Joys of Home Ownership

[Thirteen]

Reading that made me cringe so much - I feel for you, and am so sorry that happened!


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[spotty_dog]

I think [MENTION=894]BonBon[/MENTION] can tell you about whether brand-new homes have their own joys.

But yeah, I think when I was a new homeowner I underestimated how much maintenance and upkeep just kinda...has to happen. Like, "But the roof was supposed to be 7 years old when we bought the house!" Well, 3-tab roofs last about 16-20 years in this climate, (plus this one was poorly installed,) so 9 years later guess what? It's re-roofing time! *shrug*

[rainbabies]

I think [MENTION=894]BonBon[/MENTION] can tell you about whether brand-new homes have their own joys.

But yeah, I think when I was a new homeowner I underestimated how much maintenance and upkeep just kinda...has to happen. Like, "But the roof was supposed to be 7 years old when we bought the house!" Well, 3-tab roofs last about 16-20 years in this climate, (plus this one was poorly installed,) so 9 years later guess what? It's re-roofing time! *shrug*

Funny as Chris is who told me to remind dh of this myth. Ha!


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[spotty_dog]

This is making me have so much empathy for people who've survived flood conditions, like Houston and New Orleans and Puerto Rico. When water gets in, especially contaminated water, it's HELL to get it out again.

Getting back to normal is now going to require ripping up the driveway to put in the new sewer main, ripping up the guest bathroom and walls and floors to dry out the water, and then redoing a buttload of paint and flooring to get it all put back together. Maybe even new kitchen cabinets, maybe even new flooring throughout the main level. All while the roof is also being redone. We may be through with work by...March?

[alison]

Omg omg. That is insane. Just catching up here. When it rains, it.....poops!!! Having to anything with the word “sewer line” in it is so expensive. I’m sorry.

Did you get any snow?

[spotty_dog]

Sewer lines are just not things you should have to think about! Isn't that a "set it and forget it" kind of thing?

We definitely got snow -- such a wild thing, to have an actual white Christmas! Just a little over an inch, I'd say, but enough to make the kids go nuts playing in it.

[rainbabies]

Any chance the town owns part of the lines? Here, (but not where we live, bc, out in the sticks &#128518 the town is responsible for lines in the road and a certain distance into your house.

About 4-5 years ago our basement flooded twice. Once in December and again in March. The ground was frozen and for some weird reason we received a massive amount of rain, and the water had nowhere to go. We hired a professional company to come. At that time it was about 6” of water. The second time we came home from one of the kids concerts and the water was up to our mid thigh. It was soooo close to taking out the boiler. Some how the hot water tank survived. Dh has tons of wood shop power tools and they survived too. But it was a freaking nightmare. Sump pumps, fans, and the fear of mold. After installing $5k in gutters we figured out it was a giant root ball from the maple tree out front. It had clogged the under drain surrounding the house. We had a company come out with a camera and remove the blockage. They recommended doing it every few years. Which reminds me.....


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[spotty_dog]

Sadly, no. The city has been great actually, but between the plumbers' camera and the ancient sketchy schematics the city workers unearthed, we've determined that the blockage is still 50-60 feet before the tie-in to the city line.

And YES, that's the kind of thing, I have heard of people (especially out east) who have to run a sump pump every time it rains because of seepage and flooding into basement areas. At least that's not a contaminated water source but still...now knowing what mitigation involves for all this water stuff, I have even more empathy. Thigh high?? I'm so sorry. Trees are a-holes!

[PrincessFiona]

Any word on whether Home owner’s insurance will cover it? This sucks, but I’m not going to lie: I heard new flooring and new kitchen and kind of got excited for you!


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[spotty_dog]

I think I'm still a little overwhelmed, but starting to get slightly excited, because yes, insurance is going to cover a LOT of work. Our deductible is high but after that we're really well covered. And our relatives who have recently been through similar claims, plus the mitigation person who deals with this all the time, are pretty confident that we will be doing a swath of remodeling on the insurance dime.

I would rather *not* have the upheaval in my home, or OMG all the decisions about what to put in now! But...honestly some of this does start to look like kind of a silver lining.

(The insurance adjuster is going to see how much of the plumbing repair he can cover, but generally speaking that stuff falls under regular household maintenance and isn't insured. So the new sewer line we expect to be on our dime.)

[Meenah]

OMG, I am so sorry. Our house is approx.85 years old, and I just want to MOVE.

[ides]

Wow. How awful! I’m so sorry!! I love my old house (98 years with lots of original parts) but it’s one expensive thing after another.

[fluffhead]

What a nightmare - sorry you're dealing with this. We lived in a 100 year old house before this one, and I loved it, but there were certainly some major issues.

[spotty_dog]

I do like the uniqueness of our historic home -- it's hard to think of living in a modern structure now. (Ours is either 107 or 127 depending on whom you ask.)

But...ripping up the underlayments, they found *ancient* linoleum. Like, probably actual linoleum and not just vinyl. So they have to asbestos test it before they go any farther on that. >.<

[spotty_dog]

Kitchen cabinets are fine, so the kitchen redo is not happening, which is honestly okay. But we might still have to do the flooring. They ripped out about 5-6 boards including one in the kitchen, so if we can't make them match it might all have to go. We'll talk to the contractor about that soon.

So weird the stuff you discover when you start tearing apart an old house! There's a DiGiorno's Pizza box stapled into the old linoleum, under the wide-plank pine. So I guess that dates the flooring to post-1995!