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Last time I owned a home should have been great. It seemed like a dream house. It was in a beautiful neighborhood, I was next to upscale neighbors, it had all the modern appliances and it was found after months of looking.
On the first night I did not sleep a wink because of all the noises. Barking dogs we never saw or heard in our many visits to the house; bangs and creaks from the heat, a neighbor who roared his motorcycle outside my window late at night and a train that came by five times during the night.
I was forced to sleep with ear plugs and a loud fan for the next two years until we could sell it!
How could we be so ignorant and not check these things out in advance and talk to the neighbors and have the heating system checked?
How about you, were you satisfied with your home the days after you moved in?
When we bought our first house the old owner had all these Glade plug-in things. I assumed it was because the husband was a smoker. I immediately tossed them all. Within a few days I started smelling something. I have a very strong sense of smell (and it was even stronger because I'd just had a baby), and my husband couldn't smell it. I finally narrowed it down to the kitchen, but my husband couldn't find the source of the odor. After a week, I'd had enough and threatened to take the baby and move into a hotel. My husband started pulling out appliances and found that the gas line behind the stove was completely eroded through. There was an active gas leak in our house! Thank goodness it was a mild fall and I'd had the windows open pretty much nonstop. And that we had been living off of sandwiches and not cooking.
I was satisfied with the house. But years later I'm looking to move as the traffic has gotten horrendous and as more and more people moved in the area it's super crowded.
My big thing was the house was owned by a smoker. It reeked. But we got rid of the smell
I was very satisfied and had no major surprises. Only thing that surprised me was how often the cops/fire/ambulance drive by with the lights on (I am on 35 MPH main road in a quiet suburb, and have a view of the street from the window when I watch TV).
I bought a serious fixer-upper back in 2011. I knew there were plenty of issues, and I wasn't afraid of tackling them.
I never paid much attention to the little detached garage, though. It seemed like a sturdy little building, it had a newer garage door, and the roof on the house was only about 10 years old. So, I assumed the roof on the garage was about the same age. But, after taking possession, I opened the garage door for the first time, and was surprised to find this:
The damage was fairly well camouflaged on the outside by a nearby tree and general overgrowth.
Wow, I would certainly have looked in the garage before I bought a house. Was this a foreclosure auction or something like that?
Our only unfortunate discovery was that we bought in September and about a week later the 75 foot tall hickory tree overhanging the house started dropping hickory nuts on the roof. They would hit with a HUGE bang and then rattle-rattle-rattle as they rolled off the roof multiple times every night and day. It would scare the cr*p out of me. That tree had to go! Even though the nut fall only lasted about 3 weeks out of the year, it was really a mess too with tons of leaves, nuts, and husks on the ground that made for a lot of raking and clean up.
We found some cover ups, but nothing my husband couldn't fix. We bought the house from a woman who was obviously not handy. The house fit us to a T, so we would have bought it even if we knew about the issues.
there was a shower leak hat had been "fixed" By painting over the evidence. The shower grout had been whitened by putting caulk over it. Stuff like that.
Wow, I would certainly have looked in the garage before I bought a house. Was this a foreclosure auction or something like that?
Our only unfortunate discovery was that we bought in September and about a week later the 75 foot tall hickory tree overhanging the house started dropping hickory nuts on the roof. They would hit with a HUGE bang and then rattle-rattle-rattle as they rolled off the roof multiple times every night and day. It would scare the cr*p out of me. That tree had to go! Even though the nut fall only lasted about 3 weeks out of the year, it was really a mess too with tons of leaves, nuts, and husks on the ground that made for a lot of raking and clean up.
It wasn't really a big deal. It wouldn't have prevented me from buying the house, or anything.
The owner grew up in the house next door, and owned both. He rented both of them out, but left mine vacant and neglected, when the previous tenant moved out. My house sat empty for 5 years before he finally decided to sell to me. He takes the same slow approach to maintenance.
When I bought my house on the day of the closing I found out the ice maker was broken and there was a burn in the Formica counter top which was covered up by a trivet. Apparently, the listing agent knew about these items but neglected to tell me. Ironically, the listing agent was my mother-in-law. I didn't make a stink about it because I was planning on replacing the fridge immediately as that fridge had mold on the door gaskets and was quite old and I was planning on renovating the kitchen so the burnt counter was no big deal either. I've replaced the fridge (actually twice) in the three years I've lived in the house but I haven't renovated the kitchen yet although that should happen soon. I still keep a trivet over the burn so it doesn't bother me.
It rained hard overnight.
The wife heard the cat give out a weird meow on the basement steps, and looked down the stairs just in time to see the litter box float past.
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