This Old #%&@*$ House

Sounds like a bad job. I can't imagine what damage could have been done.

If you never noticed it before, sounds like maybe they pulled the gutter away when they were cleaning it. I would call them and tell them to come put it back in place.

LeapingGnome wrote:

If you never noticed it before, sounds like maybe they pulled the gutter away when they were cleaning it. I would call them and tell them to come put it back in place.

This is my thought as well, although it's possible that there was just enough crap in the gutters to keep it from being noticed. And if that's the case, then it's almost certain that the weight pulled the gutters away from the house some.

I've definitely noticed it before, it's the exact same drip pattern as I was seeing back before they came to clean it.

AFAIK, the gutters were not cleaned at all since when it went up in 2009 until just this past week. The house is new, so a lot of the stuff that has been coming down the pipe is excess roofing tar and debris.

So it sounds like it was missed. Maybe the guys thought that gutter belonged to the neighbors.

Thanks guys!

So this holiday season was about the worst, most horrible, no good, very bad season I can remember, but at least there's been some progress on the stupid kitchen. Two 10-hour days saw me getting most of the cabinetry up:

IMAGE(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-z7Y3tlVeRUA/VKqzYd6HKQI/AAAAAAAAAvg/z2AOqJv_MW8/w1165-h656-no/IMG_20150103_183747912.jpg)

IMAGE(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2iIqjGUwq3U/VKqzknuvS6I/AAAAAAAAAwE/PkbOTPS2kvA/w1165-h656-no/IMG_20150102_201740422.jpg)

(Doors have not been adjusted yet. That's fiddly and takes time I don't have before the countertop installers come.)

In case you're wondering, installing Ikea cabinetry in a nice, level location is easy as could be. Installing Ikea cabinetry with sloped and wavy floors and unplumb and wavy walls is...not for the faint of heart. You have been warned.

That being said, I am deliriously excited for how much extra space we have in the kitchen now. Knocking out the wall and expanding it almost 6 feet, plus putting storage and appliances in logical places instead of crazy un-ergonomic designs, is pretty awesome.

Niiice.

Lots of people knock IKEA, but I've always liked the simple designs and lines of their cabinets. I hope you post "finished" pictures at some point.

Wavy floors and walls are the devils work.

NSMike wrote:

Lots of people knock IKEA, but I've always liked the simple designs and lines of their cabinets. I hope you post "finished" pictures at some point.

I think their stuff is pretty hit-or-miss, TBH. That said, their kitchen product is clearly a "hit" and possibly the best bang for the buck you'll find anywhere in the home goods world. It's super easy to assemble (I mean really, how could you screw this up?) and relatively easy to install. Had I used the plastic legs instead of building ladder boxes, leveling the things would have been a cinch as well, but I wanted more support for the extremely heavy long runs of 3cm granite we're slapping on top of it. (Plus, both the peninsula and island need to be anchored to the floor regardless, and the legs can't do that.)

The thing I've been the most impressed with is the hardware, both drawer pulls and door hinges. It's all made by Blum (high-end euro mnfr.) and is suuuper quality. All the drawers are soft-close and high weight rated, and you could commit murder with the 153º hinges. Basically, I scored all dampened doors and soft-close drawers for $6k for 25 cabinets...the cheapest line at HD and Lowe's would be like $18k and that's without the high-quality hardware and soft close features.

Overall, the engineering is fascinating. As a person who has always loved to take stuff apart and see how it works, it's been a delight to assemble all this. They clearly have some very smart engineers working for them.

So...yeah. I'm a believer. No comment on the new kitchen stuff they're rolling out in a month or two, though. Supposed to be more modular and customizable but I've heard some complaints that hardware has gotten lighter and cheaper and possibly less reliable. Also, if you're someone who is pretty restricted by room size and penned in by walls, Ikea might not be the easiest option because they have so few cabinet size options. It wasn't an issue for us because we knocked out a wall and could say "the run will end wherever it ends", but it could be a problem if you need, say, a 19.5" cabinet. I will say that I "hacked" a few cabs to shorten the depth from 24" to about 15.5" for the island, and that was relatively easy for a mechanically-inclined person. Not sure about hacking the width, though. That'd be more noticeable and you'd have issues with doors.

Minarchist wrote:

Overall, the engineering is fascinating. As a person who has always loved to take stuff apart and see how it works, it's been a delight to assemble all this. They clearly have some very smart engineers working for them.

IKEA is just large scale LEGO for adults.

I mean that in a very good way.

Oh, totally. Even has the same "no words included" construction manual.

NSMike wrote:

I hope you post "finished" pictures at some point.

I totally read that as "hurry and finish the damn job, slacker!".

Spoiler:

Looks good so far, Min.

Spoiler:

Don't screw it up.

NSMike wrote:

Lots of people knock IKEA, but I've always liked the simple designs and lines of their cabinets. I hope you post "finished" pictures at some point.

