The View From Maybelot

[bill_g]

The previous owners may have paid a professional to do that.

!

[Kriselda Gray]

Previous owners: If you don’t have the right size fitting, just use the closest-fitting one that you have, pack the joint with plumber’s putty, wrap it in electrical tape, and hope it holds until it becomes the next owner’s problem.

[Maybenaut]

Fixed! Hopefully our electricity usage will drop. Our well pump is the largest user of electricity in the house, even when it’s working like it is supposed to.

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[pipistrelle]

Fixed! Hopefully our electricity usage will drop. Our well pump is the largest user of electricity in the house, even when it’s working like it is supposed to.

ECB176B5-3FA1-4AF2-909A-B6259FF50DB2.jpeg

Hadn't you found other issues the previous owners didn't mention?

[Maybenaut]

Fixed! Hopefully our electricity usage will drop. Our well pump is the largest user of electricity in the house, even when it’s working like it is supposed to.

ECB176B5-3FA1-4AF2-909A-B6259FF50DB2.jpeg

Hadn't you found other issues the previous owners didn't mention?

Many. I actually think it’s possible that they didn’t know about this problem or a lot of the others we’ve found. Dude wasn’t handy and had to hire people to do the smallest job. It’s quite possible that he had a buddy do the work and the buddy went cheap-shit coz he wasn’t getting paid. Or he hired someone because they were cheaper than everyone else and they never told him what a shitty job they were doing. Either way, the previous owner likely wouldn’t have known the difference between good work and bad work until it failed.

We’re lucky that the house hasn’t burned down - the other day we found some hot uncapped wire in the wall behind the paneling. So every wall in this house is coming down, which I want to do anyway because the paneling is uggo.

But we knew this place had problems when we bought. And there have been very few times since we bought this place that we’ve said, “Hey, that was top of the line. I wonder why it failed.”The owner was pretty up front about not knowing how to fix things. He pointed out the things that were broken that he knew about, and told us that he had trusted others to fix things and couldn’t vouch for the quality of the work.

It’s OK. This repair would have cost the average homeowner at least $1500, and it only cost us a little time and about $30 in parts. We’re extraordinarily fortunate that we can fix most things ourselves.

[Maybenaut]

We’ve made some upgrades to the exterior. The siding used to be an ugly tan and we changed it to grey.

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The front door was an old-fashioned double half-light with an “X” on the bottom of each door. We changed it to a mission-style door with leaded glass in the door and side lights.

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I don’t have a great before photo of the front columns, but there were a bunch of them, 4x4” every 10 feet, with angled braces that had a kind of trading-post look. We took those out (they weren’t load-bearing), and put fewer 8x8 columns instead. We added a garage facade. We have to hire an engineer to design the interior structure of the garage, but that’s a couple of years away.

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The original windows in the front were divided light windows that didn’t open. We replaced them with smaller double-hung windows, so now we have a lovely breeze flowing through the place.

[bill_g]

That's looking great!

[AndyinPA]

Very nice, and I'll bet, very satisfying!

[Phoenix520]

Mission style is a good look! (Do NOT go there

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Looks fabulous!

[neonzx]

Very nice upgrade!!

[Maybenaut]

Oh, and new decking and railings all they way around (except where we removed it entirely from the front). The old railing was made of cobbled-together 2x4, and you looked at the flat side. This is 42” high, which feels much safer (it’s a *long* way down).

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[Kriselda Gray]

Nice work! The place looks beautiful!!

[Slim Cognito]

Very nice!

[Volkonski]

[Foggy]

Whoa, you're making huge progress on it. Stunning!

[RVInit]

I love the grey color and that maroon door is perfect. You have done an amazing job on that place. It was already great, now it's just fabulous.

[Maybenaut]

Aw, thanks!!! Now we’re starting to work on the inside. We’ve done it in fits and starts, and we’ll do a room then take a break, then move on to the next room. Kitchen is up next.

[Phoenix520]

I’m having a bit of déjà vu
You were “doing the kitchen” near the time you joined Fogbow, IIRC

[Maybenaut]

I’m having a bit of déjà vu
You were “doing the kitchen” near the time you joined Fogbow, IIRC

There have been many kitchens over the years!

[Slim Cognito]

My favorite kind of kitchen is the presently being remodeled kitchen. I am not much for cooking.

[Maybenaut]

The contractor who did the siding, deck, and decks rails came out with a drone the other day to take pictures for their website. He sent us this one this morning.

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[June bug]

That looks great!!

[northland10]

[AndyinPA]

Really, really nice!