Having Fun

[StarMetal]

Well you fellows are having fun shooting, casting, buying moulds etc while "I" have been put to work by the SWMBO remodeling her bathroom. The whole works, new floor ceramic tile, wall ceramic tile, move the toilet, move the vanity and sink, and move the wiring. Just come out of the attic doing an overhead light fixture. Boy I have to cut into the plastic sewage system. I don't think plastic is as easy as copper to cut into and change. Don't get me wrong, plastic is great on new installation, but when you have to cut into it and change something it's a bear. Now I have the sink and toilet water lines done, those were easy. I just hope I get the right slope on the new toilet sewage line. Well you fellows go ahead and have fun, just think about those of us that are slaves to the SWMBO's.

Joe

[NVcurmudgeon]

Joe, We are all slaves. I'm still having nightmares from the last session of home improvement. It paid off, putting us into the new place. With a little luck, we won't have to move again and I can limit my efforts to gardening.

[StarMetal]

Bill,

That last house we sold, in Ohio, we lost our asses in the deal, but then again it was bad times in the U.S.. It was Bush's first term election and you remember when Al Gore had that vote recount and the big Florida fraud. At that same time the stock market crashed and well it was a terrible finacial year for the country and the housing market sales hit a record all time low. It took us nearly a year to sell the house. I had done like $20,000 renovations. Then the realitors give this **** about houses are priced by location not by the quality of the house. I countered with "Well when you sell a Ferrari, it doesn't matter where you're selling it from, it still goes for Ferrari prices". I can understand if you have a mansion smack dab in the middle of a trailor park, but this house was rural, not that many houses around in fact and it was on 11 acres. All brick house, Anderson dual pane windows, full basement, 2 1/2 garage, three bedrooms, fireplace with the Heatalator system with fans, a nut orchard (hazel nuts, english walnuts, chinese chestnuts, butternuts, and black walnuts, over 100 pine trees, another separate garage, and a block utility building. We put a new roof on it, new heating system, with central air and a heat pump. House was total electric and being in a winter state our highest electric bill in 12 yrs was $150. Also new flooring, new carpets, new hardwood floors, new steel insulated garage door with opener, new steel insulated front and rear doors both with premium storm doors, satellite system, a whole pallet of extra bricks (I think like 1900) and about 500 cement blocks. What do you think it sold for Bill? The year was 2000. The house was build in 78 and forgot to mention that it had 3/4 inch copper plumbing.









Joe

[felix]

If any one wants to sell a house, I suggest leaving it as is. What you need to do is put the house up for bids amongst the neighbors. They inherently know the value of the house to them, without any repairs because they might want to do their own repairs/improvements. Sell the house to the highest bidder on the day decided upon in the paper work left in the respective mailboxes. Have them mail the bid back to your house, or if not home, back to a location where you can access. Always keep in mind the high prices on ebay and how they got thataway. This is the same technique I used to sell my wife's parents' house when they both passed away. The house sold at a 15 percent over expected value, as determined by a real estate agent working the area. The house sold on the 14th day. Believe me, this psychology works, especially when the buyers know one another. Allow their greed to set in, and don't place a any value of the house on the paper work. Make the value a complete guess value. ... felix

[BLTsandwedge1]

Hiya Joe,

I'll trade cast iron piping any day for that plastic PVC stuff. The cast iron is brittle- if you're not careful it'll break all to hell. Just did as you are doing- the bathroom. My house was built in '65 and they did a crappy job on the plumbing (i.e. for the drains instead of an elbow they'd use a "T" with one arm capped- in a location that I can't get to- just great for causing clogs).

I think your realtors are correct to a degree. The house you sold IS a friggin' mansion compared to my neighborhood. In my immediate area, most of us live in houses around 1,500sf. There is no such thing as a house with 11 acres here. If there were such a thing, it would sell for quite a few $MM. I found that by doing internet searches on a given neighborhood you can find a rough median. The realtors have a saying- the 3 most important aspects of real estate are location, then location and the last is location.

