Ahhhhhh The joys of home ownership.....

[hzl eyed grl]

So HayZeus 2000 and I buy our first home. Well, about three days after being there the septic backs up. We get that taken care of, now we have electrical problems. It wouldn't be so bad if our homeowners warantee (whatever it's called) would actually pay for something. I swear it's a piece of sh!t. :| The contacts on the meter are corroded so they aren't getting good contact. That means we have flickering lights and power surges galore. *SIGH* It's already blown one tv. Also why I haven't been online much in the last few weeks. We aren't plugging in our computers until the problem in resolved. We hired an electrician yesterday, so hopefully it will be soon. Oh yeah, the past few nights have been a joy. It was supposed to get down to something like 29 degrees here (Virginia) last night. We can't turn on the furnace because of the drain on the power and there's only a fireplace upstairs. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


With all that rant said.... We still love our beautiful house. We live in the woods and see lots of wildlife and it's worth it. It's just a pain in the ass right now.


/end rant

 

[Electric Amish]

Yeah, house warantee plans are kindof useless.

 

[Need4Speed]

welcome to the club...im surprised that the inspector didnt find these problems before you bought the house. you did have it inspected no?

 

[conjur]

DOH!

Doesn't your utility company cover the power meter?? Seems like they should. Also, the local power company here offers some warranty for all electrical appliances for a few $/mo.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

UPS's.

 

[radioouman]

Yep... We moved into a new house this summer, and found that our sump pump was running almost continuously... the drain tube had roots growing into it and clogged it up. I took a day off and replaced the tube. much better now that it's done!

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Well, we had a friend of the family inspect the house and he did a great job. He really went over everything. The only thing he didn't do (I don't think they can) was pull off the meter. We knew our breaker was old, but we thought it was fine.

As for the power company...it's weird. They said that they cover everything from the street to the drip loop. Then the insurance (homeowners) will cover everything inside up to the breaker. That means that from the meter on the outside of the house to the driploop (about 50') is no man's land. heehee So, we're going to have to cough up the dough.

Matt, we now have the one main tv hooked up to a UPS. It's the one he normally kept his computer on. The other tv was one that the sellers left, but was still good. HZ took it apart and it may just be a blown fuse. We're going to try to fix it and see if it works.

EDIT:

Yep... We moved into a new house this summer, and found that our sump pump was running almost continuously... the drain tube had roots growing into it and clogged it up. I took a day off and replaced the tube. much better now that it's done!

Yup, our septic had roots in it. I guess it wasn't full up to the level, but the roots made it impossible for anything to pass.


Now, I won't be online much longer tonight, but if I don't see the rest of the replies before I leave....I'll get back to y'all when I can.

 

[Nyical]

Originally posted by: hzl_eyed_grl
So HayZeus 2000 and I buy our first home. Well, about three days after being there the septic backs up. We get that taken care of, now we have electrical problems. It wouldn't be so bad if our homeowners warantee (whatever it's called) would actually pay for something. I swear it's a piece of sh!t. :| The contacts on the meter are corroded so they aren't getting good contact. That means we have flickering lights and power surges galore. *SIGH* It's already blown one tv. Also why I haven't been online much in the last few weeks. We aren't plugging in our computers until the problem in resolved. We hired an electrician yesterday, so hopefully it will be soon. Oh yeah, the past few nights have been a joy. It was supposed to get down to something like 29 degrees here (Virginia) last night. We can't turn on the furnace because of the drain on the power and there's only a fireplace upstairs. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


With all that rant said.... We still love our beautiful house. We live in the woods and see lots of wildlife and it's worth it. It's just a pain in the ass right now.


Hehe sounds like our house when the wife and me first moved in but you can add a few more things onto that list

Roof replaced

Floor in Master Bathroom, Living Room, Dining Room replaced

New Carpet in whole house

New plumbing in Master and Guest Bathroom as well as the Kitchen

New Front Door, the old one just fell over first time I opened it

New Septic tank, old one decided to collapse

Rewired basically the whole house (damn rodents)

New ceilling in Master bedroom (damn roof)

New heating/Air conditioning unit (damn rodents again)

New Front and Back Porch (damn rodents once again)

Granted the house was given to us, her parents had rented it out after her grandma went into a coma and the people that were living in there just let it go to hell and when her grandma passed away they finally kicked out those people
and let us move in and a little over 40k later in repairs ( so much for free) and so much for my 401k.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: hzl_eyed_grl
Well, we had a friend of the family inspect the house and he did a great job. He really went over everything. The only thing he didn't do (I don't think they can) was pull off the meter. We knew our breaker was old, but we thought it was fine.

