patrick.net

Congrats on buying a house BayArea!!

There's a shack near me that was pretty rough (original owner from 1963). I visited an open house in the summer of 2019. It was a lot of fun to see what these houses looked like originally, but ... yikes! There was a yellow/brown rotary phone stilling hanging on the wall! Original stove and tile countertops. Vinyl floors! Anyway, a flipper bought for $1.6MM and then sold 4 months later for $2.1MM. I'm guessing they didn't put $100k into it. It looks pretty nice now! Check it out.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/634-Carlisle-Way-Sunnyvale-CA-94087/19614206_zpid/

As for buying something yourself, you'll be spending a lot of time and effort. Even if you are hiring people to do the work, unless you speak both Spanish and Chinese and are accustomed to paying in cash, you'll be paying a lot more than the "professional" flippers.

I don’t envy you having to navigate around the flakes, illegals, drunks, potheads and assorted losers in the trades.

How much per square foot is does a house over there cost?

Just curious.

Congrats, if you can't afford good carpet, then buy cheap tile. Don't buy cheap carpet, it's just an annual covering.
Fuck the trends, buy timeless classic colors and styles for your flooring, and it will never look dated.
Bold trending styles, can be dated in five years, and look tacky.
If you can't afford real wood then don't do wood at all. Print ceramic and other printed hard flooring surfaces are a thin layer that can wear away in high traffic areas, if it's not a high quality tile. Especially flat or matte finish printed flooring. Stick with earth tones and grays if this is flxer upper flipper or rental.
If not and you plan on enjoying it, then disregard about my style comments and decorate as you see fit.
Just buy the best you can get for your budget, meaning go with the best quality of flooring you can get. If you can buy better quality tile for the money than the carpet or visa versa then go with it.

Fuck carpet. Say no to fucking carpet.

Elizabeth Smart, Polly Klaas, JonBenet Ramsey. These are the ones we know about because of the publicity, where casual laborer/handyman types had done work at the houses before the girls went missing. For the ones we know about from the media, how many more we don't know about? Ilene Misheloff was a latch key kid in Pleasanton. Since she is thought to have disappeared away from home, the handyman types who may have performed work at the Misheloff home were not discussed in the media.

Building trades have been taught in our prisons, and it's not easy to hire on with a prison record. Easier to start a business.

This is why I was paranoid about only hiring folks who were long standing members of my community who had personal references from people whom I knew for many years. People like that are not easy to find, even with lifelong roots in the community.

That's why it took over 20 years from the time we moved into the fixer upper till the work was done. We did as much of it ourselves during those years as our time and ability would allow.

clambo says

How much per square foot is does house over there cost?

Under $1,000 /sq. ft! What a bargain!
Redfin shows median sale price of $1.25 milllion and $578/sq.ft. in Pleasanton.

FuckCCP89 says

Fuck carpet. Say no to fucking carpet.

I agree absolutely. I want wood floors, like we had when I was a kid and we could not afford wall-to-wall carpet.

In retrospect, wall-to-wall carpet is disgusting. Holds years of shit (literal shit) and all kinds of other dusty pathogens.

Patrick says

In retrospect, wall-to-wall carpet is disgusting.

I replaced carpet with vinyl plank (Traffic Master High Point Chestnut) for about $1.60 a square foot. Very easy to install and looks like wood planking.

ad says

Patrick says

In retrospect, wall-to-wall carpet is disgusting.

I replaced carpet with vinyl plank (Traffic Master High Point Chestnut) for about $1.60 a square foot. Very easy to install and looks like wood planking.

Vinyl plank is great. Waterproof, tough, and very easy to repair. Can not only look like wood, it can look like tile or marble as well. Also lease fatiguing on the feet than wood.

I would use the Vinyl Plank in the kitchen and baths, but would use carpet elsewhere. A house that is all wood or other hard flooring will sound like an echo chamber, unless you have an acoustic ceiling.

Do laminate. It looks like hardwood and is cheap. Easy to assemble.

Windows you can get at Home Depot. Same windows everyone has.

Start from top to bottom... aka floor last.

Tenpoundbass says

Bold trending styles, can be dated in five years, and look tacky.

Orange shag. A friend bought a pretty brick house built in 1954 in Oak Cliff in Dallas in 1998. When it was 20 years old in 1974 they brought it up to date. Ugh! Orange everywhere from counter tops to carpet.

NDrLoR says

Orange shag. A friend bought a pretty brick house built in 1954 in Oak Cliff in Dallas in 1998.

That was a time when Carpet was carpet, it's a shame they made it so ugly and used the color choices they used.

In the late 90's when I went to a home that still had Shag carpet from the 50's and 60's, the pile on top still looked brand spanking new sometimes. But when you went to rip it up, the jute backing was dry rotted and the carpet would rip and tear in shreds. Couldn't just e-fold it like a letter and roll it up in a big egg roll. We had to cut it or rip it in narrow rolls and roll it up.

I liked making an egg roll bundle out of it, so it was easier for one person to hoist in on the shoulder and carry it to the van, plus it was easier to clean out at the shop that way.
Too many trips with a bunch of tiny rolls.

To this day people who still do carpet that worked with me, calls that method "Tedding the carpet". My friend was telling me just the other day.

clambo says

I don’t envy you having to navigate around the flakes, illegals, drunks, potheads and assorted losers in the trades.

Had the best luck with licensed contractors. Also don’t pay them until they show up for work on the first day and then only half. If you find a contractor who is reliable, he will usually have all those specialized tradesmen in his Rolodex he will subcontract in for the job. The guy I use is an asshole but he’s honest and he gets shit done fast. Wrong area tho.

There are laws regarding this. No more than 10% down to contractor. Make sure legit guy.

I recommend you take care of any electrical plumbing issues or potential improvements now. This way you don’t tear up walls later. I know construction well, feel free to ask anything.

ad says

I replaced carpet with vinyl plank (Traffic Master High Point Chestnut) for about $1.60 a square foot. Very easy to install and looks like wood planking.

Still a fan of Pergo. It's $1 /sq.ft. more expensive than the vinyl, but we've had good luck with an existing floor. I have to say, though, when visiting Home Depot, was really impressed with that vinyl flooring. A plumbing repair meant we had to tear up the old floor, and we put in more Pergo Outlast+. Hopefully it does as well as the previous flooring.
And WTF is up with the latest trend of various shades of grey/black for laminate and wood floors?

Aren’t all houses “fixer uppers” when you really think about it?

Beware if the contractor is ready to work right away or very soon when bidding.