Home chat 1.0

[SAWCE]

Left a review on Facebook for the builder’s company page. Suddenly today, after six months of no communication, he sends emails to the flooring sub and the paint guy and cc’s me.

This must be a small regional builder not one of the big guys.

Yep! Local outfit. And we’re in a smaller (~100k pop.) city, so reputation is big.

[D Griff]

Left a review on Facebook for the builder’s company page. Suddenly today, after six months of no communication, he sends emails to the flooring sub and the paint guy and cc’s me.

[wap]

Left a review on Facebook for the builder’s company page. Suddenly today, after six months of no communication, he sends emails to the flooring sub and the paint guy and cc’s me.

In4updates

[Johnny_P]

So, house saga continues.

Baby is getting bigger, she needs her own room. She’s outgrowing the walk in closet we turned into her makeshift nursery and we think she’ll be scaling the crib sides pretty soon. We have her in sleep sacks to prevent it but it’s coming.

Anyways. The third floor is the only space that is possible. Problem is it’s unlivable. Way too hot in summer and cold in winter. Got a quote for $3,000 to insulate it which should help. And seems reasonable I guess. Insulation bro saw the bathroom vent fan just discharges into the attic and if it’s not changed to vent thru roof it will cause mold. Fine, call a roofer. And strongly suggested any ducting work gets done before he comes through.

Roofer identifies the house has no air movement under the roof. Which is why it cooks up there. He can fix the bathroom fan issue but also suggested a ridge vent and vented soffits. $2700.

Finally found an HVAC company to come look. They identified the supply flex ducts were completely destroyed when installed. They were crammed between the ceiling and roof so roofing nails shredded them to shit. I’m essentially conditioning the attic instead of the living space which is why my roof never has snow accumulate on it lol. Solution is new rigid ducts to 3 registers, new registers, and a new supply to my son’s room which gets no airflow. $3,000.

9 grand to fix shitty work from prior owners. To just make the space usable. What the fuck.

[golftdibrad1]

So, house saga continues.

Baby is getting bigger, she needs her own room. She’s outgrowing the walk in closet we turned into her makeshift nursery and we think she’ll be scaling the crib sides pretty soon. We have her in sleep sacks to prevent it but it’s coming.

Anyways. The third floor is the only space that is possible. Problem is it’s unlivable. Way too hot in summer and cold in winter. Got a quote for $3,000 to insulate it which should help. And seems reasonable I guess. Insulation bro saw the bathroom vent fan just discharges into the attic and if it’s not changed to vent thru roof it will cause mold. Fine, call a roofer. And strongly suggested any ducting work gets done before he comes through.

Roofer identifies the house has no air movement under the roof. Which is why it cooks up there. He can fix the bathroom fan issue but also suggested a ridge vent and vented soffits. $2700.

Finally found an HVAC company to come look. They identified the supply flex ducts were completely destroyed when installed. They were crammed between the ceiling and roof so roofing nails shredded them to shit. I’m essentially conditioning the attic instead of the living space which is why my roof never has snow accumulate on it lol. Solution is new rigid ducts to 3 registers, new registers, and a new supply to my son’s room which gets no airflow. $3,000.

9 grand to fix shitty work from prior owners. To just make the space usable. What the fuck.

daym man. shitty, but sounds like you are on track to fix the problem.

If its still too hot this summer just bite the bullet for a ductless system for the top floor.

[Johnny_P]

So, house saga continues.

Baby is getting bigger, she needs her own room. She’s outgrowing the walk in closet we turned into her makeshift nursery and we think she’ll be scaling the crib sides pretty soon. We have her in sleep sacks to prevent it but it’s coming.

Anyways. The third floor is the only space that is possible. Problem is it’s unlivable. Way too hot in summer and cold in winter. Got a quote for $3,000 to insulate it which should help. And seems reasonable I guess. Insulation bro saw the bathroom vent fan just discharges into the attic and if it’s not changed to vent thru roof it will cause mold. Fine, call a roofer. And strongly suggested any ducting work gets done before he comes through.

