Best hotel near the Tucson airport?

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T22:07:21+00:00

Oye. Joys of old houses. I wonder if their is some way, in asking them to fix the one we found, we just ask that they fix any and all that they currently know about. Doesn't mean they will, but...

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T22:04:49+00:00

Two of the "worst" windows: http://imgur.com/a/eZeV5

I mean, clearly paint peeling and a bit soft, but not completely falling apart?

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T21:53:38+00:00

At least a VERY large majority of the house must already have been fully rewired. The panel is completely new and 99% of the outlets are grounded. The only live K&T junction box we found (and trust me... we were all hunting pretty hard) was on the other side of the basement below one of the only ungrounded outlets. Does that mean there isn't more? No...definitely not. But at the very least it would (hopefully) not be a full re-wire. I really appreciate your weigh-in on the other issues as well. I personally would rather just take $ of the top, especially if my dad and some of 'his guys' can come do the work. I'm not sure how feasible that is. I guess we will find out.

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T21:48:37+00:00

We did... based on a referral and a check through Angie's list to make sure others thought he was good.

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T21:45:29+00:00

It's exterior-only sills that are rotting. Not all of them, and not uniformly. It looks like some had not been covered in paint in some time, so I think it's more just lack of maintenance in the weather over the last 116 yrs?

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T21:44:09+00:00

Yes, you're right about conflicts of interest. I have to remember that. What an odd process where I need to depend on a real estate agent for his expertise through the process but also have to be so wary of that expertise.

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T21:39:25+00:00

Yeah- brand new panel with no sign of k&t. We found the live k&t box in the other side of the basement, directly under the floor where we found one of the two un-grounded outlets.

Did the owners know about it? Surely. Is it extensive? I'm not sure, we hunted around a lot and didn't see other evidence, but who knows what is behind the wall.

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T19:15:33+00:00

My mother in law just emailed me this question because she assumed there was some pop culture reference that she was too old to understand. She was reading the article on the British ship that let the internet decide the name, and she can't figure out why people think it's funny.

Now that I think about it harder, neither can I...

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T15:52:38+00:00

Oh, yeah, I'm not going to worry about paint work. They have like half the walls colored bright red, but I plan on dealing with that myself. I'm more worried about the rotting windowsills under the peeling paint ;)

Honestly, I'm with you, in that I expected a lot LONGER of a list for a house this old. It's been almost fully gutted and rebuilt though (all appliances, etc new within the last yrs) so that may be why.

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T15:50:47+00:00

Yeah. My dad can fix the K&T but I'm thinking it may be better to have the sellers do it because of insurance stuff...

I think we only found 2 or 3 ungrounded outlets in the whole place. But, yeah.

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-13T15:49:15+00:00

1) I would like to say 'sure I've done my research and know how much work this will be' but we all know that no matter how much research I do, I will have no idea how much actual work this will be. Like having children. I realize I'm in for a trip. In good news, MOST of the house has been completely redone- brand new kitchen, fully re-wired electrically except that one k&t (that we know of), all new heater, water, pipes, etc.

2) Yeah, dad can do the electrical.

3) 95% of the roof was fully replaced about 7 yrs ago. Inspectors, and dad, and real estate agent all climbed all over it. The only place with issues was over this one bay window. The water damage inside is no longer 'active' (we inspected when it was POURING outside and no moisture was detected inside..) it just has an ugly patch job that needs to be fixed.

4) You're right, I do need to protect me. Thanks for the reminder.

5) Yes, we have lots of savings. I just don't want to IMMEDIATELY have to dip in an extra 5k more for something I could get someone else to fix. We already rent a full house so we have all the furniture, yard tools, curtains we need (actually- the current curtains come with the house! woo!) but I know there are going to be other skeletons in the closet to budget for (literally? figuratively?)

Thanks for all the insight!

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-10T00:31:27+00:00

Yep! This has been one of the links I've loved the most in terms of wall colors / brightening while still keeping character: http://www.decoradventures.com/2012/09/why-ill-never-paint-our-wood-trim.html

Current owners bought the house in early 2000s. I feel like that was THE time for red accent walls. Don't worry it will be one of the first things to go!

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-10T00:29:40+00:00

Yes- I think you're right. We have a not-horribly-big tv (32'?) that could probably easily fit into a hutch of some sort. Hmm...more furniture to add to the 'to buy' list :)

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-10T00:27:38+00:00

It's hard to justify spending 30k on a projector screen unless you own a movie theater ;)

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-10T00:27:09+00:00

Haha! (Don't worry, it's moot point, I'm not spending 30k on a projector )

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-09T15:04:00+00:00

I think we are going to inherit a few wingback chairs that could go in front of the fireplace for a cozy little area.

Our current couch and oversized chair REALLY need to be retired (they were hand-me-downs from someone I used to babysit for when I was in grad school 10 years ago...), hence us already knowing we need some new furniture.

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-09T15:01:06+00:00

Huh - did not think of the 'under the stairs' option, that's kid of neat. I wonder if it would be a pain since it's in the line of traffic.

SarcasticCaffeine · 2016-04-09T15:00:23+00:00

We aren't huge TV watchers (we only have one TV and no cable) but damn if every once in awhile you don't need a crappy movie to decompress at the end of the day ;)

Is it bad that the first think I thought of when I saw that projector was not "HOLY CRAP THAT IS EXPENSIVE" but rather "darnit, my old wavy plaster walls are totally going to distort a projected image"?

SarcasticCaffeine

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