The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[WRXtranceformed]

I finally broke down and paid someone to mow our lawn. The guys our neighbors use are local good ole boys and they do an excellent job, so I flagged him down and $35 later our yard looks a million times better than it ever did using that damn push reel mower and sweating my tail off at 7AM during the summer. I may keep this guy on board until the late fall when our lawn goes into dormancy and I don't need to move it but like once every month or two. At least for the time being, it's not worth spending the free time I do have literally dying out in the humidity doing something I hate.

[Tyler.M]

I'm a bit nervous mowing right now since its been so dry and short grass doesn't winter well. My yard looks like righteous shit but I'd rather than for a few weeks than a dead lawn come next spring.

Also, anyone have any bug solutions that work okay? I'm doing the perimeter defense stuff and I think everything is sealed up alright but I'm still getting ants/spiders from time to time

[JPolen01]

Call an exterminator. We had an issue when we first moved in and had a local guy come out. He treated inside and out. Bugs literally die as the cross the threshold. Don't know what he used but it worked.

[ViPER1313]

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/cyper-tc-p-53.html

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E28UQU/ref...ZzbP1MPEGY

Set for life.

[Apoc]

Borax is the only thing that works and doesn't have a high risk to the environment, pets, and/or your children.

[ViPER1313]

It's the same stuff in Home Defense but way more concentrated. I mean, I wouldn't recommend spraying it on my food, but at a 0.2% concentration when diluted it's not any real threat to humans. If you have cats you may want to do more research. I can vouch that the stuff kills ants and stink bugs with startling effectiveness.

[JPolen01]

You use that inside and outside? It says indoor restricted use but I'm not sure what that means.

[ViPER1313]

No, outside only.

[Apoc]

I can't remember where I started this coversation, but I'm continuing it here. I measured for the car carrier to fit on the shelf in this first picture and it would fit... but I totally noobed it and didn't account for the angle it would take to get a large box up there. I removed one of the braces and it still wouldn't fit because of the garage door bracket. For now, it's lifted into the rafters and twisted into place. The gap is blocked by the garage door when it's open, so it's really a major pain in the ass. I'm going to look into a kayak hanger or maybe try to covert this ceiling mount bike pulley I have. 

[WRXtranceformed]

Boof fail, at least you have some options. Side note on garages: How often are you all cleaning out your garages? Ours is turning into a once-every-6 months-ish project to keep spider webs / dead bugs / mouse poop / mice killin' under control. We also live next to a forested area and (former) wetland so we probably get more wildlife than most. But man I had to clean out my garage in the old townhouse like maybe once every 2 years. The plus side is it has helped prevent us from accumulating crap we don't need.

Another side note on homeownership: I feel like we've had this conversation before but it staggers me how much some people spend on furniture and think that it's perfectly normal. I really don't wonder anymore why so many people are house poor / complain about their finances. We went out this weekend to look for ONE tiny little side table to put a lamp on for our guest room and the best / cheapest thing we could find was about $100. Excluding the Walmart fiber board junk, probably the average price for a little side table was $200-$250. Really? For a few pieces of wood you had a laborer in Thailand slap together for $10? That's just a side table though, it's apparently a completely normal thing for people to go to a furniture store and spend $600 on a coffee table. My father is an antique furniture dealer by trade, I get more than most people that some folks will invest in high quality, period antique furniture but this junk is not that.

We aren't rich by any stretch of the imagination but boy am I glad I married someone who is as cost + quality conscious as my wife. There are a few local furniture builders / wholesalers that make really nice stuff for super reasonable prices, we'll probably go that route but I think this really hit me when we walked into a furniture "auction" recently (these are getting really popular down here) and saw the prices that some of that junk was going for that were considered "good deals".

[Apoc]

My last garage was Ashburn and I only ever had to tidy it up, else it was always pretty spotless. This garage is... well... look at it. I took down some old boards and had to clean up rat shit... but I also found wood paneling from the 60s in its original packaging up there. Now, I feel like I sweep my garage every time the 911 is out of it. As far as stuff, I run a pretty tight ship. Everything has a place and anything new has to replace something else. It helps that the garage barely fits the tiny 911.

