After buying your house, what caught you by surprise? (roof, vacuum, drain)
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We bought home last May,estate sale,owner lived in home for 58 years.We had inspection and nothing major.
After closing daughter checked out home and discovered a small brick walled drain pit under cover inside bar structure.This is a mystery,4 inch clay pipe with continuous flow of water into pit,crystal clear,draining into pipe.There is a stub of pipe 6-8 inches sticking up,does not seem to have any bearing on drainage,maybe from septic days.We have had flooding rain at times and does not affect flow.We live in FL and plan on moving to Ct,not a nice thought!
The owner died at 93 and lived in home till 91,his son stopped by after closing and could not give answer,other than it was there for all the years and his father kept his beer in the pit.We do have city sewer.There was no evidence of concrete having been cut.The basement very dry with no humidity,no mold or rust on furnace or washer in finished basement.
My thought it drains to some drainage system??There was no system back in 1955??
My parents moved into a house that had a mysterious pipe with an open top in the back yard. They kept trying to figure out what it was until one of the neighbors clued them in...there was an elderly couple who lived there before my parents, and the wife didn't like her husband to come in and use the bathroom when he was working on the yard. So the pipe was his urinal. The yards had chain-link fences, which is how the neighbor knew what the pipe had been used for.
After moving so many times in my life from place to place for whatever reason, I should have known better than to buy a home. The recession hit the value of my home hard. My spouse lost his job which was just a few miles away. Now we are stuck with a big mortgage and wishing we would have rented instead of buying back in 2007. Lesson learned here...Would have been better to rent a luxury Apt or condo, be free as a bird to leave when lease is up and wave byebye. Instead stuck here. Yes it's a nice place but getting on my nerves. Be careful buying. Even if house is perfect.
Have you and your neighbors made a serious thing out of this and had law enforcement come to a neighborhood meeting to let people know what to do? (And also lets them get friendly with you all...know you are real...and let's the neighbor across the street know the same.)
Yes, me and my sister went on the local news to point out the burglary problem in the neighborhood. Of course we were not "allowed" to say on camera that a neighbor was the burglar, because at the time the a*hole burglar was still free and living with his mommy and thumbing his nose at the cops. A week after the news story was aired, the cops finally got around to arresting the a*hole burglar, even though they had warrants out for his arrest for months, and the a*hole burglar was already on probation for 2 previous burglaries.
As I was told by a detective: "It not like TV, the legal system works slow."
Whatever.
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Have you tried lighting so that it also just happens to shine in the neighbor's house?
I have two spotlights that shine in my driveway all night long. Plus a light on the front door and on the side door. We have it lit up like a Christmas tree. The a*hole neighbors wouldn't care if a light shone on their house, they keep their spotlights on 24/7.
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A neighborhood watch?
I talked to the cops about that, as they were taking my burglary report. The cop told me he wouldn't recommend a neighborhood watch because of the whole "Zimmerman" fiasco. Too much could go wrong. They police department was not going to help support neighborhood watch. You know the whole legal crap.
Whatever.
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See what your rights are. Can some of your watch group make periodic checks at the house, ring the doorbell....and those of a few others calling it checkups on neighbors rather than checkups on the one burglar.
Even if your area doesn't have enough law enforcement to patrol your streets at some sort of intervals, ask if there are officers who can drive by on their way to and from their job or other appointments.
See if a security company will give a few of you a group rate to install a system.
I have cameras installed (installed them after we were burglarized). We were burglarized on a Sunday, 2 pm in the middle of July. I was home at the time, 380 feet down the street talking to a neighbor. I thought I had locked and bolted all the doors, but for some reason the a*hole burglar got in the side door. I saw him sulking around and looking at me as I walked down the street to talk to the neighbor.
A half an hour later, I walked back to my house, a*hole burglar was was in the driveway. I went inside and I saw my jewelry box had been stolen. I yelled at the a*hole burglar's to give me back my "stuff" (I didn't say jewelry). He denied he had "my stuff." I called the cops. When they arrived I told them to take fingerprints as I knew it was the a*hole burglar across the street.
The cops said the detectives take fingerprints. A detective showed up 3 weeks later, and he told me the cops were supposed to take fingerprints. Needless to say fingerprints were never taken even though the a*hole burglar's fingerprints are on file.
Whatever.
After the a*hole burglar was arrested on another burglary charge (one week after our home was burglarized), that day I told the detective to get a search warrant for the a*hole burglar's house. THREE WEEKS later, they get a search warrant and find nothing.
Shocker! I told the detective that mommy threw out any stolen goods the day after the a*hole burglar was arrested.
Whatever.
The detective dropped my burglary case against the a*hole burglar because he didn't have enough evidence and the a*hole burglar denied he burglarized our home. Even though the detective had a confession from the a*hole burglar's "friend" who was staying with the a*hole burglar the day that our house was burglarized. The a*hole burglar's "friend" said he saw a blue thin jewelry box (mine) in the a*hole burglar's bedroom and the a*hole burglar was going through the jewelry looking for something to pawn.
Whatever.
When the a*hole burglar gets out of a jail and goes back to live with mommy, I will be ready with my shotgun. You have to protect your property and person somehow.
Yes, me and my sister went on the local news to point out the burglary problem in the neighborhood. Of course we were not "allowed" to say on camera that a neighbor was the burglar, because at the time the a*hole burglar was still free and living with his mommy and thumbing his nose at the cops. A week after the news story was aired, the cops finally got around to arresting the a*hole burglar, even though they had warrants out for his arrest for months, and the a*hole burglar was already on probation for 2 previous burglaries.
