The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[WRXtranceformed]

Context: Skilled labor is in pretty short supply around here, or at least it was when our house was rewired. Our electrician at the time said he couldn't afford to pay the going rate for journeyman electricians due to supply/demand, so jobs took longer than they really needed to. We landed on the house upgrade because we got some architects and a contractor-friend in our house to price stuff. To redo the half-finished basement into a master suite would be $100k-$200k and to blow the roof to expand our top floor (currently just one bedroom and attic space - no running water) was $250k-$500k plus moving out for six months. For those prices, we said it'd be a lot easier to spend money on a different house.

So I've already had a roofer out here to look at things. He said the shingles are in decent shape, there is only one layer, and the ridges are all crack-free, so there's likely no need to do the whole roof at this point. He said if they did, it's probably in the $15k-$20k range depending on materials. Fuck me. I'm not interested in that, especially since he said patching was likely pretty easy. Roof work would include cutting back the wood sitting on shingles and putting proper flashing in there. He said with a proper wash and repaint, most of the wood would be fine. They're gonna price the work and let me know. I've got two more roofers coming out over the next week.

Gutters are gonna be a full replace and I'm operating under the assumption all fascia around gutters will need to go too. I had a gutter company out here a few years ago and they said matching the size of our current gutters wasn't really possible, so be prepared for that. Given the condition, I think it's just better to re-board everything to match the new gutters. I've got a general contractor who does work for us 1-2x/year and is super reasonable; he said he could do all the carpentry no problem.

I've got a house painter coming this afternoon. Power washing and repainting is really common around here because of house ages, so this job probably wouldn't ve complicated for them. I have considered doing that part myself, but I'm concerned about effective cleanup. That one garage corner/downspout is losing mortar between the bricks, so I'm also worried about doing some real damage if I try to DIY. My guess is I'll also have to find someone to chip our bad mortar and replace it before any paint goes on.

I did some research on a Facebook group for parents in my area. Based on everything I've seen, I don't think we're getting out of this for under $40k. That's a bummer, but I don't want this to be a sticking point if/when we do decide to sell. We're at ~50% equity, so we have options on how to finance this. I want to better understand total cost and Trump tax changes before I make a decision there.

If I had to guess, $40k of work probably nets us $20k-$30k. I rarely make home decisions about return on investment and I'm not trying to buy a 50 year roof to move a year later. I think this work has to happen one way or the other, for the benefit of the house, so that (almost) helps grasp the bill. I feel like when we actually sell this house, we'll have dumped six figures in. That sucks, but we're looking at a 45% appreciation in four years so I guess that's money well spent.

Wow dang.  Yeah so my gut was nearly dead on.  Those years I spent (and lost off the end of my life) in construction are still good for something I guess.

We ate dinner with my dad on our farm last weekend and I brought up the idea of moving onto the property at some point.  He was completely for it because the overall maintenance of the farm + tenant house + grandmother's old manor house is staggering.  I think he would like the idea of us moving into her old house, and while it's gorgeous and on probably the best plot on the property....it's old as hell (1740s-1840s newest portion) and doesn't even have central HVAC.  I told my wife it would be EASILY the cost of a brand new, ground up house build just to renovate that thing to be where we would need / want it to be.  I'm guessing $300-500k.  I mean there is a swarm of bees living in the damn chimney and who knows what is living up in the attic thanks to nobody living in there for years.