AJXterra

Thanks for the pm's and the help. I'd previously gotten two quotes, 4300 and 6815, which seems insane for a 1460 square foot house with a pier and beam foundation! We'll see what the home warranty company's camera finds.

How much line are they replacing? If it's all the way to the toilet then you may be in the ballpark. Pier and beam doesn't make it easier, it just means you don't have to tunnel. We paid a little over your lower quote for everything on the main line to be replaced and re-routed.

FYI - if this is the original plumbing they won't like that either. More things that could go wrong when they start to replace it.

There is a supermarket in China Town that has it which would help your 'drive on it' part. It's right behind Sihn Sihn on bellarie in the middle of the parking lot for the supermarket.

pretty scarry glad you were there to yell to the wife.....did he by chance touch anything that the cops might be able to pull ant prints off of?

glad you were safe!

My doorbell wasn't on (battery dead) so he knocked. I doubt he would have touched something else. If the police want to take a look they can. I'm not the one who saw anything so I'm waiting until the wife gets home to have her call in. I'd assume they actually have someone looking into this rather than brushing it off like they do for the regular break-ins. She's pretty freaked. I didn't know anything about a description until she read the story and flipped.

EDIT: Glad your family is safe and secure push.

"Onion creek I won't go to unless I want to WAIT on food.. seriously.. does it take an hour to grill a hamburger?"

No, it takes an hour for them to MICROWAVE your hamburger. The idea of the 'creeks' is awesome but everything else sucks. And yes, the last time I was there they obviously microwaved my hamburger. Thus the 'last' time.

My wife is saying this guy was at our house Monday around 8:30. I was in bed recovering from jet lag but I flew to the front room screaming for her to not open the door. Our dogs were going nuts and he was still trying to talk to her to open the door...something about voting for him. I remember thinking that was very odd as the usual MO is to turn around and walk away the second the dogs start up. I never saw him but she took a quick look through the window.

She said 'skinny, latino, yellow sweatshirt, and glasses.' sweatshirt was a bright yellow. I'm having her call the police tonight to talk to them. We're not very near 12 1/2 and Oxford either.

After waiting 3+ months for a reply, HCAD came back and lowered their appraisal by 7.5%

What? Not bad you say? This is after they raised my appraisal by 40%

I realize they can do this. We bought the property last August. Looking at the history, the HCAD appraisals had been mostly steady over the last few years. My guess is the previous owners must have fought pretty good to keep it from going up. What doesn't make sense to me is they consider my purchase price "invalid" because it was in foreclosure.(Fannie Mae owned). Although we tried, we couldn't negotiate a price but a few thousand lower than the HCAD value.

Another thing I have trouble with is HCAD's comps. They seemed to cherry pick homes that have been beautifully maintained or remodeled. Mine had neither.

Do you think if I brought in foreclosure "comps" that they would be acceptable? I know of several nearby homes that sold for the same price sq/ft but were foreclosed.

You'll get a better response out of the appraisal board, reject this and go that route.

A neighbor behind me has a chain fence that encroaches onto the alleyway. They will not remove it. Can I tear it down? It blocks access to the other side and the slum renters in the back park there. Can I clear the way.....

Have you thought perhaps that their fence is there for a reason? What benefit is there for you to remove this fence?

It also may be smart to find your own inspector in the future. Many real estate agents are trustworthy and offer reccomendations b/c they are good inspectors, but you leave yourself vulnerable if you aren't the only party that inspector is working for.

And rest assured that your inspection report miraculously made it into the hands of the other party before they offered.

I hear it's easier to keep feral fiance's in the house if you tie them up. Letting her roam the room she's bound to find a way through the door you're thinking about putting up. That, or you could put her in there and frame/sheetrock the door closed...that'll slow her down.

I don't recommend 'sanding' off an inch if that's the way you go...cut it down first and then sand for finish. I can't imagine how long it would take to sand off an inch of a solid door.

Clarification please...did you build the addition over the old property line or just move the fence? It's sounding like you built the addition over the old property line but I want to be sure.

I second the recommendation to go to http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/index.php, and ask for help. I'd be interested to know what those guys have to say.

If you do retile be sure to use the Schluter Ditra as it's waterproof if installed correctly. Basically another $2 a square foot to install and the best underlayment there is. If you don't re-tile, install a drain which shouldn't be too horribly difficult depending on what is below this balcony. The problem with the drain is that any future inspector when you go to sell your home will immediately want to know why it is there.

Good luck, I'll be looking for your thread over there.

Try Jim at AC/DC electric. He did my house a year and a half ago and it wasn't down to the studs. You can also look into doing the work yourself and having an electrician pull the permit for you after they inspect it, if you know what you're doing that is. Good luck.

Getting ready to do our kitchen remodel starting next month and I was wondering about taping and floating sheetrock that is going to be behind the cabinets. Is this necessary? the sheetrock has to be there for a flat wall surface but does it have to be finished behind where you know there will be cabinets, i.e. along the floor, etc.?

I don't want to skimp at all on this project, but taping and floating sucks and if I can still do a good job w/o doing some of the room then that would be awesome.

