Just ordered new windows for my basement. Currently I have pieces of plywood covering broken windows. Should help a lot with keeping my house warmer but will be a bitch to replace them all myself. Previous owner was growing weed and presumably wanted to lock the basement down tighter. Like everything they did to this house, they completely fucked it up. They also put a gas line right in front of one of the windows, fucking morons.
Its drafty as fuck down there bc the plywood has huge gaps and what is left of the windows dont close all the way.
Just put in appropriate LEDs and tell her that the builder switched back to incandescents. Then, in a few years when one breaks act surprised and say "that asshole, I told him." By then she wont want change.
I’m in year three. I gambled on an up and coming area which has paid off in comps but I’m not rich and the house was built in 1927.
His house is out in the country. Its cheaper than most of our area. It was the other reason i was against it. He afforded a bigger house by not living "in town" and wants to come out less bc its 30 mins away. He also doesnt have a dog bc its too far to come home for lunch.
Mine was cheaper for the opposite reason. It’s in town and I’m helping gentrify the neighborhood. Have about 1,740 square feet upstairs in a 3/2 and another 1,100 downstairs in a partially finished basement with another 2/1. Overall interior is nice and up to date. I’m on about a 1/4 of an acre 1.5 lot. House across the street from me that is only 1,500 square feet upstairs only on a small lot sold this past summer for more than $20k I paid for mine. Fingers crossed I’m not an idiot and this holds up a bit
I think it's the paint job. It's a basement, it's not gonna be super clean, but it looks like spray-paint.
During the severe weather two weeks ago, we had a tree fall onto our house and cause some fairly substantial damage to the roof over the master bedroom, master bathroom, and breakfast/dining room and completely took off our back deck. That portion of the house is elevated on a stilt/pier foundation because the house is on an incline. Our triage involved getting the tree off the house (which destroyed all of the grass in the back yard and some field lines from our septic tank) and then water remediation (removing all the floors, subfloors, ceilings, and installation). We were not able to get an engineer out there to look at the structural damage until tomorrow. The floors have noticeably shifted, and I'm 90% sure one of the beams was at least bent, possibly broken. I'm about to be all up in this thread.
We just went through the entire process, got hail that was enough for everyone around here to get a new roof. That said just hope that your adjuster is not retarded. Check with others around you, if possible and fetch as many quotes as you can. Neighbor has the same insurance as us and their dickhead adjuster came back to the insurance company and said something like, 47 singles need to be replaced. They had to rumble, along with a slew of other homeowners in the area, long enough to get another adjuster back out. Eventually they discounted any property that guy went to and took care of everyone but it was still a pain in the ass. Finally submit all your costs to the insurance company. We were reimbursed an additional $1500, or so, in addition to the initial check. We just provided the quote and some pictures and got money. I could not believe it, we honestly were not even going to tell them the difference we were happy with all that got taken care of. Maybe it's my gross misunderstanding of the process, and the industry as a whole, but I learned something so figured I would share. Sharing is caring.
Appreciate it. Yeah, our new roof in 2018 was from a hail storm/roof claim. We don't really have any comps around us this time, as it was our neighbor's large, split-trunk hickory tree that fell onto our house. It was dead, and we had notified her several times (even offering to split the cost of taking it down), so I anticipate that State Farm will ultimately subrogate against her liability carrier.
Hopefully that means you might get some local adjuster they know and trust. Ours were part of the storm chasing crew that's still in the area.
Got a paint estimate, this sound reasonable? 2500sf house Interior trim, doors, door and window frames and plantation shutters: $4500 exterior trim, doors and windows frames and front and back door: $1700
To me, yeah. Maybe a touch high on the interior if there are no walls to paint, but the exterior is less than what I would expect, so
Any dishwasher recommendations? The drain pipe is broken and they no longer make it for my current dishwasher.
did you notify her via certified letter in the mail, or something that was documented (text/email)? If so, that would help prove her negligence and allow for the liability coverage to pay.
Yes, we provided sufficient notice. Paper trail out the ass. I'm not really all that concerned about getting her liability coverage to pay us. I want my carrier to adjust the claim and the subrogate against her. I'd like for her to pay my deductible, too.
God, I hope Why?Pokes isn’t the neighbor in question here. If so, good luck! Edit: goddamnit bigred77
good for you on the paper trail. Most people don’t have that. It will definitely help State Farm have a successful subrogation, which will end up in you getting your deductible back. if you happen to know who her carrier is, I’d go ahead and file a claim with them.
I know who her carrier is, but I'm holding off on making a liability claim with them. I'm hopeful that she'll just cut me a check for the deductible and then State Farm can subrogate as it sees fit. I actually do work for both carriers involved.
Speaking of LEDs. My great room has nine led can lights. I wanted to move them to smart lights but that's a big chunk of change. I like some of the smart light features but really (as I sit here waiting for my nerve blocker to wear off from my ankle surgery today) I would just like to be able to have Alexa handle the lights. Is there something like a smart circuit box and/or smart light fixtures for ceiling fans?
Buy a Bluetooth or WiFi based switch that has an app and can interface with Alexa. All of my switches are Halo Home and they’re awesome. When I wake up, I tell Alexa good morning and she starts up all my light fixtures to the dimming settings that I preset and starts my shower while reading my calendar to me and telling me the weather forecast.
I have smart Leviton switches they also pull this off. Seamless integration with Alexa. I think Lutron and Leviton are the only switches that don’t require a hub of some sort
I've heard that because I run mesh WiFi I would want something that has a hub so as to not slow down my network. Right now I have like 10 million old school light switches. Each switch has 3 cans. Then there are two more switches for the ceiling fans along with switches for the chimney light and outdoors. Upstairs living room is a twin to this. It really screams 1980s. I'd like to modernize this but I'm visualizing a single switch and think that might actually hurt the resale value. With that in mind would you all recommend lutron?
had a tree fall on my house about 10 years ago. It was a pain in the ass for a few months but in the end I got a new roof, new fence, remodeled kitchen and who knows what else for the price of a deductible. we had to live in a hotel for about 6 weeks. insurance paid for everything but it was just a pain in the ass dealing with them and I had a absolutely terrible contractor
I have lutron and love it. It's on the expensive side so we have been converting the house slowly. All you have to do is replace your regular switch with the Lutron one. 3 way switches get replaced the pico remote which goes right over the old outlet's wires that get capped off. Works really well imo.
I love Lutron as well but we hid switches in a closet and just have a "switch" that functions like a remote to make scenes so I don't know how applicable it is to existing switches.
I've dabbled in smart lighting. I am an Android (pixel) user so have gotten free Google Home minis and generally invested in their ecosystem (e.g also going with Nest Cams) I use the Google compatible bulbs from GE (called something silly like CE Life or w/e). I have them in two main rooms and the front porch. All are voice activated as well as being controlled by their existing hard (original) wiring. Some good smart home stuff came out re switches w/r/t smart lights at CES last month. I'm in the wait and see mode before I try to bring the rest of the house's lights online. In the meantime, I'm only buying LED where able.
Speaking of something inline with Android ecosystem. I ordered this from Amazon, but have not set it up. USB Type-C w/ Power Delivery (2x) in an outlet. It charges at up to 30W, which is cable of Rapid/Fast charging pretty much any in-spec phone and most tablets and chromebooks.