Upgrading to a bigger house after the kids move out
Happyladi
14 years ago
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lyfia
14 years agocalliope
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Starting out in new apartment after living at home ...need advice
Comments (4)well, having lived in an apt. in NYC, and had it broken into, I'll say this: it's not as bad as you think. For one thing, it depends on how much you have, and whether it's worth stealing. My roommate and I had small amounts of cash around (they took her $10 roll of quarters), plus some electronics. They didn't want to stop long enough to unplug everything. Cops in my highly Hispanic neighborhood said the thieves were looking for cash (since many of my neighbors keep a sizable amount at home instead of in the bank) or gold. Sometimes they do try to take VCRs, CD players, electronics they could stick in a shopping bag or duffel and carry off inconspicuously. of course, in your quiet building, maybe they will TAKE the time to unplug the electronics, but.. I think you'd be better off dealing w/ the securing of your STUFF in the apartment, than in investing $$$ in perimeter reinforcement for an apartment you don't own. What do you have that's really worth $$ to a thief? And then, how can you secure it? Electronics: There used to be pads and tethers you could attach to stuff like TVs and stereos, so that if they were removed by a thief, they'd never work again (and they came w/ stickers that it was hoped would deter the thief from testing it out). (also note that many electronics stuff is really not that expensive, comparatively, so there ain't much of a market--and the days of crackheads who'd be happy w/ $10 for their next hit have sort of faded in most places) Will you keep much in the apt. in the way of cash, gold watch, stocks and bonds, etc? Get one of those Sentry fire safes, and screw it to the floor of the closet, then pile the clothes on top of it, and take the key with you--don't leave it around in the house where it's findable. (when you screw those things in place, you can't unscrew them until you unlock it; or you'd need one HELL of a pry bar!) I'd do that before I'd pay for a safety-deposit box, frankly. Bcs then you could get to that cash, papers, etc., should you need them. And most thieves don't care about stocks & bonds. Seriously, what papers do you have that a thief would care about? If you're worried he'll get your credit card number from your billing paperwork, get a two-drawer fling cabinet that locks, and get in the habit of locking it (and carrying the key in your wallet). Bearer bonds--but nobody should keep those at home anyway. Savings bonds--too much work for most thieves, and he'd need an ID to cash 'em anyway. So if someone did break in, what would/could they take? For me, it was nearly nothing. The worst part was the damage to the door jamb. Remember that, even though YOU are away at night, your neighbors are not. In fact, they're inside that same house with you, and if someone tries to kick your door down while you're away, they'll hear it!! It's probably a window thief or a lock picker that you need to worry about. For that, try these ideas: *fire escape gate on the window ($500 when I bought mine; you do need the landlord's approval bcs it srews into the window-frame studs) *Medeco-brand lock cylinder--unpickable enough for most purposes And just in case someone DOES try to kick in the door, you only need a reinforced lock inside the apartment itself. In my city, we called them "police locks"--the style popular when I rented an apt. was essentially a bar that goes into a metal "cup" fitting set into the floor (you'll need landlord permission to gouge out a hole to sink the cup into the floor). Then the key slides the 45-degree-angle bar from one side to the other, and on one side, it can slide up, and the other it cant (locked)/. I tried to find a picture but couldnÂt. ThereÂs another style of police lock in which bars go from side to side; this might be more acceptable for your landlord. Because instead of digging into the floor, youÂll drill deep into the doorway studs (through the decorative molding) to install the brackets on the side. Doorway molding is easier to replace, and in fact he may require you to leave the lock in place when you move, which might be an advantage to him (except, of course, that the mere presence of the lock will make a future tenant think the place is unsafe). http://store.yahoo.com/853111/foxstylpollo.html I donÂt think you should spend so much $$ buying such permanent stuff for a place you donÂt own. Granted, w/ that low a rent, you may stay there for a long time, long enough to justify spending it. But your landlord may not allow you to mess w/ stuff. If he does, it will be almost guaranteed that he will require you to leave it when you move out. I wonder if youÂd be better off finding a way to assuage your fear; especially if itÂs really nagging at you. After all, you called it "an all-consuming obsessive worry." That sounds like something rooted in fear, and not necessarily in evidence. So, gather some evidence. Not that you should be stupid and never lock your doors, or live w/ crummy locks and a flimsy door. But there are lots of other people that burglars are more likely to hit (figuring that the other victims will have more valuable stuff than a guy who can only afford to rent an apartment in an old house). And, nowadays, burglars are MUCH more likely to work during the day, when most people are at work. You say this is a low-crime areaÂnice, w/ lots of people paying sort of high rents, chi-chi stores, etc. If thatÂs true, then you donÂt live among lots of people who are wandering around at 3am doing drugs and getting into trouble; not w/ that rent level (of course, there are bozos in every financial level). Anybody specifically targeting the neighborhood wonÂt bother w/ youÂtheyÂll aim for folks w/ more. Maybe you should take some daytime hours (lucky youÂIÂd have to take a day off) and go to the police precinct house, and ask to speak to the Public Affairs officer. Ask him to show you the crime statistics, and focus specifically on what happens in your neighborhood after 5pm. What sorts of crimes are being reported? I bet youÂll find itÂs almost no middle-of-the-night break-ins. And when break-ins are reported, what is stolen? What do thieves in your neighborhood look for? How much damage might they do if they *do* get in. How many other homes or apartments in your area have security systems? If most of them don't have them, it's probably because they're not really necessary. (auto alarms: As someone who lives in an apartment bldg in a densely populated area, may I plead: do NOT get a car alarm! Get an ignition cut-off instead--the car-insurance benefits will be the same. But I'm telling you, the ONLY thing car alarms do is annoy the heck out of the neighbors. Nobody looks to see whose car is being broken into--they all assume it's a malfunction. And nobody wants to argue with or fight a car thief anyway, so they're not going to interrupt them) (also, as for the home alarm, you do NOT want to have one of those go off and make all sorts of alarms and flashing lights.)...See MoreUpgrade home or buy bigger one?
