I bought a house...

[mindymogul]

Yep. I did something I said I'd never do and bought a proper house. Granted I'm back in the same crappy state I started off in but at least I know the house because I helped build it. Long story short it ended up on the market after an estate battle and snagged it for about 40% it's worth. It came a long way since 1997 and it's got a lot more to do. After about $12k worth of exterior repairs she should be set. Only down side is it has some spooky ghosties roamin' around in it. (Latched doors open, blinds unfold themselves, loud boot steps, sounds of coughing and wheezing right beside me) Also. Basement shop FTW!

And they say women can't build...

Funfact: That bench right there is a cobbler bench build in 1826. It came from the very same house my great great grandparents to my father grew up in which still stands to this day as a doctor's office. That same house I was born in.

 

[supermanotorious]

congratulations!

 

[mindymogul]

I'm not sure if it is or not. Just found out I have to replace the downstairs bathroom and master bedroom floors as well as the interior stairs. The plumbing was done with 3/4" PEX but for some reason the pipes going to the showers were done with 1/2" copper which busted. Whoever designed the plumbing for this place deserves to have their eyeballs removed with said copper pipe. Probably the same person who decided that a switch in the a cupboard in the kitchen should turn on the vent fan in the upstairs bathroom (Which has no switches at all)

 

[Kartorbust]

It was probably the previous owners that did that. PEX is still very new to the market, so that's provably the newest work done. The copper sounds original to the house (though surprised the didn't last longer???). Least you got a pretty good deal on the house.

 

[mindymogul]

The house was built in 1997 and it was refurbished in 2007 with Pex. I left before the plumbing was dealt with due to a fresh newborn and I only knew electrical and carpentry at the time so thats all I did. The original plumbing was PVC which broke EVERY winter due to ****poor insulation. The manifold for the water is copper but the rest is Pex which is causing some corrosion sediment issues. I'll have to redo the entire plumbing and get rid of the horrible 3gpm Flothru water heater and get one that can handle 33gpu. That has to support 2 showers, 6 sinks, and 3 outdoor taps. Its deffinitely a project like no other (for me at least) but its better than a 500sqft apt above the air compressors in my old shop.

 

[anickode]

Congratulations and Welcome to the club! Home ownership is worth the frustrations IMO. My house was built in '96 and fortunately, it was well constructed. All upsized copper plumbing, well insulated, etc.

The downfall here was the electrical. Not ONE label in the panel when I bought the place... Only an index card taped to the panel cover, and every circuit was marked "plugs", "lights", or "stove", and the "stove" was actually the 30a 240v line that was capped off in a blank box behind the gas dryer. Just about went crazy trying to figure out why my master bathroom GFI kept tripping... Turned out the front porch receptacle is tapped off it... At the other end of the house. One half of a kitchen receptacle on the end of the peninsula that was wired to the basement lights... I came to the conclusion that they must have kept a night light plugged in there as a reminder if the basement lights were on. The old home owner definitely had his grubby little fingers on the electrical because there is a distinct difference in logic and quality between typical stuff the builder would have done, and stuff that was clearly added after the fact.

When I finished the basement, I decided to get the electric for the whole house totally sorted before I closed up the ceiling. It took me two full days to sort out all the crossed up circuits where junction boxes had been added in and circuits tapped and tied together. Ended up ripping out a ton of stuff and just redoing it. In the long run it was worth it. I traced every receptacle and light to the breakers that service them, labelled the whole panel. Added the circuits for the basement, ran some substantial 240v power to the garage for welders and my compressor, put a 30a 240v line to the shed for generator hookup. All-in, I pulled about 800' of new wire, between the partial rewire and the new additions.

Problem now is I'm out of space.

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

You're lucky. My house was built in 1949, has 100 amp service. I am sad.

 

[anickode]

You're lucky. My house was built in 1949, has 100 amp service. I am sad.

I only have 150 amp, and my service is underground.

But I have gas dryer, furnace, water heater, and I switched over to gas stove, so I can run the most of the house on my 5kw generator in a power outage, and it frees up some demand for other things.

 

[mindymogul]

I have 200a into the house, 100a into the garage then 50a to the RV slab. A transfer switch was already wired in but I installed my own today. Also found out it had a heated metal roof but was never tapped in and the only way to do so is cut up the entire house to run the wire. I also wanna run 240 out to the field so if I decide to host vent or whatever I can easily drop it to 120. What sucks is nobody thought to run 240 to where the oven is because the designer thought it's be a waste since the stove is propane. How ever there's a 240 tap in the utility room so if someone wanted to move an oven in there...

