So I bought a fairly moderately decrepit victorian property cheap because I was sick of renting and had visions of learning a bunch of new skills and having something productive to put my resources towards. I was also sick of renting and basically thought that it was one way to drastically change the direction of my life within the next 10 years compared to the path I was previously on.
It has been approximately 18 months and in that time I have ..
>Replaced and renovated the fences and walls which form the boundaries incurring the wrath of the neighbours due to the fact that I'm new, they are old, they apparently had long standing previous 'word of mouth agreements' with previous owners etc. I don't believe I was being unreasonable.
>Decommissioned the old boiler, installed a new one, put in radiators and heating downstairs and partially upstairs.
>Installed a new staircase.
>Fixed a bunch of minor details involving interior walls, floors, fixtures and detailing, bit of decorating etc.
>Fitted a kitchen and a modern cooking setup.
>Fitted solid fuel heaters and lined the chimneys in both downstairs rooms which previously had large open brick fireplaces. Also pointed up the chimneys and replaced some of the lead work flashing.
>Removed and rebuild an asbestos outbuilding with a single level single pitched roof garage so I'd have a clean, dry workshop.
>Cleared so much junk, rubble, trash etc from the garden. Built an exterior wood shed for firewood.
I'm just getting sick of it now. It is never ending. Last couple of months I had some roof damage which I'm not going to be able to attend to until the weekend and I'm sick of being up on the roof which desu wants completely stripping and relaying. The decor is just a stop gap process because ideally the house wants rewiring. The north aspect wants re-pointing and spalling/damaged brickwork wants cutting out and replacing. The interior of that side of the house seems to take on a bit of moisture.
At the moment I feel physically and mentally ruined. With my current job taking up 40+ hours a week every free moment is basically carrying out DIY and because I'm time short and need to do it around working I can't undertake massive work without taking time off which means my relationship is suffering because I've never any time, money or inclination to take a holiday or even socialise much. My girlfriends optimism is quickly turning into generally being resentful of life, but then she IMO isn't holding up her end of the deal by also growing and changing as a person, she basically wants to work, lounge around in relative comfort and do nice social things.
Ok, so if the roof needs replacing I can budget for that and then that is done, but I can't then afford to do anything else except minor work like pointing, bit of brick work, keeping the garden from being an overgrowing hellhole etc. The roof is structurally sound, but the nails holding the slate in place are 130+ years old and as a result a couple tend to rot out every few months meaning I'm back up their nailing them down and securing them with hooks. There are thousands of nails on the roof so this isn't a very rational way to deal with the roof except in the short term.
I've got all the plaster mouldings at the front needing painting up. The wood frames on the porch etc need painting, and windows at the side and some at the back are still single glazed timber framed and while not rotted out are basically made of paint.
I guess I'm just so stressed I can't prioritise or muster up the motivation to do things except which are crying out for attention. I've got old wall mounted gas heaters in some rooms which need disconnecting, bricking up and making good and then the interior will need plaster repairs and decorating. Doesn't make sense to do them until I'm possibly rewiring because that will disturb the plaster on those walls in those rooms as well.
I paid maybe 50 grand below rate for this house 'done'.
Anyway, I guess I'm just venting. Basically the problem is.
>Tackle jobs as they appear due to being urgent.
Tends to be a huge waste of time and money because you repeat work like cleaning, decorating and disposing of waste a bunch of times because jobs lead to other jobs.
>Tackle one or two major jobs a year lumped together in some sort of priority, IE roof alongside guttering and fascias, soffits, barge boards, pointing due to having scaffolding up.
Costs pretty much 90% of my income after priority bills and because I'm paying others it is about as expensive as the first way, just less soul and time consuming.
Basically at my current speed of work and income this house is going to take 20 years to sort out. I don't think I'll remain sane nor will my relationship. I'm considering selling it but then I'm concerned that I'm going to encounter hundreds of idiots trying to knock it down because it is what it is, an older house requiring work doing to it to bring it up to a high standard.
