I don't understand why a bank would forgive the difference on an investment property.

8/2/2012 3:42:46 PM

I'm military. I had no choice

8/2/2012 4:05:22 PM

I'll be putting up a fence at my new house, either 650' if I can afford it right now, or maybe 300' if not. I've seen too many fence lines lacking grass. Any ideas on best solution? Something economical? Mulching it seems plausible, but that's a lot of damn mulch to place. I guess gravel would work, but not as nice, and I'd like a border so that my mower doesn't start throwing rocks

8/2/2012 4:19:09 PM

Me neighbor just overseaded like hell and put down a ton of fertilizer.

8/2/2012 4:22:40 PM

that was going to be my first attempt. trimming that fence line is going to be a bitch, especially since using a mower between posts probably won't be very effective.

8/2/2012 4:39:52 PM

Can't you just use a weedeater/edger?

8/2/2012 4:49:38 PM

yeh, that's what I'm talking about. won't be fun... maybe it won't be so bad once I'm weed eating constantly... but right now my weed eater skills suck

8/2/2012 5:01:10 PM

Eh, I do it around my house. Not bad at all.

8/2/2012 6:20:58 PM

I can't decide what finish type I want for my kitchen faucet.

Cabinets are dark cherry; floor is neutral tile; hardware is brushed stainless; sink is brushed stainless; stainless appliances, and the granite countertops are in the new venetian gold family (though not very gold).

So... brushed stainless faucet to match everything, or change it up with a bronze faucet? I think I'd really like the look of bronze against the counters, though I don't know if it would just seem out of place compared to the rest of the brushed metal finishes.

[Edited on August 14, 2012 at 2:58 PM. Reason : .]

8/14/2012 2:54:26 PM

brushed stainless

8/14/2012 3:18:10 PM

^ this

if you want to mix it up you need to change other things as well.

8/14/2012 11:57:13 PM

agreed. It's just going to look like a mismatched faucet.

[Edited on August 15, 2012 at 8:28 AM. Reason : ]

8/15/2012 8:21:32 AM

twas my fear. stainless it shall be

8/15/2012 10:08:08 AM

Quote :

"I can't decide what finish type I want for my kitchen faucet. Cabinets are dark cherry; floor is neutral tile; hardware is brushed stainless; sink is brushed stainless; stainless appliances, and the granite countertops are in the new venetian gold family (though not very gold). So... brushed stainless faucet to match everything, or change it up with a bronze faucet? I think I'd really like the look of bronze against the counters, though I don't know if it would just seem out of place compared to the rest of the brushed metal finishes."

OH MY JESUS

8/15/2012 10:12:00 AM

Do you have something of value to post, or are you just going to troll?

8/15/2012 10:12:42 AM

I thought you were trolling with that post

I'm gonna say go bronze because you can't be serious

8/15/2012 10:17:05 AM

While it may be a small part of the entire equation, it's still a valid question and I don't see how you can think otherwise. I'm not an interior designer and I've never built a house before, so I can't really go on experience that I don't have. I simply liked the bronze faucet but figured it would look out of place, thus I asked. Don't know why that brings out the bitch in you.

8/15/2012 10:22:08 AM

Def go with the brushed stainless faucet to match.

8/15/2012 10:35:02 AM

I've started trying to use pinterest to organize my interior design stuff. We are going to have to re-do the kitchen, floors, paint, and light fixtures for the whole house.

8/15/2012 11:33:33 AM

Quote :

"It is my rental. I live in Washington state permanently now. The house is too small for my family and I can't afford to not have renters and shit keeps breaking in it and I keep fixing a house I don't want anymore...its quite frustrating to say the least. I would rather take a hit on credit and be out of the house then deal with it anymore. short sale is better than the bank foreclosing on it, which will happen since my renters move out in November. I am hoping for a deed in lieu of foreclosure. "

My brother in law has a house in Savannah Ga in the same exact situation, he got married, wife bounced during his first deployment, he gets back to an empty house, gets transferred out of state(military), lists house for sale for loan payoff, no offers for a few months, he stops paying, reduces price to actual value, gets offers, sends in for short sale, bank does not respond so he loses buyer, months go by, he reduces price again, gets an offer, bank responds but takes too long to approve short sale, loses 2nd buyer.

The THIRD (AND LOWEST) offer was scheduled to close and approved by GMAC, by this point the house has been vacant for almost two years and no payments have been made, he is behind about 30k in on it, the house gets broken in to and vandalized. He drives from Texas to Georgia, cleans it and fixes what he can from the vandalism. During this time two other houses in the neighborhood drop below what the contract on his is for, the buyer took the out (due to the damage) and walked...bought a house down the street for even less.

Keep the following things in mind. Credit reporting is based on "date of first delinquency" so it does no good to let it get behind and then make another payment or two, once you stop, stop for good. There is nothing to keep you from stopping payments before your tenant moves out.