But the plumbing is the least of my worries at this point. At some point the foundation shifted which caused parts of it to break apart, so they need to be repaired or the house section separated and lifted and the foundation replaced. The insulation isn't too bad. At 25* it held between 75-50* for about a day then the heaters came back on when the new tank was installed. Though I might just end up getting a heat pump since that's the most efficient way to go nowadays.

 

[RobertD]

Congrats MM!

By comparison, my house was built in 1920 (lots of learning on this thing ... !!!) But thankfully has 100 amps running to the garage in a subpanel. One of the first things I did when we moved in was install a 220 out there.

We have a heat pump, I don't know what your gas prices are, but in Texas, I'd much rather have a gas furnace since I have a gas stove and already have the lines run. That's what'll get you is the plumbing.

 

[mindymogul]

For 250gal it was $495.76 after the tank went in. I had heat pumps in the shop. 2 for the shop, one for the office, then one for the apt above the office. I never had any issues with them other than the occasional freezeover but that was remedied with some RainX. A buddy of mine owns a local heater store and offered me a good deal come springtime. Granted the Renai heaters are very efficiant and at 25k BTU a piece it heats up the place pretty quick. I know there are mixed reviews on paranormal issues but when you have a cleanser refuse to step foot in your driveway you know there's something wrong. My grandmother always complained of having messed up mightmares and when I lived here when I was a kid it was no joke. Hence the reason everyone oacked up and left. The property is an old farm that burnt down sometime in the 1880s which took out 7 lives then became a junkyard in the 1940s to the 70s. And we all know what secrets junked cars had in them back then. This property has seen a lot of death through the years so no wonder why it's haunted.

Aside from that there are 46 windows, 8 fans, 9 doors, 10 closets, 3 toilets, 7 sinks, and 30 breakers. None of which are labeled and 14 of which actually lead somewhere. (The rest are live circuits though so that's worrying) And a broken Ouija board I found in a vent upstairs. So yeah. I'm realllllly questioning my decision on buying this place.

 

[RobertD]

Ouijia board? Um, hmmmmm. Odd..

Ah, I didn't catch that you're on propane not city gas. My city natural gas (which only runs the stove and the clothes dryer) runs around $27 a month, and $25 of that is the "monthly connection fee"... (You can imagine my anger at this ....)

I'm swapping out my water heater this weekend for a natural gas one, thankfully already have all the gas plumbed and ready. Will pay for itself in a year and actually use some gas. I replaced the HVAC when I bought the place, but for some dumb reason didn't put in a natural gas furnace. Doh!

 

[KartFab]

Just gonna leave this here. I know these are blog articles, but they have some good information.
You know, back in the day people used to believe the world was flat. I wonder what people will think of all this ghost stuff in a couple hundred years.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/body-odd/see-ghosts-there-may-be-medical-reason-f1C9926902

http://mentalfloss.com/article/70293/6-scientific-explanations-ghosts

https://nypost.com/2017/07/20/the-real-reasons-some-people-see-ghosts/

My neighbor said our house was haunted when i moved in a few years ago.... I just laughed. i couldn't contain myself. Then I realized he was serious, then i felt bad for him. Not to put anyone to shame or scorn for their beliefs, but beliefs don't have to be grounded in fact, just like opinions. We are all entitled to them, just consider that ghosts aren't real.

What is real though, is anxiety and all that stuff that goes with believing in them, and that just seems like a lot of wasted effort.

 

[mindymogul]

Also wanna add that blatantly saying that someone is full of BS because your views are different is not welcomed and will not be tolerated on this thread no matter how high a horse you think you sit on. That goes to everybody and anybody.

ANYWAYS... I have the option of converting to electric heaters but only drawback is my 7.5kw won't handle them. I'd also have to redo the curuits but in a way its more efficiant since the modern ones run at a 100% efficiancy where as the Renai gas wallmounts (Not baseboards) run at about 80%. I had a 240 electric furnace put in the storage room in the shop (28x50 marginally insulated) and the furnace kept it pretty warm in there. And it only added about $170 to the bill.

Right now I wish the idiots who installed the heaters put a manual regulator instead of a "smart-reg" because this lil message is coming from the freezing pitch black that is the studio room.

 

[Nosandwich]

Mindy, go to a locksmith shop, (or just look for oversized strikes.)

 

[Randy H]

I'd try these guys.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cU4qbnNmxWA

 

[Nosandwich]

BTW, Mindy, how many wheels? JK.

 

[KartFab]

Also wanna add that blatantly saying that someone is full of BS because your views are different is not welcomed and will not be tolerated on this thread no matter how high a horse you think you sit on. That goes to everybody and anybody.

I don't know why you reacted with aggression and anger to an otherwise benign post. Good luck with your new house. I wont be posting any more on your threads and will respect your wishes.