Then what? Buy something modern in a shit area which is designed for people who like to work and watch TV to occupy?
Urghh I'm just venting I guess. I think this would be easier if I had someone else on my side.
My gf can't understand why I'm not decorating the 1960's decor upstairs because I'm like we aren't decorating until the roof is done because the ceiling is water damaged and will need ripping down and replacing or boarding over and I'm not doing that until I'm ready to fit central heating in this room because of the mess and I'm not doing that until the floor comes up which isn't happening until I rewire and I'm not doing that until the roof is done.
Old properties are like beautiful women, they're only happy when they have your undivided attention and than you spend all you money on them.
Dude, just keep it together. You got this.
I'd say forget the stopgap measures for now; you're just wasting your time doing work that you'll have to do again later. If the roof needs replacing, replace the roof. Once you have a solid roof over your head, then you can move onto the other big things that need doing.
As far as the gf goes, you gotta do what you gotta do. Think about how much you like her vs the satisfaction you're gonna get out of repairing the house. If you're drifting apart, you may want to break it off now instead of letting it slowly fall apart.
Not to be an ass, but you got what you asked for.
You've been shortsighted and underestimated the work a homeowner has to do in general, and possibly being a little naive when buying the property in regards of what work needs to be done to your new house specifically.
Now that you realize this, know this, and accepted this, it's time to take a step back and look at what to do.
Obviously you're already doing that (or you wouldn't be posting here), so what I'm saying might be a bit too obvious, and half of it you probably already have done. But maybe it helps if someone else is saying it, and maybe you forgot one or two things.
First of all: the grass is always greener on the other side. All possibilities have their ups and downs, and every change is bringing a big risk. Every future change is, again, gonna bring a new risk. Getting back to renting or selling and getting a new house might be financially unfeasible, especially considering the risk of having to do just as much work in a new house. And don't forget that all this work you're doing is a investition. For your kids or your retirement one day or to sell.
So before you decide to ditch this house, you should really assess your situation properly, AFTER you figuratively take a step back, take a deep breath and separated yourself from your exhaustion.
Maybe you just need to take a weekend off from time to time.
cont.
>>928465
cont.
Get a priority list up and get organized if you haven't already. Discuss it with your girlfriend, and see at what points you can get help. Friends or family? Consider the time spend (=value) on doing something yourself vs the money spend (=value) letting someone else do it.
Try to organize yourself in a way that you can see clear, concise goals that are reachable in a reasonable time- and money- frame. Basically, get milestones so you can keep seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, while at the same time looking back and see that it's going forward.
Don't forget to reward yourself (and your gf) from time to time. You can't just work nonstop, you need breaks, not the least to take a step back and review, reorganize, and marvel at all the stuff you managed to do.
Reached a small milestone? Go out with your gf, treat yourself to a fancy dinner. Reached a major milestone? Buy that new TV you wanted or take a weekend off hiking somewhere.
>tl:dr;
Organize yourself in a way you can see your progress and not loose track. Put up a schedule. Take breaks if you need to. Keep your goal in mind.
"Dude, just keep it together. You got this."
>>928466
>loose track.
*lose
Sorry.
>>928451
For the house: yeah, lol. You started by doing projects that wernt important like the historical walls that were just going to sit there for another 50 years without needing maintenance. Now your roof is leaking, youre buttmad that you need to /diy/. Its nice to do simple ground level projects. Entirely different to do tricky jobs like that roof. Just next time it rains, get in the roof and look for where the water is coming through. One cracked tile , blocked valleys, downpipes, flashing gutters not angled properly. Could be anything.
Ignore all cosmetic work for now. Make do with what you have. Assess foundation, drainage, structure. Dont fucking waste time replacing every cracked brick if your gutters are pooling water in a corner of the house, making it sink.
As for the gf: you have house, car and job. The only reason to keep her around is because you choose her, above all other woman. Otherwise go drown yourself in barely legal vagoo. It feels nicer, they dont complain about anything. Also, dont expect a woman to ever understand you. Either just get her pregnant now you have the house, car, gf, job stack or fuck her off for something younger.
