The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[WRXtranceformed]

Buying older houses as fixer uppers (or even just to mildly upgrade) can be cool and rewarding, and then you realize most people either don't notice or don't care about the problems they have with their home. I think it's safe to say that the majority of Americans do not do proper maintenance on their homes or fix stuff the way it's supposed to be fixed when it breaks. This is coming from my construction background and the bit of time I was asked to help the service department.

Even with the big issues we had, I would definitely prefer building new again over an older home unless I could get it for a steal and assumed I'd need to replace roof / HVAC / windows / fixtures / flooring pretty much immediately upon moving in. Even with trash production home building methods, the energy efficiency and quality of even the "entry level" builder grade materials is worlds better than it used to be even when I was building homes over 10 years ago. The low-E / insulated frame windows I have in my house now were considered a costly upgrade back in the day.