Home buying thread
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As someone who has worked hundreds of construction defect cases in commercial buildings, what you want to hire is a forensic engineer that goes behind and writes reports/does litigation against builders who fuck up. They know EXACTLY what to look for, and their job is to make sure it's done "right."
I've hired this guy on many projects and he's always done good work:
B. Andrew Hayes, AIA, LEED AP | Rimkus
Mr. Drew Hayes is a graduate of the Texas Tech University College of Architecture with a Master of Architecture degree. As a registered architect in the State of Texas, he has over 22 years of architectural building, site, planning, construction, remodel/adaptive reuse, and development design...rimkus.com
I'm not saying hire that guy, but someone like that who does inspections and construction management. The "inspectors" that come to look for your $500 pre-purchase inspection or whatever basically makes sure the appliances work and there aren't catastrophic leaks or something. I remember watching the guy in my house and he was like temperature testing the oven to make sure the setting was reasonably accurate. I remember him saying something like "well it's accurate, so if your turkey is dry its your fault."
So helpful, thank you sir, I could never have done that myself.
I'll look at the list I have and see if anyone on their staff is similar or provides similar services. The list I made last year was definitely outside of the "home inspection" companies and specialized in new builds, foundation design, etc. But that's a good reference to use and do some more searching before we get there.
No updates really on anything plan related unfortunately. Still moving very slowly. Doing a lot of exterior elevation work still, multiple options while a couple of internal things are tweaked.
This kind of isolates the entry and instead of making it a huge two-story entrance it creates a small porch and keeps some stone up to the second story. I'm not sold completely, the extra stone looks a little heavy. I also tried to balance the porch and entry to make it more centered. Need to go back and ask him to fix the roofline. There's some oddities there that we're not sure why they exist. Nothing is going on in the right side of the house second story or to the side or back elevation that should require that huge bump in the roof. I'm not an architect but it seems strange if that is just a design element and not functional. I like that there's still detail here on the entry and center mass but worry that it is too much and too gaudy or overwrought.
Other option was something like this that would adjust the area above the entry and make that an enclosed landing and maybe reduce the need / use for a larger window. I like the idea of an open two story entry, both of my previous houses had that. Also had the roofline flattened on this render to see what it would look like. Materials, colors, etc aren't finalized or anything. Just playing around. Wife wants something "blue" or dark, trying to convince her we need something lighter b/c it'll fade and need to be repainted. It is a little "coastal" farmhosue or something, but it is more in line with what I want that is "plain" haha.
Still back to the disappointment on the length of time this is taking and am like "can I just pay someone another $10k to finish this because this guy is taking too freaking long to do anything" train.
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My parents sold a house and the pre sale inspection the buyer paid for the inspector came out and leaned his ladder against the two story house nad looked up and said "nah, not today". He was mega fat. I've always wondered how many other sale inspectors and building inspectors are the same. Didn't even walk back to get a glance at the roof.
Made the mistake of using my “friend” realtors inspection company recommendation. A few months later it was discovered that the electric panel was wired wrong and a major fire hazard.
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The stupid thing about home inspections now is that there are so many apps that automate the report process that you really only need to walk around and take your pictures / make notes. Apps can fully assemble the pictures, mark ups, comments into a professional looking report without (or greatly minimizing) the manual document creation that was required before. We’ve dabbled with a program called CompanyCam and it takes almost no effort to make a report template and drop in where you want your pictures.
But most people can’t even manage to do the first part of the job correctly so removing the second part doesn’t help much I guess. My friend recently purchased a smaller home for like $200k with 3 acres and his inspector provided a 120 page report. Whole thing was like $500. Yeah, the nice pictures drive up the page count, but everything was at least documented and marked up for him to reference.
But most people can’t even manage to do the first part of the job correctly so removing the second part doesn’t help much I guess. My friend recently purchased a smaller home for like $200k with 3 acres and his inspector provided a 120 page report. Whole thing was like $500. Yeah, the nice pictures drive up the page count, but everything was at least documented and marked up for him to reference.
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Had a guy on Fiverr render our kitchen layout. I don’t even want to say “proposed” because this is just what is currently in the designer plans. Nothing looked at by cabinet makers or decisions around fixtures, faucet, everything. Gave the guy the floorplan and said “let’s see this in 3D.” We provided some feedback like SW Smoky Blue cabinets, Walls SW maybe, medium wood hardwood floor, maybe this color countertop. But nothing actually selected. We really just wanted to visualize the spaces.
We’ll probably do a whole different color scheme for pantry and mudroom, I just didn’t bother getting that granular with Fiverr dude. I did decide that since my wife wants blue cabinets that doing panel ready stuff would just be too much damn blue. The stainless + blue cabinets + brushed nickel pulls I think will balance well. I like the silver and blue contrast. Save us some money and may let us do a full size fridge instead of cabinet depth. Hard to find full size, fridge only, panel ready that I liked.
For exterior I’m really starting to lean heavier into Craftsman or some type of Clean Craftsman. This is more of my Gemini work and not our designer drawings. I can’t quite get it to do the base / plinth and windows like I want. The base and water table should only come up to our interior floor level and not the sill and the 1st floor windows I would like to be 6’ or 7’, we need to have our window meeting. With 10’ floors we should not have a problem. None of those front facing windows are bedrooms so we aren’t constrained by egress or sill height. 24” water table, 30” sill height? Allow for full exterior casing or whatever of windows. And then second story will be 5’, those are bedrooms. And for some reaon AI put bricks around those windows. I had to stop foghting
I like the wood texture gable instead of doing shakes which would be more traditional. Also may want to swap out columns for square tapered (more traditional craftsman). I still can’t get behind fake trusses in the gables. Exposed beams or knees would also be fake. I guess that’s why I’m calling it “clean craftsman.”
Hoping to get final plans back this week. He had to redraw them with 2x6 framing instead of 2x4 and tweak the entry to be more balanced. Also modify the front door. Then maybe we can get builder quote and are targeting end of March to get to the bank and discuss construction loan options.
We’ll probably do a whole different color scheme for pantry and mudroom, I just didn’t bother getting that granular with Fiverr dude. I did decide that since my wife wants blue cabinets that doing panel ready stuff would just be too much damn blue. The stainless + blue cabinets + brushed nickel pulls I think will balance well. I like the silver and blue contrast. Save us some money and may let us do a full size fridge instead of cabinet depth. Hard to find full size, fridge only, panel ready that I liked.
For exterior I’m really starting to lean heavier into Craftsman or some type of Clean Craftsman. This is more of my Gemini work and not our designer drawings. I can’t quite get it to do the base / plinth and windows like I want. The base and water table should only come up to our interior floor level and not the sill and the 1st floor windows I would like to be 6’ or 7’, we need to have our window meeting. With 10’ floors we should not have a problem. None of those front facing windows are bedrooms so we aren’t constrained by egress or sill height. 24” water table, 30” sill height? Allow for full exterior casing or whatever of windows. And then second story will be 5’, those are bedrooms. And for some reaon AI put bricks around those windows. I had to stop foghting
I like the wood texture gable instead of doing shakes which would be more traditional. Also may want to swap out columns for square tapered (more traditional craftsman). I still can’t get behind fake trusses in the gables. Exposed beams or knees would also be fake. I guess that’s why I’m calling it “clean craftsman.”
Hoping to get final plans back this week. He had to redraw them with 2x6 framing instead of 2x4 and tweak the entry to be more balanced. Also modify the front door. Then maybe we can get builder quote and are targeting end of March to get to the bank and discuss construction loan options.
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