The Benefits of Home Ownership?

[hefdaddy42]

I am also not in any way handy, although last weekend I operated a hedge trimmer.  That was actually kind of fun.

I just pretended it was a lightsaber.

[Orbert]

Did you make the humming sound as you swept it back and forth?

[Jamesman42]

He screamed because he pretended it was double-sided.

[Dublagent66]

I hire landscapers to do my yardwork.  Who has time to do that crap anyway?  lol

[jingle.boy]

You are talking about nature’s outdoor foliage, right?

[TAC]

I am also not in any way handy, although last weekend I operated a hedge trimmer.  That was actually kind of fun.

I just pretended it was a lightsaber.

May the forest be with you.

[King Postwhore]

I am also not in any way handy, although last weekend I operated a hedge trimmer.  That was actually kind of fun.

I just pretended it was a lightsaber.

May the forest be with you.

Brush Maul.

[Cool Chris]

One mistake many homeowners make with painting is going cheap on the materials. Get quality paint, brushes, rollers... it really does affect the final product.

I love my hedge trimmer. I have very few hedges to trim, so I rarely use it unfortunately.

[faizoff]

What brushes/rollers do you recommend Chris? I just picked this one randomly from Home Depot for the primer. It was decent, did the job and didn't break or anything. For paint I was going to get a flat white exterior Sherman-Williams exterior.

[Cool Chris]

That would be fine for the primer. If you go to Sherwin, we usually get their Purdy Marathon roller covers. Everyone on our crew seems to have their own brush they like. Spend $15 on one, take care of it, and it will last a long time and do a quality job.

We usually job out exterior paint jobs; for interior jobs we typically get Sherwin Williams Emerald paint. I believe there is an Emerald for exterior.

One thing I found I was doing wrong for so long was 1) not getting enough paint on my roller and 2) spreading it too thin on the walls. Once I was alerted to those issues and improved them, my painting got significantly better.

[Stadler]

That would be fine for the primer. If you go to Sherwin, we usually get their Purdy Marathon roller covers. Everyone on our crew seems to have their own brush they like. Spend $15 on one, take care of it, and it will last a long time and do a quality job.

We usually job out exterior paint jobs; for interior jobs we typically get Sherwin Williams Emerald paint. I believe there is an Emerald for exterior.

One thing I found I was doing wrong for so long was 1) not getting enough paint on my roller and 2) spreading it too thin on the walls. Once I was alerted to those issues and improved them, my painting got significantly better.

I'm a cheap bastard, so I would always try to stretch the paint as far as I could... in hindsight, you have to suck it up and let the paint do it's work.  $35 for another can (or $20 for a quart, if it's that tight) is small expense for not seeing a 4 foot by 4 foot patch of wall that is nominally covered - there are no patches showing through - but doesn't have enough paint to "set" the finish.  It'll look flat, or at the right angle and in the right light, it will look dull.

[hefdaddy42]

I hire landscapers to do my yardwork.  Who has time to do that crap anyway?  lol

We do too, for most of it.  My neighbor has the hedge trimmer and my wife wanted to borrow it, so we had fun with it.

Did you make the humming sound as you swept it back and forth?

I did, but no one could hear because the trimmer was so damn loud.

[Orbert]

Yeah, I realized that that would be an issue.  But it's good that you made the sounds anyway.

[Jamesman42]

My wife and I have discussed off and on about painting the rest of our house (inside). We are thinking of just hiring someone because our lives are busy with two careers and two toddlers. We are tired of the white, semi-bare walls.

[hefdaddy42]

I'm a big believer in hiring painters.

And movers.

And, well, whomever I can hire to do correctly the around-the-house shit that I most definitely will fuck up.

[Orbert]

We had to replace our kitchen faucet and I didn't feel like climbing under the sink, turning off the water and removing the old faucet, installing the new one, etc., so I figure we call a plumber.  We're "members" of the local plumbing, heating & cooling company (pay a small monthly for discounts on service and purchases, plus free annual check-ups on furnace, AC, etc.) so I figured yeah it'll be a couple hundred bucks probably, but I'd still rather pay that than do all that myself.  I'm getting too old for this shit.

