My Realtor Interviews and Fear of Selling Our Home

[WinniWoman]

Somewhere there is a wife saying "why the heck did you bring that home?!"

The man said their freezer just died and they had to throw out all their food (has 4 kids and 2 with cystic fibrosis (who have to eat a lot) and they did not have a lot of money to spend. He also took his wife's good quilt to throw in the truck to slide the freezer on. LOL!

 

[Talent312]

Even the most innocuous thread can go political with some inane comment.
It about as important as someone saying the moon landing was fake. What?

The direction of the market has more to do with monetary than fiscal policy,
anyway. "Don't fight the fed." -- Martin Zweig, Winning on Wall Street (1970).
.

 

[Talent312]

Our kitchen reno not complete, DW decides its time to replace some furniture.
So we offer the old couch and love seat to one of her sons (free).
He says he doesn't like to take her handouts, but this one he's okay with.
... and the box of fresh strawberries.

 

[clifffaith]

I can tell you that my Financial Advisor and his firm, which is one of the largest wealth management companies in the US echoes the sentiments. Stock market depends on corporation earnings. It is not political, just merely financial.

Whenever it comes to talk of who is president, or who's running for President, our Financial Advisor always says it doesn't matter one bit.

 

[clifffaith]

The man said their freezer just died and they had to throw out all their food (has 4 kids and 2 with cystic fibrosis (who have to eat a lot) and they did not have a lot of money to spend. He also took his wife's good quilt to throw in the truck to slide the freezer on. LOL!

I just listed a 125+ year old crazy quilt on eBay that is now in very delicate condition, so using the good quilt, no matter how old it is, as a moving pad made me cringe!

 

[rapmarks]

I just listed a 125+ year old crazy quilt on eBay that is now in very delicate condition, so using the good quilt, no matter how old it is, as a moving pad made me cringe!

Well my husband needed to put some plants in water before planting, and instead of taking a bucket from garage, ran In House, got out the crystal vase from my grandmas wedding that each grandchild received when she died, put the frigging peony plants in it and broke it.

 

[PigsDad]

I just listed a 125+ year old crazy quilt on eBay that is now in very delicate condition, so using the good quilt, no matter how old it is, as a moving pad made me cringe!

This reminded me of growing up. My grandmother made tons of quilts, completely hand-made, hand stitched, hand quilted -- mostly patchwork quilts composed of scrap material left over from my mother and my aunts sewing (all of her daughters sewed and made most of their kids clothes, especially when the kids were small). So most of the quilts we would recognize at least some of the material. Every bed had at least two "Grandma quilts" on them, and she had 28 grandchildren so you can imagine all of the quilts she made. And as the grandchildren grew up, every one of us received two new quilts as our high school graduation gift. I can't even guess how many quilts she made over the years.

So you get the point -- lots of quilts around the house and farm. Well, as the quilts started wearing out, we would repurpose them for other tasks. As kids, we had a pile of older quilts that we could take outside and lay them on the grass when we played. We would use quilts to make forts with the picnic table and lawn furniture. We would use an old quilt as a seat cover/cushion in a farm truck whose seat was ripped or worn. The list goes on.

But the funniest was when my brother brought home his (soon to be) fiancé and she just about flipped out when she saw my Mom using one of the old quilts as a drop cloth when paining a room! To the rest of us, that was just normal -- nothing out of the ordinary. It's just a matter of perspective, I guess.

Kurt

 

[am1]

Whenever it comes to talk of who is president, or who's running for President, our Financial Advisor always says it doesn't matter one bit.

Everything matters especially that. Different investments it matter more.

 

[Brett]

Everything matters especially that. Different investments it matter more.

I suppose one can believe "different investments for different presidents"

But I'm going to keep the bulk of my investments in low cost index funds ....
(but periodically re-balancing between equity funds and fixed income as one gets older)

 

[Patri]

One of my favorite books is House by Tracy Kidder. It's nonfiction & tells the story of a house being built from the viewpoints of the architect, the owners and the builders. A great 3-dimensional perspective of the process.

A friend gave me that book when we were building a house. I didn't read the cover enough to realize it was non-fiction. I read it as fiction and thought it was so odd. Later I figured out it was a true story. I still have it and plan to reread it in the right frame of mind. We have built two houses.

 

[am1]

The man said their freezer just died and they had to throw out all their food (has 4 kids and 2 with cystic fibrosis (who have to eat a lot) and they did not have a lot of money to spend. He also took his wife's good quilt to throw in the truck to slide the freezer on. LOL!

