Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

kyfdx

stickguy said:

Given that lately I feel like I’m aging in dog years near spring when my daughter is here looking at houses ?Nd soon our son to get a bigger place) I’ll push them towards one with an in law apartment. Just in case.

"If you think you're ever moving in with me, you're crazy!"

kyfdx

@ab348 We have a lot of older housing stock in our suburb (1920-1940). I've seen some pretty nice looking kitchen renovations done with IKEA cabinets. Our cabinets are painted white (not IKEA) and pretty nice.. but, in the end, it's the rest of the stuff in the kitchen that gives it the wow feeling. I don't look at our cabinets, and go, hey these are really nice (which they are). They're just cabinets.

tjc78

@kyfdx said:
"If you think you're ever moving in with me, you're crazy!"

We have had my mother with us since 2017. Probably one of the best decisions my wife and I have ever made.

It has its challenges, but considering my Mom is the only grandparent my kids have it’s been wonderful for them.

explorerx4

When we finished the basement in our last house, which didn't look like a basement because it was a walkout with 5 windows and 2 glass doors on the back wall, we thought about building an in law space for my mom, but realized she would never want to live with us.
She wanted to maintain her independence.

ab348

kyfdx said:

@ab348 We have a lot of older housing stock in our suburb (1920-1940). I've seen some pretty nice looking kitchen renovations done with IKEA cabinets. Our cabinets are painted white (not IKEA) and pretty nice.. but, in the end, it's the rest of the stuff in the kitchen that gives it the wow feeling. I don't look at our cabinets, and go, hey these are really nice (which they are). They're just cabinets.

Yes, the source of the cabinets in this case wasn't the issue. I didn't care for their gray color in the kitchen because there were a lot of them and it was kind of suffocating, and the hardware choice didn't do much for me either, but that's just my taste. They have a big island there too which I guess is their eating area which I didn't care for, but I have something similar, just not as big. I never eat at it. It had a lot of cabinets in the main living area too which I guess you need, and those were a woodgrain. It too was a walkout, but it was under an upper deck so the natural light was limited. I think a designer/architect could have helped with some of the things that didn't work for me. But overall it just felt closed-in.

tjc78

We had a grey kitchen in our Park Model back in 2017. It seemed so fresh and modern then …now I prefer white again.

tjc78

We love our finished basement. It is our favorite part of the house.

Last day of vacation 😟😟

I’ll never tire of this view.

sda

I took the Arteon in for an oil change and new spark plugs as that is what VW maintenance requires. Last week the SOS warning light came on. That is the feature that dials for help in an emergency. Apparently that module has a battery which has gone bad and is on back order. Who knew!! I didn’t think the cost to replace the spark plugs was too much but not cheap. They will call me when the battery comes in and is covered by warranty. I've been fortunate this dealer has consistently provide good service.

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

Given that lately I feel like I’m aging in dog years near spring when my daughter is here looking at houses ?Nd soon our son to get a bigger place) I’ll push them towards one with an in law apartment. Just in case.

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I’m confused. If your son gets a house with an in-law-apartment, how is that going to help you?

jmonroe

nyccarguy

@tjc78 said:
We love our finished basement. It is our favorite part of the house.

Last day of vacation 😟😟

I’ll never tire of this view.

I have a love/hate relationship with my finished basement. I love the space that it gives my son to play Xbox and it gave us an extra bedroom so my oldest could have his own space. I hate the money I’ve had to pour into it and the agony of the fact that I’ve had to redo it twice now.

stickguy

JM, we are our DIL's in laws!

Our daughter sent over a link to a house that just went on the market that she loves. Asked if anyone wanted to buy it now to hang on for them. And their current plan is to move in with us in the spring while they look for a house nearby. Fine by us. We have lots of room, and could use some company!

