Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with houses

Something Seems Missing...

thisperon — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:46:11 -0800

Why do new homes in California seem to lack a fireplace? As I look at relatively new homes on the market (less than 10 years old), I find that quite a few of them do not have a fireplace. Does anyone know why this is? I would think most homeowners would really want one (at least those of us in Northern Cal or in the colder parts of the state.)

Is there a way to speed up the construction of the house next to mine?

hellbient — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:30:34 -0800

Is there a way to speed up the construction of the house next to mine? The city-owned house next to mine (attached) has been under construction for over a year. The contracting company is apparently notorious for these long affairs, and judging from the other houses in the neighborhood that have their signage, there's no end in site. And the property is getting worse - every week there's more trash in front and on the side of it, windows are getting broken and the plywood covering some of the windows is slowly coming undone. I'm calling the company (and 311) as much as possible to complain about rats, open doors, racoons, etc. to try to set a precedent, but I'm not sure it's going anywhere. The house goes for weeks/months without ever being worked on. I need it finished before a crackhead sets it on fire (which would take my house with it), and so I can get some new awesome neighbors. Plans/schemes to get the ball rolling? I'm in Brooklyn.

How far does a tree need to be from the house?

fistynuts — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:20:31 -0800

How far does a tree need to be from the house? I'm planning on planting one of these. Canopy size is up to 6.4 metres, and from my research it seems the root ball is about the same size. How much further from the house does it need to be to ensure no root damage?

What's it like in Fort Erie?

lockedroomguy — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:35:50 -0800

What's it like in Fort Erie, Canada? This is long-term planning for a place to live, nothing imminent. I am wondering if I should include Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada on my places-to-check-out list.

It seems to be in a good location, close to the many doings in the Niagara region, close to highways, on the water, and it seems like it might still have a viable, walkable downtown.

Or maybe it's a dead dying town with no future that borders and emulates the Buffalo wasteland.

For those of you who have been there, what's it like?

Thanks!

Lollipop Fields and Robot Makeovers?

thebellafonte — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:10:31 -0800

Can anyone identify these cartoons? One about two poor kids who dream of a world made of food, then wake up to a feast in their kitchen. Another about a young couple at a future world/technology expo where they see instant houses, get groomed by robots, and ballroom dance? I had a VHS tape as a kid with a few cartoons on it.
Here's what I remember from the first cartoon:
Brother and sister living in poverty. They stand outside of a baker's (?) window and lick their lips, which the baker sees. Baker goes over and starts whispering to town butcher (?). Mother feeds them cake for dinner, and it's hard so the kids dip it in milk. They ask for more food, but there isn't any. Mom starts crying on table. She tucks them in, their blankets look like swiss cheese. They have this mutual dream in which everything is for eating- lollipop flower fields, possibly some carnival rides made out of cheese wheels and things. They wake up and realize it was only a dream. Then they go to the kitchen and there's a huge table full of delicious things to eat. The baker and the butcher are there. The boy stabs himself with a fork to make sure he isn't still dreaming.
Second cartoon:
Follows a young man and woman as they make their way through some sort of future world expo. There is a bullet train that takes the people to the expo, which is in a tall, rounded skyscraper. Inside, houses are being built very quickly by machines, and a stork flies by and drops a baby in one of the chimneys. The man sits in a robot chair that grooms him- shave, haircut, etc. And the woman steps into some sort of mold that gives her an hourglass shape and a cute dress. I think there's also some robot thing that puts lipstick on her and curls her hair. They go dancing in a ballroom. Oh and I just remembered that they each dance with a robot partner before dancing with eachother. Then they go up to a machine, press a button, and a block falls out. The block unfolds itself and is a totally awesome car. They get in and drive away.

I think about these cartoons more in my adult life than I'm willing to admit.
I'm 23, but I think they're from the 40s. Maybe 50s.

Any help as to identifying them or an idea of where to get a copy would blow me away.

Am I throwing my money away on my house!?