Roofer identifies the house has no air movement under the roof. Which is why it cooks up there. He can fix the bathroom fan issue but also suggested a ridge vent and vented soffits. $2700.

Finally found an HVAC company to come look. They identified the supply flex ducts were completely destroyed when installed. They were crammed between the ceiling and roof so roofing nails shredded them to shit. I’m essentially conditioning the attic instead of the living space which is why my roof never has snow accumulate on it lol. Solution is new rigid ducts to 3 registers, new registers, and a new supply to my son’s room which gets no airflow. $3,000.

9 grand to fix shitty work from prior owners. To just make the space usable. What the fuck.

daym man. shitty, but sounds like you are on track to fix the problem.

If its still too hot this summer just bite the bullet for a ductless system for the top floor.

I’m going to try all this before that route. My utility bills were $800/mo in the middle of winter. This should help that somewhat where a mini split would just add to the power bill. But yeah man I’m so over all this.

Also found out the prior owners used non pressure treated wood for the fence they replaced 2 years ago. I know this because 3 panels are getting absolutely ranked by wood destroying insects. And the water drainage “upgrades” they did are routing rainwater directly onto the deck support legs so those are rotting at their bases.

AND as if that wasn’t enough. They had the contractor who installed the fucking idiotic tongue and groove decking concrete over the foundation stones under the deck. With type S. Over schist and lime mortar foundation. So inside the basement it’s a fucking shit show of blowing out sand, mortar, finishing material etc because the old foundation is designed to soak up water and breathe it out. Type S doesn’t do that so the wall is saturated and water is finding its way out. It previously blew out 3 rows of mortar on the brick wall above the foundation.

I fucking hate these boomers we bought the place from.

[Johnny_P]

Really I’m inching closer and closer to identifying this place as a tear down. But I paid too much to do that to it and can’t afford that.

[golftdibrad1]

daym man. shitty, but sounds like you are on track to fix the problem.

If its still too hot this summer just bite the bullet for a ductless system for the top floor.

I’m going to try all this before that route. My utility bills were $800/mo in the middle of winter. This should help that somewhat where a mini split would just add to the power bill. But yeah man I’m so over all this.

Also found out the prior owners used non pressure treated wood for the fence they replaced 2 years ago. I know this because 3 panels are getting absolutely ranked by wood destroying insects. And the water drainage “upgrades” they did are routing rainwater directly onto the deck support legs so those are rotting at their bases.

AND as if that wasn’t enough. They had the contractor who installed the fucking idiotic tongue and groove decking concrete over the foundation stones under the deck. With type S. Over schist and lime mortar foundation. So inside the basement it’s a fucking shit show of blowing out sand, mortar, finishing material etc because the old foundation is designed to soak up water and breathe it out. Type S doesn’t do that so the wall is saturated and water is finding its way out. It previously blew out 3 rows of mortar on the brick wall above the foundation.

I fucking hate these boomers we bought the place from.

Its pretty typical to not do pressure treated fence boards; posts, yeah.

800 bucks is nuts. Really should have gas in the winter in your climate.

I dont understand the foundation woes but it sounds terrible, sorry bro.

[coogles]

We're getting a new place. I think? We had the inspection yesterday and there were...some things.

It's been a crazy whirlwind of a couple weeks. On a Monday we found out the school we'd been on the waitlist for for months had the last spot open up for our other daughter heading into Kindergarten. Then on the Wednesday immediately after this house popped up and we had an offer accepted by Thursday evening.

[golftdibrad1]

We're getting a new place. I think? We had the inspection yesterday and there were...some things.

It's been a crazy whirlwind of a couple weeks. On a Monday we found out the school we'd been on the waitlist for for months had the last spot open up for our other daughter heading into Kindergarten. Then on the Wednesday immediately after this house popped up and we had an offer accepted by Thursday evening.

deets?


in house on wheels news (camper):

Fixed the battery system. The issue was no / intermittent power on the 12v system; our camper is 'off grid ready' so everything is 12 on it save the microwave and AC. It was the battery disconnect, they used on that is IP54, not adequate given its location. Diagnosed and replaced with a marine rated one. Opened it up and it was full of water.