We likely would not share a space with either of them for a long time, but if it became needed, they likely would be fine doing it. very convenient to have someone available for child care! More likely if we need to get something easier to care for then our current place, we will just buy a small house close by to where they are. For now, we will likely end up as the center point between the 2 kids, which will be nice since we can be the gathering place for the family.

we thought about finishing the basement here, but at this point, we go down there a couple of times a month to get something out of a box so we will not be using it so no reason to. Had a nice one in the last house, but almost never used it for living space purposes. Just passed through to get to the workbench or storage side.

stickguy

Forgot to mention. Son’s current house had been updated before he bought it with a new kitchen and it is IKEA cabinets. Look nice, work fine. Some neat features built in too.

oldfarmer50

sda said:

I took the Arteon in for an oil change and new spark plugs as that is what VW maintenance requires. Last week the SOS warning light came on. That is the feature that dials for help in an emergency. Apparently that module has a battery which has gone bad and is on back order. Who knew!! I didn’t think the cost to replace the spark plugs was too much but not cheap. They will call me when the battery comes in and is covered by warranty. I've been fortunate this dealer has consistently provide good service.

$23 for a spark plug isn’t bad. Like all things that would have been an outrageous price a few years ago. Last year I paid $28 per plug on the 2000 Chrysler. Maybe they were rare antique plugs. I can remember buying spark plugs for 99 cents when you bought 8.

roadburner

sda said:

I took the Arteon in for an oil change and new spark plugs as that is what VW maintenance requires. Last week the SOS warning light came on. That is the feature that dials for help in an emergency. Apparently that module has a battery which has gone bad and is on back order. Who knew!! I didn’t think the cost to replace the spark plugs was too much but not cheap. They will call me when the battery comes in and is covered by warranty. I've been fortunate this dealer has consistently provide good service.

The C43 experienced a glitch last week; I was accelerating "briskly" when it began to miss accompanied by a flashing CEL. I pulled over, switched off and restarted and all was well. I took it to my dealer and they spent a better part of a day going over it and found nothing aside from the one time occurrence of the misfires. No other codes. I had gone to an out of the way Shell station and the consensus was that I probably picked up some water with the fuel. Cost of the diagnosis? $00.00- and I got to try out a new GLB.

jmonroe1

explorerx4 said:

When we finished the basement in our last house, which didn't look like a basement because it was a walkout with 5 windows and 2 glass doors on the back wall, we thought about building an in law space for my mom, but realized she would never want to live with us.
She wanted to maintain her independence.

————————————————
Municipalities can be so stupid sometimes maybe even all the time.

I don’t know if it’s a law throughout the country (I think it is) but around here you can’t legally have bedrooms in the basement if the basement is not a walk-out type or there is a window for egress that is large enough for an adult to exit in case of a fire and the window cannot be more than 24 inches off the floor, or something like that. OK, I can see the logic there but not the following:

My youngest brother had a neighbor in the adjoining town in the bordering county who went through hell because he listed his house with 2 bedrooms and a full bath in the basement. However, he could not comply with the egress requirements mentioned above. The house was in good condition and sold quickly because of the basement bedrooms and full bath. BUT when it came time to get an occupancy permit, the town refused to give the OK because the only egress was the garage and you can’t have that because their reasoning is that a fire is more likely to start in the garage than in the basement area. Again, that sounds reasonable. So, the guy relisted the house complete with new pictures of the two rooms now being shown as “offices”. He even went so far as to put some desks with some old computers in them that he never through away. The town stupidly dug in and questioned if that was the case why did the guy install a full bath down there. His reply was so he didn’t have to go upstairs to pee. They still dug in and questioned, “then why the shower”. That he didn’t answer. Instead he asked his cousin who was a lawyer in one of the larger law firms in the Burgh to help him. His cousin sent the town a letter from the law firms letter head. Wala, problem solved. He got the occupancy permit within the 72 hours his cousin demanded.

I can fully understand safety but not total stupidity.

jmonroe

kyfdx

Latest beers from my favorite brewery.
All collaborations with other breweries, this month
All fruit, but not the usual sours

jmonroe1

kyfdx said:

Latest beers from my favorite brewery.
All collaborations with other breweries, this month
All fruit, but not the usual sours

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The last one is a pina colada, right? Which I like.

jmonroe

kyfdx

@jmonroe1
It might be a little more bitter than that, being a double IPA, but yeah, same flavors

explorerx4

@kyfdx,
That Belgian is pretty high octane.

jmonroe1

explorerx4 said:

@kyfdx,
That Belgian is pretty high octane.

