Our condo was listed at 2:00 this afternoon. Had six showings already with one offer coming in tomorrow from those. And just got a text from my realtor saying an agent representing a Chinese investor wants to bring a cash offer for it.
Anyone have experience with AC? We came home today at 330ish and our thermostat said 75 when it was set at 72. It went up to 76 and has been there since. We have a clean filter in, the AC unit outside is running, but the air coming out of the vents doesn't feel that cold. Contacted an HVAC guy and he said it’s probably low on refrigerant. Quoted $100 for the visit and $30/ lb for R410A and $100/lb for R22. I’m skeptical since we have been in the house 11 months and the AC was serviced before we moved in. The unit was installed in 2013.
My unit (installed in 1990 and still ticking) stops blowing cold air once a year. Call the HVAC guy, he installs a new capacitor in the condenser, and I'm good to go for another year. Costs me like $100
Serviced right before you moved in may mean they knew there was a leak and wanted to extend the time until you discovered it
they serviced it at our request after the inspector said there was no tag or record on it for the last date of service.
Probably a slow Freon leak, I agree. Still, check the drain valve for blockage on the outside of the house. If that happens, it can back up into the system and cause the coils to freeze, which obviously affects your air temperature adversely. All it takes is clearing that blockage with a hose (messy) and shit starts running normally again
Anybody on here had any concrete patio work done? I'm looking at having a 25x25 patio poured and wondering what people here have been charged. I've got a couple of guys coming next week to give me estimates. Probably going stained route but not 100 percent. TIA.
Looking into a project about the same size or a little bigger. Haven’t gotten any costs yet, but I think I heard concrete was about $150/yd the other day.
We had a 10x30 slab added to our back patio by the builder during our construction. They charged us around $2,800.
I was figuring probably 4-5. I've got to have them remove a 12x16 slab that's broken to pieces. Another catch is they either have to buggy it in or use a skid loader to move the concrete. Either way, I'm getting the lube ready.
That ran us $3080 btw. It’s really tight and gives me space for activities in an area that used to pool water and get muddy. We might stain it later but honestly I sort of like the clean look of the white
I had one higher than that but it was an investor and there's a serious shortage of affordable housing in the area it's at. So we took a slightly lower offer so it would go to someone who's actually going to live there. When we bought the place we got it for 10% less than our original offer because the appraisal came back super low. We told the appraiser they were wrong as we knew the growth the area was seeing and fortunately the seller came down to that price. So we wanted to pass on a little of that good fortune since we're making a killing off it already as the area did explode after we bought it just like we expected.
Well as the saying goes "Fuck home inspectors!" Monday the buyer backed out due to a few "major things" she didn't like and got a bad feeling on the house. Roof appears to be shot, so I am going to replace that. The other 2 were we have aluminum wiring in our house (was built in the 60s), and the A/C Furnace are towards the end of life but both work just fine. Get them serviced every year. Back on the market last night, 4 showings lined up today so far.
It can be, but as long as you're not running crazy stuff on it (window AC unit), it's typically fine from what an electrician I talked to said. In the case someone wants the house and will only buy it if I address that, I told my realtor I'd be willing to get an electrician to convert the aluminum to copper (pgitailing), if it that situation arose. My buddy's electrician can do each switch/outlet/receptacle for like $35 a piece, don't feel that's too hateful but still not cheap.
Potentially looking at building a home. Would be around 2500-3000 sq ft on somewhere between 0.5-1 acre in a neighborhood about 1.5 miles from me. For those that have built, what things would you have done differently and/or done the exact same?
Never built but I've been in the electrical industry my whole life. Make sure you hire reputable contractors, it's worth it.
We just built 3 years ago. Are you looking at custom home builders or a bigger name builder that offers a few floorplans that each have a few options? That would affect some of my advice. -Spend money on things you aren't likely to upgrade on your own for obvious reasons (adding square footage, adding windows, any structural changes that would be dumb to do later). -Add outlets anywhere you think you may want them, as well as cable jacks, etc. It's way cheaper and easier to do when you're building. -Along with outlets, think about anything you are going to want to do in the future and do what you can to plan for it. Rough-ins for plumbing in the basement for a bathroom or wet bar would be the most common examples (if they're not finishing the basement for you). Another example, we knew we were going to get a hot tub, so we had them wire a 240V breaker to the back of our house so half the wiring was already done. -If you're getting a bigger name builder, I would highly recommend any carpet you get in your house, just get the cheapest garbage they offer and replace it before you move in. We went with upgraded carpet, and it's basically just upgraded garbage. We've been here 3 years and have already replaced most, and the rest could already be replaced as well. If you're using a custom home builder, they may actually give you nice carpet, but definitely keep that in mind. Most inexpensive carpet from a flooring place is WAY nicer than upgraded carpet from a builder. It's a special grade of shit. -We wanted granite countertops and out builder offered like 5 or 6 options. There are hundreds of options out there, so we had them install laminate countertops and we ripped them out the day we moved in and had a granite company come in and install some WAY better granite for a lot cheaper. -Add lighting where you can. You can always dim it or turn it off, but adding it later is a bitch. -We added a 3rd garage, we'll never go back to a 2 car, it's so nice to have more room out there. -If they give you switches that control an outlet, picture how you're going to lay the room out and change it if you think you need to. We ended up with a switched outlet being right behind our TV, so it's essentially useless since we're not going to put a lamp back there. -If you're building a house that you can walk through a model, pay attention to where things like switches are, and if any are in a weird spot, have them move them. Most won't have an issue doing this if you catch it before they wire the house. The reason I mention this is we have a short wall in our family room that was perfect for putting a small table with things on it, and had they stayed there, we would have had to walk into a dark family room and turn the corner and search for the switch over a table, so we moved it around the corner so it was in the hallway, it made way more sense there. I probably have more, but that was just off the top of my head.
Great advice above. I’d mirror everything he just said. We’re about to close on our 2nd build. I thought we did a good job of double checking electrical and outlets. We just noticed one switch issue that I wish we caught during the electrical layout. We have 2 switches controlling me hallway light right beside each other. Wish we would have made one control the living room lights. So just make sure you really look and think about all of those.
Solid stuff here. Thank you. I live in a somewhat small town. 30k. I have a friend that lives about 2 hours away that builds fancy houses. He’s on the fence about building my house because of the distance. He said he can teach me how to build the house which I’m not too interested in. If he doesn’t do it, there a couple of local builders here that are recommended but I’ve never stepped foot into one of their homes. I’m definitely open to whatever layouts they have preplanned, but my wife and I have a fairly specific idea as to what we want. It is just a matter or where it goes.
No problem. Also one thing I never considered until we saw a neighbor do it was they put some outlets in the floor in the family room and bonus room. For lamps on certain tables, it looks way better to have that than a cord running over to a wall.
Agree, but the only thing I would say is that make sure you are 100% sure that the floor outlet will always be used by something directly on top of it. Because if you decide to move whatever it is, you will need to cover up that outlet with a rug or something.
Being in South Florida with a near 20 year old unit, I have to trade out my capacitor a couple times a year. Look on YouTube next time, changing it out is pretty easy with the wiring and will save you probably 75% or more on that service visit.
Sold that house and moved since that post, but i will look this up for future reference, one unit on the new house looks pretty old. Thanks.