The Things You Are HAPPY About Thread.

[Wolf Hunting]

It was sarcasm my friendly fool.

I know there's one person who feels it's only a Mod that calls people names James, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to reach for a yellow card here.

We can't have people calling other people names. It can lead to upset, hurt feelings and indigestion.

Be warned.

:icon_Yellow-Card:

 

[t3ch]

I'm offended and upset by the yellow card.

I'm happy that I started my personal training last night. Been putting it off forever. The people in the class were fun and energetic and the instruction was great. Costing me an arm and a leg but I suppose that's the price one pays to lose weight.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Went for the big 4d colour scan today and I'm excited to say that The Drummer's going to have a half sister.

Excellent!

 

[t3ch]

Emailed my realtor this morning to pursue a house... I'm excited and scared shitless at the same time.

It's nothing special, but I live in a very (very, very) expensive area and it's a settlement house, which means the listed price is something like 30% off market value. It ticks all of our checkboxes except the "standalone house" one. It's a townhouse, but has a backyard, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, 2k+ sq ft, in the exact neighborhood we want for the kid (schools), etc. A similar non-townhouse right across the street from this one would easily cost us about 70% more.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Emailed my realtor this morning to pursue a house... I'm excited and scared shitless at the same time.

It's nothing special, but I live in a very (very, very) expensive area and it's a settlement house, which means the listed price is something like 30% off market value. It ticks all of our checkboxes except the "standalone house" one. It's a townhouse, but has a backyard, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, 2k+ sq ft, in the exact neighborhood we want for the kid (schools), etc. A similar non-townhouse right across the street from this one would easily cost us about 70% more.

Why would you be scared shitless you dope!
Sounds pretty good.
But tell me, I'm just an Englishman struggling here...
What's 2.5 baths look like? or is it one bath 2.5 yards long!! That's a small pool!
When you say backyard do you mean rear Garden ie, lawned area with plants and trees and stuff.
Or is it like a YARD over here, a few square feet of concrete bounded by a brick wall, often with a coal bunker and an outside toilet, with a door/gate in the wall exiting into a rear laneway.
You yanks and your 'yards'!

Post up a few pics or the estate agent's website for it....

 

[t3ch]

Why would you be scared shitless you dope!
Sounds pretty good.
But tell me, I'm just an Englishman struggling here...
What's 2.5 baths look like? or is it one bath 2.5 yards long!! That's a small pool!
When you say backyard do you mean rear Garden ie, lawned area with plants and trees and stuff.
Or is it like a YARD over here, a few square feet of concrete bounded by a brick wall, often with a coal bunker and an outside toilet, with a door/gate in the wall exiting into a rear laneway.
You yanks and your 'yards'!

Post up a few pics or the estate agent's website for it....

This post made me laugh, so thanks for that firstly. :icon_lol: It IS scary... huge financial commitment and I can't just call maintenance when something breaks.

Secondly, "2.5 bath" means two full bathrooms, and then one that is just a toilet-- no shower, no bathtub. They are usually on main floors. Ex., this house is a 3 story townhouse but enters in the middle. The top (bedrooms) and bottom (basement) floors will have full, typical bathrooms, but the middle floor (kitchen, living room) will only have a toilet and sink.

Since it's a mid-level, there's a good sized patio deck from the main level and a small yard from the basement. Believe it or not, that's more than most have in this area! We obviously want a house-house, with land and a big fenced yard, but it's way, way more than we can afford (for now). This tiny stupid townhouse is $215k; market value around $300k. The houses listed in the same neighborhood 200ft away are $370K for the smallest, worst available. mos run high 400's.

Having said that, the house we're pursuing, thanks to the issues with the seller, costs the same/cheaper than an apartment, even after taxes, insurance, HOA, etc.. And that same apartment would be 1/3 the size with neighbors on all sides, no backyard, no 3rd BR, etc. The pricing literally dropped $70k overnight due to foreclosure, so we're pouncing.

 

[machin05]

Well, I've had worse mornings! Our 16 week old daughter slept for 11 uninterrupted hours through the night for the first time ever AND I've just had a call to say that work is closed due to a heating failure!
WIN!!

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

That first night when your baby sleeps all the way through is so good! You wake up thinking 'wow, so that's what sleep used to be like'!

 

[Sniffer]

That first night when your baby sleeps all the way through is so good! You wake up thinking 'wow, so that's what sleep used to be like'!

That first night when your baby sleeps all the way through is not so good as you wake up thinking 'shit, he/she must be ill or something'

 

[Wolf Hunting]

t3ch, right , cotchya!
You still didn't address this vexed question regarding 'yards'. I can see you DON'T have a yard. But you DO have a garden.
I can see however you blindly tried to dodge the question, that there is a lawn area which serves you quite well as a rear/back garden. but I can't see how long it is.
It'd be pretty good if it was longer than 40, 50 feet and wasn't overlooked at the back.
Anyway, it looks pretty good inside too. That patio is nice. Would be nicer if you could get down into your garden from it (like next door) though.

What do you do about boundaries? you have a small fence then it stops. Is your garden therefore a shared garden with next door?
The front garden seems to be shared too.. Are they all communal?
I don't suppose termites are a problem but you do have a lot of wood touching the ground there....

Finally I suppose fire insurance is a big deal with wooden houses jammed up against each other.

I bought a house once in Ireland which years before had been split. My office/study was actually over next door's kitchen! We had a bit of a problem getting insurance to cover the fact that their carelessness etc might impact my premises etc...

