That makes me glad I don't have a HOA. What's that shit for?

11/7/2011 11:36:20 PM

My HOA and I are about to go at it. I have 3 cars, and a 2 car garage/2 car driveway. I park my beater that gets drive 1-2x a week as shown below as to not block the road like all the other dickheads on my street. They are saying I can't park in the street or sidewalk...but I am not touching either

11/8/2011 7:56:47 AM

I am currently suing an HOA (well, I'm the attorney for a group suing their HOA).

It's going well.

11/8/2011 8:22:46 AM

^^ Tell them you'll start following the rules as soon as everyone else starts following the rules.

Or you could be like my friend's parents that told the HOA to fuck off and managed to get themselves removed from the HOA. I don't really know how it worked but they basically proved to a judge the HOA did jack shit for them and they managed to get out.

Quote :

"that makes me glad I don't have a HOA. What's that shit for?"

In our neighborhood we pay $65/year for the HOA. The neighborhood has a shitload of walking trails, open greenspaces, playgrounds, sports fields, etc that the fee pays maintenance for. I think it's pretty reasonable for what all it covers.

[Edited on November 8, 2011 at 8:30 AM. Reason : a]

11/8/2011 8:28:15 AM

We pay $25/month for the privilege of having the landscaping taken care of at the entrance to the neighborhood.

What pisses me off about the neighbors is that they park on the street across from someone else that parks on the street, so you can barely get 1 car between them without slowing to a crawl. I wish someone would come along and just take them all out.

11/8/2011 8:40:46 AM

^ I hate hate HATE neighborhoods like that. A buddy of mine lives in a neighborhood off Tryon Road like that. It's obvious which houses are rentals because they'll have a bajillion cars parked on the road. And of course it's on a slope so people coming up can't see if someone is already coming down. I'm fully expecting a head on collision to occur on that street one day.

11/8/2011 9:13:29 AM

I hate HOAs that over regulate such as the one dmidkiff seems to be in.
However, I wonder what possessed you to buy a house in that neighborhood knowing they have such rules.
Did you not look at the covenants and see that you can't park on the street?

It's going to be this way until people quit submitting to these types of regulations. Why anyone would voluntarily take out a 30 year loan for $150k+ and then use that money to buy into a bunch of regulations they don't want to abide by is beyond me. Your house is one of the biggest purchases you will ever make. It should be something you enjoy and something that makes your life better; not something that provides a constant stream of stress and contention with your neighbors.

[Edited on November 8, 2011 at 10:01 AM. Reason : l]

11/8/2011 10:00:46 AM

Yeah, I hate that too, esp if they have perfectly good garages/driveways which aren't being utilized.

11/8/2011 10:04:04 AM

^^ I was surprised what a pain in the ass it was to get a copy of the covenants before buying a house when we were shopping around. Unless your HOA is well-organized, they will pitch a fit about you wanting to see the covenants before closing on the house. I had to fight for over a week to receive a complete copy of covenants before we closed on our house. They were more than happy to give me some truncated bullshit though. Thankfully there's no real crazy rules in our covenants, basically don't be an asshole that lets your property go to rot, but if I had found anything nuts in there like rules barring what I can do to my own property, we wouldn't have bought the house. Maybe that's what they were afraid of and why they didn't want to give up their covenants

11/8/2011 10:14:36 AM

Quote :

"They are saying I can't park in the street "

Unless the HOA owns the streets you should be able to park it there.

11/8/2011 10:36:57 AM

I currently have an old sliding glass door in a sun-room that is incredibly inefficient. I want to replace the door but not sure what to look for or who to have it installed by. I don't want to call my GC that did all of my remodel work and pay the 15% fee. I don't feel comfortable doing it myself either. Anyone have any recommendations on where to go look for a door and anyone they can recommend to do the work?

What's the thought on sliding glass doors - would I get more efficiency out of a french door setup instead?

11/8/2011 1:23:39 PM

I don't think a French door would make much difference as far as efficiency goes but it would help with resale.

11/8/2011 2:00:32 PM

I actually wish my HOA would enforce their "no parking in the street" rules. There seem to be more cars parked on the street than in driveways in my neighborhood

11/8/2011 2:02:51 PM

^ this. Everyone has two car garages and even the smallest driveways in our neighborhood can at least fit 2 cars side by side yet so many people park one or both of their cars in the street all the time. It's rather annoying.

