All Forum Posts by: Doug W.

If you are working with a person who installs these for a living they might be able to get a better deal purchasing the water heater through a plumbing supply company. Or maybe you can get it from there yourself.

Or try Lowe's and get a coupon for 10% off from EBay. I use coupons on every single purchase I make from Lowe's not including when an item is exempt from the coupon. 

I've used public records to find the name and mailing address of owners even when the property was bought/sold under an LLC. That and some digging on Google.

You also might want to reach out to the Realtor(s) involved and see if they can get a message to the rehabber. I've also had luck with this after a flip was done on my street. I met the rehabber but at the time didn't ask for his contact info. I remembered the name of the Realtor who sold it and the next summer I reached out to her. 

Good luck. 

What makes me angry about this is that the homes are old. So do buyers expect them to be 100% up to modern standards? I don't think so. If the buyers do then they should be buying a home built in 2010 vs. 1950. 

How did you overcome what the inspector's report said regarding this issue in those two homes Derek? Did you find another buyer or did you update the wiring? 

I'm rehabbing a home built in 1952. The entire electrical system was the 2-wires. The former owner switched out some of the receptacles with 3-prong outlets and then attached the ground to the neutral. He did the same with some ceiling fans that he installed.  

For the existing wiring we put in GFCI or AFCI breakers, as appropriate. However this wasn't good enough for the inspector. He wants us to mark every receptacle that doesn't have a ground wire as such. 

We used a GFCI receptacle in the kitchen wet area and then ran the rest of the existing receptacles off of that. But since the inspector's 3-wire receptacle was showing an open ground AND would also not trip the GFCI receptacle we did have to go back in and run all new wires starting at the box. 

My electrician and the inspector have differing opinions on some things but at the end of the day it only really matters what the inspector wants to see. 

Thanks for the updates @Chris C. I'm not familiar with ductless air returns per se but I do understand that you can pump all the cold air into a space that you want but if you're not also pulling hot air from that space it will never really feel comfortable. I'm going to ask my HVAC guy more about these ductless returns as I'm curious about them.

+1 for the education value of this thread. 

The results of my unscientific poll are conclusive: I'm weird for thinking that the smell of newly painted walls is appealing. :)

Thanks, seriously, for the feedback everyone. 

The house is hardwoods throughout; not including the bath. The wood is all being refinished this week. For the record I am not a fan of the smell of polyurethane though. :) 

Hey @Chris C. - can you expand on the "no ducts in the wall" comment? I see a return air vent in the photo with the staircase. I can't see any supply vents in other photos so I assume they are either on the ceilings or floors. 

Sorry if I am just dense and am missing the obvious. 

Thanks

Does anyone try to time painting to happen days before an open house so that the new paint smell lingers when potential buyers walk through?

Maybe it is just me but I love walking into a house and smelling fresh paint. To me it is like the new car smell. So I am wondering if others get excited about it, too? Ultimately I was thinking about (re)painting a section of a hallway closet in my flip the morning of the first open house. It would be a wall that no one would be able to touch without a lot of effort so there are no worries about someone at the open house accidentally get paint on themselves.  :)

Wow - reading this thread has been interesting. I was told that replacing a bunch of standard double hung windows in my flip would be about $400 per window X 8 windows which included the window, labor, and disposal. So that is $3,200. I ended up going to Home Depot and buying windows for about $130 per window (average) and doing the replacements myself. Each window took me roughly 1 to 1.5 hour each (includes removing old window and old storm frames + caulking inside and out). They were all first floor windows and all required being on a step ladder while doing the exterior caulking. 

On a side note: I posted an ad on Craigslist for all of my old sashes. They were wood and single pane. Within hours I had about two dozens emails offering to pick them up. So I didn't pay any fee to dispose of them. And I took the aluminum storm frames to the scrap metal yard and got around $25 for them. 

Good tips. 

When caulking I wet my finger and keep a paper towel handy. I am also all too familiar with what paintable caulk tastes like these days since I don't thoroughly clean my fingers between each section. Hah!