-had the sump pump drain towards the street. The damn thing dumps the water out about 3 inches from the edge of the house. They invested tens of thousands in garden and landscaping when the house was built, but didn't think, while the yard was all torn up, to install drainage for the sump pump AWAY from the house. Not.Helpful.
I can't believe the previous owners never put an insulation in. There's almost no insulation in this entire house. I'm fairly sure most of the walls are not insulated, which I know was the thing to do out here in the 1960s - but the attic still hasn't been insulated.
We have that issue too! The walls have reflective foil...no actual insulation. The studio had a full bath at some point in time, but no insulation or even wallboard. They found problems with under insulation and missing insulation when they fixed the roof, so that part has been taken care of. I guess on 1978 they didn't insulate, but the addition in the 80s seems to be well insulated.
Lol, I guess I'm the weird one for not wanting to drag my lawn mower/yard tools through the house whenever I use them (we did this for the first year we lived there and it sucked, I felt like the hallway was always dirty).
I think we're the fourth set of owners. The house is 14 years old.
Most of my gripes have to do with the couple who built the house. We're on a corner lot... why wouldn't they flip the floorplan so the garage could be side loading? And why would they build a nearly 3000sq ft house on a slab when basements are so, so common here? It's a little perplexing.
The cosmetic stuff was all original. It was bizarre. The paint and carpet and fixtures are all from the 90's. But someone spent a fortune on a paver patio and professional landscaping. We have 16 trees on our lot, and that's after removing four that died last summer. The builder standard here is two. So someone spent a lot on trees. Our shed is huge. It has a loft in it with a pull down ladder and it appears to be custom built. It had to have cost a ton.
So so odd what people chose to do or not do to the house.
I can't believe that the electrical system had never been updated since the house was built in 1923. It was all knob and tube, and still had a fuse box instead of a circuit breaker. When I was house hunting I looked at a couple dozen houses, all built in the 1920s, and most had few/no MODCONS. Window A/C units were the norm. One of the oldest things was our oil burning furnace, from the 1940s-1950s (everyone who serviced it said they'd never seen an older one).
We looked at a house that was built in 1901 -- it had the original oil furnace! (giant thing made of cast iron)
OMG, we converted to natural gas about 3 years ago (already have city gas lines). The new burner is about 1/8 the size of the old one. And the best part is no more calling and waiting for the oil truck! And no smell of diesel fuel after the delivery either.
Lol, I guess I'm the weird one for not wanting to drag my lawn mower/yard tools through the house whenever I use them (we did this for the first year we lived there and it sucked, I felt like the hallway was always dirty).
Ok, if there's no basement then it is odd not to have an outside shed. I don't have to drag my mower through the house because the basement opens to the backyard.
Post by sunshinedaydreams on Jul 1, 2013 18:38:43 GMT -5
I can't believe they never insulated the crawl space. Most of our house is over the basement, but they built on the master bed/bath a few years ago and never insulated under it. This winter when we moved in, I thought I would freeze to the floor the first time I got out of the shower!
In the same vein, I can't believe they never closed up the register in our bedroom that goes straight into the crawl space with nothing in between. No wonder the heater ran nonstop for the first few months we were here.
- Completely original 1950s bathroom. The tiles fall off the wall if you slam the door too hard. Not to mention how disgusting the inside of the medicine cabinet was or that the bathroom didn't have an exhaust fan.
- The kitchen doesn't have an exhaust fan of any kind or cabinet handles.
- They didn't replace anything to match. I have ORB and brass light fixtures. The door handles are all different shapes and metals. The bathroom has one brass bell shaped handle and one silver lever handle.
- Completely original 1950s bathroom. The tiles fall off the wall if you slam the door too hard. Not to mention how disgusting the inside of the medicine cabinet was or that the bathroom didn't have an exhaust fan.
- The kitchen doesn't have an exhaust fan of any kind or cabinet handles.
- They didn't replace anything to match. I have ORB and brass light fixtures. The door handles are all different shapes and metals. The bathroom has one brass bell shaped handle and one silver lever handle.
You win. I hope you got a bargain!
We did. We wouldn't have been able to afford this neighborhood if we hadn't found this gem. The place is actually built very well but the previous owners apparently didn't care about the cosmetics.
I can't believe the previous owner never: stained/water sealed the deck or installed storm doors. When we bought the house, the deck looked terrible. The very first thing we did, hopefully to prevent any further damage to it, was stain and seal the deck. Also, our first floor has three (yes, three) steel entry doors, so it was always FREEZING down there in the winter. We put in storm doors this past year, and it has made a world of difference.
Post by darthxtater on Jul 2, 2013 18:40:57 GMT -5
Late to the party...
-Built the deck with dry wall screws and nails -Deck stairs were made of 2 two by four smashed together - Grouted all 3 toilets and pedestal sink into the tile. -Not use spacers when installing the tile -Backyard is 25 ft deep by 50 ft wide *Installed a 6 by10 ft water feature that was powered by an extension cord and tripped a breaker every time you turned it on *4 different types of paver that did not match *3 different types of rock (river, red, pink/black mix) *Planted an aspen tree 3 feet away from the foundation then planted s willow about another 10 feet from that:o
Ok, if there's no basement then it is odd not to have an outside shed. I don't have to drag my mower through the house because the basement opens to the backyard.
But do you have a dedicated storage space in the basement? I mean, surely it isn't hanging out next to the treadmill (or whatever), right? My old neighbors definitely did not have a finished basement.
What are you talking about, *A* dedicated storage space IN the basement? It is 100% dedicated storage space! LOL