Random Thoughts - Part III The Search for Spark (No Politics)

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by weederr33

I think the mod bug is coming back after being dormant for a while.

Yes, the great question. To mod, or not to mod?

Or in my case, to header-bushings-suspension-diff-supercharge-and/or-swap, or to Porsche?

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Sometimes trees just have to be trimmed or even come down completely. If I had any nut bearing trees over my driveway they would be gone in a heartbeat.

Yup, that is also very true. My concern with "everything over the driveway" is that it kills the trees slowly, often adding risk; eventually they may have to come out completely. And that kind of work isn't cheap. Also that destroys property value for me; I know, not for everyone. Losing a couple nearby trees has undermined how I feel about living here though, and it's not good. Plus, shade trees reduce the need for a/c (if we lose the tree out front, it'll definitely cost us more to cool the place) so... never simple. If the trees are healthy and it's not a light trim, alternatives may be worth evaluating. One place I lived as a kid had a black walnut tree (and 5 amazing oaks, but acorns are NOTHING compared to black walnuts...) so the cost of potential damage is real too.

Originally Posted by spcmafia

We want to basically buy a bunch of wood and build shelves using the existing closets. They were basically two pieces of wood with a bench-like frame with a plastic tube to hang clothes. Has done the job, but is very shitty.
I can probably just get a portale garage big enough for two cars. It just wouldn't be aesthetically pleasing. Our zoning regulations prevents us from building any permanent structure within 30ft-50ft away from the property line, and the house sits dead in the middle of the lot. Being exactly within property lines.
@Tcoat 's idea resonates with us, might just do one project at a time before moving to the next one. Gotta make some phone calls and start getting estimates.

Built-ins (even simple ones) in existing closets are great. Though I'd still consider wardrobes too - they're really nice to have. Ikea actually has decent options for both use cases.
See my blurb above on trees. Damaged/missing trees looks worse than carports... to me. Would a garage fit out back? (driveway past the side of the house) Maybe there are some zoning exceptions available based on when the house was built. Any neighborhood examples, perhaps?
And 100% on doing one project at a time. Try something in ONE closet, see how you like it. Hopefully quick quality of life gains, maybe not even having to get *anyone* to do work if you're remotely mechanically inclined. Figure out exactly what's going to happen with where cars are parked before you go putting money into a driveway (seems obvious...)
Owning a house is a never-ending list of things to do. Make sure you have room to handle the unexpected in a pinch, too (roof leaking, basement leaking, blah blah blah...) which also supports one thing at a time.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Yes, the great question. To mod, or not to mod?

Or in my case, to header-bushings-suspension-diff-supercharge-and/or-swap, or to Porsche?

I wouldn’t go Porsche unless you have another car to regularly drive. The guys I know that have/had them always talk about the amount of people that try to street race them and drive stupid around them.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by cjd

Yup, that is also very true. My concern with "everything over the driveway" is that it kills the trees slowly, often adding risk; eventually they may have to come out completely. And that kind of work isn't cheap. Also that destroys property value for me; I know, not for everyone. Losing a couple nearby trees has undermined how I feel about living here though, and it's not good. Plus, shade trees reduce the need for a/c (if we lose the tree out front, it'll definitely cost us more to cool the place) so... never simple. If the trees are healthy and it's not a light trim, alternatives may be worth evaluating. One place I lived as a kid had a black walnut tree (and 5 amazing oaks, but acorns are NOTHING compared to black walnuts...) so the cost of potential damage is real too.

Built-ins (even simple ones) in existing closets are great. Though I'd still consider wardrobes too - they're really nice to have. Ikea actually has decent options for both use cases.
See my blurb above on trees. Damaged/missing trees looks worse than carports... to me. Would a garage fit out back? (driveway past the side of the house) Maybe there are some zoning exceptions available based on when the house was built. Any neighborhood examples, perhaps?
And 100% on doing one project at a time. Try something in ONE closet, see how you like it. Hopefully quick quality of life gains, maybe not even having to get *anyone* to do work if you're remotely mechanically inclined. Figure out exactly what's going to happen with where cars are parked before you go putting money into a driveway (seems obvious...)
Owning a house is a never-ending list of things to do. Make sure you have room to handle the unexpected in a pinch, too (roof leaking, basement leaking, blah blah blah...) which also supports one thing at a time.