Somehow we managed to get to a place where furniture is marketed as luxury, even if it's crap. We bought into it because so few people make furniture any more. We have a lot of old stuff, but everything new was bought off Etsy or direct from the builder. We got a kickass custom coffee table in solid wood with colors we picked for $300. It even came right to our door free. There's A LOT of bullshit on Etsy, but I like to hunt unique/antique furniture like you guys hunt watches. It took me a full two years to find our bar cabinet. It was my E91... lots of buyers after me begged for it after I got in right when it went live. Actually, it was Craigslist... but you get the point.

[WRXtranceformed]

My last garage was Ashburn and I only ever had to tidy it up, else it was always pretty spotless. This garage is... well... look at it. I took down some old boards and had to clean up rat shit... but I also found wood paneling from the 60s in its original packaging up there. Now, I feel like I sweep my garage every time the 911 is out of it. As far as stuff, I run a pretty tight ship. Everything has a place and anything new has to replace something else. It helps that the garage barely fits the tiny 911.

Somehow we managed to get to a place where furniture is marketed as luxury, even if it's crap. We bought into it because so few people make furniture any more. We have a lot of old stuff, but everything new was bought off Etsy or direct from the builder. We got a kickass custom coffee table in solid wood with colors we picked for $300. It even came right to our door free. There's A LOT of bullshit on Etsy, but I like to hunt unique/antique furniture like you guys hunt watches. It took me a full two years to find our bar cabinet. It was my E91... lots of buyers after me begged for it after I got in right when it went live. Actually, it was Craigslist... but you get the point.

Nice, alright I don't feel crazy.  I mean we run a really clean ship and I'm going to chalk it up as one of the "inconveniences" of living close to nature 

And yeah I totally get it, I've tried to become more of a "buy once cry once" consumer and will absolutely invest in anything if it's something that we really need, is high quality and we can't find it anywhere else.  I just feel like people don't pick and choose their battles on stuff that in the grand scheme of things is pretty inconsequential, like an end table

[.RJ]

It was my E91...

[Tyler.M]

Boof fail, at least you have some options.  Side note on garages:  How often are you all cleaning out your garages?  Ours is turning into a once-every-6 months-ish project to keep spider webs / dead bugs / mouse poop / mice killin' under control.  We also live next to a forested area and (former) wetland so we probably get more wildlife than most.  But man I had to clean out my garage in the old townhouse like maybe once every 2 years.  The plus side is it has helped prevent us from accumulating crap we don't need.

Another side note on homeownership:  I feel like we've had this conversation before but it staggers me how much some people spend on furniture and think that it's perfectly normal.  I really don't wonder anymore why so many people are house poor / complain about their finances.  We went out this weekend to look for ONE tiny little side table to put a lamp on for our guest room and the best / cheapest thing we could find was about $100.  Excluding the Walmart fiber board junk, probably the average price for a little side table was $200-$250.  Really?  For a few pieces of wood you had a laborer in Thailand slap together for $10?  That's just a side table though, it's apparently a completely normal thing for people to go to a furniture store and spend $600 on a coffee table.  My father is an antique furniture dealer by trade, I get more than most people that some folks will invest in high quality, period antique furniture but this junk is not that.

We aren't rich by any stretch of the imagination but boy am I glad I married someone who is as cost + quality conscious as my wife.  There are a few local furniture builders / wholesalers that make really nice stuff for super reasonable prices, we'll probably go that route but I think this really hit me when we walked into a furniture "auction" recently (these are getting really popular down here) and saw the prices that some of that junk was going for that were considered "good deals".

My garage is tiny but I use it as my additional "personal space" when my renter has people over or something... so I'm in there a lot. I've got my weight set in there, and my shop so it's pretty full. I say I keep my "chaotically clean" meaning it feels more like an old engine builder's shop than a pristine clean area. I got parts and old mechanic's cabinets laying around, various pieces of furniture I've "repurposed" for spare part organization and a couch. I clean after I get a project done on something and spot clean the rest. I had a big issue with bugs and such but I spray all entrances and everything once a month with a perimeter defense and check the mousetraps frequently.  Other than that, I do a deep clean once a year, mainly because of dust accumulation from woodworking and metal shavings that I don't get up with a regular workshop vac.