Agreed. I'm personally convinced that anyone hating on Ikea has watched Fight Club one too many times for their own good.

FlamingPeasant wrote:

Wavy floors and walls are the devils work.

When your base isn't good, installing anything sucks.

Blotto The Clown wrote:

well I need a new hot water tank, mines 16 years old and leaking. /sigh

Ours is older. And we're running an oil furnace from the 50s. This is probably our biggest challenge right now. Trying to sort out the heating in a house that's smallish (980 square feet), where a full natural gas furnace doesn't fit and maybe doesn't make any sense.

In your situation, a tankless water heater might make sense, DSG (and they are more energy-efficient to boot). Just be aware of the downsides that come with those (much higher up-front cost, more maintenance likely required, and potential performance quirks).

I've started reading up on home maintenance stuff lately, as I intend to buy a home this year. Hoping to avoid as many potential pitfalls as possible.

DSGamer wrote:
Blotto The Clown wrote:

well I need a new hot water tank, mines 16 years old and leaking. /sigh

Ours is older. And we're running an oil furnace from the 50s. This is probably our biggest challenge right now. Trying to sort out the heating in a house that's smallish (980 square feet), where a full natural gas furnace doesn't fit and maybe doesn't make any sense.

Heat pump.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
Blotto The Clown wrote:

well I need a new hot water tank, mines 16 years old and leaking. /sigh

Ours is older. And we're running an oil furnace from the 50s. This is probably our biggest challenge right now. Trying to sort out the heating in a house that's smallish (980 square feet), where a full natural gas furnace doesn't fit and maybe doesn't make any sense.

Heat pump.

Anywhere that gets colder than 40 degrees or so for multiple days at a time in winter needs a supplementary heat source for those days. DSGamer's home sounds small enough that a small and simple wood stove would probably be enough. In that setup the heat pump (outside the home, like a central air unit) would do all the AC work, as well as heating in the early spring, late fall, and warmer winter days. The wood stove inside the home would be used for the cold days.

Farscry wrote:

In your situation, a tankless water heater might make sense, DSG (and they are more energy-efficient to boot). Just be aware of the downsides that come with those (much higher up-front cost, more maintenance likely required, and potential performance quirks).

I've started reading up on home maintenance stuff lately, as I intend to buy a home this year. Hoping to avoid as many potential pitfalls as possible.

Research for and get your own home inspector. Do not go through your realtor's inspector.

A guy I know here in Minnesota got stuck with a horrible house due to predatory remodeling.
www.hoodwinkedhome.com

Rainsmercy wrote:
Farscry wrote:

In your situation, a tankless water heater might make sense, DSG (and they are more energy-efficient to boot). Just be aware of the downsides that come with those (much higher up-front cost, more maintenance likely required, and potential performance quirks).

I've started reading up on home maintenance stuff lately, as I intend to buy a home this year. Hoping to avoid as many potential pitfalls as possible.

Research for and get your own home inspector. Do not go through your realtor's inspector.

A guy I know here in Minnesota got stuck with a horrible house due to predatory remodeling.
www.hoodwinkedhome.com

Yeah, I can also rattle off a list of pitfalls / things to watch out for. Things that, when you don't know better, can get costly down the road. If you're buying a home as a place to live and not as an investment + a place to live you can miss important things. How drafty is the house and what will it take to fix the things causing it to be drafty? Is the piping due for replacement? The electrical panel?

The first shock to our system was the day we moved in back in 2008 and realized we couldn't run the AC and the clothes washer at the same time because it overloaded the circuit. That's when we learned that our electrical panel was ancient. I had to put in GFCI power outlets with the advice of my friend, an electrician from back home, because we couldn't run appliances with 3 prongs there otherwise (I think the XBox, at the time). It was a pretty weird introduction into the various random pitfalls.

Farscry wrote:

Hoping to avoid as many potential pitfalls as possible.

I tried not to LOL but I couldn't help it. I didn't consider myself naive when I bought my house -- things break and you fix them right, right? -- but houses are a pitfall masquerading as a structure with four walls and a roof.

Assuming you plan to stay in your house for more than 3-5 years, most everything will break/wear out/fall apart at one point or another. In the 16 years I've lived in my current house, I have replaced the heat pump, the main water line, the main sewer line, the hot water heater, most of the pipes underneath the house, the tub drain and associated plumbing (as well as the ceiling beneath it) and a ceiling in one downstairs room. That doesn't include the stove and dishwasher (which I replaced when we moved in), the tree in the back yard I took down or the fact that I've painted almost every room and hallway in the house -- most of them twice. We've had repairs done over the years on the washer, dryer and refrigerator and the electrical system. (Turns out the wooden board in the laundry room was covering the original fuse panel, which still had live wires running through it.)

The roof is next, followed by the furnace (assuming the furnace doesn't go first). That's $10K+ in work right there, and it's money I don't really have.

