I just bought a house (yay!) and I need some schoolin' by educated mefites about the relative importance of various electrical upgrades my inspector recommended. If you're an electrician, a handyman with electrical expertise, or just a homeowner that's been through this, I'd love some thoughts on what is worth spending $$$ to upgrade now, versus not that important.
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posted by iminurmefi
on May 18, 2012 -
26 answers
We just signed a year long lease on a very nice house but haven't moved in yet. The lease started on Tuesday, the checks are cashed by the landlord, and the walkthrough in the bright light of day was fine. The landlord assured us that there were no bug problems (except termites in the past, which have been treated).
However, yesterday evening when we were moving the first load of stuff to the new house, we spotted multiple cockroaches (outside, but against the house/diving into cracks in the foundation). NOOOO!!! How to proceed when we would have not signed the lease under these conditions?
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posted by cakebatter
on May 18, 2012 -
23 answers
If I like this, what else might I like? I recently discovered Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur, and am particularly enamored of
this track, titled "Garden."
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posted by Gilbert
on May 12, 2012 -
6 answers
Couch arriving much later than expected (over a month), having guests up before then, best options?
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posted by devonia
on May 1, 2012 -
16 answers
What would the drawbacks/benefits be to having someone stay in our currently vacant house?
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posted by stefnet
on Apr 30, 2012 -
7 answers
My wife and I have found a house and we love it, except that it's on a septic system. We don't mind that, but we're trying to find out if the septic/leach is going to make our backyard unusable or not.
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posted by damiano99
on Apr 23, 2012 -
13 answers
How do you negotiate buying furniture in a house - particularly generally unused furniture used in a model home?
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posted by raztaj
on Apr 17, 2012 -
5 answers
So much of my headspace is wrapped up in how my house looks (which is not so awesome) and it drags me down whenever I’m at home. This isn’t how I want to feel about my home. Can you help me change my attitude?
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posted by anderjen
on Apr 12, 2012 -
32 answers
We're under contract to buy a house. Two weeks before closing, a contractor performing agreed-upon presale repairs caught the house on fire. We've got a lot of questions about what happens next.
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posted by treblemaker
on Apr 4, 2012 -
19 answers
I'm not sure what's happening here but I have a steady stream of flies into my house (I'd say 4-5 every five days) and none of my Interwebs explanations seem to apply. What the $@%@ is going in here?
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posted by skybolt
on Apr 2, 2012 -
16 answers
Filtering through lenders for a mortgage in a home building situation.
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posted by phox
on Mar 29, 2012 -
4 answers
I'm looking for a cool video that came out a couple years ago featuring hundreds (if not thousands) of still photos of Portland Oregon house fronts, played very quickly in succession.
posted by Rubik
on Mar 28, 2012 -
2 answers
Were doing an addition to our house, mainly a new kitchen. But included in our wish list is a set of french doors and we must move the washer and dryer to a new location outside the main house. I had a highly recommend contractor come over to take a look. After going over our "wish list" he said the way to proceed is to make a "as built" set of drawings of the property with set-backs, electrical, etc. He does the drawings work himself and charges $50 an hour. Says the entire preliminary drawing could cost up to approx. $5000.
My head hurt for awhile and I am just not clear on the best way to proceed.
I know we cannot afford all the work we want to get done.
I know we are willing to work with cabinetry from places such as IKEA or Home Depot, if that really makes a difference.
I know I want to have everything up to code and work with permits on the job.
I know my head hurts.
I started my own overview house plan using Google SketchUp and the help of this very forum, but it is very preliminary and I am not sure if I am up to making it a complete drawing with gas, elec, plumb, etc that would be necessary for the final job drawings.
What I am asking for is help on how to wrap my head around this project. Am I being naive to think that this can all be done without spending 5K on drawings alone? What else am I missing here??
Thanks,
Henry
posted by silsurf
on Mar 23, 2012 -
26 answers
I will be renting my house to a friend shortly (June). What resources (web sites, books, etc.) would you recommend on such various issues as; drawing up a lease, potential problems & how to avoid them, things I might be forgetting, etc.