Seven hundred fucking dollars.  To install a new kitchen faucet that only cost $250 in the first place.  Also, the guy shared with me that the faucet itself, you know, is a rather low-end piece of hardware.  Low end?  Yeah, plastic innards, chrome-plated plastic, not really meant to last more than five or 10 years.  Well, shit.  We are planning on selling the house in maybe the next five or ten years, so I guess it doesn't have to last any longer than that, but now I know.  I mean, there were the $200 faucets at Home Depot and fancier ones and fancier ones that went all the way up to like $1000.  Now I know why.  Solid metal fittings and all that.

So that was annoying, paying three times as much as I'd paid in the first place to have a POS faucet installed.  But it's done.  The kicker is, I don't even like the new faucet.  The sprayer is weird and has a bizarre spray pattern, but we couldn't exactly try it out at the store first.  I just assumed it would be like any normal sprayer.  But after spending nearly a grand buying and installing it, we're sticking with it until we sell the house.  The benefits of home ownership.

[lordxizor]

Yep. I'd rather do it all myself than pay an absurd amount of money for someone to do it for me. I do draw the line at electricity or natural gas though. I don't need to electrocute anyone or blow up my house.

[Orbert]

I guess I just didn't realize how much it would cost.  I know they charge by the hour, but the last time we had a plumber out, he had to fix a toilet which took a few hours, and it cost like $200, so I figured installing a faucet would be similar.  If I'd known how much it would be, I probably would've done it myself, and dealt with the soreness and pain later.

[Dublagent66]

I'm a big believer in hiring painters.

And movers.

And, well, whomever I can hire to do correctly the around-the-house shit that I most definitely will fuck up.

Yeah, I get it.  Not a handyman myself either. lol

[faizoff]

We had to replace our kitchen faucet and I didn't feel like climbing under the sink, turning off the water and removing the old faucet, installing the new one, etc., so I figure we call a plumber.  We're "members" of the local plumbing, heating & cooling company (pay a small monthly for discounts on service and purchases, plus free annual check-ups on furnace, AC, etc.) so I figured yeah it'll be a couple hundred bucks probably, but I'd still rather pay that than do all that myself.  I'm getting too old for this shit.

Seven hundred fucking dollars.  To install a new kitchen faucet that only cost $250 in the first place.  Also, the guy shared with me that the faucet itself, you know, is a rather low-end piece of hardware.  Low end?  Yeah, plastic innards, chrome-plated plastic, not really meant to last more than five or 10 years.  Well, shit.  We are planning on selling the house in maybe the next five or ten years, so I guess it doesn't have to last any longer than that, but now I know.  I mean, there were the $200 faucets at Home Depot and fancier ones and fancier ones that went all the way up to like $1000.  Now I know why.  Solid metal fittings and all that.

So that was annoying, paying three times as much as I'd paid in the first place to have a POS faucet installed.  But it's done.  The kicker is, I don't even like the new faucet.  The sprayer is weird and has a bizarre spray pattern, but we couldn't exactly try it out at the store first.  I just assumed it would be like any normal sprayer.  But after spending nearly a grand buying and installing it, we're sticking with it until we sell the house.  The benefits of home ownership.

I can't recall if I posted in this thread or the exasperated thread, I had a plumber once quote me some $3,000 worth of work when I asked how much for installing 3 sinks in our house. He wanted to charge $300 per sink install and additionally wanted to replace the T junctions in our walls due to them being higher for a proper drain. I got another plumber to check the work and he did the 3 sink install plus garbage disposal plus a shower head disposal for a total of $650. I always get multiple quotes for any work these days and this is a primary reason why.


As for lawn service, I do it all myself, I find it oddly soothing mowing the lawn. Plus I have a smallish yard to maintain, waste to have someone do it for me every week or two.

[Jamesman42]

I'm a big believer in hiring painters.

And movers.

And, well, whomever I can hire to do correctly the around-the-house shit that I most definitely will fuck up.

