A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

We didn't use the blog, just the search/notify stuff. The good homes in
our area were moving quickly and if the realtor was slow in posting to
Zillow, there was an offer already made.

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:34:41 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.

On 2/9/2013 10:22 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:34:41 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.




That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room
and be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple
financial reasoning.

On 2/9/2013 10:56 AM, George wrote:
On 2/9/2013 10:22 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:


That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room
and be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple
financial reasoning.

Sometimes not all houses with ugly paint sell for less. In my
neighborhood houses with upgrades and modern colours are put up for sale
for quick, ie family has to move because of job or death etc. The
houses that have pre 1990's kitchens and colours, those owners wait it
out till the right buyer comes along.

Although I would say that for a lot neighbourhoods, your comments would
be correct.

On 2/9/2013 10:22 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:34:41 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Did I say that? The decor was so extreme I would not have wanted to
live in it. Had it been a bargain, in terms of location, condition and
price, I might have considered it. I do know how much work wallpaper
removal entails, so it was an important factor. I helped my daughter,
along with the rest of the family, remove a lot of wallpaper in her 1840
farmhouse; well worth it.

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.


I've learned to see through ugly and have gotten some great bargains by
refinishing furniture. The home we ended up with is in top-notch shape,
well built and well maintained, and just about damn perfect for us.
Changed out electric range for gas and there is now nothing I really
need to change. The kitchen decor/wallpaper will go in due time.

On 2/9/2013 10:56 AM, George wrote:
On 2/9/2013 10:22 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:34:41 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.




That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room
and be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple
financial reasoning.


They really have a lot of nonsense discussions, just for scripting. We
passed up one house that we loved in terms of space and decor. Old two
story completely gutted and remodeled. Had we been younger, it would
have been much more attractive. Healthy, but not getting any younger,
and if we are a lot older, the two story might not have been so great.

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:56:55 -0500, George
wrote:

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.




That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room
and be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple
financial reasoning.

First impressions is usually a turn-off for some people. I can look
past the first impression - motorcycles stored in living room, oil all
over the carpets or a place that looks like a nightclub discotheque,
black walls, tubs used to wash off car parts, etc.

A sewer plant or junk yard next door I have to pass, though.

The "bones" of the home is the important thing I looked for when I was
in the buying years.

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:56:55 -0500, George
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 10:22 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:34:41 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.




That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Paint is one thing but trashy wallpaper is a whole different kettle.
I'm with nn on this one, no wallpaper (one room, I could probably look
past one room).

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room
and be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple
financial reasoning.

"Norminn" wrote

Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out the
truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

My wife slapped me in the arm at 2 AM once, saying, you know what we're
going to do? I thought I had been calling out for a former lover or
something of the sort. She said we should turn our upscale rental house
next door into a vacation rental.

OK. So, I start the remodel. Boy, did I ever get an education on
wallpaper. The house had wallpaper on every surface, nearly, including the
kitchen roof.

I spent the better part of a month getting off wallpaper. I consider myself
somewhat of an expert on the subject. And if I ever look at another house
that has wallpaper, I think it will be a deal killer, or I will hire a bunch
of aliens from Pluto to do the job.

Steve

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:34:41 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.

You can paint a house four times in the time it takes to take off a lot of
wallpaper.

DAMHIKT

Steve

"George" wrote

That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room and
be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple financial
reasoning.

Two things amaze me. One is how someone won't even consider blowing out a
wall, or removing some popcorn, or, as you say, repainting a couple of
rooms, and adding a little cheap fluff.

The other thing is when they skim through the costs quickly, how they
underestimate the actual costs of doing the upgrades/changes/replacements..
Unless, of course, they are slavedrivers who use very cheap labor, and even
doing that, they have to settle for some highly unqualified sloppy
workmanship. Or they do the work themselves, and don't add at least $15 per
hour for their own labor. I charge $25 to $100 an hour.

Steve

On 2/9/2013 9:34 AM, Norminn wrote:
On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

We didn't use the blog, just the search/notify stuff. The good homes in
our area were moving quickly and if the realtor was slow in posting to
Zillow, there was an offer already made.


Years ago, I tried my hand at real estate but I was a lousy salesman and
it was a slumped, buyers market.

Its a buyers market today and with a lot to choose from the property
should be perfect. Any realtor will tell you to sell your house, dress
up the outside for a good first impression and make the insides vanilla
and make sure everything is in good repair.

Most people don't want a fixer upper but when they do they expect to get
if for far below normal market value.