11/8/2011 2:29:16 PM

Quote :

"It's going to be this way until people quit submitting to these types of regulations. Why anyone would voluntarily take out a 30 year loan for $150k+ and then use that money to buy into a bunch of regulations they don't want to abide by is beyond me. Your house is one of the biggest purchases you will ever make. It should be something you enjoy and something that makes your life better; not something that provides a constant stream of stress and contention with your neighbors."

Most of them are boilerplate stuff and it's the same in any neighborhood*, it just matters how nitpicky the HOA is. And you almost always have to comprimise on something when you buy a house. I wanted a house with walk-in closet, so that means I agree not to keep goats in my backyard.

*For any neighborhood with more than 20 houses that's been built since 1999. NC General statute 47f requires a HOA.





Aside from all that: people on my street park on the street in multitudes, and it's irritating sometimes. But it also means I don't worry as much about the 17 year old kid going 55 mph past my house. So it works out.

11/8/2011 3:09:13 PM

I like mine. It's $12/month for basic stuff. If a lawn isn't ever mowed I just call up and they take care of that asap.

11/8/2011 4:06:30 PM

Quote :

"Why anyone would voluntarily take out a 30 year loan for $150k+ and then use that money to buy into a bunch of regulations they don't want to abide by is beyond me. "

I imagine the majority of 20 somethings buying their starter home aren't fine toothing the HOA regs before they sign on the dotted line. I know I didn't (hell, didn't on my second home either).

I think we generally have a mentality in this country of "this seems reasonable/fair to me" and it very often conflicts with what someone else things is reasonable or fair. HOA rules are very much that way.

11/8/2011 7:52:17 PM

Quote :

"I guess I've been surprised we have had a hard time finding what we are looking for - at a reasonable price. We are looking for something that sort of has that mid-century modern look: Clean lines, fairly simple, not overstuffed, not microfiber or leather (an interesting fabric weave if possible). It seems like that style shouldn't be so hard to find these days; I thought it was more popular. I suppose the traditional big box stores simply carry more traditional furniture. Examples of what we are looking for:"

Just got an email IKEA has 15% off their couches right now. Maybe they have something you like?

11/8/2011 8:37:08 PM

Ikea makes shit furniture.

Crate and Barrel and (if you are in Charlotte) City Supply are your best bets. Design W/IN Reach would be optimal, but some of their stuff can get pricey quickly.

11/8/2011 10:08:26 PM

^ Yeah, IKEA is garbage. Crate & Barrel is indeed one reasonable alternative.

Quote :

" Unless your HOA is well-organized, they will pitch a fit about you wanting to see the covenants before closing on the house. "

Whaaat? I've never heard of anything like that. That would be a 100% surefire dealbreaker--I wouldn't even consider buying a house some place with restrictive covenants unless I had been able to read them. You've gotta be fucking kidding me.

Quote :

""How hard is it to remove a chain linked fence? I assume it's most likely cemented in the ground?"

I'd guess pretty easy with a large 4x4 and a chain.

chain-link is an abomination in a residential area. It's pretty good for, say, a little league baseball field.

I've walked away from several houses because neighbors had chain-link fences. I wouldn't be worried about on a house I wanted to buy, because I'd just tear it down, but you can't do anything about the neighbors.



Also, I fucking loathe busybody HOAs, but I have also refused to consider houses in entire neighborhoods because people were bad about parking on the street. Fuck that, it's an eyesore, it's irritating to drive around, and it's a safety hazard---just an invitation for a kid to run out in front of you and get himself dead.

[Edited on November 8, 2011 at 10:40 PM. Reason : also: 2.5 months of hotel living now, with zero progress towards finding a house]

11/8/2011 10:39:25 PM

The proliferation of HOAs is proof that when it comes down to it, people don't really care about privacy, property rights, or reason.


Also according to that photo above, dmidkiff's HOA needs to stop worrying about how that car is parked and start worrying about the horrid houses that are being built in the background. That's a bigger threat to house value.

[Edited on November 9, 2011 at 12:06 AM. Reason : .]

11/9/2011 12:03:47 AM

the place I lived in New Bern had a good solution...there was a restrictive covenant, but it was pretty much common sense, don't live like Sanford & Son type stuff. No cars on blocks in the driveway for long-term, no chain link, no cars in the yard long-term. Don't remember everything, but it was stuff like that--very permissive.

There essentially existed the provision to have an active HOA, but none existed in practice. We could have started one if necessary to deal with anyone.