If you are doing strategic default you do not want any other significant assets or you will have a harder time getting the deficiency forgiven. If you do a deed in lieu do not grant them the deed without getting the deficiency permanently forgiven. That is the only thing they can really give you in return for your cooperation is forever giving up their opportunity to come after the deficiency....otherwise you do not have any reason not to drag out the foreclosure process and let them run up legal fees.

Credit Reporting runs 7 years from the date of first delinquency.
Judgment reporting lasts for 10 years.
After two years (from the date the property is ultimately transferred) you will be eligible for a mortgage again as long as your credit score is adequate and you do not have any other unpaid debt.

Most people who do strategic default keep all other payments current so that their credit score can recover faster.

8/15/2012 2:28:40 PM

I have an upstairs toilet that has now become extremely slow to flush. I'm running out of ideas on what is happening.

This toilet has always been a little weak, but it would at least flush every time. It's a standard toilet. About 4 days ago it's to the point now that about every 2nd or 3rd flush won't go down at all, even if it's just a bowl of clean water.

I've run an auger, I've made sure the jet hole is clear, I've cleaned all of the outlets on the underside of the toilet bowl and the components in the tank seem to be functioning.

Any other ideas? I don't really know where to go from here. This is the toilet that usually has feminine products thrown in them, which I don't know if there is some type of blockage that is slightly out of range of the auger I have (3'), but I don't know.

This is the only toilet in the house that is doing this, so I don't think it's a main line problem.

8/19/2012 10:57:18 AM

Is it still filling up all the way with water in the back?
Does the chain pull up high enough so it doesn't too quickly block water from escaping?

8/19/2012 6:22:12 PM

^That's exactly what I was thinking. Our hall bath was having the same issue with not flushing/semi-flushing. Turned out our tank was filling up at different levels each time. I replaced the fill valve and all is well.

8/19/2012 9:50:25 PM

My damn a/c is on the fritz. Outside unit is running but blower produces nothing. I can cut it off for ~18-24 hours and starts right back up and cools everything down with no problem. It started Monday and I forgot to cut it off (just in case) before leaving for Canada on Wednesday so it probably ran 24 hours a day while I was gone. Anyone ever run into something like this before? I can't think of what would actually be wrong where it would start working again after a day but not after 1-2 hours.

8/19/2012 11:53:09 PM

well, i started teh short sale process, got an offer within a week on the market

8/20/2012 1:04:05 AM

^now get ready to wait months to hear back from the bank.

8/20/2012 8:04:21 AM

No kidding. It'll have taken us over 11 months from first offer to close on the place we are buying.

8/20/2012 10:47:26 AM

We haven't really had any real woes with the house in awhile. Between that and the fact that I'm finally starting to slow down a bit at work, it's allowed us to start getting back to scoping fun projects around the house.

I repainted the front porch columns yesterday and then installed a floating-mount house number on one of the columns. It turned out really well. We're getting ready to make a front-door coir mat and I also think I am going to do something a little funky with the trim around the front door. I really, really want to entirely change our front door, but decent ones are expensive and I'm not going to replace it unless it is with a good door so that will have to be put off for a bit I think. It doesn't help that I really would love a solid walnut front door. I'll probably have to settle for a birch with a stain color in the same family as walnut if we do replace it.

Also, it looks like we might be housing a lot of friends for the Clemson football game this year so I've started my long list of items to complete before then. They are things I have wanted to do for awhile but it gives me a bit of a catalyst to get some of them done.

8/20/2012 12:21:59 PM

Quote :

"now get ready to wait months to hear back from the bank."

The bank called me the day after to offer me a streamline refinance going from 4.75 to 3.75%

Saving 100 bucks isnt worth it

8/20/2012 3:52:04 PM

100 bucks?

8/20/2012 3:56:28 PM

Well, I suck at choosing colors

Siding is more brown than I thought it would be.

Shingles are lighter than I thought they'd be.

Now the siding and shingles are too close in color.

The paint is more peach colored than beige colored.

The door paint I wanted looks too burgundy/purple (though it hasn't been painted yet).

Hopefully it's just my nitpicking and that it doesn't really look too bad.

8/20/2012 4:59:32 PM

Did you actually lay the samples all out WITH each other when you picked them out? That's key to any design like this.

Regardless, shutters and doors are easy to repaint those if you need. Shingles and siding you can't do much at this point so you'll just have to let that go. Maybe you can change up the shutters and the door to make them work better with that you have going on.

As far as interior paint color, I'd consider it a moot point. You don't want beige walls anyway imo, so the fact it came out peach shouldn't be an issue. I'm going to assume you were going to repaint some of it anyway so just think of it as a clean slate.

8/20/2012 5:48:04 PM

Quote :

"100 bucks?"

The drop from 4.75 to 3.75 saves me only 100-130 bucks on my mortgage a month.

