The heating and cooling guy showed up, and it turns out all I need is a motor for the fan. I almost hugged him when he told me it would only be $425.00.
And it occurred to me I have never been happy before about spending $425.00 on anything, but given that the last year everything has been so much more expensive, I wanted to hug him.
Soonergrunt
Hot water heater, furnace, all of that stuff. It’s all sorts of fun.
Waratah
I would feel the same if that was the problem with air conditioner, it is generally much more for me
Sarah in Brooklyn
I completely understand. I’ve had many moments of that – Only HOW much?!? I’m in heaven.
Corner Stone
When the time comes for me to be able to sell this house I doubt I will ever own any domicile again. It is absolutely not the great deal it’s always talked up as.
rikyrah
I feel you, Cole.
I feel you.
debbie
I could never be a homeowner. I spent 15 minutes this morning debating with myself whether or not I should splurge on a $20 meat thermometer.
TaMara (HFG)
Totally understand. I just qualified for a fifty percent grant for home energy improvements, so totally get that. No way could I afford to upgrade insulation, condition the basement and new furnace without an assist.
And the first few months in the new house saw the unexpected need of a new washer, new dishwasher, along with the general upgrades of paint and flooring. Counting myself lucky on many fronts, including I could actually find and afford this house in such an overheated market.
donnah
Our furnace/air conditioner died two days after Christmas to the tune of $11,000. I would have done handsprings for $425.
opiejeanne
I’m so glad you brought in a repair person. The guessing last night about what it might be and instructions on how to replace parts that turned out not to be the bad part, all of that was giving me the fantods.
Years ago when we bought a house with an older AC unit, the fan motor died and I had all sorts of nightmares about what it would cost to replace. This was in a place where it’s typically 105 during the summer, sometimes even more in September and we had a new baby so we couldn’t put off the repair.
Same thing, it was only about $125 to have it fixed. I was so relieved, thought we’d have to replace the expensive bits. I did not hug the repairman although I do understand the impulse.
cmorenc
The only thing that changes your perspective more than home owning is when your first child comes along. Homeowning turns your life half-upside down, your first child turns your whole universe entirely upside-down.
opiejeanne
@cmorenc: And the second kid makes 4X the work, not double like you’d think. We had a third, a “surprise you’re having a baby” baby. We were outnumbered so we shut that whole thing down.
Spanky
@Soonergrunt: Hey! I missed the nym on the first go-round. How’s it goin’?
brendancalling
Been there! Shopping for my new home now. Luckily, I have some decent carpentry and painting skills.
Geeno
I get to cough up 15k or so for a new roof in a couple of years. Ugh.
It never ends either.
Gravenstone
My old furnace died one early January morning a few years ago. Got home from my third shift job to find it barely 40 F in the house (it happened to be about -15 F outside). Called an emergency number and they showed up a couple hours later to resolve the problem (burnt out igniter). A $40 part ended up costing over $600 because, emergency. *sigh* So yeah, appreciate the surprisingly affordable simple fixes when you can.
low-tech cyclist
Hey John, have you ever watched The Money Pit?
Nevermind, you’re living it.
trollhattan
Heh, know the feeling well. We got our starter home a couple decades ago (the what home?!?) and endured the first summer with but a single window a/c, followed by the coldest winter on record with the 1920’s vintage gravity-flow furnace (the Asbestos Monster). So next spring central heat-a/c it was. Because we luckily picked the good contractor among three bids, our unit can still be serviced and sure enough, last winter we needed a furnace control unit replaced for about $450. There’s still a squealing induction fan to monitor and it’s doubtless a new system would be more efficient and quieter, but I seriously do not want to find out what replacement costs in 2017 dollars.
A California-specific observation: Prop 13 and sunk costs pair to keep one in a house far longer than they may have anticipated, including that “starter home.”
David Spikes
I just ordered a new European styling wall mounted range hood-regularly 700 on sale for 200. So despite the no doubt enormous cost for having it installed I feel like a monster of thrift. Life is strange.