>>928466
Also, it'd be better to marry the bitch with a prenup than to just have her be your 'girlfriend' you've been living with for years. That's as good as married under common law for most judges and you'll still get fucked by her if she feels like it.
Being married slightly increases your chances of not getting fucked at this point, especially if you get a prenup in, that'll be binding.
>>928451
>Removed and rebuild an asbestos outbuilding with a single level single pitched roof garage so I'd have a clean, dry workshop.
I hope you had that professionally decommissioned?
>>928461
This rings true. Very true. I think I bought it seeking a substantial sense of purpose and direction in life, ie almost never ending 'hobby'. I enjoy learning new skills and putting them into practice, but I just think I underestimated because previously I'd move onto a new distracting obsession every 12 months, I never had to show commitment and follow through, always was content being the 'I could have always xyz'.
>>928463
Yeah I can afford to get the roof professionally replaced this year. I'm just pissed off because it'll cost around 7 grand and NOBODY has replaced the roof on this place, now I'm the guy stung with doing it. The guy across the street from me is a roofer and he can't see why I'm bothered, he says my roof is in good shape and just to keep doing minor repairs twice a year unless I plan on dying in this house let it be the next guys problem like every other guy before me.
>>928465
Yeah I underestimated, I thought I'd wake up with a new head the next day and so would my gf. I thought I'd have endless energy and optimism for a new project, but turns out I've got about 18 months in me. You are totally right about grass seeming greener, I'm in a very favourable situation compared to other situations. Yes I do need time off.
>>928466
Starting a time frame just puts me in 'prime house to sell' mode because I want to sell it on and with the proceeds buy a plot of land more remote and self build something very simple with room for a business, this is my 10-20 year plan.
>>928497
I know where the problems are on the roof, it is just nails rot off, slates slip, water gets in, I've got to go and strip some slate, nail it back, fix the final one with a hook, just because they are all progressively rotting, I'm having to do roughly 3-4 slates a year and it'll only get worse with time. No problems with timbers, ridges, downpipes, drainage etc.
>>928527
Asbestos building was /diy/ but correctly. FFP3 respirator, plastic sheeting, proper clean up.
>>928527
Also wanted to add in, why the need for professional input in doing such work? Professional is a nice word, often paired up with 'peace of mind', but human beings put it there and human beings are employed to take it away again.
There is a specific methodology of work involved in doing so which if followed minimises risk to yourself and others. I did quite a lot of research, and decided it wasn't beyond me.
I still priced up the cost with several professional companies, disagreed with several of them either on what I felt was an attempt to capitalise on fear and charge too much for 'peace of mind' or even on their proposed method and chose to follow the health and safety executive guidelines and methodology to the letter.
It's hard to believe your roof will be replaced for 7 grand... are you installing asphalt instead of slate (like 100K probably)? In the states anyway they're uber expensive as most contractors charge a premium for anything more than lego assembly.
>>928551
100k? What is that figure compared to the price of buying the house in the first place?! Seems crazy.
Pay 4 guys 100-150 a day for a 5 day job. 2k labour. 1.5k for scaffolding and waste disposal. Assume 3k for materials with a little bit for contingency?
At 100k how many people are you paying and for how long? The quickest way to cost a job is pretty much to do that first, you need how many skilled and how many unskilled labourers? What is a fair days pay for each? How long will the job take? You don't need to pay master craftspeople top rate for months to re-lay a roof anon.
>The guy across the street from me is a roofer and he can't see why I'm bothered, he says my roof is in good shape and just to keep doing minor repairs twice a year unless I plan on dying in this house let it be the next guys problem like every other guy before me.
- see? some solid professional advice, right there - do you listen? - do you fuck.
You GF will end up running off with the roofer, you not careful - you maybe pissed off a bit now, wait till your doing all this shit alone. There two sides to everything, and, desu, I can see her POV (and she has my entire sympathies) already. You charging at this like a bear with sore head, head-first through the wall - if your not actually fixing nonsensical crap (fixing a slate at a time, etc.) your worrying about how to do something else.
