I'm Buying A House!

Can confirm that this is a huge pain! On the other hand, if you make it work you feel like

@John McClane @Yoda

Are you guys enjoying your respective new abodes?

__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Aye, very much. So much quieter and safer (well, I assume, time will tell and all that but it certainly seems to be). Roomier.

It's going to be awhile before we can really make the most of it, because post closing costs we'll need to budget a bit with the remaining money to fix up the old house so we can sell it, but once that's done (and once we've lived a few months in the new place to figure out what'll work best there) we should be able to buy some select pieces of furniture to fill things out, paint, and all that. It'll be a long process but I'd expect within a couple of years it's going to properly filled and laid out really well. For now, thankfully, there's enough room that we don't feel cramped even with all the random stuff about.

I have not moved in yet.

Right now I gotta remedy the stink from hell that was awakened. I don’t know how it didn’t smell before closing, but my God the whole house smells like a wet dog that soiled itself…repeatedly. Mainly because the previous owner kept two dogs down in the basement and the air intake is at floor level. It’s just a big ole vacuum of stank.

Sounds like a great plan.

The smells will dissipate over time, I presume. Get those windows open.

Not an option. Most of the windows are sealed up and I’d rather not break any trying to open them. The odor is from the basement, so I just gotta get it cleaned, odor neutralized, prime with an odor block, and then topcoat the floor. That should hold the portal from hell closed.

The windows are sealed up? Oh, that’s horrid. I have to have open windows. Even when sleeping.

Basement plan sounds excellent though.

What on earth is an “odor block”?

I never open windows, so it’s not a big deal for me. I prefer a closed air system.

It’s a primer that is intended to seal odors into porous materials.

Our 140-year-old house has the same issue: warped windows that are either painted shut many times over or simply warped wood frames that won't give anymore. Hubby too prefers a closed-air system so we don't worry about it. Plus, high ceilings and large rooms. I do like breezes in spring and autumn, though. Our back door (in the kitchen) and side door (as the entryway) have screen doors, though, so in a pinch I can open the locked door and let some fresh air in with those screen doors. The upstairs bathroom window has the one modern vinyl window, because we took out the glass block and added a stained glass window on the top half (from our old house) and the new vinyl window on the bottom half. So that can slide open with the screen letting in fresh air on the second floor. Here's a pic from when we were first remodeling that bathroom:



There is also a huge screened window halfway up the stairs to the third floor, on the landing. I open that one sometimes too.

I assume you mean Kilz primer, which we love. It's great for not only odor blocking but things like grease and even smoking stains before painting the wall.

__________________
Linda's Author Website
Linda's Amazon Author page

Couple of quick updates:

I’ve got an assortment of wildlife out back. Someone is eventually going to crash right outside my house . This place is haunted.

Are these in order of importance?

Tell us about these - especially the haunting (because I don't believe in such things).

Just the things I thought worth mentioning:

I’m technically living in a city but I’m right next to the federally protected land managed by the city. So I got deer, possums, skunks, bears, and a staggering number of bird species.

The road I’m on is about 40 ft away from my front door, it’s a popular shortcut/cut through, and I have seen some people do some crazy passing maneuvers. I don’t even visit the mailbox (across the road) unless I get an email from the post office. It’s so dangerous. Huge blind spot where I am.

There’s unexplainable noises, smells, and I had some exchanges with neighbors that lead me to believe someone died here.

This isn't meant as an argument, but a reassurance - the house I grew up in and which I now live in had many people die in it.

My grandmother, my ancestors (5 generations on my mother's side) and various others (as the house once even served as a doctor's office - the same Dr. our street is named after) were actually laid out for their funerals in the living room where I watch TV every night - as was the custom for non-wealthy people in times past.

My former house that I rented was supposedly one where a guy committed a violent & thrashing suicide involving cutting - a neighbor told me they re-sheet-rocked the walls because they couldn't cover up all the blood splattered on the original walls - so they just left it there like a Pollock painting and covered it over! (I don't know if the story was true of not, but it definitely served as food for thought whenever their was a strange noise late at night.)

My previous apartments were in a house that was 200 years old and alleged to be haunted.

I've had plenty of weird experiences, but none that defied some logical explanation - one of my favorites was a poltergeist situation in my 200-year-old apartment where bottles of pills came flying off a shelf directly at me from inside a closet - the angry spirit turned out to be a mouse that got panicked when I open the door, and his running kicked all my stuff off the shelf at me.

Small wildlife is nice, when they aren't dangerous animals like bears, bobcats, etc. If you have any dangerous animals, maybe you should get an outdoor camera to make sure it's safe before you go outside. Hubby's cousin lives in the mountains in PA, and he's opened the door to be greeted by large bears on occasion, so he installed cameras for safety.


Be careful on that road. Can you put up some type of poles with reflectors to cut down the traffic and make it safer?


Here in NY, realtors have to disclose if there was a murder or suicide in the house, but not if it was a natural death. I don't know about the laws about this where you live, but you might want to find out.

__________________
.
If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

My mother died in the front room of our house when I was 21 when I was living there. My youngest brother later bought the house & lived there for some years. This I could not do & I definitely could not go into that room. (When I moved into my own apartment I never returned to that house.)

Let’s not forget people that this is the habitat of the animals. We’re encroaching on their land not the other way round. Be careful, obviously.

While I didn't buy a new house, I feel I might as well have. Since the mom has moved in, I've had to plan several updates. We ordered a refrigerator last week; a new central A.C. is being installed today; the oven is not heating correctly so either the element is going bad or the thermostat, so we may need to replace that as well; yesterday my riding mower's transmission died; then we still have kitchen cabinets to replace, those old 80s 1/8" faux pine walls in the dining room, and a bathroom to remodel.

I took out a loan =\

The house was built maybe '82 and the A.C., kitchen, and bath are all original, so it's high time they get updated. Basically, I got every penny of value of out it all before replacing. Had the mother not moved in, I'd probably spend a few more years slowly updating. Thanks mom!

__________________
"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

It’s nice that you & mom get to live together & take care of each other.

Heh. Nice is some respects, yes. We're at each other's throats often though. Too, this has pretty much put any form of a social life on temporary leave. At least for a few years, waiting for the housing market to ease again. If at that time she wants to keep this house, cool. Or I can sell this one for us to go our separate ways again. Neither of us really want to stay here as it's too small really for both of us and she got it out of necessity when I was kid. I bought it from her back in 2009/2010 so that she could buy a place to live when she moved out of state. It's like we're both just stuck here

It’s strange we humans often put ourselves into situations that, perhaps, are difficult to disengage from. I know from experience.