2.1 million dollar house...

"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck) 04/27/2018 at 10:19 • Filed to: Houses

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... and the painters are drinking on the job. Definitely a good look

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:24

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ugh modelo, no thanks

pip bip - choose Corrour > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:25

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i’m guessing they didn’t offer you one?

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > pip bip - choose Corrour 04/27/2018 at 10:27

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Nobody likes Millhouse

WilliamsSW > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:27

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Well at least they’re waiting until lunchtime to break out the hard stuff, I guess?

fintail > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:27

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Ah PNW quality. I hope it’s a flipper/dark money “investor” special.

jasmits > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:28

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It just balences out the paint fumes!

Urambo Tauro > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:29

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I’m impressed. It’s not filled with pee.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:31

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must be the same guys my landlord sends out to fix shit

they’re amazing

last time they were here they had to cut up some 2 by 4s ... one guy holding the 2 by 4... the other cutting it in half with a circular saw

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:32

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...and they are so fucking sloppy that literally everything is masked off, except the window, the window is probably covered in paint splatter.

Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:44

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If they didn’t smell like paint they’s smell like weed

kanadanmajava1 > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:51

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I thought that you absolutely need to consume alcohol while painting.

shop-teacher > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 10:57

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I honestly think the number of houses I’ve done demo to, I’ve found beer cans in the walls/floor/roof more often than I haven’t.

shop-teacher > fintail 04/27/2018 at 10:58

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Typical everywhere quality.

Ash78, voting early and often > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 11:10

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The fun side of rapid gentrification...cutting corners!

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 11:16

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My home is worth about a tenth as much and I probably drank 10 times more painting it; so the ratios are inversely proportional.

fintail > shop-teacher 04/27/2018 at 11:24

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Probably, but some of the stuff built here makes me doubt I am in the first world.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 11:26

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Is all that just to paint a sill?

functionoverfashion > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 04/27/2018 at 11:36

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That way each guy can have a beer in the other hand. Otherwise, you’d just have the 2x4 in one hand and the saw in the other.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 11:40

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Even nice stuff gets built by low bid. Gotta keep those margins up!

His Stigness > Urambo Tauro 04/27/2018 at 11:46

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He’s already posted that. No need to show the same thing over again.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 04/27/2018 at 11:46

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That sounds like some serious third world shit right there, kind of like some terrifying things I’ve seen third country nationals do in Saudi. Literally nobody cares about their safety and they work for so little that they have them do some ridiculously weird stuff.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > fintail 04/27/2018 at 11:47

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About 95% of the housing stock here makes me wonder that.

When you long for the exceptional quality of housing in Utah (straight garbage, itself), you know it’s really bad.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 04/27/2018 at 11:49

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Where do you live? I think a doghouse would sell for more than that around here.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > shop-teacher 04/27/2018 at 11:50

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Interestingly, we didn’t find beer containers in these places in our houses in Los Angeles, but we did find some really interesting old soda bottles.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Ash78, voting early and often 04/27/2018 at 11:54

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There’s no real gentrification in Seattle, it’s just rehabbing garbage that happens to be close to where work is so they can live there ~5 years before moving on. It’s more like housing in the Bakken oil fields than like a neighborhood undergoing gentrification.

fintail > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 04/27/2018 at 11:57

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I have a friend who spent some time in suburban Atlanta, had a house there, and I visited him several times, and we looked at houses. Local quality seems to be on par with that heckhole (stapled-together cardboard ‘n plywood mansionettes), but at least there you’ll often get some nice brick veneer for a false pretense of quality.

Here, you either need a witheringly expensive custom build, or one of the few old houses that has been maintained properly.

My head spins when I see decent houses in Europe compared to local new builds.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > functionoverfashion 04/27/2018 at 11:58

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lol that would work cept the guy holding the 2 by 4 had one end in each hand holding it straight at roughly crotch height whilst the other sawed towards him

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 04/27/2018 at 12:00

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lol... yep... these dudes are very much safety third... and having fun whilst they’re doing it

its kinda fun to watch... but i very much suspect i’ll have to call an ambulance and scoop up the severed bits one day

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 04/27/2018 at 12:07

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Minneapolis; I approximated the ratio, it’s probably closer to 1:8-9. But yeah, $200k can buy you a livable house in a decent neighborhood in the twin cities(ours is 1700 finished sq ft 3 bed; 2 bath; 1.5 car garage; we only have a 5000 sq ft yard and although the schools are really well liked the test scores look low because it’s an area with a decent amount of kids from backgrounds that struggle with standardized testing cause we wanted to be in the city).

The market here is nothing like the PNW or California in terms of prices. But any decent house under $250k is off the market in 1-3 days depending on how long they want to take bids; so prices are going up. We were honestly 2 years late to the party. Oh well, such is life.

His Stigness > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 12:22

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Well at least a bad paint job won’t kill anyone*. I used to work next to a shop where the guys were always drinking. Everytime I would go to take out our trash the dumpster would always be filled with boxes of beer bottles. I was not surprised when I heard how they defrauded a customer:

The customer complained of a noise, so they sold them an engine and trans. Because it’s so common an engine AND trans goes bad at the same time. But that didn’t fix it. Turns out the catalytic converter(s) was plugged. So their solution was to hollow the converter(s) and then take the MIL bulb out.

Just shows drinking on the job brings nothing but good things.

