Bought I new house I think

On 12/29/2014 9:30 AM, dgk wrote:
On Sun, 28 Dec 2014 15:23:29 -0500, jmcquown
wrote:

On 12/28/2014 2:48 PM, Judith Latham wrote:


I hope it all goes smoothly, too.

I hope never to have to move house again. I suppose my dislike of
moving stems from childhood. My father was a career Marine and until he
retired the longest we ever lived in one place was two years.
Constantly changing schools, leaving my friends, always being dropped
into a new school mid-year... hated it!

I moved apartments a few times as an adult but those were short treks to
another area of town, not long hauls across multiple states. Now I'm in
South Carolina and while it wouldn't be my first choice (we lived in
this area once before when I was 12 years old) I am *not* moving again
unless something forces me to.

Just the thought of packing everything up again, selling this house and
finding a new one (where?) makes me cringe. Not to mention there are so
many homes on the market in this area, it could take *years* to sell the
house.

My house is strictly functional, no bells and whistles like stainless
kitchen appliances and granite countertops like one sees on television
shows. And for some reason my mother had white carpet installed...
well, it was white once upon a time.

The house next door with all the lovely upgrades and hardwood floors was
on the market for at least 5 years. IIRC they wound up dropping the
price by $100,000 USD before it finally sold.

My neighbor (owned by Schwartzie) put her very nice house on the market
almost two years ago. So far no takers.

Jill

Wow, that is slow sales. I thought most areas were improving - Florida
prices are way up.

My take is there is a glut of homes for sale in my area. I know of five
houses for sale on my street alone. And most of them *do* have the
modern upgrades.

I moved several times when I was in school and hated it like you do.
Always making new friends. But I make friends easily - it's keeping
them after they find out the real me that's tough!

LOL Making new friends wasn't usually a problem but sometimes it was
tough when the kids had all gone to school with each other since birth
(heh). Cliquish.

The house does have granite countertops in beautiful condition. And
the huge living room has a white carpet so bright that you need
sunglasses to look directly at it. Sooner or later that is going to be
replaced by a wood or laminate floor since a few cat vomits will have
an impact.

When I moved in with Mom I brought Persia (RB August 2014) with me. The
cat vomit didn't do the carpet any favours. Her upset tummy
"christened" every room at some point. I've had it cleaned but it will
never look great again.

I don't have the funds to replace it with new carpet, much less wood or
laminate. Anyone who bought this house would have to pour money into
it. I wouldn't get much for the house as is.

Jill

On 12/29/2014 9:17 AM, dgk wrote:
There really should be a law that everyone has to move every 10 years.

LOL or a cleanout mandate!

I can't believe how much crap I've accumulated that needs to be
disposed of. And how many papers need to be shredded.

I moved here to take care of my elderly parents, then inherited this
house. I had accumulated enough crap of my own to dispose of before I
got here. I lived in my last apartment for 12 years.

I rented a dumpster. I threw a LOT of stuff away. Donated a lot of
stuff. "Curb-cycled" a lot of stuff. I still wound up moving way too
much stuff.

Luckily my job
has big bins for shredding. We put the papers in a locked bin with a
slit, and the company has them shredded. But I still have to drag
mounds of documents to work, and I usually commute by bike.

After my parents died I found they'd kept 25+ years worth of bank
statements and cancelled checks. Yikes! No shredding center nearby.
There is occasionally a shredding event at the community center but they
are few and far between. I wouldn't attempt it via bicycle. :-D

Even though I've lived here since 2008 I'm still finding sometimes
things I didn't know were here. My apartment only had two closets, one
in each bedroom.

This house has a lot of closets so I stumble across surprises once in a
while. Digging through the linen closet I discovered some really nice
white-on-white embroidered cotton bed pillow cases. A whole stack of
them, nicely folded and pressed. I can tell they're vintage by the look
and feel. Very pretty, crisp white cotton. I'd never seen them before.
Mom sure never used these pillow cases on my bed when I was a kid!

I get the feeling they might have been a wedding gift (1951). Used a
few times but soon just something to move (one less thing to iron!).
She kept them for a very long time but didn't use them.

Me? I'm using those pillow cases! What a treasure! And when I say I
found a stack of them, I'm not kidding. I don't think I'll ever have to
buy another pillow case again. Thanks, Mom (and probably Grandma)!

OB Cats: Persia used to meow at the door to the linen closet. I'd open
the door and she'd look inside then look at me like I was crazy. Hey,
there's no comfy place to nap! Um, you knew that from the last three
times you meowed at that door. Today.

Jill

On 12/29/2014 1:34 AM, MaryL wrote:


"jmcquown" wrote in message ...

