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I Am In The Money Pit

Posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2023

Dave!Home ownership... am I right?

Today I got the worst news possible... the upstairs shower, which has started leaking again (and it's worse than ever)... will have to be entirely torn out so they can replace everything the original plumber did. The pipes. The pan. Everything. Which means I will, of course end up having to re-tile and re-paint. Lord only knows how much that's going to cost.

Let's see what this brings us to in seven years of owning a home, shall we? And this is after the complete renovation I had already paid for when I bought the place...

  • Repair hardwood floors because the hugely expensive hardwood I bought was flawed.
  • Tear out wall strips that were buckling.
  • Rewire electrical once half my kitchen stopped working.
  • Fix the kitchen plumbing, which was so poorly done that the plumber thought it was a joke.
  • Tear out all the smart light switches because the company went under.
  • Rip out the guest bath due to leak from above shower (ONGOING!).
  • Rip out the guest bedroom changing area due to leak from above shower (ONGOING!).
  • Add electrical outlet to laundry room because it didn't have one(?!?).
  • Replace hot water heater.
  • Replace HVAC compressor and blower with heat pump and blower.
  • Rip out living room wall to access noisy HVAC return lines that were badly clamped to the studs so I could completely reinstall everything and add soundproofing (ONGOING!).
  • Rip out automated sprinkler lines to reposition since they added a service box that blocks them (STILL WAITING ON A CONTRACTOR).

I am positively terrified as to how much this all cost me. A big thank you to my original contractor, who is responsible for half this mess.

Good thing I'm not going on vacations any more. I couldn't afford it.

The good news is that the massive hole in my living room wall is very close to being fixed...

Seam tape up.

Later today they skim-coat to level everything out.. Then tomorrow morning they prime it. Then tomorrow afternoon they paint.

And how happy will I be that one of four ongoing projects (soon to be five) will be checked off my list?

Very.

Comments

  1. David says:

    We have spent as much on remodeling, as we paid for the house before this one. Often it is the shower pan, when I redid my bathroom I went with a Kohler Cast Iron shower base, enameled like the 100 year old bath tubs, it should outlive me.

  2. Julia says:

    After property owners nationwide went on a massive cash grab last year, including mine — despite that I had lived here for 15 years at the time, and despite that they are fully aware I am on a low, fixed income, they raised my rent by $124/mo. So, at the urging of friends I decided to buy a home. Pretty much everything in my tiny $130K budget was a fixer-upper and I just couldn’t swing that. Long story short, after going under contract twice, I lost $10K!!!! Two inspections, two surveys, option fees… and then I found out that because the down payment funds that I borrowed from my also-tiny IRA were out for over 60 days without my buying a home, it was now considered income by the IRS and I had to pay $4K in taxes. I almost feel better after reading this.

    • Dave2 says:

      It’s really crazy how it all works. Almost as if the only people who get to buy homes are wealthy people. EVERYTHING is stacked against everyday people owning property.

  3. kapgar says:

    Wait, so, um, where have your washer and dryer been plugged in this whole time??

    • Dave2 says:

      They have a dedicated outlet… but it’s a specialized plug, so it’s not like I can unplug my washer and plug in my vacuum charger… even if I would want to do that.

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