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Now perhaps I should not say this, as I bought my most recent house online in a different state, [my husband did fly there for one day only to see it and take pictures and videos for me, but some of these problems being mentioned, are the result of not doing enough due diligence with regard to surroundings i.e. under the flight path or the middle school using the property behind the house.
People buy houses with one or two look throughs that normally take about 15 min. They should be returning and seeing the house at various times of day and night, week days and weekends, different weather conditions if possible, speak to the neighbors and ask if there are any annoyance factors not readily apparent to the passer by. [such as the air planes].
It would be good if there was more put out there for home buyers about getting the big picture, after all this is one of the biggest purchases most people make and you will be living there, so worth the time to try to get it right.
Very interesting. So where is this pit? What is inside bar structure. You mean indoors under the bar?
When I say pit,I use that word for lack of a better word,maybe call it sump,18 inches square made with brick,dirt bottom,20 inches deep.The bar is 7' long by 30" wide with shelf running length in middle.The base has deck running length with trap door to sump.The bar is L shaped homemade,very nice in finished basement.The way my daughter found it was when she saw holes drilled in cover panel and removed panel.This owner was a very skilled wood crafter,did work as a hobby.The home is completely updated.
I hope this explains it better,mystery.At some point I am going to have water tested.We spent time in home June -August and Oct-Nov and water flow did not vary.
When I say pit,I use that word for lack of a better word,maybe call it sump,18 inches square made with brick,dirt bottom,20 inches deep.The bar is 7' long by 30" wide with shelf running length in middle.The base has deck running length with trap door to sump.The bar is L shaped homemade,very nice in finished basement.The way my daughter found it was when she saw holes drilled in cover panel and removed panel.This owner was a very skilled wood crafter,did work as a hobby.The home is completely updated.
I hope this explains it better,mystery.At some point I am going to have water tested.We spent time in home June -August and Oct-Nov and water flow did not vary.
Maybe that's where he kept his beer cold.
Seems he discovered a spring running under his house.
I forgot one: My kitchen has a over-the-range microwave with recirculating vent which is useless for venting out the cooking fumes since it doesn't exhaust the directly to the outside... so every time I cook, the upstairs smell like the dish I made for days (This is not a surprise though as I knew about it even before buying). The annoying thing is that the built-in light on the microwave for the range doesn't work. So it's one of those things that isn't broke enough to replace but kind of annoying to keep using.
I discovered the smoke alarm testing switch a week or two after I moved into my current house ... unfortunately it was at 4 a.m. The testing switch was RIGHT NEXT TO the light switch outside the bathroom I needed to use ...
The seller had neglected to tell me what that switch was for.
1st house - how much traffic noise there would be from the road behind us, how crazy our neighbors would be.
2nd house - how much it would cost to heat and cool, bad rain gutters, yard flooding and water intrusion into the house when it rained due to a poorly graded yard.
3rd house - how much and how fast the traffic would be on our street. We are the main street in and out of the neighborhood, and a cut through between main roads. I really wish we'd taken that into consideration.
Now perhaps I should not say this, as I bought my most recent house online in a different state, [my husband did fly there for one day only to see it and take pictures and videos for me, but some of these problems being mentioned, are the result of not doing enough due diligence with regard to surroundings i.e. under the flight path or the middle school using the property behind the house.
People buy houses with one or two look throughs that normally take about 15 min. They should be returning and seeing the house at various times of day and night, week days and weekends, different weather conditions if possible, speak to the neighbors and ask if there are any annoyance factors not readily apparent to the passer by. [such as the air planes].
It would be good if there was more put out there for home buyers about getting the big picture, after all this is one of the biggest purchases most people make and you will be living there, so worth the time to try to get it right.
So true. We had to relocate from FL to CA for my husband's job. I did most of the househunting online, with a few trips to see houses in person. We were supposed to be completely moved by the end of December, and we were coming down to the wire. With houses getting snatched up in Orange County the second they hit the MLS, it was crazy. My husband had no time when he was in town at the office to see houses except if he was there for the weekend - and by that time many houses were gone. I really wanted to see the neighborhoods at different times when I was there - my husband didn't see why that was necessary. Plus with the communities being gated, it was hard to just stroll in. We did have a realtor set up for us by the relo company that his company hired - but it was so hard to do everything from a distance. And I couldn't bear the thought of living in corporate housing for a few months while most of our stuff stayed in storage, in the event we couldn't find a home in time.
We actually got lucky with our house. There are a lot of upgrades that the sellers spent a lot of money on (that chandelier in the foyer must have cost thousands, it's so big) and when I still check out redfin to see what's gone on the market, I am grateful that we picked this one, even with all the issues. Plus the prices were going up, and we bought at a good time.
One of my neighbors down the street is an agent who showed our house to a client, and she has assured me we got it for a steal.
Still, I wish it were an easier process. (What on earth did we all do before the internet?) I saw an article in the paper the other day about some realtors using drones to show the exterior of houses to prospective clients - so who knows what's coming in the future?
In my previous post, I forgot to mention one minor surprise I found here. There's a breaker in my panel labeled "Christmas lights" and I eventually figured out that it controls electrical outlets (six) that are installed in the soffit at various locations around the perimeter of the house.
I removed four of these outlets (at the corners of the house) and replaced them with motion-activated floodlights. Everything was great for months until I went outside one night after dark and the floodlights wouldn't come on. Eventually, I figured out that a light switch in the dining room was turned off. We never knew what this switch did, just assumed it controlled an outlet in the dining room for use with a lamp, as practically every other room in the house has two light switches - one for an overhead light and another that controls an outlet or two.
In my previous post, I forgot to mention one minor surprise I found here. There's a breaker in my panel labeled "Christmas lights" and I eventually figured out that it controls electrical outlets (six) that are installed in the soffit at various locations around the perimeter of the house.
I removed four of these outlets (at the corners of the house) and replaced them with motion-activated floodlights. Everything was great for months until I went outside one night after dark and the floodlights wouldn't come on. Eventually, I figured out that a light switch in the dining room was turned off. We never knew what this switch did, just assumed it controlled an outlet in the dining room for use with a lamp, as practically every other room in the house has two light switches - one for an overhead light and another that controls an outlet or two.
We have a really odd light switch set up in our master bedroom. There are 3 switches. One has to be on for the other 2 to work. The other 2 are for the light and ceiling fan. The first also controls an outlet (2 actually). Boy was that a fun one to figure out.
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