The Moar You Know
It does. I could write a book, because I live in one of those coastal elite cities where what makes you one of the “haves” vs. the “have nots” is somewhat a function of much money you make, but mostly whether you own property.
It was a very weird experience to go from “have not” to “have” in one fell swoop. Had I been younger, I could have turned into a Republican then. As it is, I just feel amazingly lucky.
As to work, I’m facing a large bill to replace the old heater, but we could probably live without it (I would not be able to live with my wife’s bitching about no heat in SoCal, however.) Most of it I can do myself, thank goodness.
The house on the corner just went for 975k. Quarter acre, 1100 square feet. The only people who can afford that sort of thing are invariably assholes, so there goes the neighborhood. It WILL go, sooner or later. Last sale on the street was more than 20 years ago.
Probably be a full tear-down with a McMansion put up in its place. Wish we could outlaw that shit. Oh well, white wealthy people problems, right?
@trollhattan: My wife and I both inherited our homes, and as a function of that, the last tax rate paid by our parents. Turns out you can hand that down just like a piece of property. We could not be homeowners here otherwise. The taxes would put us right of of the house.
gvg
One thing I am noticing is that housing prices still have not completely recovered from the 2005 or so high, at least for modest end houses. realtor.com and most of the others have price history and a lot of houses have been bought and sold a few times since the internet. I keep seeing the prices for even 2010 are higher than they are asking now on the same house. lower end houses are selling pretty fast if they are priced “right” and can have a contract in a week, whereas the higher end ones tend to take awhile, but the ones more in my range that I pay attention too are still not gaining value like they did pre 2005. I remember before, houses were a good investment. Rent is still often higher than buying too and even when its not, you lose less buying than renting but still it seems odd and worrisome. there are always some who weren’t kept up or who develop a problem, but this is widespread. And Gainesville is a small enough town that I am sure its not a few neighborhoods running down.
the school zone lines are really significant for price, but those haven’t changed in a long time, in fact a couple of poor schools got closed and their kids were rezoned better.
Betty Cracker
One year we had to replace the roof AND the A/C. That year sucked.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
IMO, one of the weirder side effects of Prop 13 is multigenerational ownership of the same home. I know a lot of people who either inherited the house they now live in from their parents or who are parents planning to pass their house along to their kids after they die. The people I know who’ve rented houses are usually told it belonged to the landlord’s parents and they started renting it out after the parents died.
geg6
A couple of years ago, I was ready to just move out and never see our house again. AC went on the fritz first. Then the washer. Then the dryer. Then the water heater. Then the dishwasher. Then the range top. In between, the sewer backed up and flooded the basement. John and I had to borrow money from my sister and BIL in the end (just until the next year’s tax refund) to get it all fixed. We could manage the first four or five things, but it seemed never ending. Thankfully, everything is now brand new or has all new working parts, so hopefully, that won’t happen again. But I’m not optimistic.
T S
No one knew home ownership could be so complicated, amirite?
DocSardonic
Got out of the hospital a few weeks ago after some surgery, when we got home found the a/c not working. Since this is after normal hours the only “emergency” technicians available worked for Letus, Fuckem, and Buttgood Heating and Air, we decided to turn the ceiling fans up and wait till morning. Our regular a/c company had a tech available and 1300 bucks later we had air. Moral of the story is sometimes the high tech heat and cooling choice may not be the right one.
laura
@trollhattan: I feel ya! What was once the starter home and 5-year plan to return to midtown is now the house we’ll die in.
The Casita de Amor no longer has a bath tub, and all changes are made contemplatin one of us rolling/shoving each other around the house. The once crazy thought that a two story home is Out of the Question- I must have been crazy to even consider it.
Good times, good times.
FlyingToaster
I always recommend trying to understand what the fuck went wrong with {name your appliance/unit/installation} so that you recognize the symptoms next time. I was able to get the microwave repaired ($175) instead of replaced (~500 to remove and carry away the built-in, deliver and install a compatible unit). And I was able to fix the most recent in-sink-er-ator myself (allen wrench) rather than having to replace it again. And not attempt to repair last year’s dead dishwasher or fridge because what was wrong (dead motor, dying freezer) were more expensive than a replacement.