Old houses dont work like that, nor do they 'get finished' - the ride. literally, never ends. Cut yourself and GF a bit of slack with this already, chill out, and think about something else for a bit - otherwise, this is not ending well. What you need is a hobby dude :) no srsly.
>>928569
Fair points anon, but the guy is a professional roofer. He has access to the materials constantly and only needs to find time before or after other work during daylight and clear weather when he is setup to go immediately. I've got to have daylight and clear weather outside of a 9-5 and get all my ladders out and dress for it. Summer isn't a problem, but winter when this shit needs sorting out most often relies on a dry weekend and I've got to get all my shit out. It is much easier for him to nip up on a clear afternoon coming home early with his ladders on his van already dressed for it.
Before buying this house I've never had to go up on a roof. Assuming clear weather, this weekend will be the fourth time in 18months.
Also working at height aside, shit is dangerous. Last two which came down missed my car by inches. Don't want to decapitate the mail man during high winds?
First man, keep it together.
Secondly have you looked at selling it? Surely you could at least break even if you ignored the roof and repainted everything.
>I'm in a similar boat but everything is in fine shape. I just keep cooking up projects and can't stop.
Sounds like you've gotta be close to rebuilding the whole damn thing.
Lastly, if you wanna keep the girl, let her decorate it. You'll have to remove it all later, but it'll make her happy in the interim.
hi anon, where is your house located? burgerland or bongland? slate roof specialists are hard to come by here in burgerstan.
>leaky slate roof
>still not fixed decades later
join the club
>>928594
She is just at a different place to me I guess. I could only afford to buy the place because I had significant savings and a half decent job. She is just out of postgraduate education and earns like a 3rd of what I do and spends that on further training and education, she doesn't even have a car. I view her as kind of spoilt, she wants undergraduate education, postgraduate education, further training, a casual job and volunteer roles leading to a fulfilling career, frequent international holidays, a decent period property with beautiful gardens. She just doesn't seem prepared to realise that these things take years, a decade or more to pay off and require more than work followed by sleep during your down time.
>>928594
I have been considering selling it and buying a little shit box which is ultra modern and needs very little doing to it, just a place to live. I think I'd be very unhappy in suburbia though with the feeling of 'going nowhere' except passing life with safe typical distraction outside of work. I need to be busy, I need to be learning and doing and meeting goals and feeling like I'm progressing towards something.
I'm not close to rebuilding the whole thing, but getting the roof in great shape, getting modern central heating in. Finishing double or triple glazing, new doors, renovated and restored woodwork, cosmetic work on the exterior brick work/pointing/replacing the old damaged brickwork, sympathetic decorating inside, a new bathroom, new kitchen. The house will be beautiful and worth quite a lot of money.
Like I said I paid roughly 50k below the asking price for a house in average condition, it shouldn't cost more than 50k to get it to excellent/great condition. One further down the street which had been cured with a smaller garden, no garage, no driveway or off road parking recently sold for 185k. I bought this one for 105k. Also significant amount of it was cash, I owe 12k on the place so my outgoings are very low servicing my mortgage.
i bought my house six month ago and took a year off to fix it up to my level. I Went more or less room to room, floor to floor. I guess im finished in 3 month and can go back to work. i Think for me that was the best way to tackle this.
Drunk residential carpenter here.
We just moved on from a full gut on an early 1900's house (1904? Im pretty sure) It was the biggest pain in the ass job we have ever had. It took us 5 months from footings to finishes to complete a 30'x18' 2 story addition the job before, and this old, decaying, brick monster piece of shit took every bit of 18 months, 3 full time carpenters and all the trades to get to it a modern standard plus a 10'x12' addition on the back.
Shit plaster falling apart if you look at it wrong, to the two chimneys being taken down and rebuilt and lined, floors refinished, 3 stories worth of stairs and hand-carved mouldings and casings being stripped of a hundred years of paint and lacquer and repainted, new appliances, modern kitchen, replaced shit wood porch with brick and limestone.....
