CAG home owner topic. Buying or selling a home? Have a maintance issue? Help is here!

One thing to keep in mind when buying appliances or any other long-term use item for your house is you get what you pay for. Cheap out on something and you will be buying another way before you should have to. I always go HERE to read up on stuff before buying.
 
I hate cleaning as well--need to do some later today. :bomb: If I had a house I'd definitely get a maid service. Can't justify in an 800 or 900sqft condo.

And yes, with Appliances don't go cheap. Don't have to go top of the line with a bunch of features you don't need by any means. But read up on reviews and buy a reputable brand. It's something you'll probably be using the next 10-20 years if you stay in the house so you don't' want to skimp on them.
 
[quote name='Javery']One thing to keep in mind when buying appliances or any other long-term use item for your house is you get what you pay for. Cheap out on something and you will be buying another way before you should have to. I always go HERE to read up on stuff before buying.[/QUOTE]

I love Consumer Reports, but they require a membership to get actual ratings. If you got a membership, maybe you could tell me some of them, if that's not against the rules or anything? :lol:
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']I love Consumer Reports, but they require a membership to get actual ratings. If you got a membership, maybe you could tell me some of them, if that's not against the rules or anything? :lol:[/QUOTE]

Your library may have free online access to consumer reports or at least the magazine or yearly editions.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']I love Consumer Reports, but they require a membership to get actual ratings. If you got a membership, maybe you could tell me some of them, if that's not against the rules or anything? :lol:[/QUOTE]

Damn. I always forget about the membership thing and I use my brother-in-law's access whenever I need to look something up. Oh well.
 
I bought a new maytag dishwasher a few months ago from lowes, it was ~550ish. Just make sure you get one that is stainless steel on the inside, it'll be much quieter.
 
That's about the price range we are looking at. Around $500. We don't really use dishwashers very much to begin with.

We also need to get a countertop microwave if anyone knows anything about those.
 
[quote name='Javery']You won't do a more thorough job - the first time these people come to your house they will do a "deep clean" because they want to get your recurring business. Also, time = money and there are better ways to spend your free time than cleaning especially when you have so much other house nonsense to take care of.[/QUOTE]

this 10x I just decided to pay for a maid service. Money well spent.
 
I am preparing for my first home and looking to get something in the 85k-110k range, which after looking at the market seems very plausible. I have about 12k saved up so far, and will be moving in with my parents at the end of the month to start saving even more.
My realtor suggested I wait until post Thanksgiving and get an offer in before the turn of the new year to have a slightly easier time at buying-- I've heard the same for cars before. Anyone have any insight in the truth for that? At any rate, it gives me more time to save so I'm going to do it anyway.
 
So my grass seed I planted a couple weeks ago is coming in nicely. I bought a dethatcher and did that first before planting and I think it helped alot. Scott's also had a deal where you got a free bag of starter fertilizer when you bought seed so I also put that down beforehand.
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']anytime you can buy between mid-november till march-april you'll get a cheaper deal. people start listing homes a little higher in summer.[/QUOTE]

Right. This is largely because parents don't want to move their kids into a new school mid-year.
 
Also if possible I'd suggest to look into Home Warranties. I believe Coldwell Banker offers some (depeneds on state to state), also when buying appliances, don't skip out on the warranty. I believe Sears has a warranty program for appliances, even if you didn't get it from them (don't hold me to it)
 
You would think with the massive decrease in value (according to the county) the structure of my house has seen in the past four years would correlate with a decrese in the amount I have to pay in home owners insurance.

After talking to my insurance company, this is not the care. No, they claim I need more coverage.
 
I'm dragging my heels on raking leaves in the front yard lol.

I want to wait until everything falls, but by then, the snow will probably come...
 
[quote name='eldergamer']You would think with the massive decrease in value (according to the county) the structure of my house has seen in the past four years would correlate with a decrese in the amount I have to pay in home owners insurance.

After talking to my insurance company, this is not the care. No, they claim I need more coverage.[/QUOTE]


State Farm is telling me the same thing. My homeowner's insurance keeps going up each year because of the cost to rebuild.
 
Then file a legitimate claim on your homeowner's insurance and watch them jack your rates up even more, or just yank your policy entirely!
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']Just don't look out your front window. I refuse to rake every year, I'm sure my neighbors love it.[/QUOTE]

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I don't understand why the cost to rebuild would go up when new house prices are way down. I guess we should just be grateful that our homeowner's insurance is pretty low since we're going through the same company we use for auto insurance, and previously renter's insurance.

Going to buy the dishwasher tonight, we'll see how that goes. We still don't have a particular one in mind. I've heard good/bad things about just about every brand. We're looking in the $500 range give or take $100. We plan on hardly using it, and would just keep the one that's there, but it's literally junk and unusable even for just a drying rack. Again, any suggestions are welcome. We refuse to get a GE thanks to the shitty experiences we've had with that brand in our old apartment's dishwasher. Pretty much any other brand, we're open to.
 