That house and acreage you sold is exactly what I'll be looking for when it's time to retire.....rural with space.

Regards..........................

[StarMetal]

BLT

Yeah, I know that's alot, but our location was great...and it wasn't too far to town either.

Boy you did have a nigthmare with that T for an elbo, boy that sucks. Plastic is great, I was amazed at how clean the toilet drain was when I pulled the toilet off it, it was still white as the day it was put in. Amazing. The house I grew up in had the old cast iron sewage pipe, but they put it in right and my Dad never ever had trouble with it. Cool, they would put the pipe into the other pipes flange, then some kind of felt strip, then pour lead around it. Never leaked. Plastic is the way to go today. Now I remember the drainpipes for the rain gutters were tile and boy they gave Dad a fit. They break all by themselves for some reason. My Dad's foundation was a mixture of hollow tile block, double row of solid red brick, and cement brick.

Joe

[carpetman]

Starmetal---Ofcourse you lost money when you sold the house. It had a feature nobody except me could use. It had a 2 1/2 car garage. With my little bitty pickup I could use that 1/2 garage. Waksupi could not.

[StarMetal]

Ray

I didn't lose concidering what I paid for the house, but because of the worse time in history to sell a house we could have made ALOT more.

This house I have now has 2 1/2 garage on the upper level and a single garage in the basement. Tennesseans home builders don't believe in putting a man door in the basement, they put a single garage door.

Joe

[Bret4207]

I'm doing a bathroom too. 2nd floor bathroom with tile floor. The bozo that was here before me had his evil minions pour 3 freakin' inches of concrete on the floor and then lay tile!!!!!!!!!!! 3 inches of concrete!!!!!!!!!! On the second floor of and 1890's farm house!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm not happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Went to Lowes and spent $70.00 on diamond saw blades and have to start chunking the floor up. Tjis'll probably kill my old Makita saw, but I want a left hand magnesium Porter-Cable anyways.

[9.3X62AL]

No recent home projects involving the house lately, but I roto-tilled the vegetable garden plot yesterday, and I am one sore individual this morning. Glad that's done.

[StarMetal]

I'm doing a bathroom too. 2nd floor bathroom with tile floor. The bozo that was here before me had his evil minions pour 3 freakin' inches of concrete on the floor and then lay tile!!!!!!!!!!! 3 inches of concrete!!!!!!!!!! On the second floor of and 1890's farm house!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm not happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Went to Lowes and spent $70.00 on diamond saw blades and have to start chunking the floor up. Tjis'll probably kill my old Makita saw, but I want a left hand magnesium Porter-Cable anyways.

Guess that guy never heard of backerboard Tpr Bret. That's a bummer having to remove that, I feel for ya. Instead of renting a tile cutter I bought one off the net. That way I can take my good old time and do the tile right. So far the tile is going great and the saw cuts the stuff wonderful. Good luck on your project.

Joe

[HTRN]

Forget doing it the hard way - go rent a SDS drill with a "star drill" You'll save yourself time and headaches.....


HTRN

[PPlinker]

Last property we owned, we over improved, too. Sold it and probably recovered our investment, but nothing for all the work.

My hubby has done a lot of plumbing jobs over the years and theres one thing he has learned. It took about 20 years to learn it but he learned it good. Don't EVER start a plumbing project after 5 in the evening or on a Sunday afternoon. Sure as s#!t, you're gonna need something and all the stores'll be closed.

Good luck with your project.

Penny

[MT Gianni]

Starmetal: when I started out in Idaho, commercial buildings were required to be plumbed in with cast iron. Fill 1/2 with oakum, tamp it down and pour with pure lead and an asbestos rope wrap if on grade. Those were the days. Strapping and attachment took almost as much time as fitting the joints. Plastic made it so a monkey could do it and some of the retrofits I've been on look like a monkey did. Gianni.