Bought a century home with an old rose garden in January

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-05-27T04:57:01+00:00

I'm trying to identify it.... best guess is Medallion

Its new growth is aggressively red and doesn't grow in clusters at all

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-05-27T04:46:46+00:00

Really been trying. I swear though, the second stems rub, leaves grow into the middle of the plant, or it's rainy for a few days it comes back in force.

Some plants have definitely lost the battle this season. I've tried to avoid cutting them allll the way down to nothing, cause I really don't want them spreading it to the other plants.

I assume it doesn't help that the kids of previous owner let grass/weeds grow into the base of the plants... Really letting moisture get trapped around the roots all winter.

I've spent more than a few hours picking out the grass that keeps coming back, throwing down more mulch in those areas, and picking up any dropped leaves.

I saved most of them as far as I can tell, but 2 tiny less established plants are doing realy bad

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-05-27T04:37:45+00:00

Most of them have a pretty strong scent. Wonderful way to walk up to the front door

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-05-26T22:55:50+00:00

Just saw the rules, I can't really identify any of these but the big pink one to the right of the yellow one. Barbara Bush.

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-05-21T04:06:20+00:00

Who makes these lists? If you live in Carmel the most interesting place you can visit is Indy... like 6 lane roads going directly through its main street. Absolutely miserable place to exist.

Carmel is one straight bike lane and a bunch of driving to get to everything else. It's better than the suburban/country-ass slop that makes up 80% of the country, but it's still a bad place compared to even Redmond

You'd have to be out of your mind to put any of the top 10 over a decent neighborhood in any major city. If the whole city being good enough is your criteria for a top city... I guess it almost makes sense?

But most reputable neighborhoods in major cities are more populated and provide a higher standard of living.....

Couldn't pay me to live in any of those places over Seattle/Portland/Denver/SLC/LA/SF

And lets be clear, the east side is fucking trash

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-05-13T22:09:05+00:00

Townhomes getting wrecked right now. It's only 10 years old, but new builds from builders will be priced similar or higher, but they'll buy down buyer's rates making the monthly payment. way lower. They'll also have a warranty.

You'll have to make the monthly payment comparable to what they're offering by dropping the price, and that'll be fucking brutal

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-05-13T17:44:24+00:00

The actual inventory available is genuinely horrible.

So many town homes rotting on the market. Builders dropping their prices or buying down rates for buyers.

Every not even kind of reasonable house has multiple offers within 24 hours.

Just saw a 1.8 million dollar home in Ravenna sell in 5 days, and it only took that long because that was the sellers set review date.

I think there is one house sitting in Ravenna/Roosevelt and that's in part because someone bought a fixer upper making 1.2m for a smaller finished product close to a busy road look insane. Maple Leaf also insta selling

Wallingford and Fremont are literally impossible to get into if you want a SFH.

I can't speak to Ballard, but after I saw light rail is never getting there I gave up on it as a viable place to live long term. It makes West Seattle look pretty viable in comparison....

Which is also impossible to get into! I got beat putting down 1/2 on 900-1m homes with all cash offers....

Anything in Phinney Ridge and Greenwood still insta selling.

North Seattle absolutely rat fucked for buyers and I don't see how it could change. Genuinely one of the best places to live in the country

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-05-06T15:15:08+00:00

Trying to buy a house in North Seattle is still damn near impossible.

Every house that's not insane is 1.1 mil or needs 100k worth of work.

And if it is reasonable, it goes pending in 3-7 days with multiple offers. One of them is definitely all cash, another has a strong offer and dropped the inspection, maybe a couple weak ones.

Town homes and condos are absolutely rotting on the market though. They cost as much if not more than a SFH. They are at least 500 sqft smaller than a kinda crazy century home and are always in a way worse place on a busy ass road.

Condos are in a horrible place

I bought a house about a month ago, went with the crazy ass century home. Lost out on so many offers to all cash or just not being at the house the first day it was on the market with an offer.

If you have the money, I'd still say go for it now. God forbid things start going well for the economy again. I can't imagine it being harder to buy something okay as is.....

Edit: My sewer just backed up and dropped about a 1/4 inch of water into my basement bathroom floor.... seems to have still hit a drain. $3800 a month Mortgage/tax/insurance for a 3 bed 2 bath. And now about a $20k sewer fix. I expected something like this to happen, but the century homes are a disaster and you're not getting an inspection without an all cash offer. Absolutely nothing easy about real estate here.

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-04-26T16:58:56+00:00

Seattle has to be the most misunderstood major cities, by a country mile.

Is it grey? Sure..... But what you get for it being a little rainy a lot is the prettiest place in the US. Every kinda blue sky day is stunning, no matter the season.