Ash78, voting early and often > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 04/27/2018 at 12:28

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From what I was reading yesterday, the trends there have been underway for 20+ years, but are just gaining more steam recently. The article was talking about the struggle with longtime Boomers who have seen their houses go up 10x in value fighting against any high-density or mixed use zoning in their “quaint” neighborhoods. So it’s not gentrification in the traditional sense, just undersupply and plenty of buyers willing to get in over their heads.

I’ve seen a lot of that where I live, albeit on a much smaller scale and limited to certain neighborhoods (no local tech boom = no inflated salaries = more rational buyers). Personally, I think 1930s Crafstman houses are beautiful to look at, but I’m struggling to maintain my 1970s house as it is :D

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > fintail 04/27/2018 at 12:37

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I just don’t understand how these garbage homes sell for anywhere near what they do. It isn’t just a properly maintained older house, it needed to be a decently built house to being with, which are exceedingly rare.

My house has only been occupied since 2010 and has problems I’d expect on a 30+ year old home, plus some that reflect such shoddy construction that it blows my mind. For example: About 2/3 of the doors need to be replaced because they’ve warped, at least a third of the windows already need replacement, it had a leaking sewer line, has drainage issues that are making me contemplate some extreme measures, and some improperly-installed doors. It’s mind boggling, but it was also one of the best-sorted houses we looked at...

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 04/27/2018 at 12:44

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We have bidding wars on anything even marginally livable anywhere around a half million. Houses listed at $500k go for $700k regularly. The $890k place that looked like they hadn’t updated it in any way since it was built; it went for $1.1M.

We were at least 6 years late here, but we didn’t know each-other then and I moved here after that. When I moved, I based it on recent historic housing prices and took a pay cut that I shouldn’t have because I figured in a year I’d be able to buy. Little did I know that I moved to the area right as prices were about to skyrocket. They’ve doubled since 2012 where I used to live...

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Ash78, voting early and often 04/27/2018 at 12:57

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Yeah, that stuff is not gentrification at all, it’s the equivalent of the same boom mentality that resulted in the awful existing housing stock. Those things are a blight in a city that was built in a suburban manner even in the inner rings. The roads are so small and there’s so little parking that replacing a rotting SFH with a high density multi-story building with no parking on the property is turning these neighborhoods into an absolute hellscape. But I wouldn’t call it gentrification. Gentrification is Hillcrest and North Park in San Diego, West Hollywood in Los Angeles, much of Boston, most of Vancouver BC, most of Portland OR, most of DC, etc. Seattle’s is more akin to slash and burn in a rainforest.

RPM esq. > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 04/27/2018 at 13:03

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Are you talking only about the Eastside suburbs, or something? I grew up in Seattle and there is more gentrification here than anywhere else I’ve ever been in my life, it’s just been going on for 20 years. For context, I’ve also lived in East LA and West Harlem, two of the most rapidly gentrifying areas in the country.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 04/27/2018 at 13:09

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I really started liking Seattle(I lived in Eugene for 9 years and had family in Seattle that we visited every few months)  but the house prices were too depressing to even think of moving there. We used to visit someone with a nice but not incredibly big or updated house that he mentioned once being worth $750k and I was like “well, I’m never living in Seattle because I’d never have enough to make a down payment here.”

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 13:30

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Eeeeeeyup.

EL_ULY > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 13:52

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Ahuevo!

Hahaha drink up!

haveacarortwoorthree2 > Ash78, voting early and often 04/27/2018 at 13:57

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Cutting corners? It looks like they taped off the entire room to paint one little window sill. That’s taking pride in your work, man!

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 14:09

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Wow.

fintail > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 04/27/2018 at 14:12

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As you know, this market isn’t logical. I think think two things outweigh the house itself - location, and the buyer being able to say/brag that they “own”. Those factors might negate the flaws in a house.

I suspect a lot of post-1970 material is suspect, especially quickly built high volume tract housing. Older stuff can be OK, but it is Russian roulette with deferred maintenance.  My grandma is the original owner of a house in an area once considered outlying, but now becoming popular (I could never afford it). 50+ years old, and I am certain it has all original doors and windows. The house is in time-warp condition with mostly original finishes (hardwood throughout, can’t do that anymore), and it is pristine - as it was built correctly, and has been maintained for long term ownership. It’s not fancy or trendy, but it has aged well with proper care - something I think is lost these days when people want to trade up or flip at least once every 7-10 years. Her intention has long been to live out her life in that house, and it looks like the house will be worthy.

shop-teacher > fintail 04/27/2018 at 15:46

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I’m telling you, that is not unique to your area. It’s nationwide, and honestly, it’s probably worldwide. The bulk of those employed in the construction industry are not craftsmen who have a passion for their work, but rather by marauding bands of unemployable idiots.

shop-teacher > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 04/27/2018 at 15:46

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Cool!

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 04/27/2018 at 16:09

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If you got rid of every site worker under the influence, you wouldn’t have many left. Sad but true.

fintail > shop-teacher 04/27/2018 at 16:43

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And their bosses aren’t any better. Lots of sketchy dbags in the contracting industry - and thanks to a housing-dependent economy via endless direct and indirect aid to the FIRE sector, they make bank.

Still, for what things cost here, the housing is depressing. When I’ve visited people in Europe and saw how their not exactly 1%er houses are fitted compared to middle class housing here, I had to wonder a bit.