Originally Posted by another bloody yank

For a singlewide, it's really pretty decent. The prior owners took really good care of it, put in nice berber carpet and pergo flooring, upgraded all the light fixtures, spent time and $ on landscaping etc... The plusses are the above, and it's close to work, it was cheap, has a decent (although kinda small) shed/garage/shop thing, sits on 2.25 acres that's about half grass and half woods so the neighbors aren't right on top of us, it's in the school district we wanted and it's a "wet" county so we can buy booze right down the road.

The minuses are that it's basically made of cardboard, there's no basement, very little storage, no wood stove, the decks and porches are OK, but not as well built as I would have done them, and the two smaller bedrooms are tiny.

And I count the pool as a minus, it nearly put me off buying the place despite the kid's delirious joy at the sight of it. I haven't had the desire for a pool since I began paying my own bills and it's already turning into a PITA. Came back from a weekend trip to MO two weeks ago and it was as green as jade after having been crystal clear for the first week. Apparently the floaty thing ran out of chlorine. I have NO clue how to operate a pool. I was told to "shock" it, which I did, along with dumping in a gallon of algae killer and refilling the floaty thing with chlorine tablets, but green it remains. The P$$L guy is coming today to fix it.

Originally Posted by another bloody yank

For a singlewide, it's really pretty decent. The prior owners took really good care of it, put in nice berber carpet and pergo flooring, upgraded all the light fixtures, spent time and $ on landscaping etc... The plusses are the above, and it's close to work, it was cheap, has a decent (although kinda small) shed/garage/shop thing, sits on 2.25 acres that's about half grass and half woods so the neighbors aren't right on top of us, it's in the school district we wanted and it's a "wet" county so we can buy booze right down the road.

The minuses are that it's basically made of cardboard, there's no basement, very little storage, no wood stove, the decks and porches are OK, but not as well built as I would have done them, and the two smaller bedrooms are tiny.

And I count the pool as a minus, it nearly put me off buying the place despite the kid's delirious joy at the sight of it. I haven't had the desire for a pool since I began paying my own bills and it's already turning into a PITA. Came back from a weekend trip to MO two weeks ago and it was as green as jade after having been crystal clear for the first week. Apparently the floaty thing ran out of chlorine. I have NO clue how to operate a pool. I was told to "shock" it, which I did, along with dumping in a gallon of algae killer and refilling the floaty thing with chlorine tablets, but green it remains. The P$$L guy is coming today to fix it.

Originally Posted by another bloody yank

And I count the pool as a minus, it nearly put me off buying the place despite the kid's delirious joy at the sight of it. I haven't had the desire for a pool since I began paying my own bills and it's already turning into a PITA. Came back from a weekend trip to MO two weeks ago and it was as green as jade after having been crystal clear for the first week. Apparently the floaty thing ran out of chlorine. I have NO clue how to operate a pool. I was told to "shock" it, which I did, along with dumping in a gallon of algae killer and refilling the floaty thing with chlorine tablets, but green it remains. The P$$L guy is coming today to fix it.

Originally Posted by nethead

But have you got a TV now??



Glad you managed to sell your old place, your family is back together, and you don't have that long commute anymore.

Originally Posted by elfman

When we were looking at houses recently any house which turned out to have a pool was instantly struck off the list of possibles for reasons such as those you've given above. Then there's the issue I was faced with on my return from work yesterday: we have (or had) a cheap plastic paddling pool sitting out the back for the kids to splash about in. Had forgotten to empty it for a few days and when I got home the Mrs told me I wouldn't have to help with the kids' bathtimes so long as I could dispose of the chipmunk corpse floating in the pool. She was utterly grossed out by it but for the kids watching Daddy fish out Alvin's body and chuck it into the woods was the highlight of their day. The Mrs then insisted that the pool went out to the kerb for trash pickup, and that was before I told her that on close inspection Alvin's body was surrounded by hundreds of tiny worms all swimming round it.

Originally Posted by Rete

Actually, I don't think it is so bad. But then I'm an apartment dweller what do I know.

Get online and checkout American Pickers. Sounds like you have thing in the shed that are right up their alley and you might get enough to buy/build a two car garage from those pickings. I'm serious.

Originally Posted by another bloody yank

My dog would have eaten it.

Originally Posted by another bloody yank

You're dead on.

We lost $ on the place in MO, bought for $156K in '03, sold for $145 for the house and the 20 acres. Could have been a lot worse, we put it on the market in early April and got our one and only offer July 16th, signed contract on 24 July. My friend who also relocated due to work put his place up in Feb and hasn't had any bites, hasn't even had any lookers for a month.

Luckily we did pretty well on our prior place which we bought in '98 back when the market was normal and sold in '03 (after everything went crazy) for twice what we paid. We used a large chunk of that profit as a down payment on the farm so that equity somewhat mitigated the lower selling price. Still, after paying off some loans and the credit card we pretty much back where we started, nothing in the bank, but no debt either. Which is OK with me. I got us into a place like that once, I can do it again.

That brings me to the plan... Our new mortgage is less than most people's car payment so we should be able to actually save some $, which we haven't been able to do for the last 7 years. Especially once my wife finds work. There are numerous elementary schools in this district (the school district encompasses the whole county), but only one middle school and one high school. My daughter has two years of elementary, once she moves into middle school we can move anywhere in the county and she won't have to change schools. My son is in middle now and will be in high school by then. So, for the next two years we're going to save like crazy and keep an eye on the market. After that, we'll start looking, but no rush this time, we'll wait for the right place. Like you said, this is a very transient area and I'm only 9 miles from work so we could hopefully sell easily or even rent it.

Originally Posted by another bloody yank

And then puked it up on the rug.

Originally Posted by Rete

Actually, I don't think it is so bad. But then I'm an apartment dweller what do I know.

Get online and checkout American Pickers. Sounds like you have thing in the shed that are right up their alley and you might get enough to buy/build a two car garage from those pickings. I'm serious.

Originally Posted by another bloody yank

And we are close enough to town that the kids were able to enjoy their first ever "delivered" pizza (The first they remember anyway). They couldn't believe such a thing existed, they were so amazed they waited on the front porch for the delivery guy. When he pulled up they ran into the house yelling "He's here, he's here!!"

Originally Posted by Macca67

Even if it's the only rug in your place they'll always go there. Always the rug with my mutt.

Originally Posted by another bloody yank

And we are close enough to town that the kids were able to enjoy their first ever "delivered" pizza (The first they remember anyway). They couldn't believe such a thing existed, they were so amazed they waited on the front porch for the delivery guy. When he pulled up they ran into the house yelling "He's here, he's here!!"