As I was told by a detective: "It not like TV, the legal system works slow."
Whatever.
I have two spotlights that shine in my driveway all night long. Plus a light on the front door and on the side door. We have it lit up like a Christmas tree. The a*hole neighbors wouldn't care if a light shone on their house, they keep their spotlights on 24/7.
I talked to the cops about that, as they were taking my burglary report. The cop told me he wouldn't recommend a neighborhood watch because of the whole "Zimmerman" fiasco. Too much could go wrong. They police department was not going to help support neighborhood watch. You know the whole legal crap.
Whatever.
I have cameras installed (installed them after we were burglarized). We were burglarized on a Sunday, 2 pm in the middle of July. I was home at the time, 380 feet down the street talking to a neighbor. I thought I had locked and bolted all the doors, but for some reason the a*hole burglar got in the side door. I saw him sulking around and looking at me as I walked down the street to talk to the neighbor.
A half an hour later, I walked back to my house, a*hole burglar was was in the driveway. I went inside and I saw my jewelry box had been stolen. I yelled at the a*hole burglar's to give me back my "stuff" (I didn't say jewelry). He denied he had "my stuff." I called the cops. When they arrived I told them to take fingerprints as I knew it was the a*hole burglar across the street.
The cops said the detectives take fingerprints. A detective showed up 3 weeks later, and he told me the cops were supposed to take fingerprints. Needless to say fingerprints were never taken even though the a*hole burglar's fingerprints are on file.
Whatever.
After the a*hole burglar was arrested on another burglary charge (one week after our home was burglarized), that day I told the detective to get a search warrant for the a*hole burglar's house. THREE WEEKS later, they get a search warrant and find nothing.
Shocker! I told the detective that mommy threw out any stolen goods the day after the a*hole burglar was arrested.
Whatever.
The detective dropped my burglary case against the a*hole burglar because he didn't have enough evidence and the a*hole burglar denied he burglarized our home. Even though the detective had a confession from the a*hole burglar's "friend" who was staying with the a*hole burglar the day that our house was burglarized. The a*hole burglar's "friend" said he saw a blue thin jewelry box (mine) in the a*hole burglar's bedroom and the a*hole burglar was going through the jewelry looking for something to pawn.
Whatever.
When the a*hole burglar gets out of a jail and goes back to live with mommy, I will be ready with my shotgun. You have to protect your property and person somehow.
Good for you. So sorry all this happened to you.
I guess if you let the media know this law enforcement comedy show, unless you are in a giant city where more people would be outraged and there would be more accountability once it went public....poor little people ignored by law enforcmenet...you would be bad for you. The officers could hold it against you for telling on them.
So...are the days of police supported official neighborhood watch groups over? Where there were signs on the streets?
Maybe you could still go to the same reporter. They often love updates. Especially at a quiet time of year. Tell them thanks to them the burglar was arrested the following week, etc. And tell them you are now concerned for your safety. That's always a good valid thing to feel. Have a group of neighbors over if the reporter comes to your house.
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.
Intriquing topic for a little conversation at lunch. Afterwards, I took a look to see if you said in another post where you live. Partly an answer. Your larger area has more than 100 springs and is known for them...even to the point of being the capital of America regarding what they offer.
Two theories are if the hole looks older it's area was the spring house (in a small structure where people got their good water and stored things to be kept cold) and then a house was built around it later.
Or...a wise person decided to dig a hole in his house to access the healing healthy spring water he discovered running under his house. This spring under the house...but nowhere near as deep as a well...would run under several properties unnoticed. The original owner or builder could have had a spring house torn down but had already spotted where the spring was.
If the former owner wasn't the original owner you could look that up in the county records. They may have had family or friends that know a story about it. Have you tried friends of the original owner. Although they're elderly now they may recall him mentioning it to them.
I'm on my 3rd house and I realized no matter how closely I examine a house before the purchase there will always be surprises waiting for me.
1) I hear mice behind the wall in my bedroom at night
2) My 2nd floor bathroom has a leak and I see mold growing on the 1st floor ceiling
3) I don't live anywhere near an airport, yet I hear/see airplanes flying by right above my house everyday
I didn't even know airplanes were required to take the same path to the airport even at 30 miles away, so how unfortunate it is to buy a house right on the flight path without knowing ahead of time!
Really? You thought they could just aim for the airport taking any ol' route they felt like?
Anyway, that could change, so it's possible that in the future you might not be in the flight path, and it's also possible that you could have bought at a time when the flight path was not over your house and then it changed to over your house at another time.
You do live near an airport if it's only 30 miles away! That's a very short hop by air.
I didn't realize that my bedroom windows were a bad DYI job until it got cold (I moved into my condo in July) and my bedroom was always so cold. I stood near the window one day and felt a cold breeze coming at me. Upon closer examination, I realized that there was space between the window and the wall, so I bought some of that putty tape stuff and blocked the opening as best I could.
I then had a window guy come look at it. He started laughing and said the previous owners must have bought a window cheap at some sale, but that it wasn't the right size for the opening. I had it replaced, and it made a huge difference. The first night it was in, I stood in front of the window about ten times just to NOT feel cold air coming into my bedroom.
We keep recalling things about that same house with all the oddities. The all pink walls and bright turquoise carpet was not so bad because we often put in new carpet and painted. For the first time ever I felt a hole in the living room floor as I walked where the sofa had been. In pulling up the carpet we found a perfectly round hole there in the concrete floor. About 8" wide. About a foot or so deep. No, no spring underneath. Never knew what had been the reason for it.
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