 

[Wolf Hunting]

That first night when your baby sleeps all the way through is not so good as you wake up thinking 'shit, he/she must be ill or something'

My wife could have written that Sniffer.
She worries that if it has a quiet day, and she can't feel it kicking, that there's a major fault occuring!

 

[Sniffer]

My wife could have written that Sniffer.
She worries that if it has a quiet day, and she can't feel it kicking, that there's a major fault occuring!

Yep, had a visit to the hospital with that one. The advice of the nurse was that if your good lady is concerned then eating an ice cream or something cold to shock the little (blighter / prince / princess *delete as appropriate*) into action is a good first step to see that there is nothing wrong.

 

[t3ch]

Looking at the house today around noon... Have to get to the bank and reapply before hand. I have knots in my stomach!

You still didn't address this vexed question regarding 'yards'. I can see you DON'T have a yard. But you DO have a garden.
I can see however you blindly tried to dodge the question, that there is a lawn area which serves you quite well as a rear/back garden. but I can't see how long it is.

What do you do about boundaries? you have a small fence then it stops. Is your garden therefore a shared garden with next door?
I don't suppose termites are a problem but you do have a lot of wood touching the ground there....

Finally I suppose fire insurance is a big deal with wooden houses jammed up against each other.

Well aren't you curious! The backyard (er, garden) you see in that pic is pretty much it. I'm not sure how it works, but a lot of townhomes will alternate as you see in the pic; one fenced in, other open. I'm pretty sure the backyard isn't shared, it's just understood that that area is ours; same with the front. The back backs up into woods though, so it's not like we're staring another house in the face, facing a street, etc. Insurance isn't any problem with townhouses, and there are firewalls built in-between. Normally every 2-3 units, depends on the time of construction (I'm actually a certified firefighter, no concerns by me with fire). Never really heard of termite problems with the wooden patio's, that's how they're all built here. Likely coated with something to help, I imagine?

I'm new to these structures too so I don't have thorough answers for you. This house is far from our "perfect house"; we really wanted a nice long yard so we could get a dog and just let them outside whenever, build a little garden, etc. Couldn't sleep last night and did some research on the area.... If we do end up getting this house for list-price ($215k), it will be the cheapest sold in the last 3 years (as far back as my search went). There are other houses for the same price, but half the size and less bedrooms. The next lowest comparable house was $270k, and that was during the worst of the housing recession. Looks like normal market value is actually up a little more than $300k. The price is just too hard to argue with, so we'll live without having a real yard until it's time to upgrade.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Interesting answers t3ch, thanks.
I'm curious about domestic americana.

That's why I'm interested in what you guys eat, and why there aren't many footpaths** and shops, and why you guys don't have shopping bags but you struggle in with these dinky paper sacks clutched to your chest, interesting things you do at traffic lights, stuff you can't get and stuff you can...
How you go out and buy the junk someone left in a lock up and forgot about it. etc...

** Went to Boston once for 2 days. I rang the place I'd booked accommodation in (Rockport - a fucking dry town! (Different story)) and and she asked me how I'd get from the station to her house.
I said, I'd walk.
She said you can't walk, nobody walks from the station into town.
I asked her if it was far, were there no footpaths, was it, er... dangerous in someway..

She told me it was about 2 miles, yes there were footpaths, even on both sides of the road, but no one walks in America, so you'll have to see how you get on but here are a number of taxi companies....

I told here I'd been sitting on a plane for 7 hours, then on a train for an hour and a half, I'd be delighted to walk about 10 miles if I could...

Unheard of, she said.

 

[t3ch]

I think it's more the availability and expectations with vehicles. Ex., there are several on this board who don't have licenses, which to an American is just mind boggling. How can you not be able to drive?! It's crazy to think of. I wouldn't personally have a huge problem walking those two miles, but with everyone having vehicles it's not very often that you see people walking all about. When I went to college I didn't have a car and walked everywhere (nothing was close, either)... at one point I even bought a computer monitor (one of the old, huge ones) and carried it the 2-3 miles back to my apartment over my shoulder. I got a lot of ridiculous looks, and that was on a college campus, where standards are pretty low and craziness is high. If you were actually in Boston the public transports would have been more readily available, and walking much more prevalent. I have friends in downtown DC who don't own cars, but they live/work downtown and make use of subways, taxis, and their legs. They all have licenses though, and rent/borrow cars as needed.

 

[t3ch]

5 days without the kid, visiting his grandparents in Florida with his dad... I'm also off work until Monday, and the lady is off half of that... Have 3 fancy dinner reservations between now and then (possibly a 4th), gonna grab some wine and flowers on the way home, get some work outs in, and generally make good use of this rare occurence. Ahhh, peace, quiet, and all the time in the world. And lingerie. For her, I mean. OK fine for both of us, don't judge me.

 

[James]

Wii U is preordered. I am very happy about that.

 

[So Long Architect]

Just started discussing doing business with a chap called Mike Hunt. Happy days.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

About to get changed into IKEA uniform for the last time.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Just installed all my downlighters in the kitchen (after hitting 2 joists with the hole cutter) we now have 11 light units in the kitchen.

And feeling full of trepidation I went to switch the circuit breaker on.... and everything worked.

Delighted with myself.
Had a little toast to my dear Dad.
He taught me how to do all this shit.

Mind you, when he was showing me, he was standing in his workshop, not jammed in the angle of the attic where there was 9" of clearance under the roof and the attic floor (unboarded) full of old blown insulation reaching out at arms length covered in fucking cobwebs trying to connect wires...)

Now got 3 hours to clean the kitchen up.
Don't you get a shit load of dust from a hole cutter?