The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Apoc]

Start by reading the home security thread - there's a decent amount of home automation stuff in there.

[*insertusernamehere*]

All I have to add. Is that rugs are amazing. They're soft. Comfortable. Pretty. Its the best substitute for a couch. So much better than carpet. You can sleep on it, roll on it, sit on it, man. They even keep your footsies and toesies warm. Rugs are the business. Don't cheap out. Everyone will know.

[G.Irish]

So then you're saying be comfortable paying the same for rent as a mortgage?

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That may be the right answer for your situation. Consider the following:

1. Closing costs on buying a home are gonna be around $10k, maybe more. If you're gonna buy another house in 2 or 3 years, you've gotta eat that again. Sometimes sellers will help with closing costs but don't count on it.

2. If the housing market experiences a significant downturn in the next 2 or 3 years you're going to be underwater on your mortgage and you may not have the ability to move for awhile and/or you could lose a shitload of money.

3. As Chris said, as a renter you don't have to pay when shit breaks. Might not be a big deal, but if you've got to replace a HVAC unit for $5000 in a house you plan on moving out of in 2 years it's going to hurt.

4. If the wife-elect is not working yet, it may not be a good idea to lock into a mortgage yet. If her career doesn't pay like you're expecting it will be more pressure on you. If she makes more than expected, you can get more house.

[D_Eclipse9916]

^ all the above. And then what really hurts is selling the house. Dunno what you can afford but typically selling it will cost you 15-40k depending on the price of your home. 100% likely you won't pay that equity off in 2 years so you will have to pay to get rid of your home you have been paying off.


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[Sully]

All good points. But yes, wouldn't be doing anything until she is at least located in a job and we see what she's really making. I'm not even going to sign a lease without that.

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[WRXtranceformed]

Don't be in a hurry to buy a house. Embrace your millenialness

[.RJ]

Embrace your millenialness

Buy a router instead

[Sully]

Embrace your millenialness

Buy a router instead

I should. That one Ken recommended sucks

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[Apoc]

I had an outdoor CFL on our front porch, so I replaced it with a 13.5 watt 5000K LED. The light it's installed in is probably as old as the house (80 years) and there's leaded yellow glass that surrounds the bulb, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to go brighter and whiter. In the before on the left, you can see my shadow from a street light across the street - it's pretty much done on the after image.

Link to bulbs: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://amzn.to/2kGPfSB">http://amzn.to/2kGPfSB</a><!-- m -->

[WRXtranceformed]

Looks great, how did the change affect the night time image of your camera there?

I still need to get an electrician out here to give me some quotes on installing those extra outlets. I also got something in the mail from HomeTeam pest defense that the built-in pest control system in our house wasn't initially charged with chemicals and needs to be activated, but I thought the builder told me it was already charged and good for a year. For those that don't know what that is: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://pestdefense.com/taexx/">https://pestdefense.com/taexx/</a><!-- m -->

To be quite honest, i'm not crazy about the idea of chemicals being sprayed around behind our drywall but I guess it depends on what they are using. I'm all for termite treatments and the bio-friendly stuff they use to kill fire ant hills around here but the in-wall stuff I'm not sure about

[JPolen01]

That seems pretty cool in theory until it breaks. Then I guess you just call a normal exterminator if you have issues. Never heard of anything like that before.

[WRXtranceformed]

That seems pretty cool in theory until it breaks. Then I guess you just call a normal exterminator if you have issues. Never heard of anything like that before.

Yeah everything I'm reading is that perimeter spraying is better than these systems, which my wife does anyway with some stuff I can't remember what it's called. Termite treatment I'll probably pay for to keep the insurance company happy but I'd have to be sold on why bugs couldn't just get in around the areas where these micro pipes exist

[Apoc]

Looks great, how did the change affect the night time image of your camera there?

The camera is pretty good at auto-exposure, so there's not a huge difference. I think there are conditions where it could be different, but not with the camera's current position.

