So we purchased a place in Austin at the beginning of the fall. That, by the way, is where we’re staying on this trip. In our new home, aka, The Money Pit.
It probably appears I have abandoned not only my own blog, but reading all of yours. I swear that’s not the case, it’s just that all my time has been spent trying to work out problem after problem with our place. I wrote a little last week about discovering the refrigerator was about to blow, and then realizing two hours later the dishwasher is also broken. Those two things are only the tip of the iceberg. And please, don’t ask me whether or not we checked the appliances before buying. No, we didn’t. It never occurred to me to run the dishwasher when we checked it out over the summer. But you damn well better believe that the next place we buy, I will check every damn switch and plug.
Needless to say, we are more than a little stressed. Yes, we planned to make a few changes and knew we would have one significant remodel. Hell to the no did we know we’d start bleeding money from the get go. We figured we’d be able to do things slowly over the course of time, but suddenly there are all sorts of issues that must be addressed right away. I have cursed the assholes we bought the place from on an almost hourly basis since our arrival. There’s a special place in hell for people like them. We spent two solid days cleaning, and that was just to make it habitable. It would seem that the moment we put on offer on the place, they stopped cleaning. Crumbs, pubic hair, puke, you fucking name it, it was somewhere in this joint. We took photos of everything when we looked at it in August, and so we are absolutely certain the carpet was in pristine condition then, now, ugh, I won’t even go into details. It’s, like, bio-hazard disgusting. The mere thought of it makes me angry all over again. For anyone it would have been horrible, for a germaphobe, it was like a death sentence. I raged for days, not only because they were such revolting pigs, but also because we willingly handed them money to take over the home.
And, to make things even more interesting, we hired a contractor to do some work which was supposed to be complete two weeks ago, and still isn’t done. So tomorrow we will have two different people here working on two projects, just in time for one of my in-laws to show up. Awesome.
As you can imagine, my husband and I are bickering. We spent a couple of hours at Lowe’s today looking at shit, and while I didn’t count, I’d say there were at least a half dozen snide comments per person. After having a little food, we’ve called a truce and decided to not spend the remainder of the trip at each other’s throats over stupid stuff like what kind of dishwasher to get.
On a positive note, we did have a lovely Christmas. Yesterday my dad and I made the drive to visit my grandparents, which was wonderful, and tomorrow my father-in-law gets into town. In spite of all the drama, seeing our family has been fantastic.
We have another week before we return to California, so I wouldn’t be surprised if my posts continue to be sporadic until we get home. I hope all of you had a happy and stress-free holiday!
Congratulations on the new place (even if you haven’t disinfected it to your standards yet). And welcome to the special level of hell populated by people who own. We’re a sorry lot, we don’t have money to eat half the time (because of the fucking plumbing), we don’t have a lot of free time (we need to be home for the exterminators to treat for termites), and we can be quite rude (we learned that from the contractors). But we’re a nice bunch, honest!
Thanks?
Incidentally, does that mean you’re moving? Or are you splitting time between Austin and the coast?
Oh man, that is miserable. I’m guessing you didn’t have it inspected before the offer? Always a good plan. So, is this a vacation/second home, or are you planning to move to Austin permanently eventually?
We DID have it inspected. Which makes it all the more frustrating.
I wish I had known you were buying before. ALWAYS request a pre-closing walk-through. I do mine around 72 hours before closing. I’ve never had a problem, but if the home is not in the same state as you made an offer on, or new problems have cropped up, it gives you a chance to deal with it before it’s 100% your problem. Even then, I’d check to see if there’s any recourse for items that were not in the inspection state. You won’t be able to do anything about the general cleanliness, but you might have recourse for anything that was negligently damaged after the inspection.
For example, if the carpet needs replaced because it wasn’t maintained AT ALL after the inspection, that might be a place where you have recourse. If it just needs cleaned, you’re probably out of luck, but that’s an example. You’re probably SOL on the appliances if you didn’t check them, but, thankfully, those are generally not SUPER expensive to deal with. A good dishwasher should only run you $300-400, and they’re surprisingly easy to install. Even if you don’t think you can do it yourself, you can find a general handyman (go for an independent guy) to do it for under $100. It takes, like, 30 minutes.