And the wife reported possible rainwater leak.

Fuck campers.

[coogles]

deets?

I really want to post the listing. No one will do anything with it but still seems...sketch somehow?

Anyway, it's back in our old neighborhood in the Meridian-Kessler area. It honestly doesn't look like much from the street, but it's bigger than it looks. It has the master on the main, with three bedrooms upstairs and another in the finished basement that only isn't legal because it doesn't have an egress, which we could easily add. One of the bedrooms upstairs is cool in that it's connected to the old attic space which has since been finished out, so it's really two rooms in one. The plan is to put the twins in that one and our son in the bigger of the other two, which will leave plenty of space for toys and books and things in his room, then the third will be a true guest space, which we don't even have in our current home.

The lot is generous for being in an older neighborhood, and the garage is pretty new and decent-sized at 20'8"x20'8". I'd prefer being on an alley but . The current owners have been there since early 2019 and did a lot of work to the house. They moved the (very nice) kitchen to what was a sunroom, built out the master bath and closet on the main where the kitchen used to be, redid the upstairs and main floor half bath, and generally seemed to take care of the place.

The main problem with the inspection was with the roof and gutters, which I sort of expected going in but it was worse than I thought. The home is surrounded by mature trees and even though it has gutter guards, the tops were covered in tree shit and they didn't look to be in great shape. The roof didn't look new by any means, but I also didn't notice anything major from the ground. The inspector noted hail damage all over the place, to both the roof and the gutters. He also found evidence of an impact from one of the aforementioned trees. 100% needs total replacement, which would be great for us but I'm guessing if the current owners' insurance would have covered a replacement, they would have done it already. Home insurance seems to be much more scrupulous when it comes to approving replacement for hail damage these days. The other main issue is that, when they had the furnace replaced last year, the HVAC company took a HUGE chunk out of one of the joists in the crawl space under the kitchen to run the exhaust pipe. I'm sure the current owners had no idea, but that needs to have jacks put on either side to make it structurally sound. There were a couple spots around the steel lintels above the windows that need tuck pointing and a few minor electrical things, but we're probably going to let those slide in an effort to get them to cover those two/three more major issues (roof, gutters, joist).

Sewer line inspection is at 10am and then we'll send over our inspection response right after that.

[coogles]

deets?


in house on wheels news (camper):

Fixed the battery system. The issue was no / intermittent power on the 12v system; our camper is 'off grid ready' so everything is 12 on it save the microwave and AC. It was the battery disconnect, they used on that is IP54, not adequate given its location. Diagnosed and replaced with a marine rated one. Opened it up and it was full of water.

And the wife reported possible rainwater leak.

Fuck campers.

Sounds like owning a boat. Two favorite days of ownershit are the day you buy it and the day you sell it.

[coogles]

Aaaaand there's a hole in the sewer line. JFC.

[wap]

Aaaaand there's a hole in the sewer line. JFC.

Is it at least somewhere that's easily accessible, like in the middle of the lawn that can simply be dug up then fixed, or somewhere that's gonna be $$$ to access?

[golftdibrad1]

deets?


in house on wheels news (camper):

Fixed the battery system. The issue was no / intermittent power on the 12v system; our camper is 'off grid ready' so everything is 12 on it save the microwave and AC. It was the battery disconnect, they used on that is IP54, not adequate given its location. Diagnosed and replaced with a marine rated one. Opened it up and it was full of water.

And the wife reported possible rainwater leak.

Fuck campers.

Sounds like owning a boat. Two favorite days of ownershit are the day you buy it and the day you sell it.

pretty much.


New house sounds neat, just old house shit man. get them to fix/credit the major issues and eat the little stuff. And fix sewer line obv.

[coogles]

Aaaaand there's a hole in the sewer line. JFC.

Is it at least somewhere that's easily accessible, like in the middle of the lawn that can simply be dug up then fixed, or somewhere that's gonna be $$$ to access?

I don't have the report yet, but the realtor said the hole is at 9 feet, though I don't know if that's 9 feet from the house or 9 feet from the street. Would guess the house, which would be easier to get to at least.

