7

2/24/2009 12:22:35 PM

Mortgage interest tax write-off FTW.

2/24/2009 12:45:25 PM

Quote :

"whoever installed that toiled put a good 3-4 inches of wax in place and pretty much the first time i would have plunged that toilet, it would have busted the wax and started a leak that could have collapsed my second floor dude had to order the part and all this stuff-- finally 2 weeks later its finally finished. he told me he had to use 2 extensions. i had him check the other toilet upstairs to be sure and that one was fine"

you understand the wax is necessary and was there as a seal, correct? even properly installed toilets/flanges have a gap that's sealed with a wax ring. they can be had in varying thicknesses. it takes many many years for them to cause any leaks, even if you've got the baddest plunger around. flanges being too low is a common problem to find in houses though, whether from adding a different flooring later or just a poor initial install. a lot of plumbers pay no attention to what the height of the finished floor is going to be and just always set the flange to the subfloor. it's easier to take shortcuts and fill the gap with a thicker wax ring or spacer at trim out than it is to do it right in the first place. or, have to lower the flange if they screw up and mount it too high.

personally (and professionally), i'm of the opinion the repair you got isn't much better than what you had. using a spacer is kind of a hack fix, and using two certainly is. i have no earthly idea why it could have taken two weeks either. the proper way to repair it should have been to go into the ceiling below and either adjust the hangers to bring the line up a little or cut it out and put in a new flange/pipe in at the correct height. obviously this would have taken a little extra time/effort and cost the builder a little more, but it's what you should have asked to be done. what do i know though, i'm still a firm believer that a cast iron flange with a lead poured joint is the best way to do a toilet.

[Edited on February 24, 2009 at 5:49 PM. Reason : .]

2/24/2009 5:47:25 PM

lotta rain recently and the basmeent flooded (well...maybe not flooded, but it was taking on some water).

dried it all up and bought a sump pump to get rid of said excess water. all was well.

2 days later, the pump caught on the side of the hole it was in and didn't go off. i now have a semi-flooded basement again.

3/10/2009 1:33:11 PM

Quote :

"I'm looking at buying a townhouse. Let me know if you have experience/stories about any of the following: -removing popcorn from ceiling -bathroom remodels"

I know this post is old, but for future reference make sure to consider asbestos in any popcorn and flooring that you plan to remove. It was very popular in popcorn ceilings and linoleum floors up until the 70's. Not always something you want to start scraping, tearing up, etc.

[Edited on March 10, 2009 at 3:42 PM. Reason : z]

3/10/2009 3:41:33 PM

I have a lovely problem. I inherited 2 homes, one that was already rented out. the rented out home is old, but well taken care of. It has an enclosed chimney that has started wicking water. We can either seal the chimney, have it removed completely, or have it brought below the roof level and that are reroofed. Ugh. The sealing will be an easy fix, but easy fixes are rarely good.

3/10/2009 3:54:05 PM

What do you mean by "enclosed" and where is the water coming from? Is the chimney just coming out of the roof as opposed to being attached to the side of the house or something? If that's the case a good roofer should be able to handle it with the right combination of chimney caps/seals/flashing/shingles. Doesn't one of Dickie's brothers own a roofing company? I'm sure he'd treat you right.

You said it's an old house. If it was fine for this long I don't see any point in doing anything drastic like removing it entirely. Just get it patched up appropriately or at most remove it to the roof line and shingle over it.

[Edited on March 10, 2009 at 4:05 PM. Reason : l]

3/10/2009 4:03:45 PM

^^ Thanks Skack. It's from 1982 so no asbestos or very illegal asbestos. I've asked a contractor to come out to see how ugly it'd be to clean up before I move in.

3/10/2009 5:32:02 PM

Skack, the bricks are made of clay. when there is heavy steady rain, these old clay bricks soak up water and water runs right through it. One of the contractors is talking about completely sealing it up, but I think thats already been done.