We’re going to be out a lot of money a year from this summer to replace both HVAC units (we’ve replaced both heat exchangers, and are resigned to the fact that this has to happen). We want to use them up to the point where we’ll still get to use the new ones for a couple of years before we sell this dump and move to a town that is slightly less dysfunctional.
Wjs
Never buy a house without having a nitpicky home inspector go through it first. Negotiate with the seller and get everything the home inspector finds out is wrong fixed before agreeing to buy the property. Best lesson ever after figuring out how home warranties work.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
You can buy an apartment for that much here. Or a townhouse.
A nice house with a yard? Seven figures starting. And that’s if you can find one that’s not being bid up by seven other people.
catclub
@donnah: We both thought that the AC/heat was noisier, running too long, etc, and ended up spending $1000 on a service call. Before any total failure!
The great parts are:
1. AC/heat is 11 years old and this is first service call.
2. It happened in spring when neither terribly hot nor terribly cold.
realbtl
Eh it is what it is. Two years ago the boiler for my radiant heat went out to the tune of $12k, I figured 15 years service OK. Last year went out again due to plastic part in upstream water softener disintegrating so no warranty on the boiler. Oh well I love my heated floors almost as much as the dogs.
geg6
@Wjs:
Well, in John’s defense, he bought his house through a sheriff’s sale, so he had to go in blind. For all his bitching, he got a good deal. The house is absolutely beautiful (which is what cost so much after he bought it) and almost everything is brand new. You’re not going to get them to let you send in an inspector when the house is up for sheriff’s sale. And when you buy as is, that’s what you get.
Corner Stone
@laura:
Like human shuffleboard?
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
It’s kind of a chicken and egg question, though — would house prices have soared so out of control if property taxes had risen normally instead of being frozen at 1973 rates? At least in So Cal, we don’t have the same problem with land that they do in SF or NYC and did have room to sprawl.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: You live in one of those places that’s not quite the most expensive place on the planet, but close.
We’ll get there as soon as the suckers who have been buying homes in the middle of the desert figure out that they aren’t beach properties.
Jeffro
The running joke in our house is that we don’t do maintenance…we just move.
It worked well for quite a while, buying new or almost-new houses for the first 18 years. Current residence is 32 years old and it SUUUUCKS maintenance $$$ like you wouldn’t believe. Time to move again!
realbtl
@Corner Stone: Maybe human curling? Actually if I’m ever confined to a wheelchair that sounds like a lot of fun.
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: Thought about that a lot. I think they would have. You can’t make Mediterranean climate and easy beach access worth less. Anywhere you have those things, home prices are right about where they are in SoCal, regardless of taxes.
I think you’d have had a lot more turnover in corporate/industrial buildings though. Those also fall under prop 13, with the result that very, very few have turned over since the early eighties, and virtually no business owns the buildings they’re in.
Tom
Back in 2008 I knew that our roof was nearing the end of its useful (i.e., leak proof) life. That June we had the hail storm of the century, resulting in hundreds of homes in our southern Rocky Mountain community needing total roof replacements. Thanks to the “Act of God” and a reasonable home owners insurance company (more precious than the finest gems) the total out of pocket cost to replace was $1,000. Go God!
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know: I believe the only places more expensive then us are New York City and maybe San Francisco. And that’s only because they both have way more people living close together then we do.
ETA: confirmed. We’re number #3. Yay us….*weeps*
Jeff
In the last two years I bought replacements for the stove, refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, microwave, iPad and TV. Plus had the upright freezer repaired because I couldn’t find anything remotely comparable for the space it sits in. The only thing that hasn’t died is the vacuum and my desktop computer. Both of which are limping along. I’m 69. Everything I’m buying is going to outlast me. Maybe.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
Train of thought … did anything ever happen about the previous owner, the mofo who abused dear Walter and abandoned him by locking him up with no food or water or companionship in an unventilated house in the middle of a West Virginia summer? Did the authorities ever track him down? Has there been any kind of trial or hearing or anything?