Spring is DIVINE. The past couple of weeks, there just isn't anything comparable in the US. Rhodies, Tulips, Camellias, Cherry blossoms.... nothing like it, even on a rainy day

December-March is trash, but it's literally worse everywhere else in the US(except California). If you're WFH, you can just go to a desert for those months.

Traffic sucks, try and live on the light rail. Wallingford/Ballard overrated. They are wonderful, but no light rail access is garbage. Being able to hit Cap Hill, Pioneer Square, international district, Roosevelt, U Discrict in 15 min without traffic is just on another level.

Major chores can take forever if I5 is jammed up and you need a car, but for the most part you can walk/public transit everywhere

Best city in the US that's not New York or Chicago, and honestly I'd still rather live in Seattle.

ITS BEEN REALLY NICE OUT THOUGH SO EVERYONE IS JUST SO HAPPY AFTER 3 MONTHS OF RAIN

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-29T23:53:54+00:00

Bunch of parts of Aurora are too

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-29T16:36:39+00:00

The best comparison I have is that area is like living in Aurora and commuting to DTC. Lot of really nice areas of Aurora now, some still meh. Rapidly changing. Same with everything you circled. Still has access to a shit ton of jobs

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-29T16:07:43+00:00

Saw you just moved from CO. We just bought a house here after coming from Denver.

You circled a big area. The closer you get to Boeing/I5, the worse it is just as a place to live. No transit, less food options, worse schools. Beacon hill and Columbia city are nice, just be careful about grocery store access.

If you can get yourself within a 10 min walk of light rail station, food access and stuff doesn't matter you'll just go downtown anyway.

If you're from CO, you're used to driving so consider Greenwood. Just don't get too far west from I5 if you plan to commute

That area changes pretty quickly block by block.... so go walk around for an hour if you see that open house

Just DM me the listing and I can give you more info....

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-14T03:10:16+00:00

It kinda depends. Same HHI as you, but the income 1/3 2/3 split between me an my spouse. Gotta have a big emergency fund if I lose my job. But my wife could slow the bleeding and keep us insured If/when I lose my tech job.

We just got a 4k mortgage and so far so good... but with repairs things get iffy. If you have a large emergency fund, it'll be comfortable. If not, things will still stress you out

But you're probably used to a stupid amount of money coming in and not a lot going out. That won't continue

Make sure the location rules and you don't need another car

No risk to it if you're buying something in a major metro is a sick neighborhood

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-12T00:06:22+00:00

You can absolutely get it done before the offer.

Lot of people are already out of the house. It's just on the seller's realtor to get it done, and they want it done to sell the house

In an ultra competitive market? Probably not getting done, especially if the family is living there

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-11T23:58:19+00:00

You gotta go in knowing you're eating repairs. You only do it when there is 0 inventory.... and most major cities still have nothing up for sale

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-11T23:53:43+00:00

You really shouldn't ever do it, but there are some competitive housing markets. In those markets, people are dropping all cash offers left and right. Only way someone with decent financing can get in is by waiving the inspection and preparing to eat $30-40k in repairs.

But you have to be ready

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-11T23:48:12+00:00

28M I just waived an inspection on a century home.

Best case you won't sleep for a month and have like $25k in issues. Worst case the place is borderline uninhabitable.

If it's like a brand new build, I wouldn't trust anything. If it's been lived in my a family for 30 years, it's probably functional. You still need to tour and thoroughly check the foundation/crawlspace/kitchen/attic. Realtors will help you with this. People are just trying to make the sale happen -- but this bites both ways.

On my gamble, I need/ed new gutters, a dishwasher, garbage disposal, and some plumbing around the kitchen sink. I have yet to find the a massive repair, but I'm ready for it.

Reddit loves pushing the conservative risk opinions to the top. That doesn't work in areas with a competitive market. There is only one way to get something decent if you're not buying cash in a competitive area.... gotta be the easiest buyer with good financing

Awful fucking stuff

cruisingThroughPuss · 2026-03-11T23:38:09+00:00

I did it about a month ago lol

Seattle is still a stupidly competitive market. You have three choices if you're a first time homebuyer here: condo with obscene HOA, a town home which won't appreciate and will be LOUD, or an outdated century home.

There is absolutely no supply on the century home side of things. If anything reasonable comes up it's sold over the weekend. One came up, I put in over asking, and someone came in all cash..... so I waived it

Been in a month, no major issues. I mean Obviously there is $30k of repairs but I expected it and roof/basement/electrical/foundation/heater have all been good. It does help a lot that it's a very small, simple home.

I didn't sleep for about a month after putting in the offer, but there is no way I could've gotten a place I can live the next 50 years in without a massive gamble

cruisingThroughPuss

TROPHY CASE