A house you are happy in is a great thing to come home to everyday. Buying the lot and starting to put the improvements in sounds like a good idea.

It would be nice if you were a handyman and could do a lot of the finishing parts of the house your self.

I am not handy in any way, and my last three houses have been cool, but I felt I let them down as the "pride of ownership" angle never set in with me.

If any in the thread are like me, I suggest getting married to someone that is very concerned about keeping up with the house as far as improvements or maintenance. I am engaged, but living with my future spouse to be. She has pride of ownership, and if I don't actively participate I catch it but good. But it is worth it to live in a pretty nice, well kept place.

Generally, I would never advise to buy a lot that you are going to build on "later". Later may never come and who knows if the lot can be sold to even get your money back.

But, if you are going to build now, why not!

Maybe you can buy the lot and throw some sheep out there until you build (or even after) to get agricultural class taxes and save lots of money.

Sorry, but I feel compelled to answer this here. I promise to drop it after this.

Not long ago, Bill Maher showed a graph on his show, showing property values in the USA dating back to the 18th century. It looked roughly like this:



(EDIT TO ADD: Actually, on his graph, that spike may have even climbed much higher than that.)

So yeah, based on THAT. My parents spent the '60s and '70s going to cocktail parties with their friends, having conversations like, "My house went up $10k this year! How did your house do?" That's why they think rent=burning money. Those days are over. The market went nuts post-WWII, then went full ****** in the 1990's-2000's. Before WWII, housing wasn't the #1 expense faced by Americans, food was. Look at how much more you're spending on housing than food now.

Also, it's not burning money if you're getting something for it. I'm getting a roof over my head, and a place for my stuff.

Grunching, but my own lessons learned:

1) Homeowner associations have their benefits, but as time has gone on they're more a PITA. They can be very inefficient and boards elected from random residents can be especially bad.

2) Replace your water heater at the first sign of trouble.

3) Fix any leak anywhere immediately.

4) You need to have your ducts and cleaned every now and again, maybe 10 years, but find a reputable NADCA-blessed place. Price varies by house but for some amount ($400) they'll clean out your furnace and clean your returns. It's not supposed to be a big deal health-wise in most cases but it does help with dust.

However, beware all of the fly-by-night duct cleaners advertising $89 specials. Most are ****ty if not scams, and do the bait-and-switch with prices. Plenty of details online.

5) Same with dryer vent.

6) If you're not particularly handy at all, or tend to cut corners, then leave these for pros: plumbing, HVAC, major electrical, installation of cabinets and counters, flooring, or subflooring. Some exceptions: installing a basic toilet, putting down groutable stick-tile (TrafficMaster Ceramica) on an already-level floor, or changing light fixtures/outlets/switches which is easy.

7) Good tools to have:

1. Cordless reversible drill with a variety of bits
2. Actual screwdrivers
3. Set of Allen keys
4. A good wrench
5. Lineman's pliers
6. Needlenose pliers
7. Outlet tester
8. Hammer
9. Prybar
10. Wire cutter/stripper
11. Duct tape
12. Electrical tape
13. WD-40
14. Little tin of lighter fluid/naptha
15. Fine grade steel wool
16. Some drywall screws
17. At least a little DAP Drywall patch kit
18. Simple drywall saw
19. $35 4.5" angle grinder + a $30 blade
20. Tape measure
21. Paint-mixing drill attachment
22. A level, or better yet two in different sizes
23. Stud finder and no your wife/gf doesn't count
24. 2 ft & 6ft A-frame ladders, possibly a larger one depending on situation
25. Sanding block, some 200 grit sandpaper
26. Simple wood shims
27. Fire extinguisher
28. Crazy glue
29. This particular utility knife

I'm sure I left a few things out but that's most of it, covers the basics that come to mind.

8) Walls are almost never perfectly even. For example, the corners in a given kitchen are often not perfectly 90 degrees and flat which can make cabinet installs tricky.

9) If you ever install a shower or wet area, use what the pros advise for a wet area. Some DIYers will use easy pre-mixed tubs of stuff (mastic) to set shower tiles in rather than getting a bucket and mixing up some proper thinset. The problem is mastic tends to be water-soluble.

10) Lowes and Home Depot are really cool about returns, even after a while and without a receipt. 10% off coupons are always available on eBay.

11) If you live in a cheaply built condo or townhouse, avoid putting any especially heavy furniture near the center of the room. A heavy wood chest with 100 pounds of stuff in it at the foot of the bed might sink the floor a little bit. The joists might be further apart and plywood can bend.

My quickie--if you hear sounds from your crawlspace or attic, investigate right away. Or if you see any little turds in/around your house.

Pest animal infestations can cause a lot of expensive damage and be a real hassle to resolve.

If I see little turds/hear sounds. What is the next plan of action?

Set traps?

have you sterilized your rain gutters?

Inspect the entire perimeter of your property along the ground for access points. For rats and mice they'll usually be dirty or chewed open or both. Obviously mice need smaller holes but not by much.

Check all interior cabinets and baseboards to make sure that there's no access from the crawl space to the living area.

Seal all exterior and interior access points with wire mesh or similar. Follow the access points inside to where you hear the sounds. You should be able to see filth where the rats hang out/ travel. Set traps. Check periodically and re set. That should take care of that.

Just to add a couple of things.

1) Mice, especially deer mice can squeeze thru incredibly small spaces. So even a small gap anywhere can let them in.

