What have you done to your house today

ZmanM3

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Made an offer that was accepted on another house. More space. Best part is a NICE garage. Wired for 220, has heat and a drain in the floor. And I counted 30 electrical outlets. Enormous workbench built in too.

Will close in mid December, move and get ours ready to sell. Should net about 30k on the sale of ours and will roll most of that back into the new one. We will set some aside for future needs like HVAC or roof when those need replacing.

Bottom line: a bigger house, nicer garage, quieter neighborhood and almost identical house payment.

Now the bad part: It is about 10 miles further from my work (although commute time difference is within 3 minutes.)

Congratulations!
 

Gabe

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Dad, congrats on the new house!


Over the last few days (with huge help from my brother-in-law) I made serious progress on the project to close-in the entrance to the weird room under the sunroom.
Finished the extra framing, fully insulated, eliminated the electrical in there, and closed-in the doors, fully insulated on the outside, with new framing to bring the wall of the sunroom all the way down to the ground, eliminating the weird overhang.


Went from this

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To this, so far (the cement board is gonna get covered in "Quickwall", a fiber-reinforced cement)

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The area still needs to be re-graded to take water away from the house.
I removed the pavers in this pic, they got re-used elsewhere, the whole area will get a new crushed-stone cover, or so the current plan is.
That 5'-wide "balcony" is in the plan to be replaced by a much larger deck in the spring.

38125414801_e321e13a3e_o.jpg
 

Gabe

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Started covering up the cement board using Quikrete Qwikwall, a fiber-reinforced surface-bonding cement:

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And installed an exterior outlet on the deck (a second outlet will be installed at the other end):

37449654194_abcd200df6_o.jpg
 

Dad

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Got the inspection report today. 3 defective items, (dishwasher, disposal, doorbell...no big deal) 15 marginal items, all but 2 I can fix myself in one weekend. I think we are good.
 

Gabe

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Got the inspection report today. 3 defective items, (dishwasher, disposal, doorbell...no big deal) 15 marginal items, all but 2 I can fix myself in one weekend. I think we are good.

That's bargaining arsenal, shoulf be able to get some money off the price :)
 

Dad

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That's bargaining arsenal, shoulf be able to get some money off the price :)

Since it's an estate sale I doubt it. It's well priced anyway. We made an offer that I thought was kind of a lowball and they countered with a split the difference number. I doubt they are going to budge. And I am really not in the mood for a pissing match over little stuff.
 

Gabe

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Since it's an estate sale I doubt it. It's well priced anyway. We made an offer that I thought was kind of a lowball and they countered with a split the difference number. I doubt they are going to budge. And I am really not in the mood for a pissing match over little stuff.

The house I bought about 3 years ago was an estate sale.
The inspection found that the water & air radon levels were high. Got estimates to put in mitigation systems, ranging from about $6k to about 7500, got the seller to knock off $5k off the asking price.
 

Badd GT

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The house I bought about 3 years ago was an estate sale.
The inspection found that the water & air radon levels were high. Got estimates to put in mitigation systems, ranging from about $6k to about 7500, got the seller to knock off $5k off the asking price.

How much did the mitigation end up costing?
 

Gabe

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How much did the mitigation end up costing?

Got the water radon "Big Bubbler" thing installed for $3800 cash. Would've been about $4100 normally I think, but by paying cash the price got lowered a bit.

It's the second thing from the wall, right-to-left:

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Haven't gotten the air-radon mitigation done yet. The levels weren't crazy-high and we keep the windows open a lot, so the ventilation helps take it away.


.
 

Badd GT

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just sold my home in raleigh and buyer did radon test and house was 3.6 or so, below EPA threshold for remediation ( the number 4 sticks in my mind as threshold). Buyer still asked for it remediated and I responded that they could do whatever they wanted once they owned the home. Dodged a bullet there, was just curious as to how much it cost. I'm not a big believer in most EPA stuff.
 

Gabe

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just sold my home in raleigh and buyer did radon test and house was 3.6 or so, below EPA threshold for remediation ( the number 4 sticks in my mind as threshold). Buyer still asked for it remediated and I responded that they could do whatever they wanted once they owned the home. Dodged a bullet there, was just curious as to how much it cost. I'm not a big believer in most EPA stuff.

Yeah there's no real treshold, just recommendations, and they vary from state to state, but it is a gas that has been shown to cause cancer, if I remember correctly, so reducing the intake of the stuff is not a bad idea.
I bought my house as a fixer-upper, spent the following 7 months doing a complete renovation, still doing stuff now, almost 3 years later.
 

Dad

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The house I bought about 3 years ago was an estate sale.
The inspection found that the water & air radon levels were high. Got estimates to put in mitigation systems, ranging from about $6k to about 7500, got the seller to knock off $5k off the asking price.

We are going to speak to our realtor and get her take on it. The house was listed at about $5000 under market to start with.
 

Gabe

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We are going to speak to our realtor and get her take on it. The house was listed at about $5000 under market to start with.

If you're happy with the deal, that's what matters.
I just always like to ask for an even lower price, regardless.
Doesn't hurt me one bit when I do, and sometimes I end up saving more money, so works for me! Haha
 

Badd GT

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Yeah there's no real treshold, just recommendations, and they vary from state to state, but it is a gas that has been shown to cause cancer, if I remember correctly, so reducing the intake of the stuff is not a bad idea.
I bought my house as a fixer-upper, spent the following 7 months doing a complete renovation, still doing stuff now, almost 3 years later.

Yes, you have the house "mod" bug pretty bad lol
 

Gabe

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Yes, you have the house "mod" bug pretty bad lol

Lol, I can't stop.
Even started a welding class at the local high school last night.
Just ran some beads using stick welding on 1/8" plate, but had a great time, looking forwad to the Mig-welding class next week.
 

pass1over

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I'm the same way Gabe. Bought our house and spent 4 months renovating the master bathroom, kitchen, changed a few door openings, before we ever moved in. Then spent another month on my workshop, installing garage doors into existing walls, installing 2 post, floor coating, etc ... We're into year two and there's no end in sight!

Upcoming projects .... 20x40 lean to shed roof added onto existing barn, remove old fence and hang 1/2 mile of no-climb wire fence, and enclose small run-in shed for hay storage. Glutton for punishment.

Oh, and figuring out a bulletproof way to keep animals out from under my house, lol
 
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Dad

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If you're happy with the deal, that's what matters.
I just always like to ask for an even lower price, regardless.
Doesn't hurt me one bit when I do, and sometimes I end up saving more money, so works for me! Haha

I understand. Worst they can say is NO. They can't back out of the contract over it, but we can.
 

GallopingFord

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With my townhouse that I sold earlier this year it tested over 4 and I had to install a mitigation pipe outside (mirrored the downspouts which was a nice touch). It cost me $900. Our new house was around 3.8 so eventually I will install another system. It's an annoyance, but it is what it is.
 

Premium08

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Used scrap wood from around the house to build a cover over the hot tub. Contractor is coming soon to put a roof over the deck and we didn't want it to get damaged.

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Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 

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