably saved me $2k at least. I also re-plumbed our tankless water heater condensate drain (thank you PEX). I've done countless other home repairs thanks to skills I learned working on my cars.

My cheapness drives my desire to do home repairs myself. Oddly that also translates to my cars.

Preach it, brother!

I like working on the house. It's like a project car you can use all the time :) I grew up in a 1909 house that we renovated around ourselves for 10 years, so paint/plaster work isn't scary. I get to learn lots of new skills and I get to work with my hands. If something goes wrong with the house, there's a very good chance I can fix it myself instead of waiting for someone else - like the swamp cooler that screamed and vomited black smoke into the house a couple of months ago when it was 100F outside. I had that back up and running by the end of the day. My brother-in-law would have suffered for two weeks before someone got out to fix it.

Change the color of a room? No problem. I just painted a beige wall blue last weekend, actually. Life's too short for beige.

Popcorn wall/ceiling texture is shortcut of the lazy and cheap and cannot be patched.
Wallpaper sucks.
Plumbing is best left to the pros once it goes into a floor/wall.
The inspector will never find everything.

Toyman! said:

SoonToBeDatsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to Duke :

My dad had a big 2-story home he built in 1970.  Every room had some type of wallpaper.  

A neighbor wanted to buy it in 2014 and during a walkthrough she commented about every room having wallpaper and it all coming down.  

It was the thing in the 70's - he taught me how to put it up so I got that going for me.  

Wallpaper was the thing all the way into the early 90s. All the trendy houses had wallpaper in the kitchens and baths and you would change it every couple of years. I remember it as being the worst fight my parents ever had.

Personally, I'd rather do something like this and let it age as it wants. 

That is a bit too much wood for my taste.  

And it is obvious to me that person does not have exotic birds as pets. (Large hookbills specifically)

Wood, it's not just to chew at breakfast.

But I digress.  Back to the house/home thread and no owners manual.

In reply to mad_machine :

"Things they don't tell you when you buy a house".

possibly OT, but how much DO you disclose?  
Selling my (deceased) parents 3BR Ranch, asking $214k, which I thought was a lot.  Got an offer for $234k.

Growing up there and recent stuff, I know the pipes should be Roto-Rootered.  Do we tell the buyer or buyer beware bye bye?

I feel bad about Plan B.

In reply to 914Driver :

When selling cars you always honestly answer the question.  But you don't bring up details if they don't ask.   

Houses are on another level but it's up to the inspector to figure that out.  Maybe it's your opinion about those pipes - LOL.

Oh, the things I've encountered.  I bought a house that said it was built in 1900, but that's a legal way of saying "we have no idea."

Turns out, I bought a chicken coop that had been converted into an in-law suite in the 20s, and 5 additions later ranging from the 40s to the 70s, it's now a 2bd/1ba house.... from a chicken coop that dates back to at least the 1860s from my estimation.  Brilliant flip, and much of it was done right, but so much was done wrong.

Let's just say when I pulled off some drywall to install a fireplace, I realized that a wall that should be load-bearing was rough-hewn slabs of hickory with feathers stuck in it and a creosote beam sitting on dirt under it.  I pulled the baseboard off in the kitchen to find cedar shake siding behind it.  In the process I found a knob and tube wiring run that was still powered and ended in a J-box inside the header above the bathroom door with 90 volts bouncing through it.

It's been a trip.  Good bones, but some seriously weird stuff.

Budget 2-4% of the home's value for repairs, maintenance and upgrades.

Annually.

Some years you skate. Other years you get crushed... but having something available makes that stuff a lot easier to stomach. 

914Driver said:

In reply to mad_machine :

"Things they don't tell you when you buy a house".

possibly OT, but how much DO you disclose?  
Selling my (deceased) parents 3BR Ranch, asking $214k, which I thought was a lot.  Got an offer for $234k.

Growing up there and recent stuff, I know the pipes should be Roto-Rootered.  Do we tell the buyer or buyer beware bye bye?

I feel bad about Plan B.

I dont know about other states but in SC any known issues or defects must be disclosed at the time of sale or the seller can be held liable for the repairs. 

A disclosure statement has to be signed by both parties before any contracts can be drawn up.

I swear I didn't know.