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But you only need 2 of those.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

explorerx4 said:

When we finished the basement in our last house, which didn't look like a basement because it was a walkout with 5 windows and 2 glass doors on the back wall, we thought about building an in law space for my mom, but realized she would never want to live with us.
She wanted to maintain her independence.

————————————————
Municipalities can be so stupid sometimes maybe even all the time.

I don’t know if it’s a law throughout the country (I think it is) but around here you can’t legally have bedrooms in the basement if the basement is not a walk-out type or there is a window for egress that is large enough for an adult to exit in case of a fire and the window cannot be more than 24 inches off the floor, or something like that. OK, I can see the logic there but not the following:

My youngest brother had a neighbor in the adjoining town in the bordering county who went through hell because he listed his house with 2 bedrooms and a full bath in the basement. However, he could not comply with the egress requirements mentioned above. The house was in good condition and sold quickly because of the basement bedrooms and full bath. BUT when it came time to get an occupancy permit, the town refused to give the OK because the only egress was the garage and you can’t have that because their reasoning is that a fire is more likely to start in the garage than in the basement area. Again, that sounds reasonable. So, the guy relisted the house complete with new pictures of the two rooms now being shown as “offices”. He even went so far as to put some desks with some old computers in them that he never through away. The town stupidly dug in and questioned if that was the case why did the guy install a full bath down there. His reply was so he didn’t have to go upstairs to pee. They still dug in and questioned, “then why the shower”. That he didn’t answer. Instead he asked his cousin who was a lawyer in one of the larger law firms in the Burgh to help him. His cousin sent the town a letter from the law firms letter head. Wala, problem solved. He got the occupancy permit within the 72 hours his cousin demanded.

I can fully understand safety but not total stupidity.

jmonroe

kyfdx said:

Latest beers from my favorite brewery.
All collaborations with other breweries, this month
All fruit, but not the usual sours

That reminds me of the time the town wanted me to do an environmental impact statement for a card table full of tomatoes. Ridiculous bureaucracy. You friend should tell them that the shower is a wash station in case of an industrial accident in the office.

kyfdx

explorerx4 said:

@kyfdx,
That Belgian is pretty high octane.

Most Quads are 9%+. They drink a little easier than you'd expect.

On the plus side, those are all 16 oz cans.. lol

Just picked these up, today. Haven't tried any, yet.

stickguy

NY I think requires an egress window with a ladder in the well in the basement now, even if you have no finished space. Nice to have built in from the beginning if you ever want to finish it. Plus it can bring in a lot more light.

you are right that without the right egress capability you can't have a bedroom (I guess it is fine to get trapped down there if you aren't sleeping!) and definitely can't advertise it as bedrooms. But I have never heard of it being a problem selling the house without counting it in the listed SF.

So it sounds like your guy was hoping to sell it as fewer bedrooms, with a wink wink, nudge nudge, and figure people would just use them as bedrooms? Not that easy to pull off since buyers know the issues. Simplest answer was probably just have the egress window put in (not that big a deal to have one installed to replace an existing casement window), and be able to officially count the SF. Not sure how much that would cost, but probably less than you would get selling it legally.

kyfdx

Where we live, it's traditional to not include lower level finished space in the "square foot" category of the listing, though you can always note it, separately.

Our son used a room in the finished lower level as a bedroom, when he moved home for awhile, after finishing college. It only has one door, no window. But, if you get out the door, the lower level is a walkout with a normal door, and three big double hung windows.

corvette

The "if you get out the door" is why they require an egress window. My parents' house has a windowless "bedroom" in the finished basement, but I think they can count on one hand the number of times someone has slept there. It's used as a storage room now.

kyfdx

corvette said:

The "if you get out the door" is why they require an egress window. My parents' house has a windowless "bedroom" in the finished basement, but I think they can count on one hand the number of times someone has slept there. It's used as a storage room now.

