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I like the fountain idea. I may try that.. Actually a little pond would be even better with a waterfall feature.
I know the curve is not a huge deal. I figure I can drywall it and just add shims to the drywall to straighten it out.. I mean who likes the look of concrete anyway (especially yellow painted concrete).
I like the fountain idea. I may try that.. Actually a little pond would be even better with a waterfall feature.
I know the curve is not a huge deal. I figure I can drywall it and just add shims to the drywall to straighten it out.. I mean who likes the look of concrete anyway (especially yellow painted concrete).
Now you have your head straight!
Yes, take a hard look at the house you have bought.
This is your NEW HOME.
Right now, it is just a house and one that has not made you feel warm and fuzzy.
But that doesn't mean you won't grow to love it. Especially once you spend time making it your home.
So go ahead . . . take a hard look. See the flaws and figure out how you are going to make the flaws disappear (or at least, mitigate them) and dig in. You have referenced your wife and children and how you need to get everyone settled. Okay -- that is your priority -- now go do it.
Make that house a home. Stop thinking about the "what ifs." Looking back can't fix the present nor can it create a future. All it does is make us angry and depletes our energy . . . and keeps us from focusing on what's at hand and looking forward.
Yes, find the flaws. And consider this your part time job - to fix this house into a home where you will be making memories.
Very few things in life are forever. Sometimes, the things we are the most resistant to at first turn out to be treasures and the things we cherish the most.
Happens in new construction as well. It wasn't until the sheetrock and trim was up until you could tell a wall in our bathroom was completely crocked....it was off by about 4 inches! The world didn't end. We used to joke about it because what else can you do? I wasn't going to spend thousands and have the wall fixed. It was full of plumbing so it would have been thousands to remove the shower and the garden tub and adjust the plumbing, put the tile up again, fix the floor, new sheetrock, new trim, new paint.....yeah no thanks. Besides it gave us something to talk about.....LOL Oh and the world didn't end.
Agreed--nothing is ever perfect. Things are manufactured by people and people are not perfect--so, expect imperfection.
Houses in our area are built on clay soil and it shifts, so all the houses get settlement cracks in the sheetrock. My husband is always calling my attention to cracks and I just tell him not to look at them. Clearly, the people who had our house before us spackled and painted over them and when we move out we'll do the same. The house isn't falling down or anything--like you said, the world isn't ending.
I definitely get the hindsight is 20/20, but it isn't! Like another poster said, you never know what would have happened if you bought a different house. You never know what is going to happen with your new house!!!
Our first house we bought, I cried the first time I saw it. My husband purchased it without me seeing it. We drove up the first time I saw it: awful color, grass two feet high, neon paint all over the house, carpet smelled like dog pee. I was devastated.
Once we started making it our own with touches here and there and ended up loving the house. We loved our neighborhood even more. We lucked out moving onto a fabulous block where 30 kids were born within a few years of each other. All the kids and parents got along. Truly ideal. We fell into it!
Not true.
In new houses, they are features and not defects.
Water condensation leaking from the bathroom exhaust duct into the master bedroom ceiling - it's a feature.
2-inch insulation in the master bedroom ceiling instead of the 6-inch that everyone thought was there - it's a feature.
A drywall screw through a sewage pipe in the closet - it's a feature.
Ground water with no place to go - it's a feature.
LOL Yeah I had several "features" I built my last house. A/C died a few weeks after we moved in. It was in the 90's and humid....this was in SC. Yeah sweating like a pig for 2 days was a lovely feature. LOL
Oh ground water with nowhere to go becomes a pond....you should buy some fish! Make it a backyard water feature.
Well selling or renting is totally out. That would be devastating to my kids and wife. I am just gonna have to suck it up, fix the defects, or hide them and make it ours.
So, there you go. If nothing else, this thread has encouraged you to start making the house over into one that will suit all of you. Get busy!
Oh ground water with nowhere to go becomes a pond....you should buy some fish! Make it a backyard water feature.
I live in the city.
Our lot is 3K sqft. Minus house, garage, sidewalks, patio, etc.
Way too much groundwater to make a pond. That is why the gods invented sump pumps and clever city dwellers found a way to dispose of the water.
But, that is exactly what my brother, who lives in the middle of nowhere New Hampshire, did.
just be glad you avoided the HOA, some are ok but there is no guarantee that in the future they will stay that way, all it takes is a different management company or a new board of directors to make your life hell. I suffered for 14 years with an HOA that would threaten to fine me if I had a single brown spot in my lawn (in Reno NV where watering is restricted), we could not take our garbage cans out until immediately before pick up and had to put them back as soon as they were emptied, we could not leave our garage door open for any longer than it took to move our car in or out of it, and we had to get written permission from a committee to paint the outside of our house or remove or plant any tree or bush.. OH MY GOD it sucked to live there.
As far as noise, I am sure you will get used to it and not notice it unless someone brings it to your attention. I'm not sure how that happens but it does. Years ago my ex-husband was in the Air Force and we lived on a base where they conducted pilot training. There must have been 100 fighter jets taking off and landing every day but after a few months I never noticed the noise unless someone commented on it.
OP - I hope you see that most of us don't live in our dream homes. We recently moved across the country into a larger and much newer home. After 120 days I still miss my old house and all the quirks that made it home for almost a dozen years. But as we continue to adjust, making changes, personalizing the interior and the yard, I am getting used to it here. Used to it in spite of the HOA I said I would never have. Used to the smaller fenced yard I said I didn't want. Used to the construction of a divided highway 100 yards from our back fence.
More than anything, I am getting used to hearing my wife say "I love it here."
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In the country where my brother lives