Just the thought of packing everything up again, selling this house and
finding a new one (where?) makes me cringe. Not to mention there are so
many homes on the market in this area, it could take *years* to sell the
house.

My house is strictly functional, no bells and whistles like stainless
kitchen appliances and granite countertops like one sees on television
shows. And for some reason my mother had white carpet installed...
well, it was white once upon a time.

The house next door with all the lovely upgrades and hardwood floors was
on the market for at least 5 years. IIRC they wound up dropping the
price by $100,000 USD before it finally sold.

My neighbor (owned by Schwartzie) put her very nice house on the market
almost two years ago. So far no takers.

Jill

~~~~~~~
This makes me realize how fortunate I was when I sold my first house (19
years ago). It sold in two weeks at very close to the asking price.
When my mother moved to Texas to live with me, her house in northeast
Ohio sold in three days. That may sound like it was underpriced, but I
don't think it was. We had three realtors look at the house, and each
of their assessments were nearly the same. Now I am at an age where I
really don't need such a large house, but my concerns are similar to
yours. I can hardly bear the though of house hunting, selling this
house, packing everything and moving. Moreover, this is a very nice
house and I live in a nice neighborhood close to shopping, hospitals,
etc. I also have a lot of balance problems, so that would make moving
even more difficult.

MaryL

Just for grins:

This was my maternal grandmother's house in northwest Ohio (not for sale):

http://www.trulia.com/homes/Ohio/Mcd...onald-OH-44437

Grandpa finished out the attic and turned it into two extra bedrooms
(which they don't count in the description). Family photos from the
1930's show that large front porch used to be open. Over the years he
did a lot of work. He enclosed the porch (glass) and turned it into a
sunroom. IIRC he bought the house around 1923 or therabouts. My mother
was born in that house. She remembers when her sister was born there,
too.

This was my paternal grandmother's house, right next door. It's for
sale. $34,900.

http://www.trulia.com/property/31731...onald-OH-44437

Pricing certainly depends on location. I doubt there are many people
clamoring to buy a house in what is deemed a "village" miles away from
anything. Granted, I haven't visited there since 1980 but if you wanted
shopping, doctors, etc. you had to drive quite a ways to find it.

McDonald, Ohio was a steel mill town. When the mills shut down I
thought the town would disappear, too. It didn't. But as you can see,
houses don't cost much there even now. Location, location, location!

Jill

On 2014-12-30 10:54 AM, jmcquown wrote:

Just for grins:

This was my maternal grandmother's house in northwest Ohio (not for sale):

http://www.trulia.com/homes/Ohio/Mcd...onald-OH-44437


Grandpa finished out the attic and turned it into two extra bedrooms
(which they don't count in the description). Family photos from the
1930's show that large front porch used to be open. Over the years he
did a lot of work. He enclosed the porch (glass) and turned it into a
sunroom. IIRC he bought the house around 1923 or therabouts. My mother
was born in that house. She remembers when her sister was born there,
too.

This was my paternal grandmother's house, right next door. It's for
sale. $34,900.

http://www.trulia.com/property/31731...onald-OH-44437


Pricing certainly depends on location. I doubt there are many people
clamoring to buy a house in what is deemed a "village" miles away from
anything. Granted, I haven't visited there since 1980 but if you wanted
shopping, doctors, etc. you had to drive quite a ways to find it.

McDonald, Ohio was a steel mill town. When the mills shut down I
thought the town would disappear, too. It didn't. But as you can see,
houses don't cost much there even now. Location, location, location!

Very true. You can get houses quite cheaply in parts of Canada -
generally those with few jobs and quite far from anywhere that has many
jobs. The small town I grew up in shrunk drastically when its only
industry left, and houses used to be very cheap there. I suppose they
still are.

We weren't hit as badly as the US in the real estate crisis - I think
the reason was that we have different rules regarding mortgages - and
sometimes US prices seem low by our standards. Of course, price depends
largely on location. Vancouver is notoriously expensive; Toronto, nearly
so. I live in a small city in a small province, but prices here have
been going up steadily for some years, and are now highish compared to
those in, say, the city one of my sisters lives in which has a larger
population than my entire province.

This may change of course - a lot of the local rising prices have been
fueled by the oil industry, which may now be headed for trouble.

--
Cheryl

This was my maternal grandmother's house in northwest Ohio (not for sale):

http://www.trulia.com/homes/Ohio/Mcd...onald-OH-44437

Grandpa finished out the attic and turned it into two extra bedrooms
(which they don't count in the description). Family photos from the
1930's show that large front porch used to be open. Over the years he
did a lot of work. He enclosed the porch (glass) and turned it into a
sunroom. IIRC he bought the house around 1923 or therabouts. My mother
was born in that house. She remembers when her sister was born there,
too.

This was my paternal grandmother's house, right next door. It's for
