The Homeowner Thread

[Blackeyed]

I've got high hopes for this thread.

Just bought a house in February in a suburb south of Minneapolis, 10 minutes away from the Mall of America.

Just got out this weekend to do some yard work and it's finally hitting me that I own a house.

Getting my mature-life on.

Previous homeowners hired professional landscapers and this backyard is gonna be beautiful. Getting really pumped for spring to see what pops up.

Still have barely any furniture and just a 32 inch television in a gigantic family room addition, but bout to buy some stuff soon as our credit card is completely paid off (got it down to $200 last I checked.)

Post pics of your house and yard, homeowners.

[emotional fascism]

We finished a kitchen reno earlier this year.

Here's the before:


and the after:

[grammatron]

I need my gutters cleaned for reals.

[Robo-Chachi]

Did you paint the stove?

[emotional fascism]

wife doesn't want to replace the stove until it dies - it's a tank though and has a great griddle in the center.

[Shotfrog]

I need my gutters cleaned for reals.

I need new gutters, new roof, new siding, new decking, new heating system, new bathrooms, and new kitchen, but otherwise my house is pretty sweet.

[Shotfrog]

Oh, new carpeting, too.

[Shotfrog]

Oh and I need new gable louvre vents.

[Robo-Chachi]

I am looking right now to buy a house. It would be a lot easier if the wife had an income, but our lease is up next month. If she finds a job, then we could probably have afforded more house than we'll end up getting. If she doesn't find a job, I'm going to be struggling with a mortgage that is higher than our current rent.

[Shotfrog]

I need to re-pave my driveway.

[BlackSugar]

for some reason the impact of buying a house didn't strike me until I'd been in it for about a week. I was moving shit into one of the rooms and I went into the closet and sat down and that's when it sunk in. I must have sat there for 20 minutes feeling surrounded by this house. I remember thinking that it was like I was wearing a really expensive coat

[beave]

i'm a trailer owner at the moment but in the process of building a house

[MrDecember]

I am looking right now to buy a house. It would be a lot easier if the wife had an income, but our lease is up next month. If she finds a job, then we could probably have afforded more house than we'll end up getting. If she doesn't find a job, I'm going to be struggling with a mortgage that is higher than our current rent.

what sort of job is she looking for?

[ka73]

nice work on those cabinets, emotional fascism. was stripping, painting a real bitch? or did you purchase new fronts?

[Robo-Chachi]

I am looking right now to buy a house. It would be a lot easier if the wife had an income, but our lease is up next month. If she finds a job, then we could probably have afforded more house than we'll end up getting. If she doesn't find a job, I'm going to be struggling with a mortgage that is higher than our current rent.

what sort of job is she looking for?

None right now. She is trying to finish two books for an agent. I don't know what she'll look for when she is done. She said she would not be as picky as in the past. She used to be an architect, so she was mostly looking in that field. Right now I'd be happy if she worked at Applebee's.

[murray st.]

you could make $200 really quickly selling drugs.

[emotional fascism]

nice work on those cabinets, emotional fascism. was stripping, painting a real bitch? or did you purchase new fronts?

thanks. yeah it was a long process of sanding everything down to the bare wood, then priming and painting. it took me a few weekends to do everything. in hindsight, getting new doors might have saved some time, but we wanted to spend the bulk of our cash on the counter and tile so I thought repainting was the best cash-saving option.

[fresh salad]

right now i am upside down about 100K so, no, not that excited to be a home owner.

[MrDecember]

I am looking right now to buy a house. It would be a lot easier if the wife had an income, but our lease is up next month. If she finds a job, then we could probably have afforded more house than we'll end up getting. If she doesn't find a job, I'm going to be struggling with a mortgage that is higher than our current rent.

what sort of job is she looking for?

None right now. She is trying to finish two books for an agent. I don't know what she'll look for when she is done. She said she would not be as picky as in the past. She used to be an architect, so she was mostly looking in that field. Right now I'd be happy if she worked at Applebee's.

would it be feasible to rent month-to-month until she's done with the books and gets a job? much easier to get a decent mortgage approved with two people working, no?

[BlackSugar]

I'm the worst at doing home improvement shit. a wall literally has to cave in or a child injured before I'll do anything

we had a pipe break over our living room and I fixed the hole in the ceiling by taping six pieces of computer printer paper together and covering it up. that was two years ago and now the paper is getting a little yellow

the curtains in my older kids room are held up with thumb tacks

the rattling broken-metal noise from the garbage disposal is so loud that I send everyone to a different floor whenever we use it

that's probably why we spend so much money on art

[Robo-Chachi]

would it be feasible to rent month-to-month until she's done with the books and gets a job? much easier to get a decent mortgage approved with two people working, no?

Approval was no problem. Aside from my student loans, we have no debt and 800+ credit scores. It's just determining how much I should actually pay.

Also, we want to move before the next school year starts for my daughter.

[universe]

I have to stain our roof deck; last years coat held up great but we scratched it up shoveling. Need to replace a baluster, too.

[BlackSugar]

I have this weird suspicion that chach's wife's books will eventually get published and sell through the roof and she'll be all "see? I was right not to get a job" and he'll be really happy about it but also a little sour

[Robo-Chachi]

Man, I hope that day comes. I sit and stare at the gun I bought a Cabela's last month a little longer every day.

[MrDecember]

good luck with all that chachi. it'll work out.

[Robo-Chachi]

I've got my eye on this little number.

[Blackeyed]

We finished a kitchen reno earlier this year.

Here's the before:


and the after:

Yeah that looks a lot better considering that you did all the work yourself and didn't have to replace anything major.

For me, the biggest issue when doing work and repairs is always the cost to time balance act. Like, my time is worth a certain amount of money so if I can get a professional to do something in 1/4 the time it would take me I usually spring for a pro. The only problem is I never really learn anything on my own. I found a middle ground with our wood paneling in the family room - I ripped all that down and cleaned it up enough where a professional could hop in a do the actual sheet-rocking pretty quickly and for minimal amount of money.

[TRASHBOY]

I've owned a house for about 7-8 years now and we do as little maintance on it as possible for the simple fact that were always 3 years away from building a new one anyway. In the meantime most of my "home improvement" jobs are things like fixing up the barn, adding fence-line, removing dead trees, expanding gardens.... last winter we killed off our alfalfa field so we could reseed it this spring with new alfalfa and rye grass. Plan to do that as soon as I can get three dry days in a row.

[wolfie]

right now i am upside down about 100K so, no, not that excited to be a home owner.

u gonna default on that shit?

[Spoilt Victorian Child]

We don't have a yard.

But we do have no debt and a roof deck with a nice view of the skyline.