<p>IF both my house sale and my house purchase go through, then we are on.</p>
<p>Ya’ll know that I don’t know where I’m working next, right? I have a contract assignment that expires the end of the month. They might (a) extend it, (b) offer me a permanent position, or (c) cut me loose entirely.</p>
<p>Other than that – not too much stress. :eek:</p>
<p>Well…at least it looks like you’ll have a roof over your head! This is so exciting.</p>
<p>Ok folks, after looking at many houses I’m ready to get serious. Long term, what compromises will I regret the most. In a perfect world, I’d like a house with the master, one additional bedroom suite, and the laundry, and the garage all on the main level. In other words, my plan is to live on the main level, with guest suites and game rooms or media rooms perhaps on other levels </p>
<p>I’ve found one house, near the bottom of my range, with a pretty view of a pond, a lovely kitchen, perfect guest room suites, and a master to die for. Unfortunately, that master on the second floor. (And the laundry is on the first…) It would be possible to put an elevator in where the back staircase is if I ever can’t deal with stairs. Has anyone ever done this? The dressing area of the master bedroom closet has more than enough room to add a second laundry. </p>
<p>It does have two additional guest suites up stairs, one on the main floor, and one on the basement floor. One of those will probably end up being the media room.</p>
<p>House two is a little over the top of my preferred range. It is sitting on the lot of my dreams, over looking a golf course and a pond. Inside has amazing finishes, and a wonderful kitchen. The master is on the first floor, one bedroom is in the basement with a bathroom shared with the media room. Three bedrooms are upstairs, but two share a bathroom. There is an additional game/media room upstairs. </p>
<p>Oh, and the one laundry is upstairs. And the piece d resistance, the garage is basement level. There is a dumbwaiter, so you don’t have to carry everything up the stairs…</p>
<p>There is room in the “maids kitchen” to rip out the second dishwasher and refrigerator and put in a washer/dryer. (I admit, I can’t imagine why that space is there. I’m thinking the owners changed it from a laundry in the first place…) But I’m still stuck with the stairs to the garage.</p>
<p>What do all think? Keep looking? Or figure I’m going to have to deal with stairs somehow.</p>
<p>Based on our experience, I would keep looking, although you may have to deal with some stairs along the way. A couple of years ago we started a house hunt with pretty much the same criteria as yours. After looking at many possibilities, we found a real gem with a huge master on the ground floor and a garage with no stairs (looking to the future, those two things were our non-negotiables). We saw quite a few houses with basement-level garages, and quickly eliminated them. I couldn’t see negotiating those stairs when I was older, or even now with lots of groceries/packages in hand.</p>
<p>The only hitch is that the laundry is upstairs, but it’s right next to where my home office is, so I spend much of my day up there anyway. The saving grace is that there’s a small room on the ground floor that is next to a bathroom, and could easily accommodate a stackable washer/dryer at some point in the future. For now, going up and down the stairs with the laundry is good exercise!</p>
<p>Why not find a ranch where everything is on the same floor?</p>
<p>I figure that stairs has kept a good ten pounds off of me. It’s good for you, and you get used to it. I pull the garbage and recycling up to the top of a steep hill, which is really challenging. My family thinks I’m an idiot, and that I should just hitch it to the back of the car. But when I can’t do that, maybe it’s time to move.</p>
<p>UCD, if you can’t find the perfect single story, maybe you can buy House 2 and just find a place to put in an elevator later. Give them a low offer if it has been on the market for awhile, and maybe you’ll get your house at a great deal. Seems minor to put in a new laundry room on the main level.</p>
<p>I think one story living for the elderly is great, but not insurmountable. Plenty of people put seat lifts on stairs or find a way to install a small elevator. I recently added a suite for a guy who had had a stroke and we installed a wheel chair lift so he could get from the garage to the main house which was about a half story higher. It sounds like it would be easy to add an elevator to this house. So I’d go for it, given the other plusses it has. House two sounds doable too, but I wouldn’t go over your budget for it.</p>
<p>I know people with seat lifts on their stairs. Seems to work well.</p>
<p>Regarding stairs, I think people sometimes overlook the fact that if one is wheelchair bound or really compromised, even with a walker, even three steps up to the front door is insurmountable without a lift or a ramp. Few places have actual ground level entrances.</p>
<p>If House Two is, as you say, only a little over the top of your budget, negotiations should bring it down enough to be within your budget.</p>
<p>I am speaking of my mom, she is totally impaired and wheelchair bound. We are fortunate to live in an elevator served condo that has no steps to deal with. Yes, even two steps up to her would be an insurmountable task. </p>
<p>However, in consideration of buying a house, you just cannot be prepared for every thing. At my mom’s level, she should be in an assisted living facility.</p>
<p>Well, we just closed on a rental condo a few months ago, only took about a day to get it rented. The guy (not a kid, he’s 28), just asked my husband to come over and change a light bulb…</p>