Hellafiles — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:52:11 -0800

We are concerned that we are throwing our money away on home improvments! Help! So my wife and I bought our 1st house almost 4yrs ago. It's a cute little place built in the 40's in a young /artsy popular area of town (Indianapolis). We wanted to make sure we bought a place that we could easily afford and we wanted a yard etc. Since we've moved in we've paid to replace the ancient windows in the basement with nice new glass block windows. We've added a dishwasher (there wasn’t one before we moved in). We've pulled the nasty carpet out of the main room and had the hardwoods all redone. We've had the driveway re-sealed, and a hodgepodge of other small updates. I have paid to have all these things done as I'm not handy around the house. There is no doubt that the house is in better shape now than it was when we bought it 4 years ago for $105K

There are still many other projects I'd like to pay to have done (new insulation in attic, countertops, new tub/shower, etc.) but I'm scared that I'm throwing my money away since we already have one of the nicest houses on a kinda shitty block. Also, the house next door to ours has been abandoned for about a year (foreclosure) and is on the market for about $65k!?!?

We are in the midst of trying to have our first baby, and we don't plan on being in this house for more than a few more years (for numerous reasons) and would like to move more to the burbs eventually.

I'm already afraid that with the housing crisis we wont even break even on this place when we try to sell in a few years, and I'm scared to spend anymore money on the place. Any advice or suggestions you guys can offer would be most appreciated!!

Asking prices vs. assessments: WTF?

dilettante — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:04:32 -0800

Thinking about contemplating considering looking into buying a house in the next year, and when I research properties, asking prices vs. assessed values are all screwy. Why? I'm routinely seeing things like this:
- asking price $135,000
- 2006 assessed value: $35,000
- 2007 assessed value: $53,000
- 2008 assessed value: $53,000
- last sale: November of 2008, sale price $50,000.

Values are pulled from county PVA website.

The house above looks quite nice, but has no central heat and is on a small lot in a historically rough area.

A similar example is for sale around the corner from me: they want $330,000, but the assessed value is $240k and it was $180k or less in 2006, $152K in 2002. Last sale on that one was too long ago to matter.

I'm seeing these all over town, and this area is not generally described as hard-hit by the whole real estate bubble. Are assessments generally way out of whack with sale prices like this, or is there some serious denial going on? Note that the first house is in aneighborhood where people might look to buy rental property, and the second is in a very, very good area (makes me jumpy, it does). The neighborhoods where I'm seeing this typically don't have any big planned changes or developments that should run prices up. There are a couple of areas that don't seem so extremely out of line, but are still off enough to notice.

Why aren't people buying cheap houses?

chrisinseoul — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:32:38 -0800

Uber-cheap-houses filter: how did we get to the point where houses are selling for less than a thousand bucks and they're STILL NOT SELLING? OK, I haven't been living under a rock (actually in Seoul, in one of the most wired countries in the world). I have a Business degree from a respected American college. A cursory glance at multiple major cities - not just Detroit - on realtor.com offered me any number of houses for under $5,000, and quite a few as cheap as $500. That's one month's rent where I used to live in the states.

Yes, I know the best of them are nicely considered 'fixer-uppers', while for others it's better just to knock what's standing and starting over. For the price, though...

So what's the deal? Are people too afraid of the economy getting worse? At these prices no credit / mortgage is needed... Afraid of moving? In other words why hasn't your Average Joe engineer / construction man bought a cheap house and gotten into the fixer-upper business?

As a first time buyer, how should I go about purchasing my first home?

CElijah — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:19:09 -0800

Despite the dismal outlook of the U.S. economy, I will be buying my first home within the next 6 months. I'm unsure where to start and would greatly appreciate any advice from the MeFi community. First, I'd like to give a little background about myself. I will be finishing a four year graduate program in May and beginning work in mid June. I have been guaranteed a salary of just over $100k/year which will increase as my production increases. I will finish school with over $100k in student loan debt, but have no other debt. I've only had a credit card for a year so my credit history isn't extensive, but I pay my credit card bills in full each month and my most recent credit report classified my score as "fair". I owe nothing on my car and plan on driving it for at least 4 more years. I will have approximately $5k saved when I move. How can I get an idea of what I can afford? What steps should I take to make this transition as smooth as possible? I'd be sooo thankful for any house buying tips.

