I'm still here
A quick update. I miss you guys.
- The crazy bureaucratic glitch at work that had made it so that I really, really, legally could not blog seems to have mended itself, much like the space-time continuum in the new seasons of Doctor Who. (And, much like in the new seasons of Doctor Who, the universe will never know how close it came, prior to that, to accidental total annihilation.)
- However, an impossible, high-stakes, high-pressure workload continues. Forecast: low-sleep, hellish conditions are expected to persist for the next three weeks, but improve rapidly thereafter.
- Seeing my distress, K has kinda sorta moved back in and is being extremely helpful. So far so good, but we're deliberately not discussing the permanence of these arrangements until The Work Crisis eases.
- What do we all think of this house? With everything else going on, I really shouldn't be looking right now. But I did, and I am, and I'm mildly infatuated with this place, despite its many problems.
- The crazy bureaucratic glitch at work that had made it so that I really, really, legally could not blog seems to have mended itself, much like the space-time continuum in the new seasons of Doctor Who. (And, much like in the new seasons of Doctor Who, the universe will never know how close it came, prior to that, to accidental total annihilation.)
- However, an impossible, high-stakes, high-pressure workload continues. Forecast: low-sleep, hellish conditions are expected to persist for the next three weeks, but improve rapidly thereafter.
- Seeing my distress, K has kinda sorta moved back in and is being extremely helpful. So far so good, but we're deliberately not discussing the permanence of these arrangements until The Work Crisis eases.
- What do we all think of this house? With everything else going on, I really shouldn't be looking right now. But I did, and I am, and I'm mildly infatuated with this place, despite its many problems.
9 Comments:
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Anonymous said...
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- 4:45 PM
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- 5:09 PM
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- 5:56 PM
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Ted Frank said...
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- 7:11 PM
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- 5:24 AM
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- 12:11 PM
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- 2:40 PM
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Anonymous said...
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- 12:45 PM
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Anonymous said...
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- 11:48 AM
Post a CommentWhat is the nature of the house's problems? Anything cosmetic is not a problem. Be very very very very very careful of structural things like leaky roofs, however. They are so much harder to fix than you ever think they will be. Not like I'm speaking from personal experience or anything.
The house looks great, but for me (though not necessarily for you), lack of kitchen counterspace is a deal breaker, and it's hard to tell how much this house has.
But I've been doing a lot of cooking lately, and boy I wish I had more space. Every time we stir-fry, I've got to drag out the rice cooker from the cabinet, usually from underneath a pan or two, because there's no room for it above. Writing that now, it seems like a petty complaint, but it is a continuing irritant. And I'm all about maximizing the pleasure of cooking and eating.
Less petty, perhaps, is that less counterspace makes cooking for guests more challenging, since I'm always looking for room to put things that I've just taken out or put into the oven, on or off the stove, etc. And cooking for six people -- while easy for some people -- is a high stress, high reward endeavor for me. I'd enjoy it more with more space.
That said, it's a great time to buy a house in most parts of the country.
Italo -
Well, it's across the street from a major highway. Which sorta sucks: the noise is noticeable but not obtrusive (I think. I hope). It's slightly more than a mile from a metro station. And, yeah, there are signs of water damage, though it's hard to know where exactly that's coming from. I think that's the dilemma I'm facing: if all the problems are apparent, they'll take a year's worth of Sundays and a fair amount of cash to fix, but I think I'm up for it. If, however, the visible problems are just one end of the spectrum, then, well, yikes. I guess I'm trying to weigh the odds, and decide whether it's worth an offer and a home inspection to find out.
Ryan -
I know we haven't talked in a while, but you've had four kids in the meantime???
How badly does traffic back up in front of your place at 8:30 am? How cheap that place is for 2000+ sq. ft. would really frighten me. That's a discount for more than just a year's worth of fix-ups.
On, the other hand, the price history does suggest a foreclosure the bank is trying to get rid of unreasonably cheaply.
Yes, that is exactly the problem with water damage -- only rarely can one pinpoint where it comes from, and even in those instances the problem can be intractable. On the other hand, houses built in 1939 are probably in very good structural condition otherwise given their age.
In my mind, the key would be to determine AT LEAST whether the water damage might be related to or arising from the chimney/house interface (for lack of a better word at the moment). Those problems are largely intractable without having the whole chimney replaced. But if it's a roof issue, that's a much cheaper fix.
Not to sound patronizing but never forget the old adage: whatever you think a project will cost will actually cost three times that amount (or take three times as long to fix if you're the one doing the work). That's not meant to discourage you so much as to be a reminder that homeownership really is quite time- and cash-consuming. (That said, I remember your hand-wringing 18 months ago about your extremely risk-averse approach to your savings, and I'll bet you're now having a well deserved last laugh.) And if K is as handy in the workshop as in the kitchen, then you're set.
I agree with Ted -- looks like the bank just wants out. And how brilliant that Arlington puts this all on-line for you. Seattle/King County also did, but trying to find this information in London in a convenient way is like returning to the 19th century.
I wish I could find an academic study of Arlington VA home prices for you. I'm virtually certain that someone has done a "hedonic price analysis" for a place like Arlington where (s)he has assessed environmental-(dis)amenity variables such as proximity to a major road, distance from Metro, etc., as to their effect on home prices. It would be worth trying to uncover something like this to see whether, at least statistically, you'd be paying a better-than-fair price for the house.
Excellent points (unfortunately). The 1939 brick core is indeed built like a...well, brick house. I suspect most of the water damage comes from where the two wood additions meet the original house, and I concur that, if the case, this is likely to be a money pit. On the other hand, if I'm wrong -- if the damage was from a leaky pipe, say -- it'd be a shame to pass on such a gloriously skylit and windowed living room. The evidence is tragically ambiguous. There aren't a lot of water stains; they don't look recent; and there's no apparent mold (other than a small interior spot of rotten wood -- moisture, or termites?), but how lucky am I feeling?
K is more a kitchen type of guy. As Exhibit A, the State offers our home-built organo-bed, with nary a straight line in the frame (and recently dismantled, and good riddance). He's off reading a dozen books on remodeling and DIY and home inspection, which is awfully sweet, but I'm not yet convinced that this is how the people who know how to do these things actually learned them.
I suspect I'll dither on the house until someone else snaps it up, and then be very annoyed about it. Out of the dozen-plus properties we've looked at so far, it's the only one that's felt at all like home. But prices are still dropping, and spring ought to replenish the for-sale stock, so perhaps a little caution isn't amiss.
Patience is always a virtue!
When I moved to Seattle, we looked at houses for a good three months (with no intention to buy) until we finally reckoned that we knew the market well.
$8,000 tax credit (refundable, even) through November 30th:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/13/real_estate/homebuyer_tax_credit_finalized
Notwithstanding "Anonymous"'s helpful reminder, there are other houses out there, and $8,000 over $380,000 is only 2%. Transaction costs for getting out of a house are likely to be at least 6% (real-estate agents' collusive commissions). Tax considerations are relevant but should never be the driver of an investment decision.
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