Comments (4)Adding an extra storey to an existing home is a much bigger undertakng than having built it that way in the first place ... so it seems to me that your cost per square foot of added space would be much higher than the average cost per square foot of the original house, consequently of the amended house as a whole, when you're finished. So - I hope that you're planning to live in it for an extended period, after upgrade, for you might be hard pressed to get that much extra price, should you choose to sell in the next (quite a) few years. Also, what's the possibility that there may be cost over-runs, not unheard of in such situations? Would your budget be stretched to cope with such an eventuality? Could you handle such? You have a big tent that you can pitch in the back yard, to partially inhabit while the work is going on .......?? If you don't plan to live elsewhere during the upgrade ... is your marriage impregnable? There'll almost certainly be substantial added strains - and for an extended period. On the other hand ... switching would probably involve in the neighbourhood of $10,000. real estate fees ... which add nothing to the ongoing value of either house. Quite a number of facets to this project. ole joyful...See MoreDid you change the locks out when moving into new home?
Comments (37)I rekeyed all the locks at work, changing a few out so that all the keyways were the same, Schlage SC-1. The hard part was figuring out just how master keying works, there being masters, grand masters, janitors, restricted janitors, departments, sub departments, common, and guest keys. Those are my names, not official jargon names. Once that was done, I had a scheme that worked, so I did our house too. We have master keys (the 'rents), common keys (the younger people we were stuck with for eighteen years), and neighbor keys (can't get into the bedrooms or storage closets of the above key holders). Then my wife said to me something like "I wish MY work was that easy..." So I did that too. Except for one high security lock at the first job, and an odd gate key at my wife's job, one key opened all the locks at three different locations. Pure luck! We just couldn't tell anyone... PS: all our padlocks are high quality brass rekeyable ones (old habit from a hard learned lesson), so they were included in all that, so that's four locations if you include the rental storage site. One master key (on a very small key ring)....See MoreMoving bathroom to gain bigger bathroom?
Comments (5)Thanks for the response kirkhall! Here is another piece of info that's important: ***Bedroom #3 is actually big enough to be a master bedroom by my neighbourhood standards, and has back deck access. I feel weird giving this bedroom to one of my 2 kids, not only because it has the deck access, but also because it is so much larger than the other child's bedroom. (Currently, both kids are in the tiny bedroom, but this needs to change soon.) Another option would be to give one child the big master bedroom (19x11) and keep Bedroom #3 for myself, but then the issue is that one child gets a HUGE bedroom (bigger than their parents') and the other gets a tiny one. So in short: I would really like a new bedroom layout with roughly equal sized kids' bedrooms AND a bigger bathroom, if possible. I think this would be good for resale too.**** Here are my comments on your ideas: - I really like the idea of stealing room from bed #3 to make the existing bathroom bigger. I'll need to play around with that. It would be less costly, I would imagine. Bed #3 would then become a bit smaller, and would be more in line with the other child's bedroom. The back deck access is still an issue, but maybe it's ok. You can't have everything. - In the existing layout, I really like your idea of stealing space from bed#1 and giving it to bed#2 and then putting a powder room in there, maybe in between them, but HOW? - yes, ceiling downstairs is unfinished, and I have ready access to underside of main floor. Comments on my plan: - bed #2 in the new design DOES meet the code for my province. The code is 6 square metres (64 square feet) if a closet is provided, or 7 square metres (75 sf) where no closet is provided. At 77.64 (with closet), and 86.32 sf (no closet), it seems to pass. - privacy: Where the current bathroom is situated, you can peer into it from the living room. So, even though it's far away from the living space, it is still visible....See Moreqdwag
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