Severe damp in rented house: What are our legal rights?

bollockovnikov — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 06:00:04 -0800

We rent a shared house in London. There are damp issues in a downstairs room which are known about by the landlord. We have just noticed a severe case of black mould infesting an upstairs wall. What are our legal rights as tenants? The damp has largely been ignored by our letting agent and landlord, although we do have an air dehumidifier in the downstairs room which was probably bought by them for previous tenants.

The black mould in the upstairs room is completely new and we reckon it has only appeared over Xmas whilst we were away (perhaps brought on by the cold spell the UK has had).

Having only recently signed a rental agreement and contract we now believe that we have legal rights as tenants to a damp-free environment. Is this true? Are the letting agents within their rights to just give us an air dehumidifier and leave it at that? or should we be pushing to have the whole property properly checked by an expert?

How much damp is legal and what rights do we have as UK tenants?

You can't look in it, you can't open it - why have it?

InfinateJane — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:35:21 -0800

What's with the INTERNAL bedroom windows? It's something I'd never encountered until I moved to Europe, but in every house I've lived in here, there are little rectangular windows above the internal doors, between the top of the door frame and the ceiling. Why?

They aren't for ventilation, as they don't open.

They're not for checking up on what's going on in the room, because they're too high up and impractical for that.

They ARE really annoying, because it means you can never have the room as dark as you'd like. If a hall light is on, or it's bright elsewhere in the house, the light comes in the little window so the room is actually quite bright even with the lights out.

These windows are above the bedroom doors, above the door between the hallway and sitting room, and above the bathroom door. They creep me out for some reason.

So why are they so common? What purpose do they serve??

have house, will travel

crazylegs — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:29:03 -0800

What are the legalities involved in buying a house and then dismantling and removing it? I've just been looking online at big old houses in Buffalo for incredibly cheap prices. The problem is of course that if you buy one, you have to live in Buffalo.
Unless...
you get it to go.
What happens if you buy a house and take it away? Is that legal? Are you required to then do something to the lot, or just fill in the hole, or build something else, or what? If you then keep the vacant lot, do the taxes go down?
I've got this crazy idea to buy a beat up, formerly beautiful old house in a hammered and cheap city like Buffalo, take it somewhere beautiful, put it back together, and live in it.
Have I gone crazy?

Why are houses built with different materials

dcrocha — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:14:37 -0800

Why are houses built of wood in certain regions (U.S., U.K., Northern Europe, etc.) and of concrete and bricks in others (South America, Iberian Peninsula, Asia)? Climate would be a good explanation, except that South America and Iberian Peninsula also have very cold regions where temperatures fall below zero (Celsius) quite frequently. Examples are: the Andes, southern Brazil, Argentina, Spain. etc.

bibliomania

crazylegs — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:24:45 -0800

Looking for book auctions in Ontario and Quebec... I'm returning to Canada from the UK, and hoping to continue my book dealing. I used to live in Kingston, where the only 'auction action' is at Gordon's. Sometimes they have some good books there, but they don't specialize in them. I've gotten spoiled here in the UK, where one of the only things I like more than Canada is the book auctions. Now I'm trying to find auction houses that specialize in rare books within a reasonable distance of Kingston. I guess that means Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Any suggestions?

Help us see our new house

remlapm — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:57:07 -0800

We're looking to purchase a house with a not so great exterior shape. Where do we start to help visualize exterior renovation possibilities and building costs? Some pics inside for those who want to give their thoughts... My wife and I have been looking at houses with lots of land in the NYC Metro area. Primary focus has been lot size and location, with the house being a sturdy box that we will grow into and change over the years. Problem is, some of those boxes, while comfy inside, aren't that wonderful looking on the outside. This and this are the front and back of one of the units - a non-standard cape-cod, with a rather large and goofy non-symmetrical roof. Another house was an old stone cube, essentially, with the septic field blocking and additions outward, and an awkward roof blocking upward expansion.

