No fixed abode

[g7jtk]

h0b0 said:

Yes, the irony has not escaped anyone in my family. I'm h0b0 because my last address was in Hoboken NJ where the term Hobo comes from. I'm moving to the town where Thomas Edison invented the light bulb so I may become "Bright spark" but for now h0b0 is appropriate.

The whole process has been a nightmare from the beginning and we just hoped it would end. We bought the last place in 2006 and over the 6 years of owning it we lost $100k. And, that's before the 5% estate agent fee.

As everyone on this side of the pond knows Joseph Swan inventer the light bulb. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan

[h0b0]

Just stumbled on this thread. Many things have changed.

We sold the house in this thread to the first person to look at it in June this year. A remarkable feat considering the poll tax was $28k/yr.

Second, clearly we didn’t learn from our experience with that house as we ended up mortgaging with them again. They were spectacularly useless again. This time I was more prepared for their version of customer experience and played it to my advantage.

Third, by some weird coincidence, both my wife and I work for the parent of said useless mortgage company.

We loved the last house but the schools were terrible and getting worse. We always knew we had to leave so there was a temporary feeling. The new house has the best schools in the state. And, because it’s officially a renovation the taxes are lower.



Here’s the replacement

[w00tman]

How much does a house like that run for, if you don't mind me asking?

Nothing beats American-style homes; makes me think of my childhood films - I'd love one!

[ColinM50]

I can see why it's a renovation project. The grass is growing the wrong way, should be left to right, not right to left.

[Sheepshanks]

h0b0 said:

We sold the house in this thread to the first person to look at it in June this year. A remarkable feat considering the poll tax was $28k/yr.

Is poll tax another name for property tax? How on earth does it get to $28K/yr on what looks like a very typical US 'executive' home? That seems an insane amount.

[Lemming Train]

Nice. Why don't they build houses out of proper materials like bricks, stone etc over there? Everything is built out of wood which seems a bit silly to me in a country that is prone to hurricanes and tornados. And in a similar vein, why don't be build houses out of wood over here, given that they seem to be work just fine in America?

[Nickyboy]

Lemming Train said:

Nice. Why don't they build houses out of proper materials like bricks, stone etc over there? Everything is built out of wood which seems a bit silly to me in a country that is prone to hurricanes and tornados. And in a similar vein, why don't be build houses out of wood over here, given that they seem to be work just fine in America?

a brick house would fare just as bad in a hurricane or tornado, it would still require rebuilding, at least with wood it's a lot quicker to rebuild, sustainable and cheaper.

[Lemming Train]

Nickyboy said:

Lemming Train said:

Nice. Why don't they build houses out of proper materials like bricks, stone etc over there? Everything is built out of wood which seems a bit silly to me in a country that is prone to hurricanes and tornados. And in a similar vein, why don't be build houses out of wood over here, given that they seem to be work just fine in America?

a brick house would fare just as bad in a hurricane or tornado, it would still require rebuilding, at least with wood it's a lot quicker to rebuild, sustainable and cheaper.

Not wishing to doubt you but that seems unlikely to me. Do you have a source? I struggle to believe that in a 100-150mph hurricane a typical British brick built detached would crumble into a pile of rubble like a typical American wood house would do. But I'm happy to be corrected. :shrug: .

[bimsb6]

Lemming Train said:

Nice. Why don't they build houses out of proper materials like bricks, stone etc over there? Everything is built out of wood which seems a bit silly to me in a country that is prone to hurricanes and tornados. And in a similar vein, why don't be build houses out of wood over here, given that they seem to be work just fine in America?

They do build with brick , america is huge and not everywhere has tornadoes , we do build wooden houses over here .

[h0b0]

Sheepshanks said:

Is poll tax another name for property tax? How on earth does it get to $28K/yr on what looks like a very typical US 'executive' home? That seems an insane amount.