Yeah, we had movers for our new house as well. Completely worth it.

[Grappler]

Seven hundred fucking dollars.  To install a new kitchen faucet that only cost $250 in the first place. 

We had toilets that would run on and off in our prior house.  Being a newer homeowner, I didn't know much about how toilets work, so I called a plumber.  They charged me $300 for less than an hour's worth of work and a $15 replacement part.  After that, I watched some youtube videos and started changing out the fill and flush valves inside of the toilet tanks myself.

Same goes for faucets.  I hate crawling under the sink, but it's cheaper to do it myself. 

I had a chimney sweep charge me $150 to clean my chimney and it took him 10 minutes and he was out the door and gone.  I bought the brush myself and would then just go up on the roof and clean the chimney myself after that.  I always tell my wife that it's time vs. money.  We can save time, but spend money hiring someone.  Or spend time and save money by doing it ourselves. 

[Orbert]

The time vs money thing is big, but "effort" also plays into it.  I'm 61 this year, and feeling it.  The idea of crawling under the sink and lying on my back in that position, which is uncomfortable already, for however long it takes to do the necessary work, was really turning me off.  Plus there's the possibility that I wouldn't be able to do it anyway, and I'd be sore for days for nothing.  I figured for a couple hundred bucks, I'd pay someone else to do it.  I'm not that bad off.  I just grossly underestimated how much it would cost.

[hefdaddy42]

The time vs money thing is big, but "effort" also plays into it.  I'm 61 this year, and feeling it.  The idea of crawling under the sink and lying on my back in that position, which is uncomfortable already, for however long it takes to do the necessary work, was really turning me off.  Plus there's the possibility that I wouldn't be able to do it anyway, and I'd be sore for days for nothing.  I figured for a couple hundred bucks, I'd pay someone else to do it.  I'm not that bad off.  I just grossly underestimated how much it would cost.

[lordxizor]

I generally assume hiring someone will cost twice as much as I think it should

[EPICVIEW]

The time vs money thing is big, but "effort" also plays into it.  I'm 61 this year, and feeling it.  The idea of crawling under the sink and lying on my back in that position, which is uncomfortable already, for however long it takes to do the necessary work, was really turning me off.  Plus there's the possibility that I wouldn't be able to do it anyway, and I'd be sore for days for nothing.  I figured for a couple hundred bucks, I'd pay someone else to do it.  I'm not that bad off.  I just grossly underestimated how much it would cost.

I hear ya   I got 2 houses and just one of me... I can do a lot and I do but yea Im tearing myself up more and more, , lately my rule is if I can do it and its not critical Ill do it ,,, if its immediate and I dont have the tools and time is an issue I will pay extra to let a pro do it and I then have them fix something else that is gonna need it to head off a problem,   I just had new motor put on well when I was just gonna have them do the tank , but saved on the "bundle " lol  , my chick likes to remind me I m not gettin and younger and loves when I complain about the back or various broken bones or torn cartilage or other random inflicted pain

but hell Id not what to do without chores and fixin the cars  LOL

[Cool Chris]

We had to replace our kitchen faucet and I didn't feel like climbing under the sink, turning off the water and removing the old faucet, installing the new one, etc., so I figure we call a plumber.  We're "members" of the local plumbing, heating & cooling company (pay a small monthly for discounts on service and purchases, plus free annual check-ups on furnace, AC, etc.) so I figured yeah it'll be a couple hundred bucks probably, but I'd still rather pay that than do all that myself.  I'm getting too old for this shit.

Seven hundred fucking dollars.  To install a new kitchen faucet that only cost $250 in the first place....

I won't question your desire to not contort your body beyond comfort at this stage in your life, but as someone who works in the industry, that is ridiculous, especially the upsell.

Why would you have to turn the water off though, you weren't changing the valves, right?

[jingle.boy]

Movers are worth every penny.  When I was in uni and single, I'd always rented a truck, gathered a few buddies, and done it my/ourself.  After my first house, we hired, and I would never not hire movers again.  Man alive do you accumulate a lot of shit.

