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

[spcmafia]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

@spcmafia, I agree with @Tcoat, if you like your house and your location upgrade it. Just be careful you don't "outbuild" the neighborhood. Also, remember just because it's up $120K now, doesn't mean it will stay that way long term so if you can pay cash, or pay it off as quickly as you can.

Real estate used to be a slow and steady gain, but I'm not convinced that is still the case not that I'm any expert.

Of course, once things normalize I'm expecting it to be more on the 40-60 range instead of what it is right now. It can go down as fast as it went up. This town is steadily becoming more popular but anything can happen. Adding central air is our biggest priority, with closets being built second. Everything else is mostly cosmetic and more of a want than a need.

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

Moving house is right up there as one of the most traumatic things you can do. Yeah, generalization I know but true for many people.
A quick search on "moving house traumatic" returns a metric heap of sites.

Yep, not looking forward moving my 300lb mobile tool bench down in the basement nor re-wiring my PC desk. Or painting.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

Home owners.

None of those sounds like a reason that you would need to move. Paving a driveway and AC definitely add additional value to the house so you aren't likely to lose money there in the long run. If you have the space to add closets inside the house then that is doable.

Remember, if your house increased in value by 120k, any house you could buy would also have an increased price that may or may not hold up for long.

Good reasons to move (imo): You need more/less space, you want/need a different location, you want/need a different floorplan or feature that is prohibitively expensive or impossible in the current house, some sort of disaster.

[spcmafia]

Originally Posted by Spuds

None of those sounds like a reason that you would need to move. Paving a driveway and AC definitely add additional value to the house so you aren't likely to lose money there in the long run. If you have the space to add closets inside the house then that is doable.

Remember, if your house increased in value by 120k, any house you could buy would also have an increased price that may or may not hold up for long.

Good reasons to move (imo): You need more/less space, you want/need a different location, you want/need a different floorplan or feature that is prohibitively expensive or impossible in the current house, some sort of disaster.

That is true. We'll see what estimates I can get, will probably report back.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

That is true. We'll see what estimates I can get, will probably report back.

Even if you get a loan do it in stages. It will make life much more bearable if each project is finished before the next starts.

When we bought our house it was dirt cheap because it needed a bunch of work (roof, furnace, landscaping, some windows, siding, interior updating) we accounted for all the costs when we did the mortgage but spread the work over 5 years. Even before the market went crazy we had more than doubled the value of the house. What we could of got for it a couple of months ago at the market peak was almost embarrassing. Mind you anything "better" would have cost that much more.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

Any thoughts on what would be a good idea from experience? House went up in value by $120K.

The upgrades seem reasonable, especially a/c. Though I'd be adding car shelters for acorn damage, not trimming trees...

Ikea wardrobes may be an option in lieu of closets if you want to explore what you can do at a given price. Advantage being non-permanent in case room size loss might be an issue in the future. We've used them both places we've owned and they work well. Tip: Add a 1x board horizontally across the width and anchored to studs behind the wall anchor spots.

Be incredibly wary borrowing against increased value. It's far to easy to end up under water, or even just back in PMI range.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by cjd

The upgrades seem reasonable, especially a/c. Though I'd be adding car shelters for acorn damage, not trimming trees...

Ikea wardrobes may be an option in lieu of closets if you want to explore what you can do at a given price. Advantage being non-permanent in case room size loss might be an issue in the future. We've used them both places we've owned and they work well. Tip: Add a 1x board horizontally across the width and anchored to studs behind the wall anchor spots.

Be incredibly wary borrowing against increased value. It's far to easy to end up under water, or even just back in PMI range.

We have wardrobes in all our bedrooms. It was better than enlarging closets both for space and leaving options open when changing rooms around later.

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.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

Home owners. I want to hear your opinion on this. We want to work on some things on the house; Add AC to the house, pave driveway, build closets, re-do paint in bathroom, clear tree branches on driveway to prevent acorn damage.



We got two options; sell the house and look for something that has everything we need/want. Or take advantage of value added to our current house and invest in it by re-financing it without going too overboard. Have to get some estimates first.



Don't really want to move out of the town we live in; has low taxes, quiet, great schools, safe. But there isn't anything that we're interesting in as of this moment. We can wait, no rush to work on projects, or get another house.



Any thoughts on what would be a good idea from experience? House went up in value by $120K.

If you like your location and the house, then like everyone says, just upgrade it a bit. Aside from adding AC and paving the driveway, everything else is pretty minor.

What do you have for heat? Doing a mini split is pretty cost effective and DIY kits like MrCool are easy to install. It really depends on your home layout though.

[spcmafia]

Originally Posted by cjd

The upgrades seem reasonable, especially a/c. Though I'd be adding car shelters for acorn damage, not trimming trees...

Ikea wardrobes may be an option in lieu of closets if you want to explore what you can do at a given price. Advantage being non-permanent in case room size loss might be an issue in the future. We've used them both places we've owned and they work well. Tip: Add a 1x board horizontally across the width and anchored to studs behind the wall anchor spots.

Be incredibly wary borrowing against increased value. It's far to easy to end up under water, or even just back in PMI range.

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.

[spcmafia]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

If you like your location and the house, then like everyone says, just upgrade it a bit. Aside from adding AC and paving the driveway, everything else is pretty minor.

What do you have for heat? Doing a mini split is pretty cost effective and DIY kits like MrCool are easy to install. It really depends on your home layout though.

We have what it seems to be a 10+ year old furnace with Forced Air, Oil heat. Adding a condenser, cooling coil, etc, using the existing ducting/ furnace might make a little more sense. The house is small, 1000sqft or so.

[Tcoat]

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.

If just remodeling the closets go with the modular wire systems designed for the purpose. At the price of wood it will be almost the same cost but the openness of the wire shelves and the hundreds of variations in how they can be placed make all the difference.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/ClosetMaid-...et-Kit/3032156

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

We have what it seems to be a 10+ year old furnace with Forced Air, Oil heat. Adding a condenser, cooling coil, etc, using the existing ducting/ furnace might make a little more sense. The house is small, 1000sqft or so.

I would inspect your ducting. If you are not getting much dust in it, it is likely okay. That can exponentially add to the cost since it is a ton of work to repair/replace.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

We have wardrobes in all our bedrooms. It was better than enlarging closets both for space and leaving options open when changing rooms around later.

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.

+1 to wardrobes if you have limited space, my first house's master bedroom had big IKEA wardrobes instead of a closet and they were great.

I parked my beater car under the oak tree at my last house to look extra beat.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

If just remodeling the closets go with the modular wire systems designed for the purpose. At the price of wood it will be almost the same cost but the openness of the wire shelves and the hundreds of variations in how they can be placed make all the difference.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/ClosetMaid-...et-Kit/3032156

Those are really functional, much better then just having a rod and one shelf.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Spuds

+1 to wardrobes if you have limited space, my first house's master bedroom had big IKEA wardrobes instead of a closet and they were great.

I parked my beater car under the oak tree at my last house to look extra beat.

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

Those are really functional, much better then just having a rod and one shelf.

We have both wardrobes and the wire shelves in the closets. The big issue we have is very limited storage space so needed both. Mind you at least two of the "wardrobes" are filled with model kits but hey they have to go someplace.