Well.. that's true. It's where I'm sitting right now.

ab348

A few years ago I had the old aluminum slider windows in the basement replaced with new thermal windows. The window guy was concerned because part of the basement was finished by the P.O. In the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. When I first looked at the house before buying, the wife part of the couple who owned it was present and told me they built a bedroom done there because it was cool in the summer, so they slept there on hot nights.

The window guy measured the opening and concluded that with a little modification it could meet code for egress. He installed an awning window that opened in and had a mechanism that would hold it open so you could escape easier in an emergency. The only living being that sleeps there sometimes is Lucy the cat, but I store a ladder in there in case of emergency.

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

NY I think requires an egress window with a ladder in the well in the basement now, even if you have no finished space. Nice to have built in from the beginning if you ever want to finish it. Plus it can bring in a lot more light.

you are right that without the right egress capability you can't have a bedroom (I guess it is fine to get trapped down there if you aren't sleeping!) and definitely can't advertise it as bedrooms. But I have never heard of it being a problem selling the house without counting it in the listed SF.

So it sounds like your guy was hoping to sell it as fewer bedrooms, with a wink wink, nudge nudge, and figure people would just use them as bedrooms? Not that easy to pull off since buyers know the issues. Simplest answer was probably just have the egress window put in (not that big a deal to have one installed to replace an existing casement window), and be able to officially count the SF. Not sure how much that would cost, but probably less than you would get selling it legally.

————————————————
My brother told me the house sold quickly and the seller was lucky the buyers agreed to wait for the bedroom issue to be resolved. The buyers bank gave them an extension holding the loan rate and extending the closing date but wouldn’t do another extension. When one week passed, and the town was dragging their feet, probably knowing the buyers could only get an extension of about 10 days, that’s when he called his lawyer cousin.

Most of the time when municipalities want things their way, they usually drag things out to discourage the homeowner but it didn’t work that time. Once the seller got it settled in his favor, he wanted to go public to the local newspaper but his cousin told him he couldn’t do that because of a clause they agreed to when the town caved. However, that didn’t stop him from telling a lot of people about what happened because I think that would fall into the realm of hearsay. I’m not a lawyer but that’s what I think. In any case the guy fought city hall and won.

jmonroe

stickguy

government entities need to follow the rules as defined. Otherwise, they aren't rules. and it becomes favors for cronies.

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

government entities need to follow the rules as defined. Otherwise, they aren't rules. and it becomes favors for cronies.

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If I didn’t know better I’d say you just described “government”.

jmonroe

xwesx

stickguy said:

government entities need to follow the rules as defined. Otherwise, they aren't rules. and it becomes favors for cronies.

True, and they did that with the egress issue related to them being "bedrooms." But, the bathroom thing and dragging their feet? That's just people abusing positions.

explorerx4

Hopefully some of you posters will appreciate this pic. The foreground, of course.

graphicguy

explorerx4 said:

Hopefully some of you posters will appreciate this pic. The foreground, of course.

My Alma Mater!

kyfdx

@explorerx4 My wife's cousin was the head football coach there, at one time

imidazol97

@explorerx4 said:
Hopefully some of you posters will appreciate this pic. The foreground, of course.

Cute youngsters.

ab348

Is that "Miami of Ohio" that Dave Diles of ABC always used to make me wonder about on the Prudential College Football Scoreboard show in the '70s?

explorerx4

@kyfdx,
Paul Brown? Weeb Eubank? Ara Parseghian?

kyfdx

explorerx4 said:

@kyfdx,
Paul Brown? Weeb Eubank? Ara Parseghian?

LOL.. Terry Hoeppner. He was Roethlisberger's coach. Went from Miami to Indiana (which was his home state)

jmonroe1

explorerx4 said:

Hopefully some of you posters will appreciate this pic. The foreground, of course.

————————————————-
Great pic. Fortunately, none of your genes there.

jmonroe

imidazol97

@explorerx4 said:
Hopefully some of you posters will appreciate this pic. The foreground, of course.

Cute youngsters.