[Edited on March 11, 2009 at 9:33 AM. Reason : .]

3/11/2009 9:24:51 AM

Weird. I've never heard of that happening. Is it attached to the side of the house or does it come up in the middle of the house?

3/13/2009 3:54:29 PM

Middle of the house. I believe one contractor is going to seal it again. he states it needs to be done once every 5 years. I think it may already be sealed, and was done so a while ago, and the deal wore off. waiting for the bill...

3/13/2009 4:33:18 PM

New roof last week, grand total north of $15K.

But I do mean 100% new, plywood and all.

3/16/2009 9:41:59 AM

damn- - but hell that beats laying in bed at night during a rainstorm wondering if shit is leaking all over your attic and ceiling.

3/16/2009 10:22:32 AM

homeowner association meeting in a couple of weeks

i think I am gonna sign my proxy to one of the neighbors

those things always consist of the stupidest people bitching about the stupidest shit they can think of and the property manager abruptly cutting off the meeting when the "room rental is up"

3/16/2009 10:40:59 AM

good news on the rental house. The chimney is actually already beneath the roof, and the plaster damage is not moisture related. Simply need to replaster, but I've opted to install sheet rock instead and be done with it.

3/16/2009 1:34:05 PM

Quote :

"homeowner association meeting in a couple of weeks i think I am gonna sign my proxy to one of the neighbors those things always consist of the stupidest people bitching about the stupidest shit they can think of and the property manager abruptly cutting off the meeting when the "room rental is up""

join the board and change things

3/16/2009 1:54:12 PM

anyone know approx cost for retiling flooring and a shower?

i want to redo the entire bathroom, but that's the part that'd make me uncomfortable doing myself.

3/17/2009 8:56:05 PM

tile itself can be had for quite cheap - starting from $1.50-$2.50/sqft, or as much as you want to spend.

If you know how to tile and can do it all yourself, it's a pretty cheap job. But tiling is labor intensive, and can take several days even for a small area because of all the steps you have to take. And you can screw it up pretty bad if you don't know what you're doing

drop by Lowes/Home Depot and they'll give you a quote for tile+installation/sqft. They use 3rd party contractors.
I bought some laminate flooring from Lee's Hardwood Floor on Chatham St between Raleigh and Cary a few weeks ago and they have tile too, and can give you some estimates or recommendations for installers.

[Edited on March 17, 2009 at 11:11 PM. Reason : .]

3/17/2009 11:09:58 PM

We just got finished tiling our kitchen floor (~240 sq ft.) and we were quoted $2800.00 by a local contractor. We ended up doing it ourselves for just under $1000.00 after paying for the materials and bribing my in-laws to help, but we were lucky that my wife's family had done it before and had the proper tools--especially the tile saw.

Materials were around $850, although we picked out some upper end tile, so I guess the contractor was giving us a price of around $7-8/sq-ft.

3/18/2009 10:33:51 AM

I am absolutely sick of my HOA. $271 dollars a month and I cant even get them to clean the building properly.

3/18/2009 12:39:03 PM

^ That an apartment complex's HOA?

3/18/2009 2:38:44 PM

ouch. thats why i tried to look for no HOA (which was thankfully available in this area). gives you a lot more home for the same effective price.

3/18/2009 4:18:01 PM

It also keeps your neighbors from telling you how to landscape your lawn.

Yeah, you'll have a couple neighbors who let their lawn go to hell, have a couple junk cars, and maybe have some junk in their front yard. You'll also have freedom and fewer expenses each month. Plus those neighborhoods usually have homes that are a better deal than some of those homes in newer neighborhoods with HOA's.

3/18/2009 4:37:28 PM

yep, HOA is a minus in my book. I won't say that I'll automatically decline any house in a neighborhood with one, but it is a negative.

I'd really prefer a house on about an acre outside of town.

3/18/2009 10:14:29 PM

I pay $11/month for my HOA and they keep my neighbors from bringing down my property value. Well worth it I say.