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:56:55 -0500, George
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 10:22 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:34:41 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.




That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room
and be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple
financial reasoning.


Correct. People tho often use one excuse for another so what they
tell you may not the actual reason.

And altho there are a lot of variables when buying a house, I found
one variable to be always important.... location, location, location.

On Sat, 9 Feb 2013 11:51:18 -0700, "Steve B" wrote:


"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:34:41 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and
maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.

You can paint a house four times in the time it takes to take off a lot of
wallpaper.

Particularly since you have no idea what's under the paper. The last
time I did it, there was nothing under it, except bare drywall. I
could have torn out the sheetrock and re-rocked the bathroom in less
time. No, I won't sign up to do a whole house. There are too many
other choices.

DAMHIKT

Indeed.

Steve B wrote:
I spent the better part of a month getting off wallpaper. I consider
myself somewhat of an expert on the subject. And if I ever look at
another house that has wallpaper, I think it will be a deal killer,
or I will hire a bunch of aliens from Pluto to do the job.

My first house had one room with wallpaper painted over with a few layers of
oil/latex paint. I spent days scrapeing it with a fork and steaming the result
to get it off the plaster. One of the rooms in the attic had to be
re-wallboarded after steaming off the wallpaper with one coat of paint. The
previous boards sagged horribly by the time I was done.

On Sat, 9 Feb 2013 11:54:51 -0700, "Steve B" wrote:


"George" wrote

That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room and
be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple financial
reasoning.

Two things amaze me. One is how someone won't even consider blowing out a
wall, or removing some popcorn, or, as you say, repainting a couple of
rooms, and adding a little cheap fluff.

The other thing is when they skim through the costs quickly, how they
underestimate the actual costs of doing the upgrades/changes/replacements..
Unless, of course, they are slavedrivers who use very cheap labor, and even
doing that, they have to settle for some highly unqualified sloppy
workmanship. Or they do the work themselves, and don't add at least $15 per
hour for their own labor. I charge $25 to $100 an hour.

Steve


Steve, is your charge of $25 to $100 an hour just for labor? Why the
huge difference if it's just for labor?

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 14:00:20 -0500, Frank
wrote:

On 2/9/2013 9:34 AM, Norminn wrote:
On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

We didn't use the blog, just the search/notify stuff. The good homes in
our area were moving quickly and if the realtor was slow in posting to
Zillow, there was an offer already made.


Years ago, I tried my hand at real estate but I was a lousy salesman and
it was a slumped, buyers market.

Its a buyers market today and with a lot to choose from the property
should be perfect. Any realtor will tell you to sell your house, dress
up the outside for a good first impression and make the insides vanilla
and make sure everything is in good repair.

Most people don't want a fixer upper but when they do they expect to get
if for far below normal market value.


Correct but that's not happening in todays' Houston market.
Foreclosures not in good shape that were priced well in the 80s are
not nowadays. It's much harder to find a true bargain here now
because the banks know the Houston market is strong.

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:39:23 -0500, wrote:




Paint is one thing but trashy wallpaper is a whole different kettle.
I'm with nn on this one, no wallpaper (one room, I could probably look
past one room).


You'd not scrape and repaint (or pay to have it done) if you could
save thousands?

I've only ever bought a couple of houses, but in both cases, we
painted all the rooms except for maybe two before moving in. That
way, it was years before we had to do a re-paint as part of normal
maintenance and it was colors we liked from the start.

This house was 3 years old when we bought. Two rooms still have the
original carpet, though one is due for an upgrade, probably to
engineered hardwood.

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:41:19 -0500, Norminn
wrote:



it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in.


Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Did I say that? The decor was so extreme I would not have wanted to
live in it.

No, you didn't say it. That is why I asked.

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:32:47 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:39:23 -0500, wrote:




Paint is one thing but trashy wallpaper is a whole different kettle.
I'm with nn on this one, no wallpaper (one room, I could probably look
past one room).


You'd not scrape and repaint (or pay to have it done) if you could
save thousands?


It really depends on the age and type of wallpaper. The old stuff was
almost impossible to remove without way too much labor and damaging
the plaster or drywall.
Newer stuff can come off easily. Vinyl in the "paper" and different
glues.
My wife has redone a couple rooms with no problems. Putty knife to
wetted spot to start, then a sponge, and just a little work with the
putty knife. All paper she had put up. She made sure it was easy to
remove before she bought it. I told her I wouldn't remove it. She
likes some of the wallpaper patterns. But it's not an "easy" job even
with the newer stuff.
She did our hallway a couple years ago and decided to use a pattern
paint roller, and taped for stripes. Because she didn't want to
eventually deal with removing paper.

