No House is Perfect

Years ago when we bought our first house it was perfect.  Well, in actuality it was perfect for our needs at that time.  The reality is regardless of how much you spend on a house or how much you spend decorating or renovating it, no house is ever perfect.  This is our sixth owned permanent residence and we do own vacation property.  The vacation property is now just barely 5 years old while our new home is not quite 18 years old.  Both had been well looked after, with the vacation home being empty before we bought it for almost 2 years. 

Problems surfaced in both homes as they did in the homes we owned before.  None of them have been major problems but they were still problems none the less.  From personal experience problems with home will always surface over time because homes age.  There seriously is not much you can do about it other than be on top of problems before they get bigger.

Sometimes it is better to work with what you have as well.  For example, in our last two houses the kitchens were painfully small but we learned how to function quite nicely with the larger scale cooking we do.  There are lots of great space saving and living in small spaces ideas out there to help with even the tiniest space.  This house too has a small kitchen and yet the house is huge (technically 5 bedroom).  Although, unlike our last two houses, there is the opportunity to add onto the kitchen, it would be a massive undertaking so while we are discussing it, I doubt we will add much more than a three season sunporch.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

A Lesson Learned

We did our final house walk-through about two weeks before moving in to our new house.  The previous owners' son was staying here but aside of a few odds and ends the house was empty.  Their main moving had been done in June.  We had arranged with them to move in on September 1, paying a rental fee to cover until our closing date of Sepetember 15.  All of that went smoothly, without a hitch.  They left a few things behind but many folks do that so it was not abnormal.  We were rather pleased with the condition when we moved in.  One day I was working in my new kitchen after returning from our vacation home  when I commented that we would need to replace the kitchen faucet for one with a sprayer.   As I was going through pictures from our vacation I also looked through the pictures I had taken of our new house during our final walk-through.  You are not going to believe this!  The previous owners actually the from the looks of the pictures rather expensive faucet with sprayer with them leaving the plain jane model that is now in the kitchen.  Technically the faucet is considered a fixture so should not have been removed.  My husband called the real estate and left a message with our agent but I doubt they will return it.  I think it was a rather nasty thing to do especially when we paid them rent to move in early.  The problem is because I didn't go through the pictures during the move (14 days) because I was busy and the time we were on vacation, the previous owners can likely deny they took the faucet.  It's a lesson learned!

If buying or even renting a house/apartment, condo or any other domicile, take pictures before you move in.  Compare those pictures to the condition the place is in as soon as you get the keys preferably while it is still empty.  Note any discrepancies as well as take pictures.  Pay particular attention to any damage or removal of fixtures contrary to any offer to purchase or lease agreement.  Notify your real estate agent as well as your lawyer to resolve the issues prior to the closing date.  If leasing notify the landlord of the problem and if not resolved appropriately, notify your lawyer. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

No Carpets!

Aside of location, one of the main selling features for our new house was the fact that there was no carpeting anywhere in the house.  I was advised years ago by my allergist to get rid of all carpeting in the home.  Each house since then we worked towards that goal but with this house it has already been done for us.  Most of the house is wood laminate.  The two bathrooms are ceramic tile; the entrance and part of the lower family room are terrazzo tile; and the kitchen is marble tile.  The utility room has sheet flooring that we will be replacing likely with sheet flooring but possibly ceramic tile.  I have two things to master with all hard flooring:

• cleaning - Each surface has it's own care and maintenance recommendation.  I am adamant about not using toxic cleaners in our home.  It's important to stay on top of keeping these floors clean and dust free so cleaning once a week is not going to work.  Some specialized equipment is necessary but the good news is most of it is rather inexpensive.
• sound deadening - A house with no carpeting is naturally louder than one that has sound deadening carpeting.  All sounds in a house with only hard flooring are amplified.

I have a few methods for dealing with both the cleaning and sound deadening issues.  I will discuss those over the next couple of posts.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011