Home ownership
Maybe I missed a thread similar to this, but that's ok. I have been in my home for 10 years now, and there are some things I wasn't prepared for or aware of as a homeowner. I am not scared to admit them if it helps someone else, and please share any stories you have about things you didn't know when owning a home for the first time, whether they be small or large, costly or not.
I will start with not knowing about changing the furnace filter until the a/c stopped working and I had to spend $300 on a new blower motor. Also, I knew nothing of cleaning my gutters, until one became clogged, held water, froze, and had the weight pull it down. Replacing the gutters was another $1000. I'm sure I'll think of other things but those are the 2 that stand out the most at the moment.
ITT we talk about home ownership, and things that aren't always obvious but need to be done to save on maintenance and repairs.
Maybe should have went with "plane the surface" to be better understood, lol.
I refinished my hardwood floors.
This floor is seventy years old and has been refinished once before. I can tell because they weren't thorough.
I rented five or six different machines from Home Depot to sand. A drum sander may be the most dangerous piece of equipment I have ever used and I own a joiner.
Near the end of sanding
I decided not to stain. I like a natural look and it brightens the place up. My goal was to have the whole floor just looking like natural wood.
Result after 2 weeks of sanding
Looks beautiful!
I had my hardwood floors done a couple years ago by a pro. My house is over 100 years old (no idea how old the floors are but they are OLD). Absolutely no regrets.
Paint. I need to decide what color to paint over it. I think everyone is painting fireplaces white now so anything but that. Black maybe.
Several years ago when my wife got a bug up her butt to repaint all the bricks around our fireplace, she wanted to do it in all white but I prevailed and convinced her to paint part of it brown. This room is obviously not where our hardwood floor it--it is on the other side of this wall. Someone put the fireplace on the wrong side of the wall AFAIAC. grr! Not a recommendation for you, but just to see if it might trigger some ideas. (Sorry I don't have a better pic of just the fireplace. If by some chance you want a complete one, pm me.):
Yes that's obviously much better than all white.
This is one I've seen that's giving me ideas but more involved than a solid color.
Is that a Samsung refrigerator? They have one on sale at Costco for 1300 off that I really want to get, but there are a LOT of bad reviews of Samsung. Apparently the ice maker/water pitcher area tends to spring a leak really frequently. Anyone here have good/bad luck with Samsung?
Late to this but the 3 door bespoke fridge with the beverage center has been excellent for me. It fixed all of the main issues previously with samsung fridges and was very well reviewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wc9kgGQ...
It also looks great, and they do some aggressive pricing with multiple appliances if you need something else and want to risk the samsung brand.
Late to this but the 3 door bespoke fridge with the beverage center has been excellent for me. It fixed all of the main issues previously with samsung fridges and was very well reviewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wc9kgGQ...
It also looks great, and they do some aggressive pricing with multiple appliances if you need something else and want to risk the samsung brand.
I did go ahead and pull the trigger on it. Arrives Monday. This is the one I'm getting, I think if not the same then very similar to the bespoke without the color panels?
https://www.costco.com/Samsung-23-cu.-ft...
I think a red deviation makes more sense with the natural floors.
If it were me, I'd probably go 'brick red'.
Black... deep black not charcoal or grey.
Or leave it in the oxidized bronze color it already is and add a large black Gothic guard.
When prepping our St. Louis house for sale we painted our stained mahogany mantel white and it was one of the most painful things I had to do. It was original to the 1939 house and very ornate.
But that's what buyers wanted so that's what they got.
When prepping our St. Louis house for sale we painted our stained mahogany mantel white and it was one of the most painful things I had to do. It was original to the 1939 house and very ornate.
But that's what buyers wanted so that's what they got.
Guh-ros. And stripping it back off will be way more work than painting it was. That painted mantel would likely lower the value of the house at least $2k to me. I mean, their house, and they can do what they want, but I might seriously have removed the old mantle and replaced it with pine painted white.
I guess I'm wondering why you are doing the painting?
"Hey, after you take possession, do whatever you want. I'm not doing your work."
My house was built in 1905. Beautiful wood everywhere with character. All painted white. I have thought about trying to restore it and am certain it would be a lifetime project.
I guess I'm wondering why you are doing the painting?
"Hey, after you take possession, do whatever you want. I'm not doing your work."
To improve curb appeal. The only thing all three agents we looked at agreed on was painting the mantel white. It looked nice white but not nearly as nice stained.
I bought my house from a dead person.
Extremely as-is including a basement full of mold that I had to have professionally removed.
The fundamentals are solid but the surface of everything is falling apart. I have a lot of drywall work and whatnot.
When it warms up I need to get started on rebuilding my front porch. Also need the entire garage floor jackhammered out and replaced.
Did a ton of landscaping work this year, deleted a maple tree so big two men couldn't reach around it and spent $1200 just having the stump ground out.
I will never run out of projects.
You should've stiffed him.
