Home Buyin/Maintenance Thread - Where most of us are 30ish but act 47. Oh, and fuck home inspectors

May just give up on using a microwave. Always heard they were bad for you anyways

 

Anybody have these Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights? After putting my Halloween decorations in and out 3 fucking times (2 hurricanes) the idea of putting up string lights for Christmas makes me want to die. At least if I get these it's one and done and would work for other holidays and just general lighting.

 

I have looked at these too. That doesn't help you but here I am.

 

they have good deals on them at Costco

I’m thinking about hiring people to professionally install them tho. If I do it, I want them done nicely and will probably need a new outdoor outlet installed

 

A lot of people around here had trimlight put up

https://trimlight.com/

 

I thought I missed out but I think they're even cheaper on Amazon at the moment $550 for 200 ft, think Costco had em for $600. Probably going to pull the trigger today.

 

that company says Utah. They nationwide?

my wife was supposed to get a few quotes a month or so ago. Unsurprisingly, I have not reviewed any quotes yet

 

When you go to get a quote there seems to be a decent amount of dealers around the country

 

We had some gutter guards put on our house this summer, thank god (I have so many trees in my yard). The predicament I run into now is I can't clip the christmas lights to the gutter like I used to. Are there any alternatives besides the permanent Govee?

 

Put lights on your bushes and trees?

 

Maybe I'll just go with a 20' Santa Claus.


https://bouncinlife.com/products/20...h0wWa_XsmYjCznxZIS8kgfbQmITai97caApkAEALw_wcB

Spoiler

I'm not.

 

I have two blow up Santas. One is black. My son loves black Santa. I always think about this though

 

none available in my postal code

 

I went down a deep rabbit hole on permanent Christmas lights last year and went with gemstone. They've been great and we're currently using them for Halloween lights.

 

move

 

what’d they cost?

that seems expensive to install repeatedly when you move every 6 months

 

God dammit guys you were supposed to say yeah govees are awesome! Super easy to install! Highly recommend! Now I'm looking at getting quotes

 

Think it was around $2k. I ran the numbers and it would pay for itself by the 3rd system compared to having someone install and take down the regular ones. I have a steep roofline and am most definitely not going up there.

Also I'm never moving

 

yeah that seems worth it for sure

you’re happy with the functionality of the lights?

 

Yep. It seemed to have the best app for the few I got quotes on. Others did weird things like install into the gutters that I thought would be a nightmare on hail alley

 

I always think of this unfortunately…

 

govees are awesome! Super easy to install! Highly recommend!

 

Idc what the rest of the board says about you, you're a good guy!

 

I will say that I have something similar to the govees on my back patio. There is obviously a massive difference in how clean the installs look, although they work great. That would be my biggest worry with putting them in the front.

 

You check the garage yet? That was where mine was/is for the master bath on the opposite side of the fucking house.

 

Update: the microwave itself is fucked. It’s 10 months old no idea how that’s possible. Finally gave up on the gfci search and plugged my phone into the outlet the microwave and it worked then plugged the microwave into other outlets and it’s dead. Going to reach out through Lowe’s and then GE to replace. Mystery solved I suppose

 

I had to laugh at this because it sounds exactly how it would have gone for me.

 

One of those are you shitting me things lol. But I am hoping straightforward to just get a new one. I was reduced to plugging my phone charger into every outlet on Sunday

 

Not sure how many people have these but for someone with a house with a breaker box labeled for shit. This has been awesome.


Your friend has shared a link to a Home Depot product they think you would be interested in seeing.



https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-T...with-GFCI-Outlet-Tester-ET310-ET310/308709729

Plug it in to the outlet, and then go to the breaker box and it will show you which one it’s plugged into. You then kill that breaker and come back and it will visually tell you the power is off.

It also tests outlets for power and proper gfci wiring. It’s the best 50 bucks I have spent.

 

Brother buy a multimeter or an outlet tester

 

Got the permanent Govee’s last year before Christmas, had a 6-7 foot section go out in the spring, they sent me two complete boxes for free. It’s cut down on holiday yard shit year round, very happy with the purchase.

 

So the season isn’t really over for you?

 

Quick thing to check, my old ge microwave had a button then when pushed turned everything completely off like an on/off switch. Make sure you don’t have that type of button and didn’t realize it.

 

Are they modular in that you can just fix the affected area? Or a complete reinstall of that strand?

 

Multimeters are a necessity to me as a homeowner, even if you don't know much about electricity.

 

They are a necessity as a car owner, a lawnmower owner, a refrigerator owner, pretty much anything owner

 

And literally an outlet owner.

 

Anyone on here have Simplisafe and want a referral discount OR need old ADT components?

I have an ancient hardwired ADT here that I'm finally out of contract for this month. I'm killing it off ASAP, already have a SS system, but if I can help anyone get a discount, happy to help with that.

My old ADT is a low voltage wired one, so if you need a transmitter/sensors/glassbreak/CO2, I have all that. Just let me know.

 

I do but the refer a friend page wont load for me.

 

I got a quote for these based on your post.

I had a friend from college who was a firefighter that hung lights and he did mine for 8-9 years. He took over his dad's company and retired from fighting fires and hanging lights. I got a few quotes this year and the cheapest to hang the lights that I already own was $2.75/foot. Highest was $4.50/foot. Just insane.

The Gemstone's were $20/foot installed.

Went ahead and got the gemstone's. Not my favorite thing I've bought in my life, but the wife wanted them and I choose my battles.

 

I was the same going in, but I've honestly been super happy with them. We'll see how they hold up long term.

 

Getting a quote for the lights that Simon Templar posted. Will report back but we had some friends who bought some lights and like you said the price was fucking absurd and they look decent but it's nothing out of this world, especially for the price. I mean I am happy for the people that can get the work and make a living but we would never pay that.

 

Just looked and the cost was around $3k for the gemstones. My quote between that and trimlight was around the same. I went gemstone because the app seemed to get far better reviews, and iirc they had more options to color match the channels to the house.

 

how many sq ft?

 

$20/sq ft seems like a really good deal. Everything I’ve been reading online has them priced out typically at $30 or higher depending on size of the job

 

Anyone have any expertise in appraisals and new builds?

We got our appraisal back and it was close to 25% short. Our lender has been going back and forth with them and we are on the fourth revision. The “cost approach (if developed)” is now only ~5% short, but the “value by sales comparison approach” is still ~18% short. I have tried to look around and it seems like the latter is almost always used in traditional sales, but I can’t find whether the cost approach is used/accounted for more in new construction.

 

121. Got it done in November... I'm sure that price would have been lower had I waited until January