Tons of shit, tons of problems, re-working, going through plans A, B, C, D....etc.
But after it was all done and the finishes were in and painted, it was probably the most badass and one of a kind looking houses I have ever worked on. Big ass original trim and wood panels everywhere, modern kitchen and appliances, house wired with sound system and data cables, brand new slate roof....we turned that shithole into at least a million dollar house (Homeowner bought it for $190,000, put easily $900,000 into it, saw some contracts that were in the hundreds of thousands.)
We always tell homeowners, "We can do anything you want, all it takes is time and money." Those houses suck every minute of the way, but god damn are they worth it.
>central air
a nightmare in those older homes. You might consider one (well, an array of several) "ductless" split-system AC units. Apparently they have been popular in asia for the same reason of remodeling/upgrading homes that cant fit a ducted AC/heat system, just like your victorian pile. You route insulated refrigerant lines, power and controls all together through small spaces, from outdoor units to slim and hopefully quiet wall-mounted units. Not cheap but supposed to be energy efficient and clean as well as turning impossible tasks into something doable.
>>928451
Wow you sound like me and my partner
If you can get any money together to get someone else to do the Bitch jobs you can't face, do it.
You focus on doingshit that stops the house getting damaged and write a step by step list of some girl type jobs for her. Then give her the stuff to do it. Youll find that shell possibly be quite happy doing that and youll ague less.
Things like rubbing down window ledges, stripping paper or undercoating skirting boards.
Good luck. Were just about ready to kill ourselves in our own attic
>>929302
They're popular in Asia because they're mass-produced and off-the-shelf. They don't need some wank-shaft with a certificate to design the system, there's absolutely no way the system can be designed wrong, and if the units go wrong, anyone with basic tools can replace them.
They're automatically the right size for your house, because rooms are all the same size, and everbody lives in the same climate as the shop that sells them.
Because everyone's buying the exact same units, they're cheap as chips.
Multiple split units are the future. No homeowner needs a bespoke snowflake duct system.
>>929302
Oh, and if one part of one AC fails, you still have AC in most of the house, whereas if one part of a central system fails you're living in a sauna/steam-room until you can get some guy to come out and fix it.
>>929302
I'm planning on installing 2 Mitsubishi mini-splits for my 2 story house remodel. It evens out to be the same price as a 95% Ef. furnace and no ductwork. 12 grand thou on the west coast US.
Bro keep it together, it sounds like you've been doing great so far. I've been in my house for just about 3 years now and I've done so much DIY shit, so I know where your coming from. It feels like it never ends. So far I've -
>ripped out urine soaked carpet from previous owners dogs
>leveled concrete as best I could
>installed new wood floors
>installed/painted new floor molding
>installed/painted new laundry room double doors
>replaced every single outlet and light switch in the house
>fixed upstairs squeaky floor in each room
>re-attached broken air ducts
>re-vented ac heat
>installed new water heater
>installed all new toilet paper holders, towel holders, etc. House didn't come with any, not sure how I missed that.
>re-painted master bedroom and bathroom
>touch up paint everywhere else
>re-painted insides of cabinets
>fixed broken dishwasher
>rebuilt floor cabinet shelf that rotted because the dishwasher was leaking
>replaced motor and transmission on washing machine
>fixed squeaky dryer
>installed replacement toilet
>installed replacement faucet on leaky sink and new basket for the drain
>removed shelf in cabinet to add more space
>re-keyed garage door lock and grind down the upper lock slot to make more space for lock to slide into
>replaced all weather stripping on exterior doors
>pressure washed driveway
>removed 5 large trees and hauled them off. Was 6 trailer loads in total
>removed all tree stumps as well
>removed old flowerbed and planted grass in its place
>rebuilt fences
>fixed upstairs leaking bathtub. Had to punch a hole in the garage ceiling to access it.
