Home buying thread

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Fifey

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Build quality varies widely, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. The surprise to me is when the companies are building the same handful of floor plans over and over and can't seem to manage that without a ton of fuckups. All 3 of my direct co-workers moved into a housing tract built by a local mass builder and all pretty much had the same issues with quality and poor execution. Like light switches being installed upside down or to the wrong lights or putting in the wrong trim or the wrong version of backsplashes (sometimes you get free upgrades, other times you get rushed corrections that look like shit). Little things that are fixable, usually, but a ton of them. And as mentioned, using the absolute bare minimum in material quality, which is expected, but then not being able to execute the same floorplans over and over? That scares me.
My dad has worked construction for his whole life and ever since about the 90s, construction crews at least in AZ have used more and more illegal immigrant work so the legal employees wages get cut to be competitive and less talented people end up doing construction.
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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One of the construction crew took a giant hairy dump in my upstairs bathroom before water was turned on to the house
 

Eomer

Trakanon Raider
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One of the construction crew took a giant hairy dump in my upstairs bathroom before water was turned on to the house
Dude, you should see the stuff that goes on on construction sites. You never fucking TOUCH a pop bottle that's laying on the ground, because there's a very good chance some drywaller or painter pissed or shit in it. It's fucking mind boggling what some of those animals will do. It's not uncommon to find shit in our bathtubs when they're installed during rough-in, long before they're connected or there's water in the building. It's been getting better the past few years as general contractors, subs and owners are cracking down on it on larger sites. But single family construction I'm sure is still horrific.
 

Noodleface

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It still takes me like 2 hours to mow and trim my 0.25 acre lawn with all the rocks, obstacles, and fence. I don't mind it since my mower is a self-propelled mower but the allure definitely wore off after a couple weeks.

I think I mostly enjoy having a large yard for the dog and the kid to play in though. You guys without kids have no need for it unless you entertain a lot outside.
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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I saw this on reddit a month or so back. If anyone watches the fucking House Hunters show it hits the mark
R1AEvE5.png
 

Noodleface

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That's pretty accurate. Some of the funds these people spend on houses is absurd. I know it's canada, but still it's insane.
 

Cad

scientia potentia est
<Bronze Donator>
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It still takes me like 2 hours to mow and trim my 0.25 acre lawn with all the rocks, obstacles, and fence. I don't mind it since my mower is a self-propelled mower but the allure definitely wore off after a couple weeks.

I think I mostly enjoy having a large yard for the dog and the kid to play in though. You guys without kids have no need for it unless you entertain a lot outside.
I've got virtually no yard but there are 20+ acre parks within 5 minutes walking distance of my house. So I give no fucks.
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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That's pretty accurate. Some of the funds these people spend on houses is absurd. I know it's canada, but still it's insane.
My wife loves that Fixer Upper show. The one where the couple is in Texas. They buy like 45k houses and slam like 150k of reno into it. That seems like the most retarded. They are buying a dilapidated shack with dilapidated shacks to the left and right and they pump 150 grand into the fucker. No way they're getting that money back unless the entire neighborhood gets up to the speed of their reno and I highly doubt it will.
 

Noodleface

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I've got virtually no yard but there are 20+ acre parks within 5 minutes walking distance of my house. So I give no fucks.
To each his own, for sure. It was just one of the bullet points in our "must have" list when we were looking for houses.

In the end it came down to this house, a 1940's flipped house or a brand new construction (much bigger house... i am sad). The decision was really based on the yard and neighborhood.
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
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It still takes me like 2 hours to mow and trim my 0.25 acre lawn with all the rocks, obstacles, and fence. I don't mind it since my mower is a self-propelled mower but the allure definitely wore off after a couple weeks.

I think I mostly enjoy having a large yard for the dog and the kid to play in though. You guys without kids have no need for it unless you entertain a lot outside.
Uh, what? I mow almost 2 acres in 2.5 hours with a self-propelled. Are you bagging or something silly?

Large yards are immaterial to me, don't care one bit. But do I like that it means I basically have no neighbors. I have neighbors, I can look out my front window and see a couple houses, but I love that density is low enough that feels like I don't have any. Barely any car traffic(only people that will drive through the street live here) on our street or nearby. Easily pays for the extra pita yard maintenance.
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
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Remove some of the obstacles! The previous owners, the wife was kinda bored. She planted a LOT of bushes. And not easy-to-manage evergreens. Those fucking reedy ones that grow like weeds. Forsythia I think. Fruit trees too. Fruit trees are a pain in the ass to manage if you want anything from them before the birds eat it. Spent a while either removing the trees and bushes or trimming the bushes down to manageable sizes. Shaved a lot of time off of mowing and overall yard maintenance.
 

Noodleface

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We have a lot of trees in the yard, three boulders, a garden, and a fence. The fence makes it the worst because I need to mow both sides of it and trim it.
 

Fifey

Trakanon Raider
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I saw this on reddit a month or so back. If anyone watches the fucking House Hunters show it hits the mark
R1AEvE5.png
When I was forced to watch this shit with my ex, I would always make a point to say open concept every time they said it, she hated me.
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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When I was forced to watch this shit with my ex, I would always make a point to say open concept every time they said it, she hated me.
That and the "We do a lot of entertaining." How much do these people have other people over for fancy dinners and get togethers that you need to purchase a house revolving around it?
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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Not that it isn't a silly thing to say but I do have friends that are constantly having people over their house. Multiple days a week and especially on the weekends.