Housing insurance is largely based on:

1. How likely things will break and need repaired/rebuilt.
2. How much it would cost to do so.

So older houses can be more expensive to insure as they're more likely to have things break as the pipes are old, wiring is old etc.

It's different than car insurance and car insurance doesn't cover maintenance issues, just fixing accidental damage and paying out if the car is total. So as the car goes down in value, premiums drop as the risk to the insurance company is lower as it's less money if totaled.

Where as price for say plumbing and water damage repairs to a house is pretty much always going up with inflation. Housing values dropping doesn't mean the prices for materials and construction labor for repairs/rebuilding are going down.
 
I have a maytag, I've been pretty happy with it. Maytag for the dishwasher and washer/dryer, no problems with either yet, and everything else is whirlpool (just like the look of their fridges and stoves for some reason).
 
About home owners insurance. Call around and get a lot of qoutes. Over the years the few times I've changed I'm amazed how one company's cost is much less than all the other qoutes for the same coverage.
 
[quote name='Viva Las Vegas']About home owners insurance. Call around and get a lot of qoutes. Over the years the few times I've changed I'm amazed how one company's cost is much less than all the other qoutes for the same coverage.[/QUOTE]

Just curious do they usually just inspect the outside of the house or do you need to be home for them to look around inside as well?
 
[quote name='Owen']Just curious do they usually just inspect the outside of the house or do you need to be home for them to look around inside as well?[/QUOTE]

Depends. Some insurance companies will just do the outside cursory look around, others are going to want to inspect every nook and cranny on the inside for maximum absurdity.
 
[quote name='eldergamer']You would think with the massive decrease in value (according to the county) the structure of my house has seen in the past four years would correlate with a decrese in the amount I have to pay in home owners insurance.

After talking to my insurance company, this is not the care. No, they claim I need more coverage.[/QUOTE]

The more they insure you for the more money you pay in, they've got plenty of ways to limit what they pay back out to less than the maximum so it's all extra profit.;)
 
[quote name='kube00']Anyone put down any winter fertilizer? I just put some down[/QUOTE]

Can't yet, I just reseeded a few weeks ago and put down starter fertilizer. My grassy "fuzz" is starting to look purty though!
 
Just got a Frigidaire, $400 model. If it sucks, oh well. Like I said, we'd use it more for a dishrack than anything else. I think I could count on my hands the number of times I've used a dishwasher in the past 4 years.
 
Why so little use of the dishwasher? It saves so much time over hand washing most everything. If my dishwasher actually got pots and pans clean, it'd be perfect.
 
Yeah, pots and pans are the only things I hand wash. Everything else gets quickly rinsed and stuck in the dishwasher which I run once or twice a week.

But I'm lazy with that kind of stuff and busy as hell most weeks so I'm all for anything that saves any time on crap like chores.
 
Because we only have 2 people and thus rarely fill a dishwasher. And a dishwasher takes too damn long to clean versus just doing it yourself. I also think it's an Asian thing. My husband is half Japanese and we bought the house from a Chinese family who never used the dishwasher, thus why the one they left is a piece of junk.
 
Just finished scraping, primeing and painting all the exterior door and window frames a few days ago. I was going to spend today outside caulking and doing other yard work but a nice headache has derailed that plan.

It's my starter house so I don't want to put too much money into it but many updates may be unavoidable. While scraping the wood on most of the window frames were very soft, some splintering. The windows are original to the house which was built in 1947 and are single pane glass. I'm going to look at replaceing them in the spring.
 
Great, we need to hire a plumber. My husband said the plumbing in the kitchen is a mess, and the pipe that leads to the dishwasher is leaking. We need to get a plumber before we can run the dishwasher. Son of a bitch.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Great, we need to hire a plumber. My husband said the plumbing in the kitchen is a mess, and the pipe that leads to the dishwasher is leaking. We need to get a plumber before we can run the dishwasher. Son of a bitch.[/QUOTE]

Just retrofit the whole house with pex.
 
Ok folks, more advice needed:

The house came with a front loader washing machine. The front loader is from 2004, from the early age of front loaders. Looking around on the internets it seems that old front loaders, particularly the brand that we have (Whirlpool Duets) are much more likely to have mold problems due to design flaws. Considering how disgusting the previous owners were with their appliances (spent days cleaning the fridge and kitchen), I'm thinking that I'm going to try to unscrew the washer and take a look to see if there's a ton of mold on the inside. I already cleaned the detergent drawer because it was caked with soap scum and some mildew. Then I went on the internet and discovered this mold problem that never really goes away once it happens. I'm thinking if there's a ton of mold buildup, which all available evidence indicates that there probably will be, I think I'm just going to buy a new, top loading washer. People were saying they were getting migraines, infections, and allergies because of the washing machines, so I definitely want to prevent that. I'm not allergic to mold, but apparently the allergy can develop over time with exposure.