>painted garage
>got the garage outside light working
Damn the more I write this the more pissed off I'm getting. I'm spending all of this money to make this place work, and why? So the next guy can enjoy it? I'm not going to retire here, so it's kind of like what's the point. But I figure while I'm hear I might as well make the most of it. Just hang in there dude.
>>929544
cont.
It wears you down. I got to the point where I was getting stressed out big time. My marriage was suffering because all I did was work on the house and didn't have time for anything else. I just wanted to live in the house and not have to work on it if you know what I mean. But it comes with the territory. I bought the best house I could for my money and I saw the potential in it. Looking back now, "seeing the potential" means it's not there yet, but with work it will be. But unfortunately that means doing a lot of work. It's fucking exhausting I know bro. But you'll get to a point where you slowly get caught up and your "to do" list gets smaller and smaller. Stay the course because when that starts to happen it's a good feeling. I figure this is good practice for my forever home so if I fuck something up at least I'll know how to do it better next time. Now I get a lot of compliments on my house and it feels really good to hear them because I put my heart and soul into making it nice. Sometimes it's nice to vent your frustrations. Just remember we're here for you with any questions you have or need help with. Plenty of knowledgeable people on this sub who know how to do it, or have been down that road and know what to look for/avoid, etc. when doing a certain project.
Hang in there and best of luck.
>>929333
Good advice in my experience. I've gotten in over my head with a 1920's bungalow - everything I fixed exposed 2 more problems. Wasn't long before my partner was sick of my unending and expensive "hobby."
Make a list and keep it around. Adding something new is easier when you can still see all the "done" items. Ignore anything small until you need a quick win to keep the spirits up.
Get the partner involved, because if you can't do this together, it ain't gonna work out with her in the long run anyway. Even if she's not really helping. Conversation & company makes things more fun, even if they take a bit longer, and celebrating a task done is better with two.
Lastly: buy the right damn tools. Get a new saw blade. Pick up another spare battery. Get the right-sized ladder. Money spent here just makes life easier.
>>928458
What state are you in op? I'm currently looking to make some extra cash, I'd LOVE to help you do some work on that house if we live in the same area. I don't really have experience, but I'm young and a fast learner.
Stick at it, it will always kinda suck to be working at a house where you're supposed to live at the same time. As nice as it is to have a workspace it's horrible when the entire house is at that level.
Best help I can give is to prioritise and split the work into achievable pieces. The roof is generally a point to get over with since once that's done you're not really fighting a losing battle any more. Same goes for drainage btw, moisture is your worst foe.
For the interior I recommend taking on a room at a time, here you'll have to prioritise depending on what rooms you need and how much in need they are but also consider what rooms can be used in the downtime. Renovating kitchen? Can you use another room as a half-decent kitchen in the meanwhile? Dust barriers between rooms is another God-send. Whether it's a door or just a simple frame made from 2x2s and covered with construction plastic.
>>929578
Also remember that for rewiring you don't really have to do the whole house at once, just make sure to wire the one room you're doing up to standard and connect that to where it was connected before. If you plan it well you can add more and leave it unconnected in the connection box, once you do the next room you can wire it another step towards the fuse box.
>>929544
Congratulations on all the work so far, I just started out ranting about some of the stuff done, but it really is never ending. Like I've three small outbuildings, one was the original toilet from before the house had an indoor bathroom or even a bathroom and had been converted into quite a nice little 'garden' toilet.
The toilet seat was broken and the fixtures needed removing with an angle grinder at a godforsaken angle as was the membrane on the flusher unit and so the cistern had to be removed from the wall to replace it and the steel fixtures had rusted so badly (what asshole doesn't just use brass fixtures?!) they simply rounded off. I had to cut them off the wall and drill them, then cut a thread into them, insert bolts and basically tear them out of the wall.
The wall behind the cistern then needed a patch of mortar, then a patch of plaster and a fresh skim coat before painting and once it was all dried out I could replace the flush unit and remount the cistern. Don't even get me started on the wiring for the little 15W heater which was mounted inside a section of pipe bolted to the wall which lacked a thermostatic control and needed to be manually turned on and off throughout winter to prevent the pipes out there freezing. Or the ancient drain to the building that is basically designed to take a little rainwater off the roof not the massive handfuls of toilet tissue the modern world insist on using.