Do we send the photos to an architect for renderings? If so how do we find an architect and how much should we expect to pay for just this visualization service? Would a good architect help us estimate building costs if we chose their designs?

Any other resources, perhaps a website showing pages and pages of housing exteriors so we can get inspiration? Any other thoughts?

Do any architecture schools do this on the cheap?

How to overcome weird snags when I'm buying a house?

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:14:00 -0800

Please help me with a weird house-buying situation caused by the mortgage crunch. My wife and I are first-time house buyers. We finally found a house we love, and we want to buy it. Apart from some old medical bills, we're in a "not bad credit, just no credit" situation, because we have a good income, and we don't have any credit cards but buy everything with cash. When we applied for a mortgage, we were rejected because the mortgage industry won't lend money to anyone who doesn't have really good credit right now.

The house was advertised several months ago (that's how long it took us to get the mortgage application together and get turned down) as having a rent-to-buy option, so our next thought was to move in, clean up our credit, rent to own, and try again for a mortgage in a year or so.

The de facto owner of the house is an immigrant man who thought he could make a living flipping houses in the US. He bought the house with the help of a friend (whose name is on the existing mortgage) and has sunk several tens of thousands of dollars into the house. Then the mortgage crunch hit. Now he's getting cold feet but is at the same time obviously desperate and doesn't know what to do. As far as I can make out, he's paying the $2300 monthly house payments with his credit card and sinking deeper into debt every month.

Now instead of the $1500 rent-to-own payment cited in the ad for this property, he's asked us for $2000 a month and $10,000 down. (The property is worth about $250,000.) The $10,000 is meant to cover the payments he's missed or had to pay with credit card. The $2000 or more per month is meant to cover his mortgage payments -- or not quite. He says he's not sure a rent-to-own situation is even feasible for him anymore.

I told him we could cover the mortgage payments he's put on his credit card and we could completely cover the $2300 monthly payments from now on if he would sign his mortgage over to us. He said he would let us move in if we did that, but he wanted to keep his name on the mortgage. This is when he told me how much money he had already sunk into the house, and how much he stood to lose by just signing over the mortgage. I certainly can't blame him.

I pointed out that he would continue to lose money anyway if he didn't do something, because we're the only people to have shown any interest in the house in many months. (There's the mortgage crunch and also the fact that the house is unassuming, even ugly, on the outside, but beautiful on the inside, with special features such as a second detached building that would be especially useful to us in our professions -- but I'm trying to keep this anonymous, so I'll leave it there.)

So here we are on opposite sides of a chasm caused by the mortgagequake of 2008. We can see his position and he can see ours. We want to buy the house and he wants to unload it. But how?

Thoughts I've had: Our credit rating has improved a little in the past few weeks because we've been working on it while we're going back and forth with the owner. Should we apply again for a smaller loan, just enough to buy the owner out of his mortgage, paying off the house payments he missed and what he's sunk into the house? Or should we try to convince him that the money is truly sunk, and the best thing he can do is to get the hell out? After all, he's trashing his credit (or his friend's) if he defaults on the mortgage.

I'm really lost here and don't know what my options are. I will say that we have been working with a sympathetic mortgage broker and a real estate agent, ditto. The latter says she can't help much with rent to own, except that she can look over the rental contract to make sure it's sound. Still, they know us and we can marshal their help if necessary. My wife also stands to inherit (IIRC) some tens of thousands of dollars some months in the future (she must wait for a family property to be sold). Apart from that, we have some $15,000 in savings, some of which must be used for moving expenses. We also have good brains and the power of Ask Metafilter, so... Go Team Metafilter!

p.s. If your answer is "Ditch this clown and buy another house!", please don't. This is the only house we've seen that we've both loved, and it would break my wife's heart not to be able to buy it.

