My Bizarre House

[M_Six]

Once again, I’m listening to a contractor say, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Seems this house was built using a lot of odd stuff. I've heard this time and again from plumbers and electricians who have done work here. The question, "Who built this place?" has been asked by almost every contractor I've ever hired.

This time I'm having the washing machine supply valves replaced because they're old and becoming corroded. The existing valves are no longer made, apparently. So now the plumber has to cut out a section of sheetrock to get to the pipes to sweat fit in new valves. And this was supposed to be a quick and easy job. Oy.

[Billup]

I'm going to be afraid of hearing stuff like that. I have an offer accepted on my first house, it was built in 1957 so there are a lot of things I plan on ripping into given the inspection goes well this coming week.


The sad part is, I am already expecting bad news and I don't even know if I want the house for good yet. lol

[M_Six]

Ours was built in 1994, but the builders sure did take a lot of shortcuts. No way this house would meet the codes in Massachusetts. But out here in the rural county areas, there are no codes. Anyone can build and do work.

We once looked at a house where just the shell had been built by a house building company, then the owner and his family did all the plumbing, electrical, and interior finishing themselves. Just the small amount of plumbing I saw was so Mickey Mouse that we didn't bother looking into it further.

[gtron]

hey! my uncle built that house!

[PINeely]

My parents have had 4 different light fixtures fall out of their ceiling. Whoever wired the place didn't cut the insulation back far enough and the heat is melting the wires. Same doofus didn't secure the fixtures properly. They had to have all of them inspected and some redone.

[wrickem]

I feel your pain. Our house was built by the owner in 1910 and even though it's been upgraded through the years, when something happens, it's always a nightmare. Our latest is our dining room floor joists separated from the brick wall that held them and dropped 14 inches until they were resting on the dirt. It was so stupid I can only laugh. That room is finally going to get insulated since it had very little and also have a heated marble floor. No more drafts in this old house! The best thing you can do is make something good out of it and do the entire job the right way. Or buy a brand new house. Good luck

[Billup]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Ours was built in 1994, but the builders sure did take a lot of shortcuts. No way this house would meet the codes in Massachusetts. But out here in the rural county areas, there are no codes. Anyone can build and do work.

We once looked at a house where just the shell had been built by a house building company, then the owner and his family did all the plumbing, electrical, and interior finishing themselves. Just the small amount of plumbing I saw was so Mickey Mouse that we didn't bother looking into it further.

Being this one was an older built house, I was pretty skeptical. I took the time to go under the crawl space and up in the rafters, and it was odd seeing cross boards instead of plywood for the base of the roof, but I didn't notice any leaks or rotting. At the same point in time, I don't know what's going on inside the walls.

House hunting has been kind of a trip. What I want would have been found pretty easily up in Michigan, but here in NC it's been more challenging.

[SCHMOUPE]

Originally Posted by wrickem

I feel your pain. Our house was built by the owner in 1910 and even though it's been upgraded through the years, when something happens, it's always a nightmare. Our latest is our dining room floor joists separated from the brick wall that held them and dropped 14 inches until they were resting on the dirt. It was so stupid I can only laugh. That room is finally going to get insulated since it had very little and also have a heated marble floor. No more drafts in this old house! The best thing you can do is make something good out of it and do the entire job the right way. Or buy a brand new house. Good luck

I chuckled at this. I bought my house which was built in 1908 in NJ. Lucky for me, it was barely renovated through the years so I ended up gutting the whole thing and building the inside the way I wanted it. Home ownership is not easy or cheap specially with an older home

[wrickem]

Originally Posted by SCHMOUPE

I chuckled at this. I bought my house which was built in 1908 in NJ. Lucky for me, it was barely renovated through the years so I ended up gutting the whole thing and building the inside the way I wanted it. Home ownership is not easy or cheap specially with an older home

I am glad you you also saw the humor and got a chuckle, and also that you got your house the way you wanted it! An old home is a labor of love and I wouldn't trade this house full of stone, horse hair insulation, pie-staircases, alarm stairs (one riser is 1.75 inches higher than the rest so they will kick it and wake you up on the way up to kill you) and its wackiness for any brand new McMansion

[SCHMOUPE]

Originally Posted by wrickem

I am glad you you also saw the humor and got a chuckle, and also that you got your house the way you wanted it! An old home is a labor of love and I wouldn't trade this house full of stone, horse hair insulation, pie-staircases, alarm stairs (one riser is 1.75 inches higher than the rest so they will kick it and wake you up on the way up to kill you) and its wackiness for any brand new McMansion

Agreed 100%. It is crazy how much this whacky house has grown on me. I don't think I would ever opt for one of those model houses given the opportunity. Old houses are full of character and charm.

[M_Six]

Just past the 5 hour mark for a 30 minute job. Something tells me this plumber is wishing he'd stayed home today.

[upstatedoc]

We bought our 1990 house in 2005. Since then I've replaced the roof, the entire exterior of the chimney (due to faulty work), the whole front facia (its a tudor and the original stucco and chicken wire was crumbling), the boiler, had central air installed (10 grand right there). $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

AND, we bought the house at the peak of a sellers market so we paid top dollar. Good times.

[UncleWede]

When the cast (1949) iron tub went thru the floor in the front bathroom, I had to strip the room to the joists. I found them, perfectly level, on a round rock on one end. QUICKLY put new hardibacker and a tile floor before any inspectors stuck their nose into places they didn't belong.