^ yeah, that house looks like an apartment building or something.

that said, parking your beater in the grass like that really does look like shit. I would be pissed if I was your neighbor. Avoiding busybody housewives making your business their business kind of requires that you police yourself and don't do shit like that (at least routinely...obviously if you're having 20 people over and someone needs to park there, that should be OK).

11/9/2011 1:48:21 AM

I appreciate the thought with the heads up on Ikea but we are trying to steer away from them since this is for a main sofa in our living room.

Quote :

"Crate and Barrel and (if you are in Charlotte) City Supply are your best bets. Design W/IN Reach would be optimal, but some of their stuff can get pricey quickly. "

We live in Greenville, SC so not too far from Charlotte (and both of our parents live there). We were already planning on visiting the Crate&Barrel store in Charlotte anyway sometime so we don't mind visiting other Charlotte furniture stores that have that style. I have actually never heard of City Supply but a quick glance on their site shows a lot of sofas similar to the style we were looking for. No idea on their prices though.

Design Within Reach has some sofas we liked but they are definitely more than we are looking to spend.

11/9/2011 7:44:25 AM

someone spray painted a bunch of racial epithets on the sidewalks on a common drive

let's see how long it takes the HOA to take care of that

11/9/2011 9:17:50 AM

Call Rev. Barber and tell him the HOA is dragging their feet and I'm sure they'll have it cleaned up in no time at all

11/9/2011 9:40:29 AM

Heh. Reminds me of last week's The League.

11/9/2011 10:06:48 AM

bright hot pink spray paint in block letters too


it's like, the cutest way to be a huge bigot possible

11/9/2011 10:14:07 AM

Ugh. More issues with the bathroom remodel...

I thought the tiling was done... WRONG.

Despite the fact that I sat overtop of the tilers, told their manager, and told them that the tile in the curb has to be sloped so that was will run off the glass into the pan (which should be a 'duh' and known to every tiler), apparently after I had them pull up the tile the first time to get a steeper slope, they ended up leveling the tile off again. The glass measurer, his second attempt, told me that they would not honor any warranty's with the glass since most of the curb was level. There was actually a part that sloped AWAY from the shower.

Amazing. Call the manager, and somehow this is my fault.

Obviously I dont want those bozos doing anymore tile work, so I'm out another $500 in materials and labor to redo part of the curb.

11/9/2011 11:02:50 AM

Welcome to my everyday life. I've found recently that these subcontractors still have guys that dont give a crap about what they are doing. I told one the other day that there are plenty of people out there without jobs that would show interest in what they are doing everyday.

11/9/2011 11:13:08 AM

DIY, cheaper and done right.

11/9/2011 11:25:53 AM

Well, I would argue that for this level of a bathroom remodel, it is beyond the vast majority of DIYers to do it right. However, when it comes to this shower, you may be right. It took them 4 days of tiling for the shower with all the right equipment, so no telling how long it would have taken me. But I definitely would have gotten the slope right for the glass.

I submitted a complaint to the BBB for the tiler. I am asking for him to cover the cost of the material, and not the labor of another company, to redo part of his job. I decided I didnt want to talk to him anymore after he got very confrontational on the phone, despite my very rare efforts to keep it civil.

[Edited on November 9, 2011 at 12:54 PM. Reason : .]

11/9/2011 12:53:44 PM

Quote :

"that said, parking your beater in the grass like that really does look like shit. I would be pissed if I was your neighbor."

Agreed.

Quote :

"Ikea makes shit furniture. Crate and Barrel and (if you are in Charlotte) City Supply are your best bets"

I bought a [solid wood] coffee table + two end table set from Ikea for ~$250. How much does Crate and Barrel's sets start at? $600-$700? I wouldn't consider that an alternative to Ikea...there's gotta be something decent between those two price ranges.

11/9/2011 1:10:38 PM

My opinion of C&B furniture hasnt been good. A lot of veneers over mdf when I have looked at it. Pottery Barn is the same way. Ethan Allen is about as cheap as I have seen what I consider to be in the 'good furniture' now that I have been shopping a lot of furniture lately.

Good furniture costs money and takes a lot of time to make. Ikea definitely serves its purpose, but you cant consider furniture nice if it can be assembled with a few bolts.

11/9/2011 1:27:49 PM

Quote :

"but you cant consider furniture nice if it can be assembled with a few bolts"

Yep. But you also can't also call ALL of it garbage just because some of it is

11/9/2011 1:30:49 PM

No, I like some of Ikea's stuff. they do sell some good modern stuff, as well as crap 'assemble at home' stuff.