<p>Next rental contract we make will be a 20 page book. Some things seem so obvious, we didn’t think we needed to put them in the contract, we used the standard MLS contract. We’re hoping next week he doesn’t call us to come over and plunge his toilet. If nothing else, have a little pride, man!</p>
<p>busdriver, as a manager of rental property, I’ve learned that EVERYTHING needs to be spelled out. I have standard contracts, and an addendum that gets longer with every rental. One of my favorite memories is loosening toilet bolts that befuddled the young arrogant, work out daily, studly young man. And charging him for windows that he broke, as he was too hung over for my move in, walk through lecture on how to care for a midwestern house. </p>
<p>If you’re changing lightbulbs, I’d include a lecture about CFLs, disposal of such, and the need for him to be in charge of his own lightbulbs. (There is joke in here somewhere)</p>
<p>Working in a hospital, more than once we’ve signed someone up for a short rehab stay as the home has a few entry steps that have become a barrier.</p>
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<p>Master of his domain?</p>
<p>^^Good one.</p>
<p>We will definitely do that next time, great lakes! We are still learning here, and just made some assumptions that appeared obvious. Definitely not. I need to find a form letter than covers EVERYTHING for next time. We should be closing on two more in the next month.</p>
<p>My husband said he’d come over and change the light bulb this one time, since they’d moved in only a couple of weeks ago, and he must have caught this on his walk through (ahem). We should have done the walk through with him, but we are stupid and trusting, and everybody was in a hurry. And then he added a list of examples of minor things they would be responsible for (like unplugging the sinks with Drano if they drain slow, how to reset the garbage disposal). Maybe next time I can find an online booklet of “common household fixes” and include that with the paperwork.</p>
<p>I just assume that most people can do the things I knew how to do…at 8 years old. And I wasn’t that bright. It really hits home for me that when our kiddos come home for Christmas break from college, we are going around the house talking about EVERYTHING!</p>
<p>A lot of tenants have the attitude that since they are paying rent, they are essentially staying in a hotel and are entitled to full concierge service. It’s not that they don’t know how, they feel the service should be included in the rent.</p>
<p>I have a bunch of clauses in my lease to cover stuff like this. You wouldn’t think you would need to spell out “don’t practice your drums after 11PM” or “don’t crank your stereo or tv so loud it can be heard by everyone else in the building” or “don’t do laundry at 4 in the morning” or “don’t climb on the roof”. Etc.</p>
<p>A light bulb clause is a good idea. “Tenant agrees that at move-in all light fixtures contain working light bulbs and agrees to replace any burned out bulbs with similar bulbs at his expense. Tenant agrees that if any bulbs are missing or are burned out when the tenant moves out, tenant will be charged a fee of $5 per bulb.”</p>
<p>I would also recommend you check the inside of the fridge, if you are providing one. It isn’t that hard to break the door and shelf pieces, and those are obnoxiously expensive to replace. I’ve been burned on this one.</p>
<p>I have a “move-out checklist” and it most definitely says a working light bulb will be in every fixture. People are so <em>#$& lazy…they’d rather live in the dark than buy and change a bulb. The list definitely spells out exactly what they are to do if they want their deposit back. After 12 years as a landlord, *nothing</em> surprises me…except for the disgusting manner in which some people live. I’m pretty sure some people throw their food at the wall instead of place it on their plates :(</p>
<p>Definitely agree that many of them feel they pay the rent and think it includes concierge service. Also amazed they’d risk their childrens’ lives by stealing the smoke detector batteries. Hey, running that obnoxiously loud toy is sooo much more important than knowing if there is a fire!</p>
<p>The last time we rented, the lease stated that we would pay the first $50 of any repair. Let me tell you, that stopped any plugged toilet or light bulb calls. I thought it was a great idea.</p>
<p>^ The problem with that is then the landlord never gets notified of a problem, and that always winds up costing me more in the long run.</p>
<p>Example: we can always tell when a toilet starts running or a sink starts dripping because the water bill shoots through the roof. But I wouldn’t find out until three months later, because the tenant won’t call me for fear he’d have to pay $50. Meanwhile, my water bill jumped $200.</p>
<p>Or worse, he tries to fix it himself and wrecks the faucet or screws up the toilet mechanism, and now I have a big repair.</p>
<p>If a tenant ever called asking me to replace a light bulb inside his unit, I would just say “uh, not in this lifetime”.</p>
<p>We also paid all utilities, so the big water bill would have been our problem. We also were military renters, so the landlord could go complain about us on post if we did something wrong. A bit of a different set up than regular renters.</p>
<p>" We also were military renters, so the landlord could go complain about us on post if we did something wrong. A bit of a different set up than regular renters."</p>
<p>Oh, what I would give for military renters (except for possible short notice moves). Capable and smart. Shoulda bought condos by the base.</p>