Hopefully they do not suffer the same fate when yours dies. Probably better to buy new or have two smaller ones.

 

[WinniWoman]

Hopefully they do not suffer the same fate when yours dies. Probably better to buy new or have two smaller ones.

I don't get it either. But this was our third freezer and we always had a buyer for each of them when we were ready to get rid of them. In fact, they sell immediately, with multiple inquires.

What's that phrase? One man's junk is another man's treasure.

 

[Beachclubmum]

A friend gave me that book when we were building a house. I didn't read the cover enough to realize it was non-fiction. I read it as fiction and thought it was so odd. Later I figured out it was a true story. I still have it and plan to reread it in the right frame of mind. We have built two houses.

Anyone remember that book Condominium? Your post brought it to mind...read it back in high school. LOL

 

[bluehende]

I don't get it either. But this was our third freezer and we always had a buyer for each of them when we were ready to get rid of them. In fact, they sell immediately, with multiple inquires.

What's that phrase? One man's junk is another man's treasure.

I am not surprised. One use is to convert them into fermentation chamber or keezer for beer. A freezer needs simple temperature control device. It is easier to convert than a fridge. if it dies it doesn't ruin anything unless it goes out in the first couple days of fermentation if used for that.

 

[Patri]

Maryanne, we had a twenty year old freezer in our basement. Our fervent prayer was someone young would buy it. Lo and behold, a man in his late eighties comes to buy it.

My sister, 62, just sold her house in a downsizing move, since her DH is in assisted living with Lewy Body Dementia. The people who bought it were in their 80s! We are shaking our heads. Yes, they can live on one level, but the laundry was in the basement. She did some remodeling to create a master bathroom, which the new owners should love. But the garage, though attached to the house, required you to walk outdoors to get into the house. Maybe they will put in a door to the dining room. Sis and DH never did because it would have taken away living space.
Hope the new people can live there happily for many years. They had lived in the south but now wanted to return to their northern homeland. So they were choosing midwest snow on top of everything else!

 

[WinniWoman]

My sister, 62, just sold her house in a downsizing move, since her DH is in assisted living with Lewy Body Dementia. The people who bought it were in their 80s! We are shaking our heads. Yes, they can live on one level, but the laundry was in the basement. She did some remodeling to create a master bathroom, which the new owners should love. But the garage, though attached to the house, required you to walk outdoors to get into the house. Maybe they will put in a door to the dining room. Sis and DH never did because it would have taken away living space.
Hope the new people can live there happily for many years. They had lived in the south but now wanted to return to their northern homeland. So they were choosing midwest snow on top of everything else!

I would never buy a home with laundry in the basement or even the garage. Both our homes had the laundry off the kitchen and it is the best thing.Also- having an entrance from inside the garage is so important in bad weather. You can pull in and then just go right into the house with the groceries, etc.

I compromised on a lot of things with this new house to be built, but those two I would not have, along with some other items.

 

[Panina]

My sister, 62, just sold her house in a downsizing move, since her DH is in assisted living with Lewy Body Dementia. The people who bought it were in their 80s! We are shaking our heads. Yes, they can live on one level, but the laundry was in the basement. She did some remodeling to create a master bathroom, which the new owners should love. But the garage, though attached to the house, required you to walk outdoors to get into the house. Maybe they will put in a door to the dining room. Sis and DH never did because it would have taken away living space.
Hope the new people can live there happily for many years. They had lived in the south but now wanted to return to their northern homeland. So they were choosing midwest snow on top of everything else!

My guess is the house must have been in the exact area they wanted, next to family, at the right pricepoint. They probably thought there was enough in it to work for them.

 

[Patri]

My guess is the house must have been in the exact area they wanted, next to family, at the right pricepoint. They probably thought there was enough in it to work for them.

Probably right. It is a more rural area, so there are no senior living communities or condos.

 

[Glynda]

I would never buy a home with laundry in the basement or even the garage. Both our homes had the laundry off the kitchen and it is the best thing.Also- having an entrance from inside the garage is so important in bad weather. You can pull in and then just go right into the house with the groceries, etc.

I compromised on a lot of things with this new house to be built, but those two I would not have, along with some other items.