Anyone have any thoughts on this or experience with this issue?
 
Not with having mold - but to avoid it, you are supposed to make sure to leave the door open at all times, especially after washing.
 
[quote name='Pookymeister']Not with having mold - but to avoid it, you are supposed to make sure to leave the door open at all times, especially after washing.[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah, I knew that. I know all the little tricks for front loaders. They installed them in my dorm building junior year of college. I always left the door open. Of course, no one else did, which meant the damn things started to stink after a couple months.
 
My Duet Sport washer definitely has mold or something. You're also supposed to run the 'clean washer' cycle once a month - mine leaks. Started leaking a week after the 1 year warranty.

Question: What would cause the water dispenser in my fridge to just stop? I have a combo icemaker/water dispenser in the freezer section. The ice maker and ice dispenser still work fine, but the water dispensing doesn't do a thing.
 
[quote name='dtcarson']My Duet Sport washer definitely has mold or something. You're also supposed to run the 'clean washer' cycle once a month - mine leaks. Started leaking a week after the 1 year warranty.

Question: What would cause the water dispenser in my fridge to just stop? I have a combo icemaker/water dispenser in the freezer section. The ice maker and ice dispenser still work fine, but the water dispensing doesn't do a thing.[/QUOTE]

Well shit dude, I'm glad we got a new washer a couple weeks ago. :lol: It's a GE- I hate GE, but they had what seemed to be the best deal for the money and my best friend has had the exact same model for a while and loves it (and that includes cleaning cloth diapers!). I'm pleased with it so far. We didn't replace the dryer though- we just gave that a thorough cleaning and it was good as new and it works great.

I have no idea on your dispenser. Can you easily try to take it apart or would that be a pain in the ass? One of the parts directly related to the water dispenser may be clogged or busted.
 
Does anyone know what would make door locks become difficult to insert keys into? Its a real pain in the ass to open my front door now, and the keys aren't bent or anything. Its hard to work the key in and its hard as heck to pull it out (thats what she said, etc.).

I should probably spray some WD40 in there, but I just thought I'd throw it out here to see if anyone has had a similar experience.
 
[quote name='kodave']Does anyone know what would make door locks become difficult to insert keys into? Its a real pain in the ass to open my front door now, and the keys aren't bent or anything. Its hard to work the key in and its hard as heck to pull it out (thats what she said, etc.).

I should probably spray some WD40 in there, but I just thought I'd throw it out here to see if anyone has had a similar experience.[/QUOTE]

I always spray the powdered graphite into my locks and it works like a charm. Not sure what causes it, though.
 
I haven't even been living in my house, just going back and forth a few days a week to check the mail. I'm staying with my parents during the holidays. When I get a job, I'll be living in my house. I still want to have gamer parties.
 
Question: What would cause the water dispenser in my fridge to just stop? I have a combo icemaker/water dispenser in the freezer section. The ice maker and ice dispenser still work fine, but the water dispensing doesn't do a thing.
Click to expand...
THIS. If you find the answer to this, post it or mail me it, my wife has been on my a$$ about it for the last two-three weeks and I have no time to figure it out lately.
 
[quote name='kodave']Does anyone know what would make door locks become difficult to insert keys into? Its a real pain in the ass to open my front door now, and the keys aren't bent or anything. Its hard to work the key in and its hard as heck to pull it out (thats what she said, etc.).

I should probably spray some WD40 in there, but I just thought I'd throw it out here to see if anyone has had a similar experience.[/QUOTE]


Graphite will help lubricate the lock. If you don't have the powdered graphite as mentioned by Mr Unoriginal, trying rubbing pencil lead on your key.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']I always spray the powdered graphite into my locks and it works like a charm. Not sure what causes it, though.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='bkjohns1']Graphite will help lubricate the lock. If you don't have the powdered graphite as mentioned by Mr Unoriginal, trying rubbing pencil lead on your key.[/QUOTE]

Powdered graphite it is. Thanks.
 
OK, so this week we are FINALLY submitting our plans and application to the board of adjustment for the variance. What a pain in the ass. Our proposed addition is going to be a little less than 2% over the maximum allowable "building coverage" which is why we need a variance. We are in compliance with everything else (setbacks, etc.). The architect won't say it but I think our chances of getting approval are high (otherwise why would she design something that had little chance of being approved?).

This whole process is taking forever - I think we started seriously considering an addition in early 2010 and now I'm told the earlier the board of adjustment will be able to hear us is at the March 2012 meeting. They approve on the spot so after that we'd be able to start applying for the permits and bidding out the job (which I'm told takes another 6 weeks). Then assuming we can get on a contractor's schedule relatively quick we can begin actual construction. Earliest I'm looking at is a May start and the project is going to take about 4 months so they won't be done until next September - and this is if everything goes smooth! Crazy.

Has anyone here ever gone through this process? What is it like? So far I'm just annoyed all of the time and I thought this was going to be lots of fun...
 
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