Oh, and the original builders liked Budweiser and Jack Daniels!!!

[Joekerr]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Just past the 5 hour mark for a 30 minute job. Something tells me this plumber is wishing he'd stayed home today.

If you didn't agree to a fixed price beforehand, something tells me you're going to wish he stayed home today too.

[gtron]

his name was fire marshal bill

[Maestro]

I feel your pain.

We bought what was known as semi-custom house new in 95 and that house was done right the builder did not cut any corners and put in top quality things like ball values and and high efficient water heater and furnish and all the doors and windows were solid wood with Aluminum cladding on the outside to protect against the weather and were maintenance fee.

Here is where I feel for you, 7 yrs later we sell that house and move to another area and buy a home build at the exact same time 95. Had a home inspection and found that there was no flashing on the roof, call the local building inspector and asked him how this could be, got the answer it was not required even though the building code did require it, (the real issue was the inspector I call was the same guy who signed off the house originally.

Well did not stop there, no shut off values in each plumbing outlet like in the bathroom and the places where there were values they were the cheap one with rubber seals which rote over time in hard water. No of the showers and tube have pressure control temperature control which was code since early 90's. I asked the inspector about this and again claim it was not code.

I had to replace the roof after 15 yrs and the previous house had a 30 yr roof. I have outlet just fail, some broke apart when you plug something in. They did not put the roof vent in correctly and had snow blow into the attic which melted when the weather warmed up, I have rain coming from the ceilings.

I had a few other strange things happen, lucky I can do most of the work myself.

In my area, the township was more interested in how much land was being covered by the house verse how well they were building the house. The builder spend more money dealing with the township so they cut corners on everything else to turn a profits.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by upstatedoc

We bought our 1990 house in 2005. Since then I've replaced the roof, the entire exterior of the chimney (due to faulty work), the whole front facia (its a tudor and the original stucco and chicken wire was crumbling), the boiler, had central air installed (10 grand right there). $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

AND, we bought the house at the peak of a sellers market so we paid top dollar. Good times.

We've replaced both a/c-furnace units, both water heaters, almost all the floors, the roof twice, turned the screened porch into a 3-season room, turned the downstairs kitchen/dining area/living room into a large library, and stripped out closets in the garage and installed a huge work bench. Now it's time to get some serious landscaping done.

Originally Posted by Joekerr

If you didn't agree to a fixed price beforehand, something tells me you're going to wish he stayed home today too.

This guy is pretty good when it comes to extra work. He installed our water softener system, which was a fixed price, except for any work in the crawl space. He spent hours in our nasty, dusty crawlspace redoing the water lines and only charged us $200 extra. I wouldn't have done it for less than $500.

If this had been the easy valve replacement job he expected (no sweat fitting or cutting of pipes), I suspect it would have run <$100. Just a couple valves and hose and 30 minutes labor. But considering the work he just did and the nicer single lever valve (similar to the one below) he just installed, I'm thinking $300 or so.

[Joekerr]

Wow - 5 hours of a plumbers time up here would have run me in excess of $500, materials not included.

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Americans and their cheaper labour rates / prices? Or perhaps more adequately...how much I hate Canada's higher prices for no real good reason.

Retailers come up with all sorts of funny responses to justify the higher prices though (for the exact same product). Things like...oh, well, the population density isn't the same so costs us more to ship to the far reaches of Canada. Yes, but then why does it cost so much to ship less than an hour over the border, to a city of 3M+ people...I don't buy it. And it isn't FX either - when the dollar was at par, somehow that didn't change much of the prices.

[jlstyle]

My god...this reminds me of my old house. I bought the house from 50's from an original owner and owner expanded house by himself over the years and when I tore walls out to renovate, I found bunch of scrap woods/roof shingles inside the walls as he used demo'ed wood as a new sheeting material!!!! All electrical wires were handyman job through everywhere, termites everywhere and it was just crazy.

[wrickem]

Originally Posted by M_Six

If this had been the easy valve replacement job he expected (no sweat fitting or cutting of pipes), I suspect it would have run <$100. Just a couple valves and hose and 30 minutes labor. But considering the work he just did and the nicer single lever valve (similar to the one below) he just installed, I'm thinking $300 or so.

You turned something bad into something good, if a somebody could get excited about a valve, that would be the valve. I am glad it worked out this time.

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by wrickem

You turned something bad into something good, if a somebody could get excited about a valve, that would be the valve. I am glad it worked out this time.

Those valves should be required now, they are that good. I went around last weekend and exercised all the valves so they don't stick, but those ones needed little to no movement, they are so smooooooootth

[M_Six]

The Ex and I once lived in a ground floor condo in a building that sat on a slab. The furnace/washer/dryer room was next door to us. One night the cats woke us up by howling up a storm. I got up to see what was wrong and stepped in 6" of water that was covering the entire floor of our condo. The washer hose next door had burst and had been pouring water on the floor for hours. I never want to go through that nightmare again.

Wifey and I are now in a position where we can travel more often, but I still harbor a fear that we could burst a washer hose right after we left for a trip and it would pour water everywhere for hours until the pet sitter arrived. Now we can shut the valve before we go. Plus we went with steel braided hoses. Much safer now.