Wayne
Keep that repairman’s number because you found an honest one. I know what he replaced and he could have made it a LOT more expensive replacing non broken items.
trollhattan
@geg6:
It’s also largely driven by the market at the time of sale. At present, here’s the strategy for buying in my area: 1. figure out how much more than asking price to offer 2. ensure your offer is sufficiently higher than the highest of several cash offers that the seller will pick you over them.
Been awhile since I’ve seen these conditions (2006, anybody?) but the difference is the developers have been very hesitant to jump back in and lenders aren’t doing neg-ams for anybody who can fog a mirror.
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
House prices are crazy in the San Fernando Valley 30+ miles from the beach, so that doesn’t explain it. People are paying $900k+ for houses in Santa Clarita.
Now I’m wondering what will happen to the SoCal housing market when the Baby Boomers start dying off in large numbers and they don’t have enough kids to leave a house to each. Plus, as my boss found out, being a landlord sucks ass, so she and her sister ultimately sold their mom’s house in Torrance.
kd bart
As someone who has replaced their upstairs furnace and their entire HVAC system downstairs along with their hot water tank and two toilets in the past year, I completely understand.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: I lived for almost a decade in SF in the 1990s. I could justify, in my mind, paying a million bucks (that I don’t and will never have) to live in a nice part of Hawaii. But SF? Once the dotcoms moved in and ran all the cool people and artists out of town, that city, quite frankly, isn’t worth a shit. You’re living in hutches for humans in a city full of rich assholes and violent addicts. And none – zero – of the culture of NYC. It stopped being fun and I moved home in 2000. Not one damn reason to stay.
Spanky
@Corner Stone: Well, it’s hard to obtain Medicare scooters when there’s no more Medicare.
HeleninEire
In the US I bought my first apt at 25. Very proud of that; it was NYC after all. Here I rent. I assumed that eventually I would buy. I still may, but I like the flexibility that renting gives. Maybe that’s because I am still finding my way here. Dunno. Never thought I would feel this way.
Walker
The day I truly understood what it was to be a homeowner was when I had a basement flood and the guy who came to look at it asked me where the footer drain was. I had never even heard of such a thing (and the housing inspector when I bought the house apparently hadn’t either). Turns out I did not have one, which was a code violation for a house this young. Because the house is in the wetlands run-off of the surrounding area, I was told to expect a lot more floods if I did not get one.
Required a complete excavation around the house foundation. To his credit, the guy who did the work said “I am going to make sure that you never need to call me again.” He engineered the crap out of that drain. But I am still paying for that one.
Corner Stone
@Jeff:
Nobody knows but I seriously doubt any appliance purchased relatively recently is good for 10 years anymore.
germy
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
I’ve got bad news for you. It buys you a nice house, but not in the nice parts. That’s going into high sevens and into the eights.
A Ghost To Most
My wife and I left Sunnyvale and Cali 35 years ago, due to the high price of houses (35 years ago!), the monotonous weather, and having to do anything and everything with 1000 other people. I can’t say I miss it, although there are so many beautiful places.
Corner Stone
@kd bart:
I should have had both toilets replaced when I had repairs done after Hurricane Ike but I was already 4 months out of the house and almost $10K out of pocket. I was just ready to kick the damn contractors out and call it.
In retrospect I should have been more patient and forced them to complete some small tasks, like spots of missing quarter round, and a couple other more significant things. But I was at wits end between work demands and childcare arrangements.
Spanky
@germy: That’s fucking weird, but this line:
made me LOL. They’re cats! Somebody shaved their belly! OF COURSE they’re bothered!
Just to be clear, were it any of my cats, I’d be on the hunt for the asshole who’s doing this.
Corner Stone
@germy:
Clearly this is Cole doing therapy to de-stress from home ownership. We know he gets his kicks from having a cat shaved.
Spanky
@TenguPhule: How ’bout new beachfront at the foot of Mauna Loa?