That’s annual property tax that pays for schools and rubbish collection. The county was one of the highest taxes in the country. I’ve changed county and dropped to $18k/yr.

To give you a guide, the first house sold for $775k. The second is just under double that. The 2 houses are only 5 miles apart and both well located. The difference is all about the schools and the way they are funded by the state.

Why are houses built of wood and not brick or stone? We have lots of wood. It’s quicker and easier to build out of. It’s also a lot easier to make thermally efficient.

Why don’t you build out of wood? You don’t have many trees. There’s also a belief it isn’t permanent. That’s true to some extent.

[Lemming Train]

How long does a wood house typically last for over there then? Out of interest how is it easier to make a flimsy wood house more thermally efficient than a traditional brick/stone house with thick walls?

[h0b0]

Wood houses offer the space for better insulation. I can’t recall the R values of the insulation but both my houses have been a similar price to heat as my concrete condo that was a third of the size.

This only really applies to modern houses as old wood houses were built with no thought for heating costs as energy was so cheap.

The perception most people have about US houses is far from accurate. There’s a warmth to my house that my old stone house never had.

As for hurricanes, some flex in the house is good for staying up. Also, we build sacrificial ground floors to allow them to blow out. This makes the house less of a wind block and will help it stand. Importantly, there will be a core structure that ties the roof to the foundations. This isn’t unique to wood houses but wouldn’t be present in a UK house where it isn’t necessary.

As some one said earlier in the thread, the US is huge and houses are built to the climate and resources locally.

[Lemming Train]

How long does a wood house typically last for over there then?

[h0b0]

Not sure. Previously they would take maintenance. That’s not so much the case now.

I wouldn’t expect to see the average wood house outlast the average stone house. You can make them last as long as you want, but how long is that? Due to the low cost of construction you can tear down and rebuild to modern standards. Would you have half the 60’s and 70’s houses in the UK if you had the option to replace?

[bimsb6]

Lemming Train said:

How long does a wood house typically last for over there then?

I was at a town in colorado where there were many properties from the 1870’s all wood construction .

[Nickyboy]

Lemming Train said:

Not wishing to doubt you but that seems unlikely to me. Do you have a source? I struggle to believe that in a 100-150mph hurricane a typical British brick built detached would crumble into a pile of rubble like a typical American wood house would do. But I'm happy to be corrected. :shrug: .

My father was a code inspector for the city of Charleston which was directly in the path of many hurricanes, one of his jobs was to inspect new homes for specific hurricane proof materials, IIRC most of the requirements were only for up to Cat 3 hurricanes, category 4 & 5 would destroy pretty much anything regardless of what it was made from. The problem was not what the buildings were made from as such but the ability to keep the roof on, once the roof is gone, winds would blow the walls inwards. Roofs had to have tie downs to prevent them being lifted and barbed nails to reduce the chance of the wooden supports being pulled apart.

I'm not saying every home would be destroyed but the strongest hurricanes/tornadoes will destroy pretty much everything in its path short of a reinforced concrete building, lower categories would certainly damage them to a point when substantial rebuild would be required. `

The great storm of 1997 is widely reputed to be our worst storm with the highest gust recorded of 120mph and property damage was widespread, as a contrast, Hugo, Andrew, Katrina, Irma all had sustained winds of 160-180mph, Irma recorded a maximum gust of 199mph

[Sheepshanks]

h0b0 said:

That’s annual property tax that pays for schools and rubbish collection. The county was one of the highest taxes in the country. I’ve changed county and dropped to $18k/yr.

To give you a guide, the first house sold for $775k. The second is just under double that. The 2 houses are only 5 miles apart and both well located. The difference is all about the schools and the way they are funded by the state.

Ah, the house value is a lot more than I was thinking - I had it in my head you were in Florida, where I think property tax would be a few $K on house prices that are much lower on similar properties.

h0b0 said:

Would you have half the 60’s and 70’s houses in the UK if you had the option to replace?