The more I think about it the more like you the more angered I get, but as has been said before, the ride never ends.
I talked to an electrician today and he says I don't need to rewire or even replace the consumer unit. The 1970's consumer unit can have push fit Wylex MCB's retrofitted and as the supply is well grounded where it enters the house via the supply line I can fit an RCD before the consumer unit to bring it up to a modern level of protection.
So good news?
>>929584
Except I've just checked out the consumer unit to see which MCB's I need to buy for it and the mountings which secure the board it is secured to have failed in the plaster, so basically with a wiggle the whole consumer unit/fuse board can be pulled back and forth from the wall. This isn't major, maybe power off, fixings out, fill the holes out with some shit and then re-drill and mount or maybe even just squirt a shit load of mastic or similar behind the board and push it back into place and drill it with some oversize screws, but THE RIDE NEVER ENDS..
>>928451
love its character !!
how much did you pay for it . i love victorian erea shit .
>>928451
ok so our reno
2 kids, lived in front part of house gutted back. Ripped everything out left wtith only shell and main floor, put every thing in.
live in back
do main part of house
took about a year and 1/2, though its still going.
I did quite a bit myself but alot by contractors. some were shit and I redid the work
scope
plumbing all
3 bathrooms
take out 5 walls
2 kitchens (main one upstairs, sub boss one down stairs)
laundry entire celling and insulation
2 skylights
deck fence
internal floor rip up slate
6~7 skips of crap hauled out....
went to court against a few of the contractors
so many had to be closely supervised...redo work.
one plumber for example manged to to a gas fitting 3 times and have it leak
the reno is still going.
So yeah not, urs is not to bad, as you don't have the kids as well, plus the going to court.
However we did pick the property well so in a fairly ok spot and waifu and architect/project manager, so we got the best deals, thought we shoped around for them. Eg the 2xkitchens and laundry, was about $15K, if we had gone to a normal place it would have been 40~50K for that much kitchen and our quality is top notch, eg 3 x blum hinges on smaller cupboard doors so they do not sag. Most kitchen installers do not care about manufactures specs for hinge strengh.
The stone guy tried to rip us of by giving us a no name brand (installed it) found out about it got compensation.
prolly had 50K~100K worth of architecture design into it due to wife and friends. So all up cost 100~120K to do, but added 500K to house easily aslo area went up alot, so wen from 1 M to maybe 2.2M all done.
Similar situation here adnon,
16 years of working at hotel. watching all my friends make more money than me. yes I have a degree. just f-ing quit one day and haven't even tried to find another job. everyone thinking I lost my mind. decide I have to take some risk in life.
had the opportunity to buy a victorian house with slate roof over 5000 sq ft. for the remaining mortgage which was $60K. but honestly it was the scope of the repairs I couldn't get my mind around. So I thought I'm going to start smaller. I'm actually sure I won't make as much money but for some reason I just thought it would be better to start small scale. I don't think the victorian is even a deal I would get again in this life but for some reason I couldn't get my mind around it.
Ended up buying a foreclosure 1920's house with 1400 sq ft with not as much wrong for $110000. That is actually a good deal where its at.
Sometimes my wife says things that cause me to lose it. I'm thinking well at least the cabinets are new. She says do you think we can get new cabinets that are a better color. "b***h do you know how much cabinets costs" in my head. Out loud I say cabinets are very expensive.
If your girlfriend isn't contributing money I wouldn't worry about her opinions at all. I also wouldn't consider rewiring a house just because I felt like it needed rewiring.
I had to hire an electrician because the power meter had been pulled. He was so cheap I just decided to pay him to do a bunch more stuff. Just get your neighbor and like two other estimates on your roof. I don't even have a job and i'm a diehard DIY but if its not your skillset just let it go. Also I'm told they make a product now that looks like the slate roof but isn't and most people around here go with that product. I watched my neighbor get a new roof on a pretty large house with a team of hispanics in probably 5 hours. You just can't compete with something like that if you are not a roofer.