HeleninEire
@HeleninEire: Oh and to be clear. By NYC I mean Queens, and by apt I mean studio. But, man, I remember being so happy and so proud.
donnah
@catclub:
We knew our furnace and a/c were on their last legs, as we had been getting parts replaced bit by bit. It was 25 years old, so we were lucky to have lasted that long. Our water heater, also old, croaked two days after Thanksgiving, another warning of things to come.
What gets me, and forgive my Get off my Lawn rant, is that the appliances we are replacing now all lasted some twenty years. Ain’t nuthin’ we buy now will even come close to those life spans. One new washer died after two years! That’s what kills me. And they cost a bunch!
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’d be interested in knowing the answers to those questions myself. I don’t think Cole ever followed up on that, at least as far as informing us of any outcomes.
manyakitty
@geg6: Ick. Hope they don’t all expire at the same time again!
germy
@Spanky: @Corner Stone: I was trying to think of some logical reason for this and all I could come up with was the shaver is harvesting the fur for some commercial purpose. Alternative medicine or soft toys.
indycat32
@germy: Why not just look for the person covered in scratches. I doubt the cats cooperated.
dedc79
Don’t want to hear it. I spent $2500 on a/c leak test and repairs today (on a unit that’s only 3 years old but wasn’t installed properly, apparently).
In other news, pick your favorite anecdote from this article: Guns at the gun convention? Not with the president there
I’m going with:
germy
@indycat32:
Probably why they were all only partially shaved.
Corner Stone
@germy: It’s really obvious when you take a step back. If the only thing “the person” (Cole) was shaving was the cats’ asses then it would be a dead giveaway.
NCSteve
In the four years after I bought my house, I basically dumped the cost of a whole new system into the pockets of repair people one visit at a time. The root problem was that some genius decided to save the company money by changing the material the copper condenser coils were mounted in to, get this, galvanized steel. Yeah. Some MBA decided to turn the condenser coils into anodes that would corrode away because chemistry.
But that’s not the hilarious part. The hilarious part is that all of the repairs to my two units were made “under warranty.” They reduced the parts cost on a pro rata basis. Most of the cost was labor.
And, by hilarious, I, of course mean “homicidal.”
TenguPhule
@Spanky: That’s two different things. Beach front will cost you easily eight to nine figures if you want a prime location. Closer to the mountains is cheaper, but not by much. You either end up on the side that’s nice and dry or the one that’s raining most of the time.
ETA: And of course, the frogs will drive you to madness at night.
hovercraft
@germy:
Unlawful grooming?
Wjs
@germy: …paging John Waters…
That is one serious fetish. Cat shaving. Has to be a furry wanting to enhance their presentation to the world.
amk
@dedc79: good god. what a buncha cowardly whackos.
mai naem mobile
@Wjs: depends on the repairs and the house. If it’s small non structural stuff either ask for a small discount or let it go especially if it’s a sellers market. The first house we bought needed a lot of updating but was liveable and we knew we were getting a good deale. There was no way I was going to nickle and dime the seller.
indycat32
I have a house question. Mine was built in 1918. In electrical outlets in the living and dining rooms, on one side is the regular two prong outlet, on the other side are two round, single hole outlets (looks like where you would plug in a power adapter), the top one says aerial, the bottom says ground. I’ve asked two electricians, they have no idea what they’re for. Anyone???
geg6
@trollhattan:
I’m just a few counties north of Cole (closer to Pittsburgh) and I can tell you that you generally can get houses (even very nice ones) at sheriff’s sale pretty cheap. And the housing market here is affordable to begin with anyway. My house, in a more expensive place like California, would be a million dollar home from what I can see on HGTV and what I hear from people who live in more expensive places. We have over 3000 sq.ft. and 2 acres. But we would probably only get $200K to $250 for it here. The Pittsburgh market is one of the most affordable in the entire country. My sister and BIL bought a foreclosure in a neighborhood filled with houses that go for $350-400K for $200K. If housing prices are as low as they are here, I would imagine that they may be even slightly lower in WV.
Wjs
@geg6: I would not have bought the house but I understand why he did and I have loved watching this evolve. I had a fantastic realtor in Maryland who explained how all this works. No home inspection means you could inherit a problem that has been neglected for years. Kind of like a Flip or Flop episode where they buy a house and the whole thing has to be torn down because no one dealt with an issue in a timely manner.