[wap]

Is it at least somewhere that's easily accessible, like in the middle of the lawn that can simply be dug up then fixed, or somewhere that's gonna be $$$ to access?

I don't have the report yet, but the realtor said the hole is at 9 feet, though I don't know if that's 9 feet from the house or 9 feet from the street. Would guess the house, which would be easier to get to at least.

Potentially "easy" fix then. Good luck!

[Desertbreh]

We're getting a new place. I think? We had the inspection yesterday and there were...some things.

It's been a crazy whirlwind of a couple weeks. On a Monday we found out the school we'd been on the waitlist for for months had the last spot open up for our other daughter heading into Kindergarten. Then on the Wednesday immediately after this house popped up and we had an offer accepted by Thursday evening.

deets?


in house on wheels news (camper):

Fixed the battery system. The issue was no / intermittent power on the 12v system; our camper is 'off grid ready' so everything is 12 on it save the microwave and AC. It was the battery disconnect, they used on that is IP54, not adequate given its location. Diagnosed and replaced with a marine rated one. Opened it up and it was full of water.

And the wife reported possible rainwater leak.

Fuck campers.

Sounds like a boat.

[MrH42]

deets?

I really want to post the listing. No one will do anything with it but still seems...sketch somehow?

It's a private forum You're already pending, so no one can really do anything about it.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

[golftdibrad1]

I really want to post the listing. No one will do anything with it but still seems...sketch somehow?

It's a private forum You're already pending, so no one can really do anything about it.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

prob dont want to out his future addy, and i get that. I just wanted the specs, pros cons, etc. OP delivered.

[golftdibrad1]

deets?


in house on wheels news (camper):

Fixed the battery system. The issue was no / intermittent power on the 12v system; our camper is 'off grid ready' so everything is 12 on it save the microwave and AC. It was the battery disconnect, they used on that is IP54, not adequate given its location. Diagnosed and replaced with a marine rated one. Opened it up and it was full of water.

And the wife reported possible rainwater leak.

Fuck campers.

Sounds like a boat.

Its perhaps worse. its all the problems of a house, a boat, and a car. It wont float, you don't want to live in it, and its not fast.

I've had good times in the camper, but most of the time its just doing what we normally do in a different place with lots of extra steps.

[Desertbreh]

Sounds like a boat.

Its perhaps worse. its all the problems of a house, a boat, and a car. It wont float, you don't want to live in it, and its not fast.

I've had good times in the camper, but most of the time its just doing what we normally do in a different place with lots of extra steps.

My wife and I consider the merits of a fully bedazzled dually sprinter van from time to time. Likely a huge mistake.

[coogles]

The main problem with the inspection was with the roof and gutters, which I sort of expected going in but it was worse than I thought.

Current owners are balking at fixing the roof if their insurance company won't cover it, which of course they won't because the hailstorm that caused much of the damage was in 2023. I'm not paying $35k over and then immediately dropping five figures on a new roof. There's a good chance we won't even be able to get an insurance policy without a new roof first, so they can kindly go fuck themselves if that's how they want to play, there are several other good options that popped up this week.

[Desertbreh]

The main problem with the inspection was with the roof and gutters, which I sort of expected going in but it was worse than I thought.

Current owners are balking at fixing the roof if their insurance company won't cover it, which of course they won't because the hailstorm that caused much of the damage was in 2023. I'm not paying $35k over and then immediately dropping five figures on a new roof. There's a good chance we won't even be able to get an insurance policy without a new roof first, so they can kindly go fuck themselves if that's how they want to play, there are several other good options that popped up this week.

[golftdibrad1]

The main problem with the inspection was with the roof and gutters, which I sort of expected going in but it was worse than I thought.

Current owners are balking at fixing the roof if their insurance company won't cover it, which of course they won't because the hailstorm that caused much of the damage was in 2023. I'm not paying $35k over and then immediately dropping five figures on a new roof. There's a good chance we won't even be able to get an insurance policy without a new roof first, so they can kindly go fuck themselves if that's how they want to play, there are several other good options that popped up this week.

why be kind?