Spiky Bugger
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Messages
- 6,227
We bought this place in September. We are in So. Cal, where a kajillion dollars can buy you a garage...in an area with lousy schools and drive-by shootings. We got the house for 96% of the then-appraised value, in the condition it it was in at the time.
We re-roofed. Because we were already at three layers of shingles with no plywood underneath...it ALL had to be removed. That was three thousand dollars just for the dumpsters!! Then there was attic cleaning and insulation. And electrical panel upgrade. And removing the up-to-the-minute 1960-something fuck-ugly paneling in almost every room...on top of actual PLASTER walls, so once the paneling was removed the walls here looked like downtown Beiruit. Oh...and the "enclosed" patio was actually red brick mortared into place on top of a 1.5 inch thick concrete "foundation," and then topped with a roof...so it was all sinking. We removed the walls and repoured the patio concrete, and installed a glulam to hold up the roof. [ETA...the paneling, on everything including doors, was done AFTER the sinking, so everything is crooked, no doors actually closed, nothing is straight.]
Speaking of sinking, our house is "on a rake" a low-rider a '56 Chevy would envy. There is a noticeable slant in one area of the house. BUT, there is no foundation damage...the excavation dude says it LOOKS LIKE the ground was not properly compacted when the room addition was done (over 50 years ago) and the house connected to the sewer line...but that is the lawn area, not the actual structure. The structural engineer said that what we have is normal settling, which would have stopped AT LEAST twenty years ago, plus earthquake settling, perhaps more recent. The house itself is on a good foundation....the planet earth may be what has sunken a bit. The "cure" for that is mud jacking, which is what they used to do to my mom's spine. That will be a "temporary" repair, but will surely outlive me.
And we repaired the holes in the hardwood floors where the floor heater was installed in 1946 and removed around 1976 and covered with slabs of plywood for 40 years because, why hurry, right?
Anyway, mortgages. We decided we hated the mortgage lender we were dealing with when buying this place. So, we went in with over 20% down, but no other cash. We got a higher interest rate in exchange for the lender covering all the costs. They get repaid through the higher rate, over time. So the best way to screw them is to shorten that time factor.
And, since Mr. Sue and I are both disabled veterans, we can now (with the repairs now done) get into a VA loan, at a lower rate and with no loan origination fees. So, there we are.
After farting around with repairs for six months with rates going up, I found a loan. We will refi into a 30-year, fixed rate, 3.25% loan. We will save well over $400/month.
So yesterday...we had a handyman here. Our daughter, my sister and I were slamming a quick-fix press-and-stick flooring into a bathroom and laundry room. Mr. Sue was getting all the paperwork ready to send to the lender and moving shit around. Painter will be here Monday to finish up.
Up. To. Our. Asses. because the appraiser will be here soon.
We re-roofed. Because we were already at three layers of shingles with no plywood underneath...it ALL had to be removed. That was three thousand dollars just for the dumpsters!! Then there was attic cleaning and insulation. And electrical panel upgrade. And removing the up-to-the-minute 1960-something fuck-ugly paneling in almost every room...on top of actual PLASTER walls, so once the paneling was removed the walls here looked like downtown Beiruit. Oh...and the "enclosed" patio was actually red brick mortared into place on top of a 1.5 inch thick concrete "foundation," and then topped with a roof...so it was all sinking. We removed the walls and repoured the patio concrete, and installed a glulam to hold up the roof. [ETA...the paneling, on everything including doors, was done AFTER the sinking, so everything is crooked, no doors actually closed, nothing is straight.]
Speaking of sinking, our house is "on a rake" a low-rider a '56 Chevy would envy. There is a noticeable slant in one area of the house. BUT, there is no foundation damage...the excavation dude says it LOOKS LIKE the ground was not properly compacted when the room addition was done (over 50 years ago) and the house connected to the sewer line...but that is the lawn area, not the actual structure. The structural engineer said that what we have is normal settling, which would have stopped AT LEAST twenty years ago, plus earthquake settling, perhaps more recent. The house itself is on a good foundation....the planet earth may be what has sunken a bit. The "cure" for that is mud jacking, which is what they used to do to my mom's spine. That will be a "temporary" repair, but will surely outlive me.
And we repaired the holes in the hardwood floors where the floor heater was installed in 1946 and removed around 1976 and covered with slabs of plywood for 40 years because, why hurry, right?
Anyway, mortgages. We decided we hated the mortgage lender we were dealing with when buying this place. So, we went in with over 20% down, but no other cash. We got a higher interest rate in exchange for the lender covering all the costs. They get repaid through the higher rate, over time. So the best way to screw them is to shorten that time factor.
And, since Mr. Sue and I are both disabled veterans, we can now (with the repairs now done) get into a VA loan, at a lower rate and with no loan origination fees. So, there we are.
After farting around with repairs for six months with rates going up, I found a loan. We will refi into a 30-year, fixed rate, 3.25% loan. We will save well over $400/month.
So yesterday...we had a handyman here. Our daughter, my sister and I were slamming a quick-fix press-and-stick flooring into a bathroom and laundry room. Mr. Sue was getting all the paperwork ready to send to the lender and moving shit around. Painter will be here Monday to finish up.
Up. To. Our. Asses. because the appraiser will be here soon.
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