I like most things about my 1967 house but it's terribly badly built - cold bridges everywhere and other fundamental issues. It would be awesome to be able to rebuild it at a reasonable cost.

[sgtBerbatov]

First time buyer, and the wife is a construction solicitor. You would think that, when it came to the whole legal side of it, her suggesting us go with a specific company to do the legal stuff would be good advice. Her advice, by the way, based on what her friends who are also lawyers in real estate etc were also advising.

What utter, utter bks that turned out to be.

It was running up to christmas and I was thinking it was unusual for us to not have heard anything from our solicitors. The estate agent rang and asked me where we were and what we were waiting for (so was the seller), and I said we hadn't heard anything from our solicitor so we assumed there was an issue waiting for a response from the sellers solicitor. The sellers solicitor hadn't even had any contact.

What happened was, after I rang up the useless tool of a solicitor myself, was that they hadn't received the searches for the property. It then turned out they hadn't applied for the bloody thing in the first place. He said - quite cocksure of himself - "Well we sent an email and we didn't hear back from them". I asked him whether he expected some sort of acknowledgement email from the search company and he said yes. So I asked him did he get it, he checked and he sheepishly said no. So I tore him a new one, asking him why he expected me to remind him to do his job etc etc.

At the finish we got the house, and 75% of the fees we paid our solicitor back after I spoke to a partner there.

[Pothole]

h0b0 said:

Would you have half the 60’s and 70’s houses in the UK if you had the option to replace?

I think so, because the replacements would have to have pokey little rooms and small energy-efficient windows.

[Lemming Train]

h0b0 said:

Would you have half the 60’s and 70’s houses in the UK if you had the option to replace?

An interesting question! There are so many variables that there isn't a 'one size fits all' answer to it. After living in a number of mid-century built houses and then more recently moved to a 2007 built flat temporarily, I now have a strong appreciation for how well insulated modern properties are. Living in the houses I knew no different so the comparative difference in internal ambient temperatures in the winter months didn't bother me and I just whacked up the GCH by another notch or two, but having lived in this well insulated flat for a year now I would really notice the temperature difference if I were to move back to an 'old' house. I'm a bit of a cold nose but even when it was Baltic outside this time last year I could comfortably mooch around the flat without the GCH on and be quite comfortable at the 19-20 C or so that it probably was - something that most certainly wouldn't have been possible in any of my previous places which would have been in the low teens or even single figures. The reason the temp was so comfortable was because it was residual heat still left over from running the GCH the previous day.

If it were possible to insulate old properties to modern standards then I'd say they were fine to stay in place without demolishing and rebuilding them, however this usually cannot be done due to the way they were constructed at the time, requiring a constant airflow through them to breathe and prevent damp issues arising. Many many people have found this out to their cost after trying to insulate an old house to modern standards and have streams of condensation running down their internal walls, mold forming everywhere including on furnishings and clothing etc.

On paper the idea of a brand new thermally efficient house seems wonderful but while I can't speak for the USA, over here we seem to have a glut of inept house builders that are incapable of actually building them and the end result is basically a hundred different bodges mashed together by different sub-contractors who don't give a fk about the quality of their workmanship .

Brand new thermally efficient wood house (a la USA) or typical 60s British brick built? I think I'd go with the bricks, but I say that based on the fact that my brand new wood garage and wood panel fences at the time only lasted around 15 years before they'd seen better days (even after a couple of repaints) and there was rot in a number of places. I expect wood houses would probably be built from a better quality wood - and indeed they seem quite popular all over the world so they must 'work' - but compared to a brick built house they must need a lot of maintenance and cost to keep them in good shape? I mean, I could probably leave the exterior of a brick house with tiled roof over here untouched for 20 years and not cause me any problems other than perhaps needing to give the soffitts and fascias a lick of paint. Could you neglect the exterior of a wood house for 20 years? What kind of maintenance do they require and how often, cost etc?

Interesting discussion.