[BLINGMW]

13.5 watt 5000K LED

hock: I just put a 2W in mine

[WRXtranceformed]

Just texted my service manager and he said that the pipes aren't charged but the builder does do an initial first year termite protection by spraying the framing during construction. So I can decide whether I want to pay quarterly for this type of service or just call out someone once a year for termites and a la carte for any fire ant hills we get (they are bad here)

[Apoc]

13.5 watt 5000K LED

hock: I just put a 2W in mine

Heavily tinted, 1/2" thick glass. I meant to take a pic in daylight but forgot on my way out the door.

I'm guessing you have regular thin clear class on your housing.

[Sully]

Just texted my service manager and he said that the pipes aren't charged but the builder does do an initial first year termite protection by spraying the framing during construction. So I can decide whether I want to pay quarterly for this type of service or just call out someone once a year for termites and a la carte for any fire ant hills we get (they are bad here)

Why don't they just make the system a long perimeter sprayer tube with little nozzles every so often and have it sit like an inch under ground. Seems like it would be cheaper and more effective. And easier to repair or replace when it breaks. But then again, you could just walk around the house and spray like your wife does :dunno:

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[HAULN-SS]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/18-Roxie-Mae-Dr_Bunker-Hill_WV_25413_M32747-63664">http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhom ... 2747-63664</a><!-- m -->

My old digs on the market finally. Some pics in there of the floors I did - what a pain in the ass. Also if you know anyone that wants a nice place that's "commuter distance" from nova, pass it on

edit: Nah - fuck that commute. I know some of you guys from way back in the day tried to talk me out of moving to WV while working in Northern Virginia - punch me next time I have as dumb of an idea. 2 years tops turned into 10 years of doing that commute. I always managed to take jobs that kept my commute to about an hour, but it got real old in the last 3 -4 years.

I don't think anyone of us saw the housing market crash that came about ahead of time, but just for some perspective, this house appraised about 23k more than I am selling it for now, 10 years ago. I was 23, and too dumb to take any advice on that - so there's my warning story for any of you younger guys looking to buy a place

[WRXtranceformed]

Yea man we definitely told you WV was a bunk idea :p

[WRXtranceformed]

Without going through a few pages here, what garage storage shelf option did y'all go with again? Justin / Scotty I think you guys did the overhead route which is the way I am leaning. We don't have a ton of stuff but the overhead option with some hanging hooks sounds about perfect for what we'd need it for. Found a few good looking choices on Amazon, local HD and Lowes had some surprisingly below average looking options

We had two mice in our house and one potentially in the garage, that was a fun adventure over the last week. I guess that's what you get for living so close to wetlands / state park. My wife and I like to keep a really clean house so you can imagine it was pretty distressing to me to see little Jerry the mouse sitting on top of our stove one night. After talking to our neighbors apparently all of them have had / do have them so it seems pretty common. Being master of my own domain I am not having that, so I laced that damn stove up with 16 mouse traps and the glue trap finally caught him. The other one got into our downstairs tub and was easier to get. I have an exterminator coming this week to put some permanent bait traps in the garage and outside the house and help me figure out where we need to seal up inside the garage. Thorough cleaning of the kitchen and house happened too since I'm kind of a germaphobe.

Trees are going in this week, new washer and dryer as well thanks to a good President's Day deal and my old ones being "old" when I bought them on Craigslist 10 years ago. We did the new HE Maytags (top load washer) because it was the largest capacity washer with an actual agitator, which cleans clothes better than the new non-agitator HE models.

We had a bit of a hiccup with the trees yesterday when marking out and placing the flags where we wanted them to be. It turns out we won't have as much coverage on one side from our neighbors as we wanted with our old layout, so we had to figure out how to plug that gap. So that I didn't have to tack on another $300+ for another new tree, I pulled one from one end and am adding an additional 6" in between trees (7'6" total) to stretch the line of trees back out. It might take a little longer to fill in for full privacy but I think it should work. Pics to come when they are all done!