11/9/2011 1:37:55 PM

Quote :

"that said, parking your beater in the grass like that really does look like shit. I would be pissed if I was your neighbor."

Yeah, plus it can't be good for the grass either. If you have a 2 car garage/2 car driveway you can fit four cars off the street.

11/9/2011 2:45:04 PM

People complain about HOA's, but personally I feel like there needs to be some level of agreement to keep people responsible. Otherwise you'd see a lot of lawns 'let go', trash, lights, etc, and it just makes the neighborhood look and feel like a ghetto. If you don't like the agreement, don't live there. The HOA fee is just a fee to keep the neighborhood looking nice and to manage the public areas that aren't owned by any individual, it's a small price to pay to live with other responsible people. Even if you're responsible doesn't mean everyone else will be.

While I agree with you about parking in the street law is stupid... if the road is public R.O.W. you are allowed to park there, no HOA can tell you otherwise. And yes, parking in the grass looks terrible.

I live in an urban neighborhood with no HOA and this is what happens.

[Edited on November 9, 2011 at 2:55 PM. Reason : /]

11/9/2011 2:52:45 PM

some Ikea stuff is ok. Oddly enough I'm not always a huge fan of the look of Ikea stuff. They are a little more "contemporary" to me and carry less of the mid-century modern stuff we like. However, Ikea to me is still a decent place if you are looking for stuff like dressers or end tables or something that won't see a lot of wear. We own a few things from there that were a good value (dresser and a small computer desk).

When it comes to dressers, end tables, coffee tables etc. it is hard to compare all the different furniture companies. Places like Ethan Allen, Ikea, C&B (lots of companies on different levels) all have pieces that are solid wood as well as veneered MDF. It's apples:oranges unless you are comparing two solid wood pieces and even then name, designer, style etc. drive up prices.

For something like a main couch that will get a lot of wear and tear I'm trying to find slightly better construction AND the style we want which is hard. Ikea has a very limited selection to try and meet both of those requirements. Sure they actually do have a couple great value pieces that actually are decent construction for the price, BUT if they aren't exactly what we want style-wise it's not worth it. We have a functioning set that is better than Ikea quality atm and the only reason we are looking at new furniture is for aesthetic reasons now that we are remodeling the home we purchased (aesthetics is not the only requirement for purchase but it is the reason we are looking to purchase). Because of that we have the time and patience to wait until we find both quality and style.

While I think Crate&Barrel and Room and Board do have a lot of overpriced stuff, to me, their sofas seem to be decently constructed and styled for the price based on what I can tell online. I still need to go see them in person though.

[Edited on November 9, 2011 at 2:59 PM. Reason : ]

11/9/2011 2:57:53 PM

Sears Friends and Family is this Sunday night from 6-9pm.
Here's the flyer: http://www.sears.com/ue/home/103011_FF_AllSavings-2.pdf?sid=I0084400010000100383&aff=Y

I'm thinking of getting this Kenmore Elite dishwasher for $630...http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_02213963000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1

Anyone had anything similar to that?

11/9/2011 3:30:14 PM

Wife and I are outgrowing our current house a bit and I work from home so I still need a dedicated office space. For a variety of reasons, moving into a bigger home isn't an option and add-ons seem to be out of out price range right now. So that leaves us with the option that we are probably gonna go with which is to get a decent sized storage shed--probably one with a loft so that we can still store yard equipment and bikes-- to replace our current basic 8-10 shed.

We are in an older neighborhood, and I checked with the covenants to make sure no violations there. We are looking at a shed in the 16x16ft range that will be around 16-18ft tall with the loft. (think the big units in the parking lots of Lowes) Our budget is less than $10k all-in with electric run and permits and what not which seems to be doable. I figure that I can keep a relatively small space warm with an electric or kerosene space heater and come the heat of the summer, I can get a window unit to keep it cool. I am also thinking about how to run internet out there. It's far enough away from the house that a wireless router may not cut it.


Has anyone here done anything like this? Any tips/advice? Am I missing some obvious cost or some comfort that I am gonna want to have?

