Home Improvement - Housing nightmares

[phyco126]

Ever move into a house/home/apartment that seemed well and fine at first, only to find that things went downhill fast? I'm not talking about roommates or neighboors, crime, or just terrible luck of losing your job and being unable to pay rent/morgages. I mean the house itself. You move in, everything seems fine. Then you wake one day day to find the fridge went out. A week later, the washer goes out. Then you find you have to replace the bathtub. After an inspection, you find you also have to replace part of the ceiling and a huge portion of the floor due to water damage. Those kinds of things.

Right now I have a new washer and dryer en route, and money set aside for remodeling the bathroom (gotta replace half walls, part of the floor, the tub itself, and some of the plumbing). I also found a used, older fridge that I am picking up Friday. Personally, I would have rathered spent this money on other things, like a motocycle, or PS3, or fixing my current car. The list can go on. *sigh*

[Aaron]

are you using a contractor? Or is this all DIY.

Maybe you just got the house/apt/whatever from hell?

[phyco126]

Doing it myself, contractors cost roughly 4x as much, if not more. Lucky for me, most of my family is on various specialties of construction, such as plumbling, concrete, carpenter, etc.

I already knew the status of the home I moved into, but all that needed to be done was the bathtub and the floor. Then the fridge and washer went out, as well as some more bad luck stuff.

I relate this more to bad luck than just a horrible home.

[ilovemyguitar]

Yeah, I've never experienced this, thank god. The closest I've come to that was when I moved into my current place and didn't realize until my first night there that my bathroom didn't have any outlets (which... bizarre). Beyond that, my only real problems housing-wise have been with crazy roommates.

[Monde Luna]

Sorry about the mess but I've been there done that too (not that it makes it any better). For me it happend in a set of three we lost our furnace, the A/C and we had to redo our electrical outlets all at the same time. It was a drag but it's nice to have a new A/C esp. in this weather.

[PottleElf]

Anything with water damage I think should be your priority... Water damage = mold = health problems, so it's important to get that done before it gets worse. I dunno how good you are with repairs, but if it were me I'd have hired someone to do that part. Replacing appliances is something I could figure out myself though.

[phyco126]

The problem with having someone else do it, is that just to redo the bathtub alone, would have cost about $4,500. That doesn't include walls, flooring, plumbing. That besides, $4,500 is roughly 1/4th of my post-tax income for the entire year. Whereas if I can do it myself, I can do it all, plus the three mentioned, for about $1,000, tops. Though I myself won't be doing most of it, my family will be helping me (hopefully).

Speaking of furnaces, mine is over 20 years old, and its making wierd noises. I'm expecting that to go out.

At somepoint though, I may have to look into redoing ALL the flooring, as there is piss smell from dogs and cats that were never let outside from the previous tenant. Several shampoos and a professional cleaning later, it still smells go aweful in this place (not nearly as bad as before though). Also I spray the carpets with fabreeze until they are nearly soaked, as often as I can afford to.

[PottleElf]

The problem with having someone else do it, is that just to redo the bathtub alone, would have cost about $4,500. That doesn't include walls, flooring, plumbing. That besides, $4,500 is roughly 1/4th of my post-tax income for the entire year. Whereas if I can do it myself, I can do it all, plus the three mentioned, for about $1,000, tops. Though I myself won't be doing most of it, my family will be helping me (hopefully).

Wait wait wait wait wait... Do you own this apartment? Or do you rent it? If you rent it, you're not the one liable for those repairs. Especially ones for things like water damage (which is usually like leaks in other parts of the building that aren't under your control). That's all the landlord's responsibility. If you own it, well, maybe there's a building association fund you can tap into?

[phyco126]

Its a mobile home, so no association funds, no landlords.

Technically, its my sister's home, but she refuses to do any repairs. Its going to be a touchy subject between me and her sometime down the road, I know.

[PottleElf]

Its a mobile home, so no association funds, no landlords.

Technically, its my sister's home, but she refuses to do any repairs. Its going to be a touchy subject between me and her sometime down the road, I know.

Huh. Well, can't really help you there. Sorry mate...