The Home Ownership Thread



Piobaire said:

Spent some time at the new place today while waiting on a furniture delivery. I just ******* love it. I could go on and on but will just say, I ******* love it. Everything from solid alder 8' doors to the endless granite counters to the huge shower in the master suite with multiple shower heads...I just ******* love it.

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Very nice -- my wife in particular hates our cheap "sandwich" doors.



eg1 said:

It was quite common in southern Ontario at one time (our house was built around 1980 or so), and is still often done in new construction, particularly on the sides and backs of houses (brick all the way up the front, but only half way on sides and back). The more contemporary look has much narrower (thinner?) slats than the ones on our street, and I think there is more vinyl now than aluminum.
As for the stucco thing, I think they remove the siding first and go with some sort of panel over the bricks and the formerly sided areas before applying the new surface.

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Now that you mention it, our previous house was done the same way (I had totally forgotten), and I hated it when it came time to paint, because I don't handle heights well. But I never faced replacing the siding since it was a cement/fiberglass composite (good for 50 years, supposedly). The current house is brick on the sides and wood on the back, inside the horseshoe, and garage. And part of the front, too. Some areas of the house, I have no idea how they put the siding up. Actually, I can probably figure it out, but I hate having to consider it. May break down and rent scaffolding.



Thomas said:

Now that you mention it, our previous house was done the same way (I had totally forgotten), and I hated it when it came time to paint, because I don't handle heights well. But I never faced replacing the siding since it was a cement/fiberglass composite (good for 50 years, supposedly). The current house is brick on the sides and wood on the back, inside the horseshoe, and garage. And part of the front, too. Some areas of the house, I have no idea how they put the siding up. Actually, I can probably figure it out, but I hate having to consider it. May break down and rent scaffolding.

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You've mentioned this a couple of times -- what is a "horseshoe"?

Wood siding sounds like a frightful maintenance hassle. I suspect that is why aluminum and vinyl are so popular around here. I wonder why aluminum never caught on in your region?



eg1 said:

Never heard of it -- will consider, thanks.
I assume this is one of those "HOA" things I had never heard of until it cropped up in the Trayvon thread? Strikes me as odd that this phenomenon is so popular in what I take to be a more "individualistic" culture of the US as opposed to our squishy communitarian leftism up here in Canadia ...
We have a "half-siding" house (the upper half -- lower half is brick), and I do not like it at all. It's from the late '70s/early 80's, so the "slats" are very wide. When the time comes I am thinking maybe covering everything (siding and brick) with stucco. What do you think?

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unless it's a tudor, stucco is the work of the devil, commonly called fucco here as it's use ***** with the property value



eg1 said:

You've mentioned this a couple of times -- what is a "horseshoe"?
Wood siding sounds like a frightful maintenance hassle. I suspect that is why aluminum and vinyl are so popular around here. I wonder why aluminum never caught on in your region?

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The house is laid out in a horseshoe (or U) shape around a courtyard. I guess it's architecturally interesting compared to the big-box designs but there's more to deal with.

As for aluminum, I suspect that our summers probably discouraged that.

Okay, put in my first order for siding and have a nail gun now. Nothing's ready yet, so I instead pulled and re-framed the casement window in baby girl's room. That was about 5 hours' work, with a stop in the middle for a quick dinner with the in-laws.

Unscrewed some covers in the AV stack. Now have the built in speakers on the patio, in the den (now my wine room), the library, the dining room, and the breakfast nook all labeled and working well. Tasks remaining would be L/R surround and Rear with the pre-wired speakers. Will be using some front and sub-woofer to add to 7.1 and casual stereo in the main living area.

Goddammit, the next house I buy will be a yurt.

Don't own a house, but a co-op apartment, which I like...a lot of the headaches of home ownership are covered by my maintenance fees (including the electric bill). Only problem is if you have ****** neighbors...which so far (knock on wood) we've been pretty lucky. When we moved in, there was an 80 year old guy next door who kept hiring 50 year old hookers. At one point, one of em knocked on my door asking to borrow $20. I gave it to her, told her if she ever bothered me or my wife again (before kids) I'd rip her throat out, and called management who subsequently evicted the old dude.

First real project was installing two ceiling fans in the living room which went really well...total cost, $350 and one day with a buddy and beers. He recently bought an adjacent apartment upstairs next to his current one and did a GREAT expansion. Only prob is he'll prob be stuck here for the duration, as selling it will be difficult with that much of a maintenance fee per month on top of the mortgage...one day I'd like a small house round here, hopefully by the time I'm 45 (just 10 years).



Piobaire said:

Wood looks the best but is a nightmare for keeping up.
Aluminum can look very, very nice. While it requires no upkeep it is not a thermal break.
Vinyl is the ugly sister of the bunch but it has both no upkeep and is a thermal break.
Talking windows here. Not a fan of either aluminum or vinyl siding.

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Pictures?

I'm in full gardening swing these days. I grew up with parents who loved gardening - their gardens have been featured in magazines and one is about to be in a book - but I've always hated it. Never understood why anyone would want to go outside and dig around in the mud or memorize what flowers look like.

Until now. Something has awakened in me in the past two months, and I'm suddenly a fiend for getting out and working out there.

Unfortunately I'm learning it's no cheaper than any of my other hobbies. Mulch, soil, pots, urns, planters, tiller, mower repair, tools, plants. Wow. Dropped a few hundo at the Depot just yesterday, prolly on my way back tomorrow. I'm going to wake up early tomorrow to pick up a truckload of mulch before work. What the F has gotten into me?

Also - and I'll have to take photos - I'm trying to restore an old church-style bell that is perched atop my studio outbuilding. Looks like it will need some WD-40, some jerry-rigging, and some ingenuity. Hard part is going to be getting the clapper to work as designed without doing the double-ring thing, I think. And I have no idea what I'm doing here.

BrianVarick said:

Piobaire said:

Wood looks the best but is a nightmare for keeping up.
Aluminum can look very, very nice. While it requires no upkeep it is not a thermal break.
Vinyl is the ugly sister of the bunch but it has both no upkeep and is a thermal break.
Talking windows here. Not a fan of either aluminum or vinyl siding.

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Pictures?

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Not sure what you want here, Brian. Are you requesting I Google examples of each for you?

Douglas, good for you! Hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of your new found hobby. Me? I'm all about paver stones, low maint. plants, and gardeners.



Douglas said:

(...)
Also - and I'll have to take photos - I'm trying to restore an old church-style bell that is perched atop my studio outbuilding. Looks like it will need some WD-40, some jerry-rigging, and some ingenuity. Hard part is going to be getting the clapper to work as designed without doing the double-ring thing, I think. And I have no idea what I'm doing here.

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Your house sounds more and more awesome as you post. The bell sounds daunting but I'm sure you can get it squared away - just watch out for the weight, they can get damn heavy.

read the fist post and learned what ITT means!!!!

Double post