We had a laundry in the basement and one in the garage early on. Did not like either. One house we custom built had two laundries. One stackable in our walk in closet and another on the other side of the house near the garage. And while I sleep upstairs and my closets are upstairs, I don't understand the trend to have laundry on the second floor because don't most people spend the day downstairs? I don't want to run up and down stairs to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer and later back up to check if they are dry and if so, fold and hang, etc. Yes, they do have to be carried down and back up but I'd rather do that. At this age if we ever have another house on more than one floor, it will have an elevator and even then I'd want my laundry on the main level where I spend most of my time.

 

[WinniWoman]

We had a laundry in the basement and one in the garage early on. Did not like either. One house we custom built had two laundries. One stackable in our walk in closet and another on the other side of the house near the garage. And while I sleep upstairs and my closets are upstairs, I don't understand the trend to have laundry on the second floor because don't most people spend the day downstairs? I don't want to run up and down stairs to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer and later back up to check if they are dry and if so, fold and hang, etc. Yes, they do have to be carried down and back up but I'd rather do that. At this age if we ever have another house on more than one floor, it will have an elevator and even then I'd want my laundry on the main level where I spend most of my time.

I agree. I don’t like the laundry on the second floor. Never understood that.

 

[bbodb1]

We had a laundry in the basement and one in the garage early on. Did not like either. One house we custom built had two laundries. One stackable in our walk in closet and another on the other side of the house near the garage. And while I sleep upstairs and my closets are upstairs, I don't understand the trend to have laundry on the second floor because don't most people spend the day downstairs? I don't want to run up and down stairs to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer and later back up to check if they are dry and if so, fold and hang, etc. Yes, they do have to be carried down and back up but I'd rather do that. At this age if we ever have another house on more than one floor, it will have an elevator and even then I'd want my laundry on the main level where I spend most of my time.

But inquiring minds have to ask - where are most people getting dressed / undressed each day?

Personally, I would want a laundry in proximity to the bedrooms in a house but I understand we all have our preferences. We currently live in a one story home but our previous house was a four level spilt. The laundry facilities were in the basement and he bedrooms on the top floor of the split. That seemed to be quite the pain (especially since we did NOT have a laundry chute....)

 

[klpca]

My dream would be a second floor laundry so that the mess would always stay upstairs. We have a downstairs laundry and I am beyond tired of hauling clothes up those stairs! (I don't have a chute but I sort my wash loads upstairs and stuff them into pillow cases then chuck them over the top of the stairs to the hall below ) Then haul everything back upstairs to fold/iron after washing/drying. Just like straight/curly hair, we always want what we don't have.

 

[mentalbreak]

I have a second floor laundry.
When my children were young and needed more supervision, I was constantly hauling loads down to the main floor to fold them and back up
to put away. I hated it on the second floor.
Now that they are grown, I love it. The clothes for the most part stay upstairs.
I do still worry about the damage any kind of malfunction could cause. But even with main floor laundry, we would have the same issues because much of our basement is also finished.

 

[vacationhopeful]

Currently have laundry on the 2nd floor ... just 3 steps from my master bedroom. And I like it ... no hauling baskets of dirty or clean laundry up or down steps.

 

[Glynda]

But inquiring minds have to ask - where are most people getting dressed / undressed each day?

Personally, I would want a laundry in proximity to the bedrooms in a house but I understand we all have our preferences. We currently live in a one story home but our previous house was a four level spilt. The laundry facilities were in the basement and he bedrooms on the top floor of the split. That seemed to be quite the pain (especially since we did NOT have a laundry chute....)

I get dressed/undressed each day upstairs. Not sure what that has to do with laundry as dressing/undressing doesn't take much time out of my day. Every morning, after dressing, I take the dirty clothes downstairs to the laundry room and, as I spend the day down, I wash, dry and fold/hang the clothes moving back and forth from kitchen, den, etc. doing household chores, watching TV, or whatever. I can hear the chime when the washer stops and it's just a few steps to the laundry room to move the clothes to the dryer. I can hear the buzzer when the dryer stops. Most of my clothes I hang to dry as soon as the washer stops and have racks to do that in the laundry room. Other times, I go back and forth to take some clothes out of the dryer early and hang them to finish drying. Why would I want to run up and down stairs multiple times to do that? Clean clothes are carried up whenever I do need to go up, but always when going up to bed. They are put away then. Just makes sense to me. But you are right, personal preference.

The best situation we had was when we had a master bedroom down and the laundry room was as one entered the house from the garage and also had a door into the master bedroom closet. That was nice. Right from the dryer to hanging or tucking in drawers in the closet.

Four levels would be really hard, I agree, but I still wouldn't want to have to spend hours upstairs doing laundry when the hub of the house where I spend my day is down.