"Dan Musicant" wrote
"cshenk" wrote:

:Good! That seems the cheapest easiest way to go for us. Thats a high
:concern as we've had $25,000 in repairs since since return (would be
closer

I used to rent this house along with other renters. After a while I was
the senior guy and handled the interactions with the property managers.
Our rent was cheap compared to the rest of the town because the house is
old (just shy of 100 years), and not really kept up. Now that I've
bought the house it's my hurculean task to get the house into shape to
sell. It wouldn't be so tough if I had the money, but even if I did have
the money to make this place ship shape, experienced GC's tell me I
wouldn't get my money out, so I'm trying to be judicious in what I do.
This house isn't the best for me to stay in, so I'm looking to sell.

Understood. Perhaps you might be able to rent it out? Then again you
probably have too much of your cash tied up in it to really do that.

If you can swing it it might be a good investment to get a good steel
wheelbarrow. I got mine on sale for $30 back around 2002. Might cost you
almost twice that nowadays, but if on sale, probably cheaper. I use mine

Naw, not enough things need it that the old plastic one can't handle.
Cement mixing is about the only thing it's no good for now. Looks like the
deep cat liter pan would turn the trick well enough. It's one of those
overtall ones.

Wednesday, made up my mind to do so and did. It came out OK, all in all.
Not perfect, but OK for this.

Hey, that works fine!

OT but a sideline of mine from 1989-2001 was about 10 hours a month
helping
eople with disabilities, make adaptions they needed but couldnt pay for.
:Mostly I built or adapted computers for the blind with screen reader
:software but i also did a fair amount of making ramps and things like
that
:as part of a group. Many fine memories of working with and for people
but
grin) not much personal cement work on my own part. Oh and yes, one of
the
:members was a proper certified inspector and would run the permits for us
if
:the particular job in his estimation required one. Like many things, you
do
:what you can).

There are programs like that around here. I could probably even get them
to help me, but I haven't contacted them. I've been a DIY guy for years
and years and tend to just dig in and do things myself. It's actually
pretty amazing some of the projects I've managed to do on my own.

Habitat for Humanity. Yes, might be able to get some help there!

Mom's way to make money raising us 3 kids (divorced) was what is today
called 'house flipping'. She didnt go too crazy moving us around, but we'd
often move to another part of the same school district to another house etc.

As a result, I'm more handy than most in some projects. What I know nothing
about, I just read up on here, but when I can help, I give detailed as I can
reports. Some things are just too hard to describe (how to set in a window,
how to rebuild a kitchen cabinet) but I do lots of stuff or have, before the
back problems kicked in.

Projects I have done: wallpapering (including the insides of round cornered
medicine cabinets which is a pesky thing but tells a seller *quality* right
away is in all the details of the house), painting (especially detail work),
wood staining, cabinet building or rebuilding, antiquing, chair railing,
faux wainscot (chair rail with a box framed below to look like wood panels
and whole bottom in a contrasting paint), refinished wood floors, built
exterior decks, laid floor tile, built non-load bearing walls to frame out
rooms in a (once we were done) 'finished basement', installed or replaced
toilets (traps put in by by plummer as well as some of the water leads if
new ones being added), built in floor to ceiling shelving, helped hang
doors, upholstery, rescreened just about anything or added screening where
there was none to many a porch, installed screen doors, and probably at
least 50 other things that dont come to mind just now.

Generally if it was made of wood or paper or needed fine painting, it was my
job (grin). It never even occured to me when I became an adult, that I
could have applied for jobs using those skills. Then again, it was kinda
hard back then for women to get work doing such. Times though have changed.
I still get a snicker about how Mom would :schmooze: the guys at the
hardware stores until they caught on that she wasnt dumb at all and start
asking her for advice on stuff!

One truely classic memory. Fellow who'd been house hunting had come to see
one we were selling but he didnt have enough money for it. He wanted to put
in the same sort of faux chair rail and we met him quizzing the store fellow
who was frustrated as he wasnt sure about the details. Then he saw me.
Eyes lit up and he said, 'so simple, even a child can do it'. I laughed as
he knew those boxes were mine (Mom was never bashful about showing off what
parts were done by which kid). I took him to show the right wood and they
let me have enough to frame out one box so I measured and cut one then brad
nailed it to some broken drywall. Took about 20 mins to make a perfect one
and had a small sorta 'crowd' watching this 13YO kid show how to do it. I
even showed him how to cut the inner corners of a chair rail spot where the
corners meet, then how to do one where the corner juts out (same skill as
baseboards, just shows more to the eye so gotta be neater).

And here at my home? My husband put up the ceiling molding. I didn't have
the heart to tell him he put it up, upside down (grin). I turned it into a
feature with another bit of trim! So much more peaceful that way!