I just cut down a nasty walnut tree in our backyard this weekend. The bloody thing grew more like a weed than a tree and was messy as hell. Also took out half a maple that is rotting from the inside and going to hurt somebody.

Carports/garages are not always an option. Zoning, space and simple logistics don't always make them an answer for everybody. I would love something covered but it is literally impossible for my property.

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Yes, the great question. To mod, or not to mod?

Or in my case, to header-bushings-suspension-diff-supercharge-and/or-swap, or to Porsche?

It’s more like minor things as I mentioned above. Just STI stuff lol

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I just cut down a nasty walnut tree in our backyard this weekend. The bloody thing grew more like a weed than a tree and was messy as hell. Also took out half a maple that is rotting from the inside and going to hurt somebody.

Carports/garages are not always an option. Zoning, space and simple logistics don't always make them an answer for everybody. I would love something covered but it is literally impossible for my property.

Yup - sometimes that's the answer. I'm confident we'll lose our Ash too. The one a couple houses down (closest tree that way on the street) is clearly badly damaged by ash borer. I'd counted on the neighboring maple trees, but one was starting to rot (partial trimming too many times) and the other was encroaching on the sewer added through it despite being >100 years old and quite healthy... so suddenly it's going to feel *really* urban, where today I can still sorta pretend I'm in a nice place to live. Pretty sure location is contributing to depression, but it's going to get a good deal worse.
Living on a 25x125 lot, I know a bit about the limits of what one can do in the available space/zoning. One A/C quote was "it has to be installed 15' from the property line. Uh... how's that work now? I was asking to move the condenser out from under the deck and adjacent to it - 24" from the property line. And no, the deck wasn't an add-on; the A/C pad was placed right under the back door, so there is NO way it would ever have worked without something above it. But also you can't be 15' from all property lines when the lot is only 25' wide. Oh hey, that zoning rule doesn't apply in the city? yeah... probably.
Clearly I'm trying to avoid work today, but really was just offering some alternative thoughts. One thing I've learned is that what seems like a really useful solution today may just add new problems later. Like the lovely pull-out flat for folding laundry my wife *really* wanted in our old place, and got here; it's never used. Why? Laundry space is different, so folding happens in a different place and no longer in front of the wardrobe. Of course, half the time it just stays piled on top of the drier now...

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

I wouldn’t go Porsche unless you have another car to regularly drive. The guys I know that have/had them always talk about the amount of people that try to street race them and drive stupid around them.

Probably good advice for the other option too lol.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by weederr33

It’s more like minor things as I mentioned above. Just STI stuff lol

Yeah, but that would require reading the whole page before responding...

[Stephen W.]

We just had 11 trees taken down in our back yard. Seven large Ash, one Maple and three Pine. All but the Maple were dead or dying. I haven't seen the final bill but the quote was around $4k not including the extra $500 for taking all the wood. Yes, I know... the ash would be great for burning in my fireplace. But I haven't the equipment or health to cut up and split several full cord. I have neighbours with piles of logs that they haven't got around to cutting up yet and they've had them for years. I don't need another project I'll never finish.
We've also been negotiating on a new back deck. At present it's 7' wide (only 6' usable) and 60' long. It runs the full length of the house because we have three sliding walkouts. The price of wood is coming down but the last quote was still over $15k before labour. We are going to enlarge one side to 12' and the other to 8' split in the middle by 4' wide stairs. The cost for just the glass railings came in at $16k before labour. So, now we're thinking wood railings will be good enough.
It's a never ending game of catch-up made tuffer when you've got no money and living off Old Age Pension and Canada Pension Plan. I keep having to sell stuff. Still trying to get a fair price on the wife's Ducati. After that's it's my guitars. Any finger style players out there?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by cjd