TenguPhule
Reposted from prior thread
Well, damn.
Paging Adam Silverman. Stat.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
I would like some sense of justice. Walter got a great few months, I don’t mean that, but without being vengeful on an obviously very troubled person I hope he has, or will, face the consequences of what he did to that sweet dog.
John, if you’re reading the comments, can you share with us what you know? And if there’s nothing to know yet, let us know that? Thanks!
Wjs
@mai naem mobile: Yes. You want to catch the big stuff. The little things are easy. In the right market you can get the seller to fix things. In a seller’s market they’ll tell you to go pound sand.
Wjs
@indycat32: it may be a radio outlet for AM radio power. One plug for power, the other for a long wire antenna.
The Moar You Know
@indycat32: Ask the ham. It’s an antenna outlet. For a transmitter, not just a receiver. One for the thing that goes up into the sky, one is the ground wire (all broadcast antennas have to be grounded).
Someone used to run a shortwave rig in your home. That’s pretty cool.
SgrAstar
@The Moar You Know: So sorry to hear you had a bad time in SF! My family have been in the BA since the gold rush (1849) and in SF for 3 generations and counting. The city is amazingly beautiful with incredible/free recreation opportunities: hiking/running the Land’s End trail, cycling over the GGB to Marin, picnicking at Crissy Field, surfing…like all major American cities we struggle with homelessness and addiction issues. We also have a very vibrant music scene, world-class food at every price point, and of course the Giants and the Warriors. Last but not least, Berkeley! And no, I don’t work for the chamber of commerce. But I do love, love, love my home town. Go Bears.
Spanky
@TenguPhule: Breathe. The shitgibbon’s use of hyperbole is catching up to him. Besides the fact that he’s always backed down when people get in his face.
The wild card, of course, is Li’l Kim. I’m thinking that in this instance he’s actually the adult in the room.
Uh. I think I’m hyperventilating.
Gin & Tonic
@indycat32: That’s for a TV antenna. The power is so the antenna could have a rotator (an electrical motor that turns it for the optimal direction for each station). The two small round holes are for the antenna wire (TV signal) to the TV
TenguPhule
@Spanky:
Are you trying to comfort me or terrify me into complete catatonia?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know: My dad was a ham, I grew up with towers in the backyard.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne:
The problem, as I see it, is that he’ll most likely do it again.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
So you’re bacon?
Felonius Monk
@germy:
Remember the “unlawful barbering” charges against the Amish guys in Ohio a few years back?
hovercraft
@TenguPhule:
Also re-posting from down stairs.
germy
@Felonius Monk: I had forgotten about that Amish story.
Doug R
@Mnemosyne: Here in Metro Vancouver we have a mil rate system where property taxes don’t change a lot year to year, although neighborhoods have their taxes rise and fall based on recent sales.
We also have grants for houses under a certain value.
The upshot of this is house prices have skyrocketed out of control, so much so that our extremely business/real estate friendly provincial government slapped a 15% foreign buyers tax on real estate. It could violate NAFTA and it’s uncomfortably similar to the racist head tax of the past. I’m thinking it should have been based on tax filing nationality rather than residence.
Even the rents are getting unaffordable around here.
Spanky
From CNN Money. Of course, right above it is
I must say I’ve noticed that the market seems to be thriving now that greed appears (to Big Money) to be back in vogue.
hovercraft
Trump promises to work ‘side by side’ with the NRA, warns 2020 could bring ‘Pocahontas’
By Mark Sumner
Friday Apr 28, 2017 · 3:26 PM EST
………..”The eight year assault on your second amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end,” Trump told the members of the National Rifle Association, assuring them that they now “have a true friend and champion in the White House.”…………..
……………..”I have a feeling that in the next election you’re going to be swamped with candidates,” he imagined, concluding these voters will be saying no sir — or ma’am — to these prospective Democrats. “It may be Pocahontas, remember that.”…………
Spanky
@?BillinGlendaleCA: So you’re from Minas Tirith then?