3/19/2009 1:47:20 PM

mine's like $33 a month.

i couldn't imagine paying ~250 a _month_. you'd think at that point, it's just not worth living in that community.

3/19/2009 9:33:46 PM

my HOA is >$500 =(

talk about assraping

3/19/2009 9:40:36 PM

my HOA is less than 300 a year.... I can't believe people who pay that much a MONTH ... for that you'd better be getting royal treatment... thats like a car payment!

3/19/2009 9:52:12 PM

hahahahahahahahha you people and your HOAs

3/19/2009 11:09:11 PM

mortgage payment

3/20/2009 12:13:53 AM

i live in an pre 1900 victorian mansion that was split into condos when it was refurbished.

the hoa payments are divied up by sqft of your condo relative to the entire building.

the lady below me's ex husband has to pay her $600+/mo hoa fees along with the mortgage that'd suck

mine's like $150/mo, but that includes building insurance/water/sewage/landscaping/common area electricity (heat and light)/building the fund for refinishing the hardwoods in the common area and stairwell/private parking in the city/managment costs.

[Edited on March 20, 2009 at 11:04 AM. Reason : e]

3/20/2009 11:04:20 AM

my HOA's are $24 / year. it was a big plus when looking for a house.

p.s. i hate wild onions.

3/22/2009 12:06:09 AM

my HOA covers comcast cable, all lawn maintenance, plants, flowers, trees, etc & exterior insurance, plus the gate (gated community) and the pool and bomb ass, built in gas grill at the pool

i went and looked at the models yesterday to get some decorating ideas and now i want to sell all my furniture and start over except for my bedroom set, that shit is tight. i do want a new couch now though

3/22/2009 10:05:13 AM

I would be royally pissed if the HOA covered cable. What if I wanted to get satellite? Then I would be double-paying for my tv. What a load of bullshit.

And to make it even more insulting, you know the reason they are charging you for cable is in an attempt to KEEP you from getting satellite. I'd get that shit and mount my dish in the most annoying place possible, just to spite them.

3/22/2009 11:44:07 AM

or maybe it's much cheaper for everyone to pay that way since the vast majority are going to use cable anyways

3/22/2009 12:47:06 PM

seriously doubt it. they might frame it like that but its pretty obvious its just an attempt to keep satellite dishes out of the neighborhood.

3/22/2009 1:09:41 PM

I've got shingles flying up on my roof today. I've owned my house for just over a year, and this is the third time I've had this problem. is there any way to fix this problem? I have a very steep roof and I don't climb up there myself, but I don't want to have to pay a guy every few months to go up there for me to reattach shingles.

3/29/2009 4:30:04 PM

sounds like you need to fix your roof beyond just popping the shingles back down.... usually shingles have a strip of tar that glues them down... how old is your roof?

3/29/2009 4:43:42 PM

it's not old... less than 10 years.

it's shingles from the same area that keep popping loose.

my neighbor has shingles off of his roof from today as well.

[Edited on March 29, 2009 at 6:45 PM. Reason : ]

3/29/2009 6:43:57 PM

http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/4838152/

I'm copying the text for posterity.

Quote :