My advice (you didn't ask for it, but I'm giving it to you anyway): Don't overbuy. Mortgage companies love to figure out how much you can afford to pay, then fix you up with a house that costs right about that amount. Ideally you'd find something that's somewhat less so you can sock away several thousand dollars per year for repairs and maintenance. Or you can just ignore the issues and let the next sucker deal with them. I'm always stunned to go into a neighbor's house after they've moved out and see how they let the damn thing fall apart. I never would have guessed that the guy who kept the neatest front yard on the street would have a house that smelled like equal parts ashtray and dog piss.

P.S. Don't get me wrong: I love my house. But it's 90 years old and was inconsistently maintained over the years. But my friends who have newer homes tell horror stories about them, too. The one constant here seems to be that houses break.

Well, at some point houses simply are money pits and we have to be content with that.

That being said, some things are definitely more important to look out for than others, and are easier to live with/less costly to fix down the road. If I had to rank them, it'd probably be something like this:

RUN AWAY

foundation issues
structural/framing issues
mold

Bad News Bears

Termites
HVAC age/repair (split system)
roof
unsafe driveway/hardscape heave

Can Be Dealt With

Plumbing
Electrical
gaps/windows/draft
HVAC age/repair (package system)
deck repair
flooring repairs (site-finished hardwoods, tile)
other mechanical (hot water, integrated appliances, etc.)

Suck It Up And Fix It Yourself

flooring (engineered/carpet/laminate)
paint
freestanding appliances
fixtures (lights/faucets/etc.)
landscaping

DSGamer wrote:

So this is what our house looks like right now. A few pictures.

DS - I can't see your pics. Is it just me?

We are probably going to redo our backsplash sometime in the next few months, going to try to do it ourselves.

I'm going to be a little indulgent here as I just discovered this thread. Hopefully it's okay. A short story about turning a disaster into what we hope is a minor victory.

I had a major health crisis this fall. Caused me to be out of work for 2 weeks and briefly consider disability. In an effort to cut costs my wife and I moved back to our home (we were renting it out and living closer in). We decided to have some work done before we moved back in, though. Most of the work isn't our own. We picked out all of the colors, painting scheme, etc. We picked out fixtures and I hung blinds, curtains and changed some other minor things. I wish I could take credit for the work. I can't. I can take credit for making the decision to take the money we were spending on an expensive apartment and put it into improving our home. Especially after the past 2 renters trashed it. I can take credit for putting love back into the home.

I *can* take credit for that backsplash, the design. We were originally going to have nothing. Then we were going to have green/white alternating. Then I started to noodle on it more and came up with a more random, but colorful design. We are thinking of having the piping redone, but otherwise it should be minor things from here on out. We hope. We put a lot of work into the house when we first moved in and had someone else (this time) put a lot of work into it. It feels like we've made the right choices.

So this is what our house looks like right now. A few pictures.

IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11236522/HomeImprovement1.jpg?raw=1)

IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11236522/HomeImprovement2.jpg?raw=1)

IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11236522/HomeImprovement3.jpg?raw=1)

IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11236522/HomeImprovement4.jpg?raw=1)

LeapingGnome wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

So this is what our house looks like right now. A few pictures.

DS - I can't see your pics. Is it just me?

We are probably going to redo our backsplash sometime in the next few months, going to try to do it ourselves.

It wasn't just you. It was Dropbox. Fixed.

Holmes on Homes

Also consider getting a home warranty for the first year. You may even be able to get the seller to pay for it.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Also consider getting a home warranty for the first year. You may even be able to get the seller to pay for it.

On the flip side... http://www.clarkhoward.com/news/clar...

Yeah, the warranties don't cover enough and they're incredibly hard to redeem. A friend of mine bought an A-frame in the mountains a few months ago and discovered during the first rainstorm that the roof is horrendously leaky and will have to be replaced. The state of the roof wasn't disclosed and so it seems like something a warranty should cover, but no dice. For the things it does cover, it seems like you'd be better off putting the price of the warranty towards the purchase of a new appliance than trying to get them to pay for a replacement outright.

Interesting topic here. Wife and I are in a free transition house for her new job, and are probably looking for purchase our first home in a few months. Might as well keep tossing out tips for newbies.

Enix wrote:

My advice (you didn't ask for it, but I'm giving it to you anyway): Don't overbuy. Mortgage companies love to figure out how much you can afford to pay, then fix you up with a house that costs right about that amount.

And they will tell you that you can afford it. They will say "Oh, you make plenty of money! And this is an investment that will pay off big time down the road!" Don't listen to their lies. Buy as much house as you need. And no more.

Stele wrote:

Interesting topic here. Wife and I are in a free transition house for her new job, and are probably looking for purchase our first home in a few months. Might as well keep tossing out tips for newbies.

I'd put priority on the things that either can't be changed or are just incredibly expensive or inconvenient to change. Location, plumbing, foundation, frame, and roof, in that order. Room layout isn't a big deal beyond where the plumbing is, as moving walls is pretty trivial so long as they aren't load-bearing... provided you're willing to do some work, that is.