Wjs
@Gin & Tonic: Oh, crap. Yes, a rotor antenna. Man, we used to have one in southern Minnesota.
This was one way you could get TV out of Minneapolis. Have a small tower and a rotor on it. Well, until satellite dishes came along…
TenguPhule
@Spanky:
Everyone remembers the Bush tax cuts and 2007. They want to get in, take the money and get out before the saps and leave them with the bill.
Gravenstone
@The Moar You Know: From the description, I half wondered if it might now have been a shortwave antenna. Occasionally I can guess right.
mai naem mobile
@indycat32: I have no idea but I wonder if the aerial has to do with a roof TV aerial from old times.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: Last time I heard that joke was Junior High, good times.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think John had hinted that there was an ongoing prosecution, so he couldn’t talk about it on the blog lest the perpetrator be able to get off because of prejudicial information.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
All right, I’ll be that asshole — the worry that the police probably have right now is that the guy is working his way up to killing the cats.
indycat32
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t think TV. They look original to the house (1918). Short-wave or radio – I can see that.
Ohio Mom
@germy: There was a similar story back in the day involving Jewish ultra-orthodox sects on Brooklyn.
mai naem mobile
Phoenix isn’t SoCal,NYC or SF but the prices in the last couple of years are stupid crazy aND I don’t see a corresponding uptick in income to justify it. Supposedly it’s from Californians moving here. I’ve lived here long enough and know the market well enough. There’s stuff that used to run in the 70s to 150K that’s going for 200-350K. There used to be a lot of stuff under 150K which is just not available anymore. And we are talking about regular houses. Nothing special and quite a bit in a lower end/lower middle claas area. We have way more $400-600k houses than I remember. And there’s quite a bit of stuff above $700k. I don’t know how a regular job person gets into this ‘affordable’ market.
Mnemosyne
@mai naem mobile:
And, of course, my mom sold her house I. Fountain Hills right BEFORE the prices soared. Sigh.
ThresherK
@indycat32: I’m with The Moar You Know and others.
Tidbits: Broadcasting started c.1920, and back in that day we radio hams and our contraptions were often exiled to an attic or basement, so this set of connectors I’d bet are for broadcast radio reception, ergo newer than the home.
Also, are the words “aerial” and “ground” stamped into metal, or hand-written? Any idea if these two things have one connector each, or two?
RealityBites
I haven’t been commenting much since I always catch the end of the thread or am reading dead threads, but I’ll put in my idea about the shaved cats. Someone is trying to determine if these cats running about outside are spayed. Looking for the scar/ tattoo.
SiubhanDuinne
@Felonius Monk:
@germy:
@Ohio Mom:
“Forced barbering” is a significant plot point of one of my favourite Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries ?
chopper
i live in north seattle, where a ‘starter’ home is a fixer-upper that still costs almost a million dollars. so it could be worse.
germy
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992
Tensions and civil unrest in Los Angeles culminate in violence following the Rodney King verdict.
Documentary by the brilliant John Ridley (wrote 12 Years A Slave, Three Kings, etc.)
Tonight on ABC.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
My folks bought a house in the San Gabriel Valley in 1960 for the princely sum of $24,000. She was pissed off that she could only get $360,000 for it 30 yrs later after investing maybe $1000 in it. Of course that house has sold a couple times since in the neighborhood of $900,000. Currently for sale at $1,300,000+. Glad she doesn’t know about that.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
Ah, memories. I’m assuming Ridley will not be erasing history like a lot of later people did and make it clear that it wasn’t just those scary, scary black folks rioting. It was everyone.
trollhattan
@chopper:
When mom downsized to a condo in the early ’90s her Magnolia house (views of sound, Olympics, Rainier, downtown) went in the $300s. I tried like heck to figure out how to buy and hold onto it, hopefully for a move up there but couldn’t swing it. The mind boggles what it would fetch today.