"MOORHEAD, MINN. — As the Red River crept within view of their backyard this past week, Denette and Billy Narum had an extra incentive to pray their sandbags held. Like most people in the path of potential floods, they have no flood insurance. Fewer than 800 homeowners in the North Dakota and Minnesota communities most threatened by the swollen river hold insurance policies covering flood damage despite a decade-long push by state and federal officials to get people signed up, according to federal records obtained by The Associated Press. Like the Narums, who bought their home five years ago, many forgo the insurance because they have never seen a historic flood. Others don't want to shell out up to $800 a year for coverage, instead gambling that city dikes will protect their homes. That leaves residents exposed to huge losses, and they can't count on a government bailout. People who don't have insurance can get limited federal help if their county is declared a federal disaster area, but it's usually in a loan that must be repaid. "This was never supposed to happen here," Denette Narum said hours before she and her husband evacuated Friday, giving up on their six pumps as water seeped under sandbags topping a permanent levee and water filled their basement. About 20 percent of Moorhead residents had been urged to evacuate, although most homes are still OK. Thousands of volunteers reinforced miles and miles of dikes with sandbags as the river rose to record levels. Even though the National Weather Service said the river appeared to be receding, it was still more than 20 feet above flood stage Sunday and expected to remain that way for days, testing the integrity of dikes that have already suffered some breaches. Federal Emergency Management Agency reports show that in the besieged city of Fargo, N.D., with a population of 92,000, only 586 homeowners have policies - including just 90 in the area of highest flood risk. In neighboring Moorhead, a city of 30,000, that number is a mere 145. In fact, only 4,558 homeowners in the entire state of North Dakota and fewer than 9,000 in Minnesota carried flood insurance as of January, the most recent figures available. FEMA and state officials tried to get the message out about flood insurance after the devastating 1997 Red River flood, which submerged Grand Forks, N.D., and caused an estimated $4.1 billion in damage. Only 743 homeowners in Grand Forks now carry flood insurance. "Memories are short, and people don't remember the 1997 flood," said Butch Kinerney, spokesman for the National Flood Insurance Program, managed by FEMA. "You see it time and time again: People forget the past." FEMA doesn't require people to buy flood insurance unless they're in a designated flood plain and have a federally backed mortgage. Butch and Janet Johnson have lived in Fargo for 35 years, just half a block from the Red River, and don't know any neighbors who have flood insurance. They've received a few fliers in the mail but never considered getting a policy. "Our house is 100 years old and if it's going to go, they can have it," Janet Johnson said. The Narums' mortgage company didn't require the insurance, and the previous owner told them there was only an inch of water in the basement during the 1997 flood. "And that was considered a 100-year flood," said Billy Narum, who built an earthen berm to protect his home in 2006 after he had to sandbag during late spring floods. Kathy Beckius' duplex about a block from the Red River in Moorhead also was untouched by water during the 1997 flooding, so she and her husband decided against flood insurance. On Saturday, Beckius watched river water backing up in nearby storm drains, flooding streets in the area up to 2 feet deep in spots. "It's your choice whether you get it or not where we live, and we just chose not to," she said. After flooding in Minnesota in 2007, Gov. Tim Pawlenty advocated for a law requiring insurance companies to notify homeowners annually about flood insurance. However, there has been little change in the number of policies in Minnesota since Pawlenty signed the law last May, said Ceil Strauss, who coordinates the flood insurance program for the state. "For the most part, people just don't want to spend the money," Strauss said. "They think they're safe and don't believe they're in a flood plain most of time, even if they are." Jeff Klein, North Dakota's flood insurance coordinator, said some people buy coverage only in years when the risk is high - usually when there's been a lot of snow - then drop it. In 1997, more than 12,000 homeowners had flood insurance, Klein said, and he suspects the number of current policies is higher than shown by FEMA data, updated through January. This February, FEMA urged homeowners to buy insurance because of a record snow pack and the 30-day waiting period for a policy to take effect. Anyone can buy the federal insurance from most private insurance agents, as long as their community participates in the National Flood Insurance Program. Policies start at under $100 a year, and homeowners can insure the structure, contents or both. The average policy for people in a high-risk flood plain is about $600 to $800 a year. FEMA officials say they encourage everyone to buy flood insurance, even though people behind levees or dams certified to withstand a 100-year flood - one so big that it has only a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year - aren't required to. "People think manmade structures protect them from Mother Nature, but Mother Nature does not pay attention to lines on a map or manmade levees," Kinerney said. "Insurance is not cheap, but it's more expensive if you suffer a disaster." Tell that to Billy Narum, who has no intention of buying flood insurance after the current flood threat is over. Instead, he said he'll build a higher berm and maybe get rid of the walk-out basement, assuming he can return home. "Within three years of paying insurance premiums, I would be able to replace everything I lost anyway," he said."