In regards to furniture, yeah it's insane. Watch craigslist some time and see how many "WE PAID 3K FOR THIS AND WANT IT GONE FOR 500" ads go up for sale. I could never imagine financing a freaking bedroom suite or a sofa, but enough people must do it that it's impossible to find something new that's also comfortable for a decent price. I bought my sofa and a love seat in my living room for $400 bucks that was 1 year old,  cost the couple 3k and had regular cleanings. They probably would've taken less because they had the replacement being delivered the next day. I had it professionally cleaned for a further $100 bucks and boom, basically new.  Mattresses and beds are kind of the same thing; I shopped around last year at some local stores and couldn't believe that it was 1k minimum for a so-so mattress. Picked up a great memory foam plus bed frame on Amazon for sub $700 that easily beats out anything else I tried in store, even the 3k-5k mattresses and bedframes.

[WRXtranceformed]

Yeah man it's nuts. Our neighborhood has a Facebook page where people buy and sell stuff and I bought our kitchen nook table and chairs basically brand new for $400 off of a For Sale post. The table is a really nicely built solid wood piece with built in folding leaves that I think wifey told me was $1k+ by itself and the 4 upholstered chairs were something like $200-$250 a piece brand new from Bed Bath & Beyond. This lady got all of it as a gift from her children but she wanted something more antique-vibed so dumped it "cheap". Even I thought $400 was a lot but you just can't find really nice furniture for not outrageous prices.

[Tyler.M]

Yeah man it's nuts.  Our neighborhood has a Facebook page where people buy and sell stuff and I bought our kitchen nook table and chairs basically brand new for $400 off of a For Sale post.  The table is a really nicely built solid wood piece with built in folding leaves that I think wifey told me was $1k+ by itself and the 4 upholstered chairs were something like $200-$250 a piece brand new from Bed Bath & Beyond.  This lady got all of it as a gift from her children but she wanted something more antique-vibed so dumped it "cheap".  Even I thought $400 was a lot but you just can't find really nice furniture for not outrageous prices.

A lot of even low-quality stuff is sold like it's some heirloom item or something. I'm half inclined to just slap together some old pallet pieces, stain them super dark and start making "USA ARTISAN MADE FURNITURE" for a massive markup and see what happens. Guy I know will take old tree stumps, level the tops out, put some glass on it and sell them as coffee tables for like 1-2k or probably less than 100 dollars of materials and 10 hours of labor. Pro-tip, the heavier you make coffee tables, the more implied quality the consumer will think they are, assuming materials are of (seemingly) good quality.

[JPolen01]

So we were going back and forth with looking to move and staying in our house. To get the house we wanted we would have to move west of where we live now which is far from friends and family and my wife's job. We decided to stay put for another few years but that meant we needed to address the bathrooms. Our master bath is tiny. That and the guest bath were original to house (1987) and in need of work. We looked into full renovations and it was just stupid for not our forever house.

Emily found this one man operation that did tile and tub refinishing. Basically he removes all the grout, re grouts, and re glazes the tile as well as refinished tubs and shower pans. Guy was incredibly professional, clean, and did great work. He also hung a new shower door for us. About $1400 later and the bathrooms look new. I have a new vanity to install in the master after we get new tile floors installed this week.

[WRXtranceformed]

Wow that is seriously a night and day difference, definitely worth the investment vs. a full remodel when you aren't going to be in the house forever!

[HAULN-SS]

Regarding furniture..I have a North Carolina hookup (my uncle is tangentially in the biz), which is actually where I buy most of my stuff. I have a couch, lounge chair, and love seat that I bought on a whim from him(im not actually even going to keep the set). Out of curiosity I had a retail place that carries the line price it out. The original price on the set was $12,500. Now, obviously, since this is a hookup scenario, I paid pennies on the dollar for this stuff. It amazes me how much people apparently pay for some of this stuff.

Now, would I ever pay $12,500 for it? No way, but my point is it's the best built living room furniture I've ever seen, and weighs about triple what my equivalently sized Ashley furniture does that I bought right out of college. The leather is also thick, and soft to the touch somehow, and the internal frames that hold the thing together are steel. When I moved it into the basement, it was literally just about all me and a buddy of mine could do to move the biggest couch.

[Tyler.M]

Jon, what the heck. I didn't know that was an option. Awesome results, got me thinking about a winter project now.