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:32:47 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:39:23 -0500, wrote:




Paint is one thing but trashy wallpaper is a whole different kettle.
I'm with nn on this one, no wallpaper (one room, I could probably look
past one room).


You'd not scrape and repaint (or pay to have it done) if you could
save thousands?

Nope. I learned my lesson. As I said, it would have been easier to
re-rock the bathroom. ... and it wasn't all that big.

I've only ever bought a couple of houses, but in both cases, we
painted all the rooms except for maybe two before moving in. That
way, it was years before we had to do a re-paint as part of normal
maintenance and it was colors we liked from the start.

Paint isn't an issue. Wallpaper *is*. It's just not going to happen
at any price.

This house was 3 years old when we bought. Two rooms still have the
original carpet, though one is due for an upgrade, probably to
engineered hardwood.

Three years old and you're replacing carpets? Carpets aren't an issue
for me, either. OTOH, I did replace carpets before selling our VT
house.

"Vic Smith" wrote in message

stuff snipped

It really depends on the age and type of wallpaper. The old stuff was
almost impossible to remove without way too much labor and damaging
the plaster or drywall.

Amen to that. My bathroom in a circa 1941 house had wallpaper that was very
much like that anti-tamper tape that only comes off in tiny pieces. It
apparently had bonded with the underlying plaster on a sub-atomic level.
(-:

--
Bobby G.

Frank wrote:
On 2/9/2013 9:34 AM, Norminn wrote:
On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/


Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

We didn't use the blog, just the search/notify stuff. The good homes in
our area were moving quickly and if the realtor was slow in posting to
Zillow, there was an offer already made.


Years ago, I tried my hand at real estate but I was a lousy salesman and
it was a slumped, buyers market.

Its a buyers market today and with a lot to choose from the property
should be perfect. Any realtor will tell you to sell your house, dress
up the outside for a good first impression and make the insides vanilla
and make sure everything is in good repair.

Most people don't want a fixer upper but when they do they expect to get
if for far below normal market value.

Been using Zillow looking at sales. The map makes it easy to see locations,
with prices.

Looked at a few places from $5k to $30k. If the price is low, your going
fix.
A $20k commercial spot,and upper apartment was big, cheap, but nothing
ready to go.

Greg

On Feb 9, 9:18*pm, gregz wrote:
Frank wrote:
On 2/9/2013 9:34 AM, Norminn wrote:
On 2/9/2013 7:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax
considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

http://www.zillowblog.com/

Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. *With
interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. *It would
have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

"Doug" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 9 Feb 2013 11:54:51 -0700, "Steve B" wrote:


"George" wrote

That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always
goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint
in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room
and
be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple financial
reasoning.

Two things amaze me. One is how someone won't even consider blowing out a
wall, or removing some popcorn, or, as you say, repainting a couple of
rooms, and adding a little cheap fluff.

The other thing is when they skim through the costs quickly, how they
underestimate the actual costs of doing the
upgrades/changes/replacements..
Unless, of course, they are slavedrivers who use very cheap labor, and
even
doing that, they have to settle for some highly unqualified sloppy
workmanship. Or they do the work themselves, and don't add at least $15
per
hour for their own labor. I charge $25 to $100 an hour.

Steve


Steve, is your charge of $25 to $100 an hour just for labor? Why the
huge difference if it's just for labor?

Depends on the technicality of the work. Simple easy clean work using not a
lot of supplies, $25. Complicated work that requires technical knowledge or
expensive tools, the prices go up. Also priority.

Sign in my shop:

Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

If you want that yesterday, it will cost ya.

Steve

On 2/9/2013 4:36 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:41:19 -0500, Norminn
wrote:



it eliminated facing realtors to sort out
the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my
life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room,
different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in.


Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the
kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and
one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was
huge?

Did I say that? The decor was so extreme I would not have wanted to
live in it.

No, you didn't say it. That is why I asked.


If I had found a home with good bones, good loc. and a lot of ugly
wallpaper at a bargain price, I would have grabbed it, inspired at the
chance to save "thousands". That rarely happens, and people with
horrible taste do not recognize that trait in themselves when they
sell) Since everyone seems to shop at Menards and Lowes, the decor
can be uniformly boring....and I can hardly stand to look at overstuffed
sectional sofas...yech! This locale, for many, many years, has largely
ignored building codes and it shows. There are hundreds of older homes
with tacked on lean-to additions, s--- remodeling, carved up lots,
abandoned structures. Not a slum town by a long shot, but we've lived
here a long time and have seen a lot. We had the good fortune to buy in
a subdivision with sensible deed restrictions and stable families. We
love it.