Housing in Los Angeles: Build or Buy?

rybreadmed — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:26:14 -0800

Would it be more cost effective to build a house or buy a house in Los Angeles? The price of Los Angeles real estate has been dropping. I'm most interested in a 3 bedroom 2 bath house (or something close) around 1,500 square feet or so. I've been wondering: Would buying a piece of land in Los Angeles and building on it be more cost effective than buying a pre-built house?

We're of course talking in hypotheticals, but let's say you found a piece of land in a somewhat desirable location (a place like Silver Lake, west San Gabriel Valley, Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, Sherman Oaks, or Hollywood (as in NOT South Central, Long Beach, or some place way far out of town)). Maybe a house was already on that spot and it burnt down. The point is that there is a piece of land, and no house (but maybe remnants).

This hypothetical house: we're not talking anything super fancy, but something that's designed for low energy usage (good insulation, double paned glass, etc.). I'm not referring to a totally solar house or full grey water system. Just a one story, 1500 square foot house that's good with energy. You got me?

Any ideas of the cost I'd be looking at? Any parts of Los Angeles where building a house would be cheaper than another? Would buying an already existing home be a better economic choice?

Keep in mind, I'm not looking at cheapest--I'm looking at most cost effective. The cheapest house would be made out of straw and Saran wrap; a cost effective house would be well built and be designed to minimize energy usage for heating and cooling.

why are houses in Utica, NY so cheap?

arcadia — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:19:08 -0800

Why are houses in Utica, New York so cheap? Hi all -
I've been looking on the internet at houses in Utica New York, and some of them are preposterously cheap. Does anyone have any idea why this is? Please don't sends answers such as "Utica sucks" etc. I've never been there and am genuinely curious. They're selling 4 bedroom houses for $60,000 and less. Is it built on a nuclear waste site? Are all the houses made of cardboard?

Is the county trying to pull one over on me?

the dief — Wed, 30 May 2007 07:01:59 -0800

Can you owe property tax on a house for the year before the purchase? I bought a house in May of 2005 that I'm currently trying to unload for a move. Recently I found out that the county is pegging me for not paying 2004 property tax. I didn't live in the county in 2004, didn't even live in the state that year. Is this legal? Is it a case where they tried to get their 2004 tax out of the prior residents, failed, and now am sticking me with the bill?

I'm in Ohio if that makes any difference.

If I had a hammer... where would I use it in London?

Happy Dave — Thu, 10 May 2007 01:22:16 -0800

I'd like to learn carpentry in London - How do I go about that? I found this question, but it's US-specific. Basically, I have a dream one day of building my own house, or at least participating in the building of it. I'd like to combine my interest in learning about timber framing and carpentry work with perhaps volunteering. I know Habitat for Humanity has a British offshoot, but from their website it doesn't look like there's much going on in the London area, although I wouldn't be averse to going up to Liverpool to work on something for a weekend. But I don't want to pitch up without knowing some solid basics. I nailed together scenery in my teens for a youth theatre group, but that's slightly different I feel. Where can I get started?

Salient facts - I work a regular day job (which is a professional, bit-more-than-9-to-5 deal, but rarely weekend work, occasional evening work, but rarely much past 8pm).

easily browsable pictures of houses

CrazyLemonade — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:36:35 -0800

Where can I find a lot of easily browsable pictures of both the inside and outside of houses? My boyfriend and I are planning on building a house. We know we like contemporary style architecture, but saying "contemporary" doesn't mean much in terms of actual designs, so we would like to look at a lot of examples and choose some that we really like, to show them to our architect, when we eventually choose one.

I've seen some of the architectural magazines' websites, but there's a lot of info and text to sort through, and google also brings up more results than I can handle.

So, this place being in essence a filter of information, I'm hoping some of you MeFites know of something similar to what I'm looking for.