I don't understand the logic here. Yes, insurance costs money. But if you live on flat terrain near a major river, flooding is a when, not if, situation. Especially in areas with heavy and variable winter snowfalls.

[Edited on March 29, 2009 at 8:17 PM. Reason : sdf]

3/29/2009 8:13:46 PM

^ It's true, it sounds like most of those people are just being smacktarded about not wanting to pay a fairly nominal amount of money for what is really a huge amount of coverage. Then again, when somebody thinks like this:

Quote :

""Within three years of paying insurance premiums, I would be able to replace everything I lost anyway," he said.""

You realize you're either dealing with some severely ass backwards poor folks, or just dealing with some complete fucktards who like to be oppositional.

3/30/2009 1:09:22 AM

Quote :

" Policies start at under $100 a year, and homeowners can insure the structure, contents or both. The average policy for people in a high-risk flood plain is about $600 to $800 a year."

Something smells here. I got a quote for flood insurance - low risk, not in a flood plain and it was about 450 a year.

My everything else insurance (fire, tornado, theft) only about 350 a year. Anyone in the Raleigh Area in a designated low risk area have flood insurance? I'm curious what your rate is.

3/30/2009 9:40:13 PM

So...my wife and I were given a Kenmore he2 Plus Washer and Dryer Set for our birthdays last year. We got the set delivered last year on my birthday (3/27/08).

Last night, my wife was washing a load of clothes and called me into the laundry room. The washer was flashing F01 on the time remaining display.

A few google searches later, I learn that this F01 is the washing machine equivalent of the "blue screen" for Windows.

Apparently we got a "your warranty is expiring card" Saturday in the mail and Sunday I find out it is going to cost me at least $200 to fix a one-year-old $700 washing machine.

I am tired of talking to Corporate Sears. I am calling the store and speaking to the manager tomorrow. I think this is utter BS that the machine flat broke one day after the warranty expired.

3/30/2009 10:54:37 PM

Quote :

"Something smells here. I got a quote for flood insurance - low risk, not in a flood plain and it was about 450 a year. "

I never got a quote, however my agent said it would be something small like an extra $10 a month if I wanted it.

3/30/2009 11:31:27 PM

Oct 2008:



Mar 2009:





patience finally pays off. Still a long way to go, but i don't avoid looking at the backyard anymore.

3/31/2009 7:27:28 PM

^ AMAZING! That looks fantastic! Great work!

3/31/2009 7:29:53 PM

^^
That really is great


I just put on offer on a new place yesterday and it got accepted... I just found out after the fact that the new house has it's own website and youtube video..

Now there is the pesky task of selling my townhouse ASAP

3/31/2009 10:33:46 PM

^^^ looks great, I know what you mean about patience and lawns... my warm season grasses are finally (after 5 years) filling in. I love the patio and wall, did you do it yourself or hire it out? Looks like what we'd like to do outside of our new deck/screened porch...

3/31/2009 11:49:21 PM

can anyone recommend a good pest control service here in the triangle?

i don't have any problems that i'm aware of, i just want someone that can treat seasonally, once a year, or whatever frequency is necessary for pest maintenance.

thanks in advance.

4/1/2009 7:19:12 AM

^^

ha, man, i wish i could have done a patio like that myself. I drew it out, and had a guy come out and build it. I used him for the patio at our previous house too. It's just one guy, and he usually has one mexican helping him out. The first patio, I had several people/companies come out, and he was a few grand cheaper than the next best price. drtaylor referred me to him. This time around, i didn't even bother shopping around.

Eventually, I want to build an outdoor kitchen with a drop-in grill, but can't afford it for a while.

4/1/2009 10:07:53 AM