>>931202
same adnon, I want the details about the neighbor arguments?
Das a nice house, mang
>>931202
lol at saying things in your head to wifey
>>928451
I'm in a victorian 16 room house. Got it for £20k in 2000. The whole side of the hosue had to be demolished and many HUGE tasks were needed to be undertaken. It's 16 years down the line and its still not finished. At least its gone from no gas + 1 socket to lots of sockets and gas.
Just stay put and it will be sick bruv.
My dad and some cousins used to live in a nice 3 story house near the bay when he was a kid. It later got abandoned or some crazy shit and then it was a mess. It got it turned Into a historical site for the city, completely remodeled and now some rich Jew ceos live there. Your options were , save up the money to do all of the fixes beforehand or learn to be happy with moderate shit until its done. A good example is building a computer, you could save up all of the money and get it all done at one time, or take your time and deal with the problems like incompatibility as they come.
>removed fences
If the fences and walls are on your property, not your problem. That's theirs. I have neighbors with fences on their propertty. One decided he wanted to tear his down, but took his sweet damn time putting a new one up. So I put up a fence he doesn't think goes with his garden plan, and I basically said, "You didn't consult me with the teardown, so it's not my problem if you don't like the fence on my property."
He tried to attach to it, and I pointed out if he did, I could take whatever he put on it off. And I did - and kicked it into his yard. He eventually got the point and hasn't done anything to it since.
He's an asshole, though, and I've been cheerfully calling the cops on him for pretty much anything at this point. He tried to permit for an illegal building on his lot, and I called him out on it. Since then, he's been renting his place out and living at his girlfriend's.
>>933635
The other thing that drives me up the wall:
>bought it to remodel so I can learn new skills
Every time I see this, I think:
For fuck's sake.
Seriously? Seriously. You're living in a house that is an investment. You don't buy a shitty old car so you can learn how to fix it and get some skills unless you have SOME idea how the whole thing works, and you have the ability and finances to sink into some expensive upgrades as required. I dream of rebuilding a '57 Chevy rat rod, but I have no clue how to rebuild an engine, or how to paint it, or how to do upholstery, so rather than have my yard / garage look like a shithole, I don't.
My next door neighbor (not the asshole from >>933635) is an architect / builder, and I got the chance to go through his house over the summer.
He KNOWS what he's doing. He has an electrician on payroll. And he has four rooms he "hasn't gotten to yet" in the house that are what I'd call critical - like the master bath, an office upstairs, part of the kitchen, and the primary living area.
It's not that he doesn't have the money - it's that he's taking his time to do it by himself.
And this is why his wife left him. Eventually she just said, "I'm so done with living in construction", packed her shit, and bought a house that was complete from top to bottom.
My place, on the other hand, gets done a project at a time. I redid the bathroom, gutted out the detached garage, rebuilt the fence, and the next big one is to get full house electrical updated - down to going into the drywall and pulling all wires to get it up to code.
Eventually I'll add another story to the house, along with a rooftop deck (including a slide from the top of the house to the garden, because I'm old enough to decide if I want something ridiculous like that if I want on my house).
The point is, you DON'T half-ass each project. You keep in mind the critical path you need to accomplish each project and keep your options available to complete future projects.
>>933648
Our town has weird "easement" (for lack of the correct word) rules where you have to put the fence on your property so far from the property line basically it makes the person who built the fence look like they have a small ass yard. But everyone always attaches but if both people were off the property line it would be a strange path down the middle.
>>928586
>before buying this house I've never had to go up on a roof
You are so far out of your league here it's painful to read.
Better make good friends with some contractors.
Good luck, I'm out.
>>933827
I think OP is gone. I hope the roof didn't kill him
>>928451
you know if you were renting you wouldn't be in that situation
>>928451
Do like TI and get on yo job, nigga