sale. $34,900.

http://www.trulia.com/property/31731...onald-OH-44437

Good grief. Ours is worth ten times that and it's half the size
(former miner's cottage in a village where the mine closed 25 years
ago, but it's become a commuter village for Edinburgh).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07800 739 557 http://www.campin.me.uk Twitter: JackCampin

On 12/30/2014 7:11 PM, Jack Campin wrote:

This was my paternal grandmother's house, right next door. It's for
sale. $34,900.

http://www.trulia.com/property/31731...onald-OH-44437

Good grief. Ours is worth ten times that and it's half the size
(former miner's cottage in a village where the mine closed 25 years
ago, but it's become a commuter village for Edinburgh).

What can I say? It was a steel mill town. The mills finally shut down
in the 1970's. It was already a depressed area, economically.

There never was any mass transit to the nearest cities where other jobs
might be. No trains to get to and from other towns. (Ironic since the
steel was carried in and out by rail, no one thought of trying to run a
commuter line? Railroad union regs, most likely). I don't think the
town was (is) on a regular bus route, either. How were people supposed
to get to these jobs in the nearest big town? (Rhetorical question.)

As I said, who wants to buy a house in what is considered a "village" so
far away from anything?

Actually, I remember that house quite fondly. Somewhere over the years
someone added a very cheap addition to the back of the house, probably
to expand the kitchen. They did a bad job.

The original house had a *very* small kitchen. Somehow Grandma managed
to cook and bake bread every week for six people in that very minimal
kitchen. She also worked at a municians factory. I found some
paperwork from the Atlas Powder Company in which she had to prove and
swear she was a US citizen. She was of German descent, you see.

An early memory I have of her is me sitting at a small table in that
very small kitchen. She was at the sink washing some vegetables and she
turned the radio on. The song that came on was 'Ferry Cross the Mersey'
by Gerry and the Pacemakers. Every time I hear that song I think of
Grandma.

Jill

On 2014-12-30 9:38 PM, jmcquown wrote:

What can I say? It was a steel mill town. The mills finally shut down
in the 1970's. It was already a depressed area, economically.

There never was any mass transit to the nearest cities where other jobs
might be. No trains to get to and from other towns. (Ironic since the
steel was carried in and out by rail, no one thought of trying to run a
commuter line? Railroad union regs, most likely). I don't think the
town was (is) on a regular bus route, either. How were people supposed
to get to these jobs in the nearest big town? (Rhetorical question.)

As I said, who wants to buy a house in what is considered a "village" so
far away from anything?

Actually, I remember that house quite fondly. Somewhere over the years
someone added a very cheap addition to the back of the house, probably
to expand the kitchen. They did a bad job.

The original house had a *very* small kitchen. Somehow Grandma managed
to cook and bake bread every week for six people in that very minimal
kitchen. She also worked at a municians factory. I found some
paperwork from the Atlas Powder Company in which she had to prove and
swear she was a US citizen. She was of German descent, you see.

An early memory I have of her is me sitting at a small table in that
very small kitchen. She was at the sink washing some vegetables and she
turned the radio on. The song that came on was 'Ferry Cross the Mersey'
by Gerry and the Pacemakers. Every time I hear that song I think of
Grandma.

I don't think it was considered economically feasible to run a passenger
train on the freight line to my old home town for commuters, and in any
case, by the time the mines closed down, there was a road link as well.
But the whole province was rather lacking in jobs, so commuting didn't
solve the work problem. So many people left for greener pastures that
the overall population remained much the same right through the big
family period of the baby boom! Nowadays, I think the population is
mostly a few surviving retirees, some younger people who patch together
employment from such things as working as guides for hunting, fishing
and snowmobiling trips, and a few people working in stores, the school
or the former hospital, now a clinic and small long-term care facility.
In many such communities, a few families manage to remain because one of
the parent works away for weeks or months at a time - mining, fishing,
the oil industry, even, sometimes, home care.

We moved from the small duplex I first remember when I was about 10,
between the births of my second and third sibling. The kitchen was so
small it had a folding table - although there was also a dining area, I
think. You could hear sounds from next door - particularly when the
neighbours had a fussy baby, and I'm sure they heard our babies as well!
- and there was a hole in the wall partitioning the two basements.

The new house was much larger and seemed like quite a mansion to me at
the time! Someone had added on a large area to the kitchen, making it
really enormous - but there was a crack in the floor along the length of
the kitchen through which you could see the basement. It was a drafty
old place, too, although the company which at the time owned all the
property in the town had it insulated at one point. I remember doing my
homework in my bedroom wrapped up in a blanket!


--
Cheryl