When we moved 4.5 years ago, they had the entirety of the inside of our house packed and loaded into a truck in less than 6 hours.  That was Day 1.  Day two was all the stuff we'd already packed in totes and stored at my in-laws, plus all the shit in my garage, shed, and outdoor furniture.

Add to that a 3-hour 1-way drive, and unloading all that shit.

Worth every goddamned penny.

[lordxizor]

I moved my entire house last year for a few hundred bucks. Movers would have cost several thousand. It was a pain in the ass and hard work, but totally worth the savings. Now, ask me to do that again in a decade when I'm in my 50s and I might say something different (though my sons will be old enough to do all the heavy lifting at that point).

[Stadler]

Movers are worth every penny.  When I was in uni and single, I'd always rented a truck, gathered a few buddies, and done it my/ourself.  After my first house, we hired, and I would never not hire movers again.  Man alive do you accumulate a lot of shit.

When we moved 4.5 years ago, they had the entirety of the inside of our house packed and loaded into a truck in less than 6 hours.  That was Day 1.  Day two was all the stuff we'd already packed in totes and stored at my in-laws, plus all the shit in my garage, shed, and outdoor furniture.

Add to that a 3-hour 1-way drive, and unloading all that shit.

Worth every goddamned penny.

This is me, too.   And on my last move, my wife sort of gave me shit about it, and so we went "halfway"; movers packed almost everything, then moved the big shit and we'd do the rest.  It was too much and I finally called another moving company to move the rest.  (It's a longer story than that, but the rest isn't really relevant).

[jingle.boy]

We did all the packing; movers did the moving.

[faizoff]

We did all the packing; movers did the moving.

Same here. The movers we got were solid and did the job so fast, it would've taken me a full day, they did the whole thing (loading and unloading) in 4 hours minus travel time.

[hefdaddy42]

We did all the packing; movers did the moving.

Same when we moved 5 years ago.

Like you said, worth every penny.

[Orbert]

We had to replace our kitchen faucet and I didn't feel like climbing under the sink, turning off the water and removing the old faucet, installing the new one, etc., so I figure we call a plumber.  We're "members" of the local plumbing, heating & cooling company (pay a small monthly for discounts on service and purchases, plus free annual check-ups on furnace, AC, etc.) so I figured yeah it'll be a couple hundred bucks probably, but I'd still rather pay that than do all that myself.  I'm getting too old for this shit.

Seven hundred fucking dollars.  To install a new kitchen faucet that only cost $250 in the first place....

I won't question your desire to not contort your body beyond comfort at this stage in your life, but as someone who works in the industry, that is ridiculous, especially the upsell.

Why would you have to turn the water off though, you weren't changing the valves, right?

I'd have to shut off the feeds to the faucet itself, not the main.  But our house was built in the 60's, and the feeds are old and have these dumb oval-shaped knobs that probably moved alright 60 years ago, but I'd be laying on my back with not much room to move, trying to turn them tightly enough to cut off the feeds to the sink.  If I don't/can't get them totally shut off, I get wet when I remove the old lines, and at that point water is coming out the entire time I'm trying to crank down hard enough to cut it off.  I ran into that when I replaced the faucet in the downstairs bathroom 20 years ago, and I wasn't even upside down inside a cabinet at the time.  Pain in the ass.  40-year-old Orbert was willing to do it to save a buck or two.  60-year-old Orbert said Fuck that, I'll pay someone to do it.

[Harmony]

So we are in full prepare mode for our main bedroom/bathroom remodel beginning in October.

I'm trying to get a specific toilet for this project that is the same model as the one we got for our upstairs bathroom - out of stock of course.  Lots to choose from so then I start thinking...maybe I should look into a modern bidet/commode combo.  Remember when Covid hit and you couldn't find TP anywhere?  Yeah...maybe that's the way to go.

I start looking at some options and at first I'm not looking at the prices or anything and I finally find one that looks like it might be a good one for our space and it is fucking 8 grand.

Some of the other ones are 10 grand.   

Who pays 8 grand for a toilet?