As for the power company...it's weird. They said that they cover everything from the street to the drip loop. Then the insurance (homeowners) will cover everything inside up to the breaker. That means that from the meter on the outside of the house to the driploop (about 50') is no man's land. heehee So, we're going to have to cough up the dough.

Matt, we now have the one main tv hooked up to a UPS. It's the one he normally kept his computer on. The other tv was one that the sellers left, but was still good. HZ took it apart and it may just be a blown fuse. We're going to try to fix it and see if it works.

EDIT:

Yep... We moved into a new house this summer, and found that our sump pump was running almost continuously... the drain tube had roots growing into it and clogged it up. I took a day off and replaced the tube. much better now that it's done!

Yup, our septic had roots in it. I guess it wasn't full up to the level, but the roots made it impossible for anything to pass.


Now, I won't be online much longer tonight, but if I don't see the rest of the replies before I leave....I'll get back to y'all when I can.

That sucks. I'm realizing all the shortcuts the builder took when building our house. I've replaced so many damned fixtures it isn't funny. They really cheaped out on everything except the door handles (which are actually kind of nice-I'm sure the original owner paid for those though).

 

[richardycc]

you should check to see if your state have anything samiliar to my state (massachusetts) title 5 code. If this happen in my state, the seller will most likely have to pay for it.

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Originally posted by: richardycc
you should check to see if your state have anything samiliar to my state (massachusetts) title 5 code. If this happen in my state, the seller will most likely have to pay for it.

We'll have to look into that. I think it was pretty much an "as is" sale, but you never know.

Sorry to hear about all the others that posted with problems. It really sucks when you buy a house and have to do so much, but it's worth it in the long run. I know we'll love our house for years to come.

We're getting into decorating it now. lol We're doing our kitchen in the "Roaring 20's". We bought a black and white stove and black, white, and stainless steel appliances. We're going to have black, white, red, and a few other accent colors. Our bedroom and master bath (Well, the only bathroom on the main floor.) is going to be safari.

 

[JC]

Yeah, but it still beats renting

BTW, still mid-80s back here


JC

 

[SilentZero]

I can relate! Our upstairs bathroom had a pretty major plumbing problem and it took the damn plumbing company 3 days to get out here and fix it! We don't have a septic tank though...so at least dont have to worry about any ruptures.

 

[T2T III]

We'll have to look into that. I think it was pretty much an "as is" sale, but you never know.

If the seller went through a real estate agent to sell the property, they had to sign a full disclosure form. If that's the case, the electrical "issues" didn't just start the day you moved in and neither did the septic tank issues. More than likely, you might have some recourse for these issues. Don't just assume that it was an "as-is" sale. The previous owner had to know about some of these issues and I suspect if faced with having to go to court, the seller might "own up" to some funds to get the house in "habitable" condition. Clearly, from what you described, it could easily be condemed at this point.

Best of luck !

 

[Shockwave]

Pics of the house?

 

[Howard]

New houses blow. Really old houses blow too.

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Well, we FINALLY got our electricity fixed. *Sigh* It took for freaking ever! (Not the job, just getting them here and arranged with the power company and inspector.) We are now running with good power and we're back online! Yippeeeeeeee We are, however, back to dialup. The speed doesn't seem to be too awful bad at the moment, but it's a far cry from cable.

And for the question about pictures of the house....yes, there are pictures. I believe I've posted some here and there are some at my forums. However, it's late and I don't want to do a search at the moment. I'll try to do that tomorrow.

 

[JC]

It's still early out here

Stay up! What else would you be doing?

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Originally posted by: JC
It's still early out here

Stay up! What else would you be doing?

Praying for my freaking pain pill to kick in. That's what! lol It's not horribly late here (11:12 PM), but I'll probably go to bed in a while.

How are you over there? My mom and the cousin that owns the restaurant that you ate with me at is coming to visit in December! WOOHOO!

 

[JC]

Californians visiting VA in December? HA! I pity the fools......


Same 'ol thing here....got my own house projects to deal with...but not much chance of snow interfering this winter



JC

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Yeah, I told them to bring warm clothes. I don't think they really realized that there might be snow here. lol It's weird because when you don't live with it, you don't think about it. My mom hasn't seen snow in about 17 years, either.

 

[dirtboy]

Your rant is exactly why I am having a new home built.

 

[JC]

Originally posted by: dirtboy
Your rant is exactly why I am having a new home built.

Of course, new homes have plenty of bugs, too! Still, nice to be able to build new.....

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Originally posted by: dirtboy
Your rant is exactly why I am having a new home built.

That's cool. While we have a lot to do with ours, making it our own is part of the fun too. Plus, we got a good price and a good bit of land to go with it. Neighbors aren't an arms-length away and we have a lot of wildlife here. I think this wooded retreat is exactly what we needed.

 

[BoberFett]

Wow, that's cool. Congratulations Heather.