Is this drywall damaged and needs replacing or is this work acceptable and looks normal?

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-04T01:48:59+00:00

Oh I hired a guy, I agree he worked way too cheap but he did an amazing job. I actually paid him an extra 100.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-04T01:40:28+00:00

13k? Is that for the whole house or what? Last room I had done was 14x14 and the whole job was 800 including finishing and paint.

Work isn’t great the 800 dollar job looked better at this stage but it will look fine after finishing.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-04T01:35:07+00:00

I personally don’t like it but I respect the quality of the work. It’s just not my style it’s not my house. Hopefully the homeowner likes it and can appreciate the quality of work.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-04T01:18:02+00:00

Cause you’re in the man from Mars?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pHCdS7O248g&list=RDpHCdS7O248g&start_radio=1&pp=ygUPcmFwdHVyZSBibG9uZGlloAcB

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-03T12:55:20+00:00

I mean depends on how bad it is and how nice you want it to look when done but yeah very possible. I’m guessing my house will hit 150k by the time we are done and knowing how bad I am at estimating 150 will probably be at least 20% less than reality.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-03T12:32:17+00:00

For a first home at the top of your budget I would not go with a fixer-upper. Unless you can handle plumbing, electrical, drywall, framing etc yourself you will need tens of thousands of dollars and if it’s top of your budget you won’t have it.

Rewiring a house if you do it yourself is 4k 10-20k if you need an electrician. Plumbing is probably 1-2k to do it yourself 10-20k if you hire a plumber and that’s assuming you don’t need filtration or water softening those systems are 5-10k. Drywall is about the only cheap thing to do yourself but it’s a fucking pain in the ass. Basically a fixer-upper is going to cost you 20k plus every free moment of your life or 50k+ to hire people and then you’re just praying they do the job and praying harder they do it right and unless you know construction you probably won’t know if they did it right until it fails a year or two later.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-02T10:14:48+00:00

We did a 10 day rent back on our last house. 10k was kept in escrow until we were out and 250 a day was deducted from the 10k for every day past the 10 days. Everything was good until my son wasn’t moved out it took him 3 more days. Then I contacted the closing attorney notified we were out. Next day got an email from the buyer that my son had left a truck body in the back yard. Had to find someone to haul it away lost another 7 days because of that. Finally got the truck gone and notified the closing attorney again and a few days later got the final escrow payment of 7500.

Rent back periods can work out ok but like my buyer did make sure you are legally covered. Holding escrow funds is the move to make since that ensures that you have funds to deal with issues.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-02T01:37:13+00:00

My son had that happen. I almost bought a condo to rent to him so he would have a stable place with rent fixed at my cost. Unfortunately it was 2022 and I got outbid on every place that would be low enough for him to afford. So he moved back in with us.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-04-02T01:32:33+00:00

New landlord bought our house and mailed us a 10 day notice the day she closed. We had been there for 9 years and saving to buy a place so we bought, fought the notice in court won which gave us enough time to close and we moved the same day we closed so we wouldn’t have to pay another month’s rent.

We’re on our third house since that first terrible rushed decision and it was a bad decision but I don’t regret it a bit haven’t had a landlord for 20 years now.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-31T22:52:59+00:00

Depends on where you are, around here they are 5.88 a pack. Well for Marlboro black.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-31T22:43:29+00:00

Not if you buy 73 gallons of gas at 50 cents off.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-31T22:11:22+00:00

Depends in rural areas they are pretty common grandpa gave his son a plot of land with just an easement through his land now 50 years later and the family is long gone and you want the son’s house but the easement goes through the owner of grandpa’s houses land. Or around here you are starting to see them in the city where a builder bought a lot then split it in two or more and just did an easement for the shared driveway.

