I wish I could. This is the older guy that asked my wife if he could borrow our lawnmower when I wasn't home. She said yes. It was out of gas and I didn't fill up the small can I had. He used some gas from a kerosene can I had instead. Never did get to thank him for that one.
Amazon has a bunch of home automation deals today only. Just picked up a sensi thermostat for 95 bucks.
That's a fantastic deal. I got mine at HD on sale for $119. Thing is great. Very easy to program, etc.
Do you have a c wire? I don't, and it's supposed to work fine without it, but I was wondering if anyone ran into problems without it.
I'm not sure what it was, but in the old thermostat, there was a extra (unused) wire in the harness. I just hooked it up, and now that's powering it. If you have ANY extra wire, you can use it for power. If not, batteries are fine, you just have to change them every month or two, I think.
Sensi is installed and looks great. Although it seems to have turned my 25 mbps wifi into 2. I don't even know how that is technically possible
Our reno is 99% done. There are some small items to do and the back porch has yet to be started, but we moved in Sunday/Monday. I posted some details back this summer when we started, but it was a 60's brick ranch that had been lived in by the same woman forever. Structurally it was in great shape, but the interior was so dated. The big things we did were to combine 2 bedrooms into a master suite and open up the galley kitchen into the living/dining rooms. Ended up redoing all the trim/casings, a half bath and some other odds and ends. The house had carpet in most rooms with hardwood floors underneath that we had refinished. Pics in spoiler, most of the shots are standing at front door or looking down the galley. Spoiler
Situation: I'm looking at a place that has been on the market for several months with limited showings. The place was purchased pre-crisis and I get the sense the sellers want to get rid of it as it isn't their primary home. I want to pay approximately $25k less than ask which is what I estimate is their remaining mortgage balance. However, if I throw out $50k to meet in the middle at $25k less I feel like it could force a refusal of a counter offer. Question: any thoughts on how I should play the negotiations? The selling agent has shown me other listings and I think my strategy will be to encourage the selling agent to think I am agnostic between 2 properties and am willing to buy either property at the same price. I would buy the other property at the same price however, my preference is the primary property.
Wouldn't I lose all leverage up to their asking price unless I play the atomic option of no longer offering?
He who cares least usually wins. You make a reasonable but lower offer. They counter and give up 10k. If they really are desperately to sell, they won't want to lose your best and final. You also have to be willing to walk away.
My typical negotiation at work is: Me: $800 to you Them: "can you do $850?" Me: "I can do $800" Them: "Can you do $825" Me: "I can do $800" Them: "ok, I'll do it for $815" Me: "I'll tell you what... I'll pay you $800 because we are friends." Them: "but that is what you started at" Me: "ok I'm going to have someone else do this." Them: "ok, send it to me" Every single fucking day this happens to me.
Has anybody tried to do their own brick or stone work for an outdoor kitchen? I can get grills and other stuff completely free from work, so I could build an outdoor kitchen for basically just the cost of the stones if I do it myself. It would be something along the lines of what is shown in the picture. Would that be difficult to teach yourself to do? I plan to build it between the back wall of the house and the fireplace shown in the other image. I may connect it fully.
There are TONS of resources out there to help you. I think it's a little more advanced that your normal project, but I think if you are reasonably handy then you can do it. It's one of those projects that you can make really simple or complex based on if you want there to be recesses, cabinets, electrical, etc... One of your main obstacles will be cutting the stone. I had a bunch of patio pavers to cut and ended up renting a badass wet saw from my local hardware store.
Tried to install my Ecobee3 last night and was temporarily defeated. My old wall thermostat doesn't have a C wire to power the display, so I needed to hook up the supplied adapter at the circuit board on the unit. Took the panels off in the dark and located the board. Found 4 of the wires I needed but couldn't figure out how to tie to C wire back into the board. Got a buddy that does HVAC that I'm going to call later. Might have to pay to get him out and hook it up though. I think I could have done it, but I really didn't want to fuck up in the dark and not have heat for the night.
Will be buying my first home in July 2016. Looking for all the helpful tips and advice. I'm sure lots of great stuff has been posted in here already- can anyone point me in the right direction as the thread is too long to read through. I have minimal debt and a good credit score and good income Wife has a good credit score but student loans out the ass with lower income Do I get pre-approved with just me or do I include her as well? 'preciate ya
Same situation as me. We must have married the same woman and she's living s double life milking us both. We got both approved on the loan but the broker said we would have been fine with just me. It's best to go ahead and just do both from what I've heard.