2) If you have rats, you'll know it. My garage door was stuck slightly open for a couple of days, and they set up shop in the garage, which I realized when I opened the garage door to pull in the car and three or four of them scattered. I had a live trap and set it and caught a really healthy looking orangish-brown rat that must have weighed a couple of pounds. I walked down the street and let him out in an attorney's yard - professional courtesy.

Had an exterminator come out and off the rest - rat turds and piss spots everywhere. Miserable to clean up.

MM MD

Not sure if this is the best place but I am not into starting new threads unless it's something really novel to discuss.

I'm planning a kitchen remodel, I'm not handy so I will be having this done by professionals who can advise me but could always use second opinions.

Does anyone have tips \ advice for buying appliances? Should I get one of the matching sets or "builder's packages" where everything is from the same vendor or should I just pick out what I like best individually? Are there certain brands to avoid or focus on?


Is granite worth it? How about custom cabinets?

Is there a best bang for the buck feature I should be thinking about?

I got a bit of mold in the basement. Need to buy a dehumidifier allegedly

Almost finished a drawn-out three month basement renovation that started with a bit of mold in the corner... If you're planning on sticking around in the house for a while, investigate futher - figure out where the moisture is coming from.

And i'm not positive, but a dehumidifier won't solve an existing mold issue.

Yeah I meant in addition to taking care of current mold
It was behind the baseboard which I'm sure contributed to the problem.

I'll probably just take them off in the basement

In my area you can't sell your house for a decent price if you don't have granite.

I'm wrapping up a kitchen remodel right now. Heres what I learned.

Plan plan plan and plan some more. Consider the three workflow areas of prep cleanup and cooking and how they interact/interfere with each other. Changing your plan/adding on features mid construction gets pricey very fast. The kitchen forums on gardenweb are full of good ideas on layout and features.

Appliance research is really useful and informative on the gardenweb forums. We got a la carte appliances because the feature set I was looking for in a range was not available in a builders package. You can also negotiate prices of individual appliances.

Talk to your builder about cabinets. We were able to get semi custom cabs for a great price from his cabinet guy.

Idk about granite per se but solid surface counters are definitely necessary. Look into silestone, soapstone, ceasarstone etc.

Pm me if you have any other questions or post em in here whatever.

As for kitchen cabinets, you might think about the tall kind for the upper ones. They eliminate that common foot or so gap to the ceiling that just gathers dust like crazy.

I found this dude's blog the other day and he has some great info on appliances: http://appliantology.org/blog/1-samu...ns-blog/?st=20

I don't think you necessarily have to have granite or your house won't sell without it. I think we are about at the end of the granite trend and everything will be going towards quartz or white glass:



I think it's the iPhone effect, more and more new constructions I see have countertops like this.

Thank you sir, that forum looks like what I was looking for. What feature did you want in your range that wasn't in the regular models? I don't even know what to look for.


Yes I am definitely doing cabinets up to the ceiling. Right now I have a bunch of stuff sitting on top of the cabinets because I don't have storage and it looks like ****.

When I was in high school I worked for a mom and pop company that does custom cabinets. They said they'll give me a price for custom and a price for Kraftmaid so I can figure out what direction to go

It's not granite or gtfo but it's definitely gtfo with that formica stuff.

Personally as long as I can put a hot pan on the counter I'm happy.
Granite and cheap counters are really not that far off in price anymore either.

I really wanted a pro style range with a convection oven and at least one burner rated over 18kBTU, preferably higher. As I researched I realized I'd prefer open burners to sealed ones for cooking power over ease of cleaning. I also wanted something with no electronic controls for longevity purposes.

I'm a pretty serious amateur/semi pro cook though. Your needs will vary. I ended up getting an American Range Performer Series.

Due to lots of freezing rain and the fact that my sump pump quit, I had to get my insurance company in to rip out all the flooring in my basement and bring in fans/dehumidifiers.

Luckily there was only about half and inch to an inch and it didn't get into the dry wall, also doesn't look like it got under the tiles in the bathroom.

Friendly reminder for anyone with a sump pump, check on it from time to time, especially during heavy rain.

Also if you have a finished basement, it's probably worth it to opt into sewer backup insurance (I did) which specifically covers sump pump failure.

Usually true but depends on the expectations and what the place is worth. There's still a place for lower-end finish outs in more modest neighborhoods, so it depends on what BBB is talking about.

100k-ish condos around me are hot atm (people are looking for investment properties right now). Current project, broker & agent both told me anything beyond builder grade kitchen is lighting money on fire. 90% of the units have the original builder grade cabs/lam tops from 25 years ago.

Horror story: One identical unit (same development) went all out with 42-inch cabinets, probably $6k in nice appliances, silestone counters, and laid new hardwood throughout. Did a great job but totally overbuilt it at a time when the places were like $90k or so. They just assumed that they could drop in whatever they wanted and some buyer would cover it.

At the end of the day, at least to buyers, it was still a 1,100 sq ft, 2bd/2ba condo with a smallish kitchen area. Essentially the owners were competing against themselves because the vast majority of comps were rocking lower-end finishes. They dropped in new cherry floors when most places listed had carpet or maybe Pergo, and not necessarily new.

The couple of 2p2 house flippers gave me similar advice on my prior project and I still went a little bit overboard on those updates. Comp prices are a serious ball and chain.

I have done quite a few kitchen remodels and it reall comes down to kitchen size and budget.

I would make sure you have enough lighting in you kitchen, can never really have too much.

The layout of your sink/stove/fridge is probably already dictated by your current layout and depending how much work you want to do to move things around.

I feel I am forgetting something.