I would guess that most of the lots in the heights are valued higher than 150k. TBH, I think the pricing in our area is going to keep coming up so you really are going to have to go for a small bungalow w/ no updates and possibly no garage...even after your wife gets her job.

Our experience is similar...worth nothing. Had people come out for two differend issues, first was ducting that they obviously didn't cover b/c of the type. This didn't upset me too much b/c it seemed legit. The next one was for a bathroom shower faucet. The diverter was toast and the faucet needed to be replaced. They sent three different plumbers out who all said they covered it but couldn't fix it b/c the company wouldn't let them b/c it would cost too much. The fourth gave me this BS about me creating access in my tile for him that the company wouldn't cover to get in there and then repairing the tile afterwards...I told him no thanks and he actually asked for the service fee (the other three were smarter than this.) I told him to get out of my house and if there was an issue his employer could contact me. 4 visits, 3 days, 3 not allowed to fix and one potential fix that would have costed me probably 2k+.

My father who was a plumber took a look over some pics I sent him via the internet and gave me a DIY solution that costed about $100 total, 4 hour of noob plumber time, and an old t-shirt (plumbers goop doesn't come out it seems.) Included a new faucet, some creative but up to code pipe work and NO TILE REMOVAL. Took him about 10 min to figure it out...I was proud at this point and resolute in my decision to never use another warranty company again.

After closing and moving in to my new house for like 3 months, i changed the title to my father since he was moving in with me. No, he is still alive, but i want to move now and he will be going with me. That does bring up an interesting question since you brought it up. If my father passed away, how would the title be changed in my name then?

I'd hope for your sake that it's in his will...if not you could lose your house though that's somewhat of a longshot.

I'm just a poor man, trying to save a bungalow.

The only problem I see currently is that many lots in the 'hood will go for 200k+ depending on the location. Once they go up for sale the builders pick them off. There will still be houses then but it will take a while to find. However, living in the heights is the best plan so you know what's available.

I'd also make sure the wife is on board w/ roughing it...b/c these non-updated homes will have to have electrical, plumbing, HVAC, roof and foundation work that in the first four could lead to complete replacement. Not cheap but price is only part of the issue. GL though, we're restoring and updating ours bit by bit and it's a lot of fun.

undermount is about $175 per sink...dunno standard.

Only up 5.5%...Land up 14.5%, Improvements down 7%...interesting...

The HCAD website still lists my 2007 value. I guess they work their way out to the burbs slowly.

We're in the heights and still haven't had ours changed.

On a sidenote...we had a city SEWAGE line break under our house this year and had to have new utilties installed, etc. City covered zero, we have pictures of both the 60cu.ft. pool under our house and the 200+ cu. ft. pool that happened behind our house. This should help with our valuation correct? esp. given that the line is still there with 5 houses running through it and we had to install a cleanout that they've been out already once to jet again.

We looked at the cabinets again. They use the Blum tandembox slides, like Kraftmaid. They are particle board like everything else. They arent expensive, and look ok. I think we will be buying a complete kitchen shortly. I too, am scared of them falling apart, but the inlaws have had theirs for 30 yrs and say they hold up great.

That 25 year warranty helped put my mind at ease...

my ikea coffee and end table have been very sturdy for about 5 years... i even bought one of those zero gravity-like chairs -used, and it's in great shape (other than the faded cover, which would be expected)

however, i don't know if i could do their kitchen stuff... particle board near water is scary to me.

more than likely your current cabinets are particle board w/ a wood veneer...pretty standard on non-custom cabinets.

anyone ever do one? It's a completely different look imo and something the wife likes. The cabinets are very impressive with some patented technology, etc. We're not looking for crappy cheap, but still cheap.

so if the pocket door is in the space you want to move the door towards, you will most likely luck out. the pocket door should already have a header of some sorts somewhere in the neighborhood of 72" (if your door is 36"). i'm assuming you no longer want the pocket door but just an opening?

Yeah, just an opening that's a little larger.

ok, well to be exact we're not removing an entire wall...we're enlarging and moving a door into the kitchen. Current door is 36" and it has a pocket door to the direction we'll be moving it for another 36". My gut and everything logical that I can think of tells me this shouldn't be a problem but I wanted to ask for other thoughts or things to consider. All together we're 'altering' 1/2 of the length of wall there. We're moving the door 36" and then widening it to 54"-60". Leaving about a foot from the corner of the wall that is a load bearing. Reframing the original door and adding to the wall there. From looking in the attic there are no roof supports located in this whole span and the wall runs parallel to the joints.

House is 1500 square feet...kitchen is on one side mid-way back. This wall separates the living room from the kitchen and other than the door runs 1/2 the width of the house. Whole house is shiplap on top of framing...I plan on putting the shiplap back up on the new framing or is this a bad idea? I was planning on reinforcing around the new door frame regardless. 1 story, no piers under house in this vicinity either. Don't worry, I know this is all on me just wanted a little feedback. In the planning phases so don't want any big surprises later on b/c knowing this house there's bound to be plenty of little ones. Thanks all!