BG Homeowner and DIY Thread - Out of the Basement Edition

[Corrderio]

We just put one of these bad boys in the fridge

I bought one of those and can't go back to tap water now.

[Boyiee]

Why don't you nerds have french doors with water and ice dispensers the fuck?

Anyways, moved in Wednesday. Finished unloading the storage, friends and families garages last night. Officially everything we own is in the house. Almost nothing put away and living out of boxes but we in.

All in all I think this delay and extra move cost us approx. $1100 which isn't bad considering what we went through.

[Ksandra]

Grats on the move!

[Boyiee]

Grats on the move!

Thanks!

Now to spend 30k on stuff!

The best part is I had a pair of Yeezy's delivered to the house 5 days early even though I rerouted. The seller's took the box with them so I thought I was boned but they dropped it off at front door the next day. Yes this is the best part.

[Julian]

We put our 3rd offer in yesterday and it got accepted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Biggest hurdle left now is that, it was priced a bit high, and we ended up going another 16k over asking, there's a good chance the sale price is gonna be over the appraised value, so we'll have to see what the difference is in a few weeks.

[Ksandra]

We put our 3rd offer in yesterday and it got accepted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Biggest hurdle left now is that, it was priced a bit high, and we ended up going another 16k over asking, there's a good chance the sale price is gonna be over the appraised value, so we'll have to see what the difference is in a few weeks.

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats!!!!!!!! If it's anything like here, it will actually appraise at value. Prices are shooting up, so it seems like appraisers are taking the demand into account.

[Julian]

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats!!!!!!!! If it's anything like here, it will actually appraise at value. Prices are shooting up, so it seems like appraisers are taking the demand into account.

Thanks <3

I hope so. It's not California insane here, but it is pretty fucking hot.

In other news, the first house we made an offer on finally sold. We offered 18k over asking. It sold 37k over lol. Doesn't burn as much as the one we lost by $250. But hey, we finally got one accepted, and it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than both those offers, even with the potential overpaying. From stretching our budget to being pretty well comfortable in it. Feels good.

[archibaldcrane]

Was posting about this in spam but I spent the past month remodeling my (small) master bathroom with my father in law, and now I'm going to dump photos on you.

The before/after shots:


The process:

Behind the toilet paper holder in the before shot is the kitchen pantry, that we demoed to expand the shower footprint:





Framing up the pantry door hole:

Cement boarding the shower walls and mudding the shower pan:

Tiling the shower floor:


Cleaning mortar from tile floor joints before grouting:

Tiling shower walls:

Bathroom wainscot tile detail:

Grouting shower tile:

Installing ventilation fan:

[Fondue]

that shower looked horrible beforehand, you did a pretty good job

[archibaldcrane]

that shower looked horrible beforehand, you did a pretty good job

It was so small we didn't even use it, we used the hall shower instead.

[Ksandra]

Nice work, Archi!


So I have a crazy update.

We got our new home and absolutely love it. Everything we wanted. Funny thing is, this all started because I couldn't go on the cruise and my jacuzzi shipment didn't happen. And my friend just recently had a jacuzzi installed and gave me her old one (same one I had ordered initially).

Anyway, so my crazy update involves the sale of my house.

To give some specific numbers:

When we initially talked to our realtor our house was looking at being put up at $360k.
We put in about $4k of upgrades to try and get it to $370.
But by the time we finished, the boom had already started happening so we ended up listing it at $380.
Got a couple offers within 4 days, and accepted one at $385

Everything went extremely smoothly. Had to pay about $1.5k in repairs but that's about it. Unfortunately, we ran into a wall where the buyer had gotten some special loan and the loan had an HOA reserve requirement that our HOA does not meet. We gave him a two week extension to see if the loan people would ignore that reserve amount. No word. His realtor kept saying they were going to get it, but no evidence. Two days before the two weeks were up, we relisted the home with a contingent on escrow falling through. Got three offers right away between $395k-$400k.

Despite that, we were leaning towards giving the current buyer more time. He had been very flexible with us, and it just felt the right thing to do. However, it sounds like my agent and his agent were starting to bash heads. The buyer's agent kept saying he would have the documents saying we were gtg, but everyday would push it off another day. Basically giving the run around. So we ended up cancelling with the current buyer, and asked for counter offers from the three new ones.

Ended up getting a counter for $410k with an "as is" sale giving them paperwork of our last inspections/repairs we had done for the other buyer. Agent is optimistic it with appraise for at least $405k because just recently two other townhomes with the same model as ours closed at that price, so even if we go down slightly, it's a huge difference.

TL;DR: We initially went from thinking of selling our home for $360k. Paid about $4.5k in repairs/upgrades. Ultimately getting $410k (down to maybe $405 based on appraisal).

[Jaybar]

Love the progress photos Archi, nice work! And damn Ksan talk about nice timing in the market.

[Roranora]

360-400k seems a pretty reasonable house price in California, no? shit, that might only get the least desirable houses in Denver these days

but for real, grats Julian, Ksan and families! and good work Archi; it looks great~

[archibaldcrane]

Yeah where was your old house? Was it a detached SFH? Just a 2/1 bungalow or what?

[Ksandra]

It was a 3 bedroom townhome (end unit) in SCV. A lot of people are moving out here because it's still within driving distance of LA without the LA prices.

It is also on the lower end for pricing because the HOA monthly is high ($330 a month). Most HOAs in the area are $50-$200. We originally bought the home 4 years ago for $312k. So that price increase is pretty nutty.

[synistar]

Now if only the Metrolink/Metro was a bit more usable. SCV would be booming with train commuters. Too bad LA transit still sucks.

[BaneTheBrawler]

so i don't actually own my own home. i live in my folks's previous home. my only other housing experience was an apartment. so i've done a lot of household maintenance type things, but anything potentially hazardous was always with my Dad, because if you have the option of having someone there to spot for you, you take it. well they live 4 hours away now. and while i can put off most things until they come visit, this time it wasn't feasible.

so despite living here for like 2 years, this is the first time i've done any electrical projects solo: i changed a light fixture. nothing worth posting pictures, but i'm a bit pleased with myself and wanted to share.

[archibaldcrane]

Light fixtures, outlets and switches seem intimidating but get easy fast.

[BaneTheBrawler]

yeah i think the dam is broken; having gotten the critical fixture done i'm sorely tempted to use the cosmetic fixture change i've been putting off as an excuse to not do homework today.

[Kirin]

Had some very old rusted ourdoor gas line pipe that feeds a fireplace on the ranch and basement levels repaired recently. Old valve was rusted and not closing tight, hence the leak.

They've repaired it, and didn't charge me as much as they initially quoted and it looks like quality work. A good 6-8 feet of excessive pipe, however, snakes along underneath my deck between the two floors that they did not change out.

I don't normally get into the weeds with electrical or gas work, but at face value this just looks like changing a connector hose and making sure the connectors are sealed, right? Can I simply buy new (maybe even flexible?) gas line and do that myself without worry?