[Edited on August 21, 2012 at 12:55 PM. Reason : ya]

8/21/2012 12:55:08 PM

That's essentially what I did. I'll take a free $130 every month

8/21/2012 1:41:19 PM

Quote :

"Did you actually lay the samples all out WITH each other when you picked them out? That's key to any design like this. Regardless, shutters and doors are easy to repaint those if you need. Shingles and siding you can't do much at this point so you'll just have to let that go. Maybe you can change up the shutters and the door to make them work better with that you have going on. As far as interior paint color, I'd consider it a moot point. You don't want beige walls anyway imo, so the fact it came out peach shouldn't be an issue. I'm going to assume you were going to repaint some of it anyway so just think of it as a clean slate"

Oh yeh, laid everything out together. For some reason, the shingles I have were just really faded compared to the samples I looked at (including some that were left outside to be faded). As far as the siding... I don't know, maybe I just didn't look at it well enough/right light. In all honesty, the siding may not be as bad as I'm thinking (the shingles being lighter may just bring out more brown in the siding).

I changed the color for the front door... hoping it turns out well; shutters are black, so no screwing that up (didn't want to risk another color).

I did want interior beige paint so I could just have neutral walls and paint over easily. I do plan on repainting some rooms, but the main room, which I wasn't going to paint may bother me - vaulted ceiling so high walls. I'm just going to live with it and see what it looks like with furniture, flooring, and interior lighting. If I hate it, the painters will only be a few houses away

8/21/2012 2:00:12 PM

these goddamned snakes are out of control

and frogs

which i assume are drawing the snakes

8/21/2012 5:46:17 PM

came home yesterday to another snake in the yard/driveway/patio

three straight days

8/22/2012 10:30:17 AM

That's what you get for moving to TX Pilgrim's Hoes

8/22/2012 10:31:27 AM

What's the best place in the triangle area to get tile? Just got the hardwood for cheap at lumber liquidators, but the SO wants to tile a lot of the downstairs so we're going to need a good bit of it (kitchen, dining, entry, and a hall are all tile)

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/c/Golden-Acacia-Handscraped-Bamboo-Major-Brand-HSPBAMGA/10023421 is the wood. I'm thinking a greyish slate would go good with it and the granite countertops (but we haven't ordered the counters yet, want to get the tile first) Also open to other kinds and colors of tile. Don't want to order it online but I'm having trouble finding a local store.

8/22/2012 3:09:02 PM

surplus warehouse, lowe's/home depot (when on sale); you can try the habitat restore as they get donations (new stock) occasionally, it would be cheap, but the most unlikely place to find what you want/enough of it/if they have any

I know of actual flooring companies, but I doubt you'll get it cheaply from them.

btw, I love that bamboo you've selected. I'm getting a similar one (santos mohagony, but a different brand)

[Edited on August 22, 2012 at 3:18 PM. Reason : .]

8/22/2012 3:15:09 PM

Ok, I was hoping there was something like lumber liquidators for tile but I couldn't find it.

We really like the wood, and the price was really nice too (less than on the site).

8/22/2012 3:24:31 PM

There is probably something similar, but I'm not familiar with them. I mean, there's a bunch of tile suppliers around, I just don't know their products/prices. Try calling around? Ask the lumber liquidators employees? They probably get that question all the time... or did you order online?

8/22/2012 3:28:44 PM

The stuff was listed as a store special for Greenville, but they are letting us pick it up in Durham.

I just need to get over my thinking that if you buy at Lowes or HD you are paying extra for the big box convenience. Their tile prices are competitive so we'll probably end up going with them.

Now I just have to worry about if I should make the SO use urethane grout. the house is on a crawlspace and I'm afraid that means that normal grout will crack. Urethane grout is much more flexible, but also more expensive. We are absolutely using it in the bathroom for the mold resistance, just need to decide for the living areas.

8/22/2012 4:08:25 PM

you only need that grout in the shower. if there is that much flex in your floor then any grout will crack. someone is trying to sell you something you dont need.

8/23/2012 1:00:23 AM

No one is trying to sell it to us and he doesn't want to use it outside the bathroom, I just don't want to have to worry about mold and stains and cracks. guess I shouldn't worry. My only experience with tile has been on a slab, so flex was a non-issue.

8/23/2012 1:10:43 AM

Well, if the subflooring is that bad then you should replace it.

8/23/2012 9:08:52 AM

if you are an average american i dont see you getting that much water out on the bathroom floor. mold takes a constant source of moisture. if you get water on the floor outside the shower then wipe it up.

8/23/2012 12:42:09 PM

Just paid $1100 for a bunch of soffit/facia/etc repair, as well as new gutters. My woe is I didn't really add any value to my house with that outlay.

Company was Rain-Go, and they did really good work, while having the lowest quote of 4-5 different companies I called.

http://www.raingonc.com/

8/23/2012 3:36:02 PM

I am super allergic to mold, so urethane grout is happening in the bathrooms.

8/23/2012 6:33:02 PM

ok, i'm already sick of renting, and ready for the next set of home ownership woes.


still bitter, though, about 9 years of home ownership with not a fucking dime to show for it afterwards.

[Edited on August 24, 2012 at 9:38 AM. Reason : .]

8/24/2012 9:37:54 AM