maybe it's time to decide

[lauradi7dw]

For several years, we've considered moving somewhere towards Boston along the "east lexington, arlington, somerville and cambridge corridor." Somewhere that there is any kind of T availability on Sundays, for example. There are a lot of things that I like about where we live - easy walking distance to supermarket and library, bike path and national park trail pretty close, tap classes under two miles away that other people drive long distances to reach, a supportive UU congregation. And it's quiet at night (not so much in the daytime). I like our house, in general, although it is run-down indoors and out because I am not diligent about doing yard stuff (other than mowing the lawn) and hate having workers in or around the house. It must be a fertile area, because it feels like the jungle is encroaching. Yesterday when I was mowing (I use a push reel mower), a yellow jacket stung me. I went inside, thinking "no more yard!" I'd miss having green space around, and need somewhere to put the compost bin, but clearly gardening is not genetic - I'm 2nd generation off the farm on 3/4 of the ancestral lines, but have no inclination to do stuff in the dirt. I am afraid that if we sell the house as-is, someone would just bulldoze it down. It's a little over 100 years old (we've been here for nearly a quarter of that) and needs shingle repair and paint outside, and a good bit of cosmetic stuff inside. Would someone who didn't already love it put that much time and money into it? After nearly a year spent getting the building permit for the side porch, the builder hasn't turned up. What would life be like with whole teams of guys (presumably) working (or promising to work) on it? On the other hand, a different house would still have problems, just closer to the 77 bus or the Red line. argh.

Comments

[nosrednayduj]

Assuming someone wants to live in your house instead of bulldozing it, some cosmetic things can raise the asking price by a lot more than they cost to do. Others don't do anything to the asking price. If we ever sell our house, we'll have to get the wood floors refinished. They look like crap. If we refinish them NOW we'll just scratch them up again. I don't want to be one of those people who runs around yelling at guests about "don't put that folding chair on the floor" and "take off your shoes", so I kind of like them looking like crap. But I bet it would add thousands to the asking price. We might need to rent some matching furniture, too :-) Most likely, I will leave this as a problem for my heirs.

But, yeah, contractors suck. Occasionally you get a winner. But then they either go out of business, or they're too busy to take your job.

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, we're buying a house that needs a lot of cosmetic work, and that cosmetic work is a hell of a lot cheaper than bulldozing, even if we were so inclined (which we aren't). Some people like fixer-uppers :)

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

That's Arthur's claim, too, but over time a lot of OK houses around here have been knocked down. We have been told that to sell the house we would not only need to do structural (new shingles around the edges) and cosmetic stuff, we'd have to have it "staged" (as Judy alluded to above with the rented furniture). Hard to know. The house next door was in great shape, I thought, but they had painters and landscapers come before putting it on the market. On the other hand, they did nothing about the sagging shutters. I don't know how the house marketing people decide.

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

I think it really would just depend on who ends up buying... the house we're buying needs pretty serious work (electrical, roof, some siding) as well as the cosmetic stuff (ugliest smelliest carpet ever, horrible kitchen and bathrooms, weirdest paint colors) and I can't imagine your house is in as bad shape as this place.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Our house interiors seem to have been completely re-done in 1973. I have the bill of sale for the electric stove, which we still use, or 2 of the 4 coils, more accurately. The hippie flowered wallpaper on our bedroom ceiling (really) has stains from the roof leaks of the 1990s. Our carpet is smelly sometimes too (on hot humid days, it smells like a combination of old sweat and possible dog pee). We have 4 generations of wiring. There are other things, but most of them don't bother me. They do bother Arthur. We did re-do his home office (the blue vinyl wall paper was peeling away from the wall, pulling plaster with it), with brighter paint and a nice wool carpet. The rotty shingles really are my biggest concern, but you're right, yours sounds worse - I'm happy with our roof (the second since we've lived here) and the "bones" of the house are still good, a century later..