armlessbear.com - House - Comments

If you're...

murph — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:14:47 -0800

tearing the bathroom down to the studs – you’d be lucky to get off with just a widescreen TV and a laptop.

I’m thinking you’d need to throw in a new fridge or two.

Seriously, I feel your pain. Our house keeps pointing out the things we should have done instead of blowing everything on the kitchen. (Roof? windows? Hello…)

Look at it this way, you’re doing your part to shore up our hellbound economy.

You FINE American, you!!!

City of Madison Loan

Phaedra — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:40:19 -0700

http://www.cityofmadison.com/planning/cedu.html

I got the housing rehabilitation loan from the city for my windows and solar cells:

http://www.cityofmadison.com/planning/cedu/Documents/HRSPILsum.pdf

Good luck! And I love your house AND location!!!

Violations, etc

kirstin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:22:46 -0700

Oh, there are some bare wires coming out of an, um, junction box thingy in the ceiling. Some romex pulled around vents instead of being pulled through holes drilled in the joists, a switch mere inches (like 2”) above a basement sink, and a couple others which I forget. The guy quoted the re-wire because that’s what he does a lot of, electrical renovation in old houses. We don’t have knob and tube wiring, but previous owners have done some creative wiring in the past that have created and/or compounded the blowing the circuit problem.

But, on the bright side… we bought this house because of size, price and location. We knew that there would be some things that required fixing, repairing, or replacing.

Really, I just like to “complain” about things. And blogging about it gives me a place to look back to when I want to know when we did a certain thing to the house.

Ow

murph — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:04:08 -0700

Holy crap. Dude was willing to quote a re-wire – but you don’t really need one do you?

What kind of violations? exposed splices or ulp knob & tube….?

Say it ain’t so…

Self-reassurance

Ryan K — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:52:59 -0700

As you know, Ryan and I have been serial-movers in the past. I’ve usually felt a little guilty about always buying a new house when we move instead of a pre-existing home… especially during the last move when the market was going bad and I felt some guilt over not helping out a fellow house-seller.

There were always 2 reason we chose new instead of resale:

#1 – I could get exactly (or almost exactly) what I want without having to do extensive remodeling.

#2 – Even with a home inspection, you never really know what you’re going to get in a pre-existing home. With new construction, you can walk the house as it’s going up and know the location of every wire and pipe.

A lot of people use “charm” and “personality” as reasons to buy a resale. I don’t want to make you feel worse about your house fixing needs… but you’ve made me feel better about the decision to buy new this last time. Charm is lovely, but so is the knowledge that I won’t need to rewire my entire house.

Have you put any effort into seeing if you can get a government grant or assistance of some type to help you fix these issues? Who knows, there could be some obscure law on the books to help you out.

London...

Ryan K — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:26:41 -0700

I have a copy of London that I don’t think I purchased. But it’s in pretty bad shape (no cover, yellowed pages) and I’ve had it since I spent the summer in the UK in 2001. Is it yours?

I'm jealous too!

Phaedra — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:26:06 -0700

I have been off for a few days and am getting what feels like nothing done.

I did a little work in my garden (planted asparagus, snap peas, cukes, and zukes) but I still have to plant the tomatoes and cabbage and chard, etc….

I want the fruits of my labor now!!!!

Wow...

Erin — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:45:57 -0700

I’m so jealous!

Spring Time is House Sellin' Time

kirstin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:56:22 -0700

You could always put it up for sale just to see what happens… Although it does look like the market is a bit saturated at the moment.

There's the rub

Jonathan — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:30:03 -0700

Unfortunately, you do have to sell before you can buy (unless you’re rich).

I’d like to sell my place, but with the way the market’s been, I’ve been procrastinating and haven’t done anything about it yet…

Cool Neighbors

Phaedra — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:46:37 -0700

I’m so jealous of you guys having friends so close by! I have lots of neighbors with kids in college….

It’s so very “Melrose Place” (without the drama, of course) to have your close friends as your neighbors.

My 'hood

kirstin — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:54:16 -0700

Well, Musevia would prefer the house in your ‘hood.
I can think of 2 people who read this blog who could theoretically want to move into this neighborhood.
Of course, they’d both have to sell their current places first.

There's one in my 'hood too!

Phaedra — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:47:41 -0700

Across the street. It’s a 4 bed, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, fenced in private yard. So if you want to be MY neighbor, let me know. =)

I wonder who reads this site that needs a house…. hmmm….? Perhaps Musevia knows someone!

If anyone needs an arborist, ask us

kirstin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:13:57 -0800

Our tree guy is awesome and very, very affordable.

Me, Me!

Phaedra — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:17:11 -0800

I would LOVE some firewood!!!!