And, if you haven’t selected one yet, here’s the one I have. It’s very sleek and nice, and, at least around these parts, currently ON SALE.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_149068-2251-FGHD2465NF_4294711778__?productId=3691806&Ns=p_product_avg_rating|1
Oo! How did you know we were thinking stainless steel? Good call Ms. D.
Most of the time, only people who are cheaping out don’t use stainless these days (I have a few friends who insist they prefer black – kids + fingerprints – but most of the time it’s only people doing things on the cheap). ALL of our properties are all-stainless except one that has a “stainless look” dishwasher because we plan on totally redoing the kitchen in a few years and would install matching appliances then, so we just got something cheap for the meantime.
Also, I have no clue what’s up with those reviews. I guess people only comment if they feel the need to complain. We’ve had ours for 4 years and haven’t had a single problem.
I feel like I hear nothing but horror stories of home ownership. I think I’m a life-long renter. Shunning responsibility is my bag.
Hope you can get it sorted…or that you can somehow hold the sellers or the inspector to account for their negligent behavior.
Yeah my last month has consisted of a broken water heater and my mom’s always complaining. I’m happy to rent and leave the real hassles of being around for repair guys up to someone else. Good luck V!
from the other side of the world, here in Singapore, home ownership is the one thing we all aspire to. It is alot of money to maintain a home, but I like the fact that its mine!
but yes I do get a cold sweat when the washing machine sounds funny and the windows may have to be replaced as they are now wobbling a bit (not good when you live 13 storeys high and may kill someone when your windows fall off!)
For me, the biggest benefit of home ownership is knowing that my payments will remain stable. Granted, I live in DC where rents are CRAZY and get crazier by the year, but the MOST my payments can go up is about $90/year (DC caps property tax increases at 10%/year, and, so far, our payments have only increased $5/month over 4 years), versus a minimum of a $50/month increase each year on most decent rental properties. There are MANY benefits to being a renter (more flexibility, no responsibility for repairs, don’t need much money down, no risk of property value decreases, etc.), but in a city like DC, filled to the brim with potential renters, the upsides of owning FAR outweigh the downsides (if we needed to move or just didn’t want to live here anymore, we could rent it in a heartbeat). The only thing I consistently recommend is making sure to set some money aside for repairs from day 1, even if you buy a fully-renovated property. Most estimates I’ve seen are about 1% of the home’s value per year. I set 1% of MY home’s value aside (we were the first people to live in it after it was renovated, and had a 2-year warranty from the developer, so our risk was far lower), and about 3% for my rental properties, and that’s always been enough. It also never hurts to befriend a few local landlords/property investors/Realtors. They have a whole rolodex of various repairmen who can help you out of a jam.
I stumbled across your blog and I am glad I did. God! I feel normal again. I am growing tired of people only writing about perfect things in their so called perfect life.
I do hope you find the time to write again.
Thanks, I’m glad you stumbled across it too!
Ugh that sounds soooooo stressful. BOOOOO.
That sounds incredibly frustrating. We bought a rental house as our first house years ago and after the renter moved out, we found all sorts of holes in the walls caused by doorknobs. The inspector couldn’t check behind the doors because she had put heavy furniture in front of the open doors. Good times. You two try and stay united in the hatred of the previous owners and don’t turn on yourselves, that’s what we try and do!
Oh for Pete’s sake. That sucks!
I don’t know if you have ever popped over to my blog, but I know EXACTLY what you are going through. Except replace house with two broken down mobile homes and a plan to build a house, and replace yard with broken down falling apart farm where nothing was done right from the start. Oh trust me honey, I know.
Also, why not just disconnect the dishwasher? You could plug the end of the line with a valve (so you could put a new dishwasher in later) and also that way you won’t have water leaking out all over your floor.
I do frequent your blog – every time I feel like a total slacker, because you are pretty bad ass.
Aw, thanks.