I was in the same boat as you I think, but I ran the loan with just my name. The reason I did it that way was to keep the number that I was pre-approved for relatively low. And I mean 'low' very broadly. I didn't want to get pre-aproved for a pretty big loan and then us start looking at houses in that range and either buy one or be disappointed that we didn't buy one. We both have some nice student debt to pay off and I'd rather us focus on that then a house that although may not be outside of our means, may be a little more than we needed at the time.
thanks friends, will do both so for a broker- wifes bff's mom is a real estate agent and of course the wife wants to use her for the agent. Would the agent hook us up with a broker or is that something we have to do ourselves? Also I know a few years ago there were crazy incentives out there for first time home buyers. Obama still doing that shit?
Agent will usually have a broker friend, or someone they like working with who gets things done correctly
the agent will most likely have a recommendation but i'd still shop around. as far as the just you or both of you question, it depends entirely on your credit scores and debt ratios. the mortgage person should pull both of your credit and get your income information, and be able to make the best call from there.
Just place and finish? Or forming it up and prep work too? You buying the concrete direct or expect them to?
So the closing date for the house I'm selling is on Friday the 20th but the one I'm buying couldn't squeeze it in by then. So now, I've got to hang on to a truck all weekend. I'm hoping they can get the closing for the one I'm buying in by the 23rd because the bank will be closed for Thanksgiving and that Friday, which would push it out another week
Happened to me when I sold my condo and bought my house. Ended up having to get a storage unit for 10 days.
Just got back from checking the house out and saw the first thing I haven't been happy with during this entire process. The baseboards got installed last week. In some of the corners they didn't cut them with the 45 degree angle to make them both meet to form a nice seam. They have some with one board going all the way to the corner and the other board coming flush with it. One spot in the master closet the guy didn't even measure right and the board is about a half inch into the slight curve of the wall. Sales agent is going to email the project manager so he can check it out.
thats just a trim carpenter letting his new guy do shit hes got no clue how to do, then not checking it
It the trimwork coped? Most trim carpenter cope the corners, not cut two 45 degree cuts. If its coped, one board will be cut square to the wall and the other will be cut to fit into the other. The reason they do it this way is because 99% of the time, corners in a home aren't a true 90 degress.
Thanks for the education. Never knew about this. Just did some research and it also helps with the boards shrinking so the joint doesn't show a gap. I helped my brother build 2 of his houses and we always did it at the 45 degree cut. I'm sure the project manager will go over that when we talk.
Just extending my back patio basically. Nothing special or fancy but I'd have then do it all most likely.
Don't be opposed to it, but also search for an independent mortgage broker. You don't want someone locked into a sole funding source.
I just did it and it was kind of a pain in the ass. Definitely doable though. I even made a concrete countertop for it that turned out damn nice. Two things were the biggest pain. First I made the base out of cement blocks. That was a lot more aggravating than I expected. Second, I put a cabinet in the middle. That was tricky since it was relatively close to the corners and I had to just work the stone veneer around it as best as possible. Other than that, just watch videos and read. Spoiler
$350/yard is typical for residential flatwork, but with that small of a pour I'm guessing you'd have to pay around $1000 to get someone to come out. Just because of the time it takes to get there, start and finish it. Just material cost of concrete is around $100/yard if that's what you were wondering.
Looking good. That's very similar to what I want to do. Did you have any knowledge or experience with that stuff beforehand? Also, is it necessary to use concrete blocks as the base? I'll be building mine on top of an existing concrete slab, so I was thinking the "frame"could just be wood? I haven't done any research yet so that may not be a good idea.
Thanks and no this was my first time doing anything like this. I just watched some youtube videos and read a couple tutorials. I used the concrete blocks because I was really just making it to hold 2 heavy ceramic grills. If you don't need it to hold that much weight I'd definitely just go with a sturdy wood frame. I actually found stone veneer pretty easy to work with. I recommend laying out the pattern before you stick them to your structure with the mortar. Other than that you just have to experiment a bit with the mortar to get it to a good consistency. That's not hard though, just add water slowly so it doesn't end up soupy.
finally doing the shit that I want to do, finished up our half bath project tonight and will be slowly moving across the house painting like a madman the next few months Spoiler before after
Yea on that note, I'll wait to have someone come out that's already over this way. No way I'd pay that much over. Good thing I'm in no rush to get it done.