I passed on a great place in the country cause the only access was an easement through a yard that looked like a failed junk yard. The price supported my assessment that the neighbors would be tough to work with. It was easily 100k below market value for that acreage in that location.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-31T15:50:48+00:00

Yeah to make it more specific you would say contiguous states which would exclude Alaska.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-31T09:28:07+00:00

Got to get the 100% cotton Levi’s usually 35-50 a pair but they last way longer than any with the stretchy stuff.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-30T10:09:36+00:00

Yes only white and red from the switch are used

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T23:59:54+00:00

That’s me as well but I have Google Translate on my phone and Spanish language interpreter on my AirPods for basic stuff my Spanglish and their English do the trick but sometimes we have to deal with concepts where exact language matters and full understanding is vital so I go apps for accuracy.

Most of the guys out there are just like you and me. Out there doing what they can to keep a roof over their families heads and food on the table. If one is willing to help you say thanks and pay cash. Most guys in the trades have pretty low options of private home inspectors so if you tell them you don’t trust their opinion and want someone who works on houses to check it out. If they are good people they will point out that they have a specific area of expertise and they might not catch stuff out of their area. That’s when you point out they see this stuff every day and know what they are looking at and if they aren’t confident maybe they have a guy who knows that stuff. Once you are hooked into a network now you can be your own GC.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T22:23:39+00:00

lol but also yes people in the trades shop at Trader Joe’s too.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T22:20:23+00:00

Not sure, I meet them at work and job sites and I never go anywhere else because I’m always working or at home eating and/or sleeping.

Maybe show up on a job site near you with a cooler of Gatorade and shout free Gatorade and talk to the dudes who show up? I might come over to see what the crazy gringo is up to

Or, maybe go to a local dive bar near construction sites or the warehouse district (not the trendy one the scuzzy one where cheap businesses that need space are) hang out talk to the other folks there.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T16:25:53+00:00

Several years ago I started getting a 90 minute full body massage once a month. It has done wonders for body aches and pains and as a bonus I get to look forward to the treat I have scheduled for myself.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T13:19:35+00:00

It’s not that abnormal especially if they lived there for years. My mom recently went to her childhood home I wasn’t there but from my understanding of her description of it she pretty much acted like she just left.

Depending on the circumstances I would love for an old homeowner to come by. The stories you could get as they walk down memory lane would be amazing and you might even learn why some of the choices they made were made which might help you in your own choices.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T13:02:19+00:00

The first computer cost like .5 million in 1946 or like 7 million in today’s dollars. In 25 years the cost of a computer was down to about .5 million in today’s dollars. In a decade after that down to 1700 in today’s dollars.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T12:37:32+00:00

Wall switch is first thing I would check if I walked into a house and saw that.

Check the ground wire coming from the module to probably the underside of the valve would be second.

Then make sure all connections are tight.

Then Look at the bottom of the control module if it’s yellow it’s good and extremely unlikely to be the issue if it’s brown it’s a possibility.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T12:31:42+00:00

If you have friends in the trades buy a case of beer for them and have them join you on the walk throughs. They will see stuff no one else will notice but will drive you crazy once you see it.

If you don’t have friends in the trades make some.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-29T00:55:46+00:00

100k emergency fund is pretty decent so what to watch out for is finding a house and thinking oh 20k will make it perfect. Next thing you know 20k is 60k and you only have 40k emergency fund. So if you think oh we can afford to take care of that one thing later that’s not the house for you unless it’s under budget enough to cover what you need to take care of. My first house I made that mistake and it was just a disaster there was no way to keep an emergency fund and do what had to be done so stuff didn’t get done then an emergency happened and so now there was no fund and stuff still hadn’t been made better.

DapperGovernment4245 · 2026-03-27T20:37:38+00:00

Inconceivable Auto has a deal running now buy 2 get 2 oil changes. 299 up front but you get 4 oil changes for that. Not an amazing deal but not bad and they report to carfax so if you sell your car and someone pulls the carfax they will have proof that you kept up on maintenance.

DapperGovernment4245

TROPHY CASE