A bad ear for color

RandlePatrickMcMurphy — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:58:26 -0800

How do I find a good interior designer/decorator in Washington DC? After several false starts, I've realized that a good sense of color and design is like a good ear for music. And I don't have either.

We're not talking about anything grand - a one-bedroom condo on the Shaw-Logan border, but I would like to avoid the visual equivilant of chopsticks or, worse, just banging on the piano keys with both hands.

Googling and local magazines lead to people who seem to specialize in either 23-room McMansions or industrial-scale lofts with zebra-print furniture, and Craigs List doesn't have much selection. I just want solid, simple, modern but no-more-Ikea, unpretentious colors and furniture. And not expensive. Did I mention not too expensive?

Any ideas for how to find a person in the DC area who can provide that?

Will we ever be homeowners?

starbaby — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:20:35 -0800

Help me find resources to help me figure out when I might be able to buy a house. My fiance and I are trying to figure out when we might be ready to buy a house. We know without a doubt that we want to do this long before we could possibly save the 20% we'd need for a regular loan. That's about all we know. I have tried and tried and tried to find books or websites that might help me understand low- and no-down payment loans, PMI, closing costs, etc, but they all seem to go over my head. I need something geared toward first-time home buyers with pretty much no knowledge of real estate and no large amounts of money who don't feel ready to contact a realtor just yet. [I don't want to contact a realtor because I don't feel I understand any of this well enough to even know when we might be able to make the jump from renting to buying, when we will be able to afford it.]

Basically, this is what I am trying to figure out:

Based on a down payment of $X, an assumed interest rate, and an assumed finance period, how much house could we afford if we want our TOTAL monthly house-related costs [mortgage, PMI, taxes, homeowner's insurance, EVERYTHING] to be $X or less? Until I know the answer to this question, a realtor is far beyond my league, as I won't know if I can afford anything at all.

If any of you can explain this me, with as much dumbing-down as possible, great. If you can't, I would really prefer a book I can ILL or a website that would explain this to me.

Tell me about the property market in Sydney

ranglin — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 04:41:38 -0800

How do I assess the property market in Sydney? Are there any websites or magazines or whatever that I can read to give me an idea of the quality of the suburbs and the general price in different places? I've googled, but I am finding most information too specific. As some of you might know, I recently moved to Sydney (see here) and now that I'm settling into the new job, my wife and I are thinking that 2007 might be the year to think about buying some property.

However, since we've only been in Sydney about 6 months, I'm looking for some resources to teach me more about the Sydney property market. I'm not looking for anything too specific, like recent auction prices, but rather a general description of Sydney suburban areas and the current cultural/social/economic makeup of the different parts of Sydney.

(Just as an aside, because of this, we considered buying on the Gold Coast, but my research suggests that we won't get the first-home owners grant in that case, plus there seem to be some major stamp duty changes!)

Anyway, any help would be great, from references of websites and books/magazines, to personal stories about suburbia in Sydney! Thanks guys.

What's the purpose of a certain fan in my house?

jbickers — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 17:29:41 -0800

What is the purpose of the fan that is in my downstairs ceiling, connected with the upstairs hallway? My house is a two-story "raised ranch" (meaning that the downstairs level is halfway below ground, half above) with a fireplace downstairs. The house is about 30 years old.

In just about the middle of the house, there is a fan/vent in the downstairs ceiling; it connects with a large vent at the bottom of the upstairs hallway wall. There's a rotating dimmer switch that turns it on/adjusts the speed.

(The dimmer switch, by the way, is upstairs - which to me seems to imply that its intended benefit is for people upstairs, not down.)

It's a rather loud fan, but we can't determine what its purpose is. My best guess is that it's an old-fashioned way of circulating heat from the fireplace to the upstairs during winter ... but I can't imagine why anyone would want to use it, given how loud it is.

We've started to wonder whether the loudness of the fan is due to the fact that it is damaged, and that it might become useful if it were repaired and ran quietly. But maybe not. Any idea what this thing is for?