LivingAlmostLarge

So on the 4th of July we were hanging out with friends who own a condo in the city.  They have a 2 bd/1ba condo about 700 sq ft.  This place has a premium location, and was EXPENSIVE.  They are 33 and this was their first real estate purchase.  Thus they only considered the location [...]

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Well I thought I lived in an expensive area. Looks like according to Energy Department the most expensive area to heat a house is Boston. I guess I was right. Here’s an article discussing heating costs.
Yes the northeast is not colder than Minneapolis or Buffalo. However, the cost of heating using natural gas or oil [...]

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Most people would say that doing it yourself saves you a lot of money. And in general I agree. But at what point do you stop and hire someone? We’ve done a lot of home repair, definitely more than average and I know my DH is handy. His family did pretty much all DIY. Unfortunately [...]

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Sigh, I’m getting really tired of our developer. So many things happened where she shortcut problems. So we’re going to have to discuss with our lawyer more issues which have cropped up. And no you cannot find this out with a home inspection unless you are prying tiles away from a shower. [...]

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I realized the other day we really got lucky in our housing. We have a really exceptionally cheap mortgage, and with 20% DP we bought way more house than we could have afforded without a DP. The downpayment is really important I realize because it gives you the choice of selling if you need be [...]

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So we are installing our gas fireplace. However the plumber is unable to tell where the gas line is (because we are a condo), hence he’d have to cut a 12″ x 12″ hole in the wall to check. I mentioned we were considering tearing out the mantle to either rehab it or [...]

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So the cost of the gas insert into our fireplace will be $2800 + $1000 for plumbing. But it will probably run more because we have to take off the mantle and do some demolition work.
Unfortunately the gas line is not necessarily right below our fireplace. If it was it would cost $500 [...]

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I don’t think anyone should own a house who doesn’t like to do home maintenance. I have to complain about this because my parents have lived in the same home for 20+ years and have not maintained it at all.
My mom blames the fact they didn’t have the money, which is an untruth. Nope, my [...]

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We’re trying to heat the bottom floor of our house more efficiently. I’m not sure which is a better way to go. Initially I thought a gas fireplace, however it was suggested to me on a frugal forum to go with a pellet stove. A family mentioned buying 4 tons of pellets for $1k and [...]

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Last month during the extreme cold front that came through NE, the valve on my refrigerator broke and water went pouring into the downstairs unit of our condo. There are three units, two side by side townhouses and 1 basement unit. The basement unit’s two bedrooms and living rooms were damaged.
We [...]

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