On Sat, 9 Feb 2013 20:34:56 -0700, "Steve B" wrote:

Steve, is your charge of $25 to $100 an hour just for labor? Why the
huge difference if it's just for labor?

Depends on the technicality of the work. Simple easy clean work using not a
lot of supplies, $25. Complicated work that requires technical knowledge or
expensive tools, the prices go up. Also priority.

Sign in my shop:

Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

If you want that yesterday, it will cost ya.

Steve


Mechanic's Signs: (2)

http://carhumor.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/car-humor-funny-joke-road-street-drive-driver-mechanics-labor-rates-per-hour.jpg

http://www.irintech.com/x1/images/jean/shop_hours.jpg

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:52:19 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:32:47 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:39:23 -0500, wrote:




Paint is one thing but trashy wallpaper is a whole different kettle.
I'm with nn on this one, no wallpaper (one room, I could probably look
past one room).


You'd not scrape and repaint (or pay to have it done) if you could
save thousands?


It really depends on the age and type of wallpaper. The old stuff was
almost impossible to remove without way too much labor and damaging
the plaster or drywall.
Newer stuff can come off easily. Vinyl in the "paper" and different
glues.
My wife has redone a couple rooms with no problems. Putty knife to
wetted spot to start, then a sponge, and just a little work with the
putty knife. All paper she had put up. She made sure it was easy to
remove before she bought it. I told her I wouldn't remove it. She
likes some of the wallpaper patterns. But it's not an "easy" job even
with the newer stuff.
She did our hallway a couple years ago and decided to use a pattern
paint roller, and taped for stripes. Because she didn't want to
eventually deal with removing paper.

Mine wasn't old, just was applied to unpainted drywall. It was an
unholy mess to get off, then patch. Painting over the mess was a
disaster, too. I fought with that bathroom for a year.

After skimming through most of the posts in this thread, I thought I should make a few comments:

1. You should paint "sizing" onto the walls before putting up wallpaper. The sizing makes the wallpaper easier to remove when you want to take it down.

2. Never paint over wallpaper. It just makes it harder to remove.

3. If you find that you tear the surface paper off of drywall when removing wallpaper, then as long as the gypsum core is still intact, you can repair that damage without replacing the drywall:

a. Simply apply strips of fiberglass mesh drywall joint tape over the bare gypsum core and run it up on the paper on both sides of the exposed gypsum a good few inches.

b. Dilute white wood glue with sufficient water to make it into a paintable consistancy, and paint that over the fiberglass mesh tape. As the glue dries, it will bond the fiberglass to the gypsum core.

c. apply two coats of fiberglass mesh tape, with the strips of the second coat running perpendicular to the strips of the first coat. Paint with dilute white wood glue after each coat and allow time for the glue to dry.

d. Now skim coat over the fiberglas mesh with drywall joint compound. There are two good ways for a total newbie to do a decent job skim coating:

e1) Spread the joint compound on the fiberglass mesh with a "V" notched adhesive trowel. Then, mist the surface of that joint compound with a spray bottle and trowel the ridges down flat with the unnotched edge of the trowel.

or,

e2) Spread the joint compound on the fiberglass mesh with a "V" notched adhesive trowel, allow the joint compound to dry and lightly sand the surface to knock off any blobs that are sticking out proud of the trowel ridges. Then, fill in the trowel ridges with more drywall joint compound using the unnotched edge of the trowel.

4. The reason why drywall is fairly strong and rigid considering what it's made of, is because paper is very strong in tension. Try pulling a $1000 bill into two pieces by just pulling real hard on it and you'll see what I mean. In order for drywall to bend, then the paper on one side of the drywall or the other has to stretch. It's the strength of paper in tension that gives drywall it's strength and rigidity.
"Reinforced concrete" is designed much the same way. Reinforced concrete is nothing more than normal concrete with steel rebar embedded in it. If the rebars are embedded in a concrete slab near the top of the slab and near the bottom, then for that slab to bend, the steel rebar on one side of the slab or the other has to stretch, and steel is very strong in tension.
Reinforced concrete and drywall share the same engineering design principles, and that's why both are stronger than they would be if the concrete and steel or gypsum and paper were assembled in an arbitrary manner.