Yup - sometimes that's the answer. I'm confident we'll lose our Ash too. The one a couple houses down (closest tree that way on the street) is clearly badly damaged by ash borer. I'd counted on the neighboring maple trees, but one was starting to rot (partial trimming too many times) and the other was encroaching on the sewer added through it despite being >100 years old and quite healthy... so suddenly it's going to feel *really* urban, where today I can still sorta pretend I'm in a nice place to live. Pretty sure location is contributing to depression, but it's going to get a good deal worse.
Living on a 25x125 lot, I know a bit about the limits of what one can do in the available space/zoning. One A/C quote was "it has to be installed 15' from the property line. Uh... how's that work now? I was asking to move the condenser out from under the deck and adjacent to it - 24" from the property line. And no, the deck wasn't an add-on; the A/C pad was placed right under the back door, so there is NO way it would ever have worked without something above it. But also you can't be 15' from all property lines when the lot is only 25' wide. Oh hey, that zoning rule doesn't apply in the city? yeah... probably.
Clearly I'm trying to avoid work today, but really was just offering some alternative thoughts. One thing I've learned is that what seems like a really useful solution today may just add new problems later. Like the lovely pull-out flat for folding laundry my wife *really* wanted in our old place, and got here; it's never used. Why? Laundry space is different, so folding happens in a different place and no longer in front of the wardrobe. Of course, half the time it just stays piled on top of the drier now...

We have a really nice, heavy, expensive, laundry folding platform in the basement. A couple of times a year it get's used for playing pool on as well.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

We have a really nice, heavy, expensive, laundry folding platform in the basement. A couple of times a year it get's used for playing pool on as well.

No swimming though? That'd be a TRULY multi-use bit of equipment if so, but alas... only mites swimming in fuzz.

If/when we decide to move on from this place, the home theater will be an interesting problem. 100% worth building (I'm still working on it and we've been here 8 years now - about 3000 hours of movies watched so far here) but whether it ends up being a bonus or not is an open question. If the buyers would prefer a nice laundry station such as you have (it'd fit nicely if I didn't have two rows of seats with a riser for the second) then it might not be a benefit.
Old house I had to remove it completely. At most, it would have been used. But no way it would be considered a value-add. This house is in a market segment where it would be a bonus (considering it's adjacent to a rather large wet bar, which we use but could care less about; the island makes a wonderful model assembly table, and it will be a reasonable temporary kitchen if/when we manage to turn the looks-pretty-in-photos kitchen we have into a functional kitchen)...

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Stephen W.

We just had 11 trees taken down in our back yard. Seven large Ash, one Maple and three Pine. All but the Maple were dead or dying. I haven't seen the final bill but the quote was around $4k not including the extra $500 for taking all the wood. Yes, I know... the ash would be great for burning in my fireplace. But I haven't the equipment or health to cut up and split several full cord. I have neighbours with piles of logs that they haven't got around to cutting up yet and they've had them for years. I don't need another project I'll never finish.
We've also been negotiating on a new back deck. At present it's 7' wide (only 6' usable) and 60' long. It runs the full length of the house because we have three sliding walkouts. The price of wood is coming down but the last quote was still over $15k before labour. We are going to enlarge one side to 12' and the other to 8' split in the middle by 4' wide stairs. The cost for just the glass railings came in at $16k before labour. So, now we're thinking wood railings will be good enough.
It's a never ending game of catch-up made tuffer when you've got no money and living off Old Age Pension and Canada Pension Plan. I keep having to sell stuff. Still trying to get a fair price on the wife's Ducati. After that's it's my guitars. Any finger style players out there?

We don't have near the property you have (based upon your descriptions) but over the last 5 years we have had several trees removed. The neighborhood was built in '76 so what were nice small trees back then have outgrown the area available for them.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by cjd

No swimming though?

LOL see above picture.

[pope]

Originally Posted by bcj

If you have a really old oil heat system, it might be a good time to look into having the whole thing replaced with an electric heat pump.
. . .
If there's a separate chimney for the oil exhaust, you can pull that down too for more closet space. . .

This was going to be my suggestion, but you beat me to it. My 25+ year old furnace and AC are still going strong (and somehow aren't horribly inefficient), but I don't anticipate them staying functional forever.
Once either has issues, both are getting replaced in favor of a heat pump system. Hard to beat the efficiency and recouping the chimney space while eliminating a roof penetration is a no-brainer.