Recent sale in my neighborhood for $3mil has me scratching my head, as it’s at least a mil more than any prior sale in the zip code and the house itself isn’t nearly as large or nice as some surrounding homes. (Maybe it includes a really cool p0rn collection or something.) I’m too far away to catch any of the “equity glow” though.
Wjs
@RealityBites: Now that’s a sexy fetish…
Steve in the ATL
@The Moar You Know:
Hmmm…wouldn’t that actually be pretty nerdy?
stinger
@Mnemosyne: That was my suspicion, too. Cats or something larger. They might have been sedated in order to get them shaved. Whoever’s doing it is practicing, learning. Aside from the Cole cat shaving references, it doesn’t sound funny to me.
bystander
Last summer we decided to have the septic tank pumped out after 12 years. No problems in the house, just thought routine maintenance. The septic guy comes, tells us our turkey mound is collapsing (who knew?) and it will cost $17,000 to rebuild. To rebuild layered dirt.
Uh huh.
Did I mention my emergency root canal? My teeth have cost more than our house.
chopper
@trollhattan:
things are going into hyperdrive this year. ugh.
scott alloway
Off on a tangent. I’ve been doing some home repairs for a friend at a bargain rate (I’m collecting SS so it’s a hobby). Started in September and am working through the 19 room main house as well as the cottage and the three-apartment carriage house. Remortared the 20 by 40 foot front porch (slate on a three foot schist-wall riser) pointed 210 foot front stone wall so it would withstand winter, repointed the foundation of the carriage house, painted all the trim on the first, second and third floor so it matched in color, pulled the brass hinges, keyholes, locksets, rosettes and assorted hardware (all brass) for paint removal, cleaning and polishing. Am now restoring 10 sets of pockets windows (inner and outer windows) that have been painted or screwed shut for decades. Pulled all the brass, reset the wheels up top and lubed them, sanded off years of paint and more. Still have floors to do. Also rebuilt a couple of the birdhouses, restored on old chest with new veneer where it was peeled off, redid drainage at the end of the driveway and fixed and restained the deck off the carriage house. So far it’s less than 10 grand in my fees and 2 grand in materials he wants installed (Subway tile in the bathroom, new light fixtures). I’m having fun and he’s giving me referrals to friends (not at his rate) – two very serious leads in hand. I’m having fun and it a switch from my old social work and small town newspaper years.
Shantanu Saha
Last year we bought a house because my wife loved the area and my son loved the inground pool. It was barely in my budget. A year later, and $50k in cash (over and above the down payment), $70k in various loans and financing deals, we have a new roof, new geothermal heat pump, insulated and air sealed attic, new garage door, new gas fireplace insert, new windows, new refrigerator, new washer/dryer, new filter and safety cover for the pool, and seemingly a hundred gallons of paint that I’m slowly churning through painting room-by-room on weekends. Now the dishwasher is giving signs of needing replacement. This is the life!
Marcopolo
I just want to thank all the blogfolk commenting here In regards to their housing expenses for positively contributing to our nation’s economy :).
Keep up the good work!
Singing Truth to Power
@catclub: I broke down and got a preferred customer deal – for a monthly fee, I get full furnace and A/C tuneups annually, no upcharge for emergency calls, priority service, no dispatch fee, and electrical and plumbing safety inspections. I lucked out on this. They still make money on me, but I think it’s a good deal. And I worry less.
OGLiberal
@cmorenc: Second that. Bought a home knowing it had old stuff, including the furnace. One day, my wife smelled gas. We called the gas company and the guy who came said the furnace was so leaky he had to shut the gas off to the house..all of it. Pre-kid I would have lit the fireplace, bundled up (it was winter in NJ) and slept near the fireplace and cooked using the microwave/grill while shopping for a good deal. But we had an infant son. So we had to call in the emergency plumbing folks to put in a shiny new energy efficient furnace for about 8K.
The kicker was that when Sandy hit and we had no power for 6 days we were back to the fireplace. My parents also had no power and a furnace older than our old, leaky one. (We both have homes over 100-years old) But their old junker worked. Ours didn’t, because it required electricity to light up. So back to the fireplace for six days, albeit with young kids and not babies.
Homes are great but they really suck.