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How nice and gracious the neighbors are caught me by surprise...
Baked goods and introductions with phone and email should I have a question.
Same here. The neighbors are great. Dh and I are doing a remodel now and moved here in September. This is the nicest block we have ever owned a house on. Too bad we aren't staying...I will miss it.
The house, lol, well that's another story. We were able to keep the foundation, the walls, the trusses, the front doors and sliders..oh and the garage door. Everything else had to go. We knew this one was the worst one we have ever bought.
I went from a 1,200 sq ft row house that had gas heat, to a 1,700 sq ft cape cod with oil heat. I figured a bigger house would naturally have higher utility costs, but the oil heat plus the fact that it's a single house makes a HUGE difference!
We are still in the house we bought decades ago. We loved the neighborhood, and still do, and the price was one we could afford. Being young and naive we didn't bother to hire an inspector before buying. I suppose it might have been much worse but the major problem was no cold running water in the bathroom sink. It was major plumbing and, for us, the price of it was astronimical. We never thought while being show the house to turn on the faucets both upstairs and down. That is something people need to do. Check on the water pressure. The people that sold it too us had 5 kids and they were not the cleanest people. It took months to do a proper cleaning before we could start on some redecorating. Little by little we made needed improvements and are not sorry we came to this neighborhood.
A large box containing manuals for each and every appliance in the house, from the ceiling fans to the security system and cans of paint labeled for the rooms they were used for. Nice!
I've bought two houses now, and both times I've been caught by surprised with old water stains on interior ceilings. I was so sure that I was careful in looking at even the smallest of issues but I guess I rarely ever look up? PITA to have to trace the cause of the old stains for peace of mind but in the end it's been no big deal. But it does annoy me as I was so sure that I checked everywhere for "issues" prior to purchase.
Another thing that surprised me is the amount of stuff people will leave in their shed. Please remember to clean out your old stuff from the shed, people! Leave the working lawnmower if you're feeling generous, but toss out the rusty tools, pieces of lumber, etc. please!!
The last owners left behind some things in the shed (shovel, weed whacker, extra brick and wood for various projects) and in the basement, paint cans for the different rooms in the house.
I think the one thing we still haven't figured out yet are some of the light switches. There are at least 4 or 5 switched we don't know what they go to.
Haha yup, the last owners left me a nice folder full of manuals as well as a welcome packet from the community and a dozen take out menus in case we needed food. It was beyond thoughtful of them.
He also left notes as to when the last time the HVAC was serviced, date that he changed the filters, etc. I did the same for the folks that bought my previous house, so maybe it was good karma.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jean_ji
A large box containing manuals for each and every appliance in the house, from the ceiling fans to the security system and cans of paint labeled for the rooms they were used for. Nice!
We bought "new" (actually built a year prior but never sold).
The one thing that surprised me and continues surprising me 20+ years later is the amount of sump pump action after rainfalls. My dinky lot is pretty much on a small rise with the lot sloping in almost all directions (one side is level with one neighbor's however their downspouts don't impact our connected plots and most of their yard slightly slopes away down toward the common area woods where all of our houses' main drainage is supposed to go), yet our sump fills with water rapidly after each rain, the pump dutifully pumping it out with alarming frequency.
It's almost as if a semi-active spring underlies our house that becomes totally active during a rain, draining via our under-slab drainage system into our sump (this actually might be possible since "under-slab" is sufficiently below ground level that the rise we are on wouldn't matter).
The amount of water doesn't make obvious sense to this naive homeowner - the house's downspouts all have extensions to send THAT water away from our foundation but that's literally to no avail.
Hmmm...don't know - I discussed something like this with one of the neighbors quite some time ago but it was an "as-an-aside conversation" so didn't really resolve the question and we moved on with the main conversation (probably about trees and how they spread out not just major roots but a blanket-like spread of very-fine (hairlike) roots that remove all nutrition from the ground, killing grass in large patches).
Hmmm...don't know - I discussed something like this with one of the neighbors quite some time ago but it was an "as-an-aside conversation" so didn't really resolve the question and we moved on with the main conversation (probably about trees and how they spread out not just major roots but a blanket-like spread of very-fine (hairlike) roots that remove all nutrition from the ground, killing grass in large patches).
You can add 1/4" - 1/2" of topsoil in the Spring and in the Fall around the tree from the trunk to the dripline and overseed with a shady grass mix. You should have good grass growing around the tree within a couple years, depending on how high the roots are currently sticking out of the ground. You don't want to add TOO much topsoil at once (that's why I said 1/4" - 1/2") or else the roots may suffocate. Also, using tree fertilization stakes around the tree's drip line twice a year will give the tree extra nutrients so it doesn't draw as much away from the nearby grass.
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