LogFAQs > #890933476

Fishy posted...

treewojima posted...

This. I'm wondering if Fishy owns property or ever has. If he does, he's either the handiest man in the world with unlimited time and dedication, or does well enough for himself to afford taxes and upkeep. My friend owns a house that he took over the mortgage on when his mom died, and it's a lot of work. He's a very skilled DIYer and has a basement and garage full of tools and equipment, but even he is having to put off repairing his sewage system for financial and time reasons. This is the same guy who rented a small backhoe to dig up my mom's front yard when her own sewer main collapsed, so sometimes raw skill and knowledge doesn't cut it.

Where the fuck do you people live where you're spending hundreds of dollars a month just to keep your houses from falling apart?

I live the suburbs of Northern Virginia, Sterling/Ashburn to be specific. It's a very affluent region, even though the city my mom/roommate live in (Manassas) is considered to be the cheaper and more run down options in this area. A lot of the houses Manassas are old - my old roommate's house was built in the late 60's/early 70's and my mom's house was built in 1959. Not every area is new and modern. Both houses are in relatively good shape, but suffer from problems that all older houses have - age, weather, poor construction for whatever reason, and lack of proper care by former owners. Owning and maintaining property is hard and expensive work.

Here's what I had to do to rebuild the outer load bearing wall in the corner of my mom's house:








This happened because of old termite damage that was either never known about or never addressed, and also because there were no weep holes in the bottom of the outer brick facade to let moisture drain out. The wood at the base of the wall disintegrated when you touched it.

Stuff happens, and it's expensive and time consuming.