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posted by ObscureReferenceMan
on Mar 22, 2012 -
4 answers
Are there any home exchange websites specifically for rustic cabin-type dwellings? Looking to swap my place in Spain for something in the states.
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posted by maca
on Mar 16, 2012 -
1 answer
I'm looking to find qualified or at least experienced mobile home levellers in the Fraser Valley area of BC.
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posted by barc0001
on Mar 6, 2012 -
1 answer
Please help me deal with my fear of the giant pine tree out front falling on our apartment.
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posted by indognito
on Mar 2, 2012 -
14 answers
1. What is the plot size of a typical bungalow and a 2-storey house in Toronto? I am trying to be knowledgeable about this so I can compare different houses on the MLS site.
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posted by musicgold
on Feb 26, 2012 -
9 answers
Help us downsize! Moving from 2400 sq ft to 1200 sq ft and .25 acres to .00000000025 acres.
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posted by no bueno
on Feb 22, 2012 -
17 answers
My husband and I own a small house, and were originally planning on moving early next year. We got some good news over the holidays and I am now nearing the end of the first trimester of my first pregnancy. We'd still like to move, but is it easier to do this while I'm pregnant or should we wait until the baby is 6 months old?
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posted by smalls
on Feb 15, 2012 -
34 answers
Teach-Me-About-Renting-Vs-Buying Filter: I'm in my mid-20s and have been in my "grown up job" for about a year now, and it's about time to get my own place. What do I need to know, beyond just comparing rent and mortgage payments?
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posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug
on Feb 12, 2012 -
39 answers
Underwater mortgage + growing family in small house = terror. How can we plan to get out of this situation in three years?
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posted by anonymous
on Feb 9, 2012 -
29 answers
What kind of plants will grow well in a bathroom with no windows?
posted by jyorraku
on Feb 7, 2012 -
15 answers
What is the name of illustrations of rooms? What is this Japanese art style?
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posted by ichomp
on Feb 7, 2012 -
3 answers
I had a high credit score, no inquiries and no late debt. I bought a car and refinanced my house with the low interest rates. But I am considering starting a small business and may want to borrow for that.
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posted by CollectiveMind
on Feb 6, 2012 -
2 answers
I love reading
The Hunt column in the NY Times. Love watching "Location, Location, Location" (which I only get to see on cable when I'm at a hotel I travel to for work). Loved House Hunters when I saw it while overseas. I even like reading Ask Metafilter questions about where people should rent or buy when I have never even been to that city. What else would I like?
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posted by AnnaRat
on Jan 28, 2012 -
10 answers
Is there an economical way to set up a few webcams so I can remotely monitor my house (for disasters) while on vacation?
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posted by Quisp Lover
on Jan 26, 2012 -
13 answers
I've seen questions on this before, but I have specific details that might make my question unique. My dog (a miniature poodle) has a doggy door and until 3 or 4 months ago we let her have unsupervised access to the backyard. Unfortunately, she decided she didn't like getting her feet wet by going on the grass and started going on the patio. At which point I launched operation supervised poop.
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posted by bananafish
on Jan 17, 2012 -
4 answers
After buying a home we are stumped on how to design it and get ideas on living rooms, bath, etc.
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posted by pakora1
on Jan 15, 2012 -
12 answers
Should I be concerned about large numbers of ants in my backyard and small numbers of ants in my house?
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posted by lollusc
on Jan 15, 2012 -
6 answers
Are foreclosed homes cheaper? And how would you go about buying your very first home?
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posted by Danah_78
on Jan 14, 2012 -
11 answers
Assuming that you
could buy a house outright, for cash, why would you get a mortgage? A conversation got me researching this recently. Many articles suggest that if the interest rate is low, a mortgage is better. Yet I can't for the life of me figure out why paying low interest is better than paying no interest. A person with a 30-year mortgage usually ends up paying about 2 times the principal. School me, financial mefites.
FYI: this is just a curiosity. I'm in no position to actually do this in reality.
posted by the jam
on Jan 6, 2012 -
48 answers