11/9/2011 3:52:23 PM

Quote :

"Completely non related topic... For those of you thinking about new refrigerators, let me steer you clear of the LG french door refrigerators, possibly the entire line as a whole. I think if I had this fridge for about 6 years, and it is a piece of junk. The lights stayed on when the doors where closed and almost caused a fire. They melted the plastic digital display off its mounts. Now, I dont even have lights in the fridge as a result of not being able to trust this thing. The light thing has happened several times (my fridge beeps if a door is open, so we didnt leave it ajar). Now I am having to replace the entire icebox due to a bad thermstat in the ice maker. I also noticed that I have a broken sliders wheel for one of the drawers. This LG fridge is 100% garbage. Will be the last time I buy LG. "

Funny, I posted this a couple weeks ago, and got a letter in the mail yesterday that a large class action was brought against LG about the light issue. LG agreed to extend the warranty period to 10 years for the issue at no cost to the consumer. Getting a repair scheduled soon.

11/10/2011 2:38:44 PM

I noticed LG was at the bottom of the pile for reliability on dishwashers...and the guy I know who works for says says LGs break all the time...so it's probably a good idea to stay away in general.

11/10/2011 2:41:09 PM

Quote :

"$50/month Is it a townhome?"

Yeah, townhome. Its not terrible I guess. Going from ~130 to ~180. They cover all of the exterior stuff, lawn care, full structural insurance, etc.

Supposedly in its 5+ years of existence the HOA has made no headway in setting aside the 2mil it needs for future repairs (over 30 yr period). Part of that was exacerbated by the idiots running it before who bumped the fees down to ~100 in 2008.

11/11/2011 5:28:37 PM

Quote :

"What pisses me off about the neighbors is that they park on the street across from someone else that parks on the street, so you can barely get 1 car between them without slowing to a crawl. I wish someone would come along and just take them all out."

Never move to Seattle then, because that's how every neighborhood in the greater metro area is. Imagine a city 5x the size of raleigh where literally EVERY neighborhood street is constantly filled with street parking.

Also, there are no stop signs in 4 way residential intersections here. Instead there are roundabouts. At every fucking intersection.

11/12/2011 6:42:27 AM

lol personally I'd rather have traffic circles than 4 way stops. Seems like nobody knows how to operate at a 4 way stop.

11/13/2011 1:52:50 PM

Did some more research on City Supply in Charlotte and found out that pretty much all of the furniture sold in their store is manufactured in Thomasville by Younger Furniture. I did a lot of reading online about Younger and they pretty much received glowing reviews on any of the blogs I read and the manufacturer's website listed the construction used on the pieces and all the stuff we liked met or exceeded my minimum requirements for the construction.

I actually did run across some pricing and the prices are extremely reasonable considering the construction and options (Sofas for $900-1100 with kiln-dried hardwood frames, blocked corners, glued, with high resilience 2.0 density core sofas and made to order with ~200 fabric options). Best part is that because I found out the manufacturer, I looked around and found a small boutique store near us that I didn't even know existed who is listed as a retailer. Worst case we can still go to Charlotte if this place's showroom is small but I was very happy to find this out.

I'll have to report back when we hopefully see some of these pieces in person but it looks like I may have found a good match for style (they are very heavy into mid-century modern pieces) and construction in our price range (thanks initially to a tip from TWW)

[Edited on November 14, 2011 at 12:19 PM. Reason : ]

11/14/2011 12:14:49 PM

i found a leak in our tile shower & now the shower has to be replaced. i've gotten quotes from bath fitter & 2 local cultured marble places. bath fitter, btw, is double the cost of cultured marble (incl installation). i have a non-standard dimensioned shower (35.5" x 53.25") so buying one of those insert things at lowes is not an option unfortunately. it's just a shower, no tub.

my question is: are there any other cheaper non-tile options? tile leaks & i'm not going back there.

11/17/2011 3:48:14 PM

what do you mean by the tile leaks? Like a crack in the grout?

11/17/2011 4:42:25 PM

the idiot who lived there before me liked to half-ass things. when the shower initially started leaking, he installed more tile over the shower floor & up the wall 4". he also put gobs of caulk in the corners of the original tile. you can see cracks in those through the caulk, so now that the newer tile has separated from the original tile & water is leaking behind, i can only assume that the tile underneath looks similar to the caulked-over corner tiles. there's water on the subfloor & joists that abut that tiled wall.

11/17/2011 4:59:57 PM

I cant really think of any other options. Cultured marble is nice as is tile. I would assume the material costs would be close but the labor is what makes the tile so expensive. you get what you pay for with a tile mechanic.

11/17/2011 8:36:15 PM