iamshack

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 11, 2015 -> 09:57 AM) Yeah we have an offer accepted on another house nearby. Gotta see how the home inspection and any possible issues from that goes. Oh great news! Good luck!

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 11, 2015 -> 09:29 AM) Terribly, that house pretty much needs to be torn down. That's too bad...any other good prospects?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 10, 2015 -> 04:38 AM) Got a solid offer on our house less than a week after listing How did it ever go with that property you guys were taking a contractor to look at?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 11, 2015 -> 07:04 AM) This is why I am more optimistic about 2016 than most. There is a lot of low hanging fruit for the team to make big improvements on. Defense is one spot. We also have multiple spots with really bad offense that could take a quick leap forward depending on what we can bring in. Yeah, except these problems are not new. They haven't addressed them for years.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Nov 10, 2015 -> 07:44 AM) All teams are going through injuries. Look at the Chargers they have had more injuries than any other team and are ranked 16th in the NFL. They are bringing guys off the street to play on the OL. Bears last year averaged 19.9 points per game and 327 yards per game. This year 20.2 and 347 per game. Well we're not making excuses for the record. We're just taking into consideration the facts. As SS mentioned, overall, we are just so much more well-coached. Despite Fox's conservatism, which is really my only gripe with the coaching staff, it's pretty apparent to me that we have the right coaching staff in place. And since Pace hired the coaching staff, I'd say you'd have to be impressed with the FO. League rankings are not particularly important right now; the resemblance to an actual professional football team is.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Nov 10, 2015 -> 07:30 AM) The Bears offense is ranked 25th in the NFL. How does that get someone a head coaching job? They've definitely had struggles in the red zone, and they of course had Clausen play in 6+ of those quarters. They didn't have Alshon in half of those games. Honestly, Gase isn't going anywhere after this year. The massive key in all of this is that Cutler looks as comfortable as he ever has in a Bears uniform. As the Bears continue to build, including White eventually coming back, they have the makings for something solid here, if you ask me.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 10, 2015 -> 06:09 AM) I believe Tommy's younger brother died very young as well. Just awful. Yep, in 2011 I think.

Gotta wonder what Long said to the ref. And Fox sure calls some curious timeouts when the defense is in precarious positions.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 9, 2015 -> 10:34 AM) Get an extra assistant coach on the sideline or upstairs to help advise in these crucial situations? I'm not a GM, but it's crazy that the coaches repeatedly make the same mistakes with games and seasons on the line. That would put every punter in the league out of a job. One would think they could hire a situational expert or something whose sole job was to determine the optimal decision based on clock management and analytics. For the amount of money that is involved in professional football, it would easily be worth it.

Unfortunately, at this point, this is exactly the kind of deal we should be looking to make.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 6, 2015 -> 11:38 AM) I hope he doesn't take it If he's smart, he would, and try to rebuild some of his value for the long-term deal next year, because he's leaving a lot of money on the table this year if he believes he simply had a bad year.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Nov 6, 2015 -> 10:53 AM) The problem with a number of these stats is they are based heavily on regular season performance, but when compared to a 162 game season, the playoffs are a minuscule sample size. The specific in-game win probability numbers are based on many, many thousands (if not more) points of data. I couldn't tell you exactly how the algorithms are formulated, but they are using all kinds of historical data to simulate how often a team would win in at this particular point of a game over a statistically-meaningful sample size. Often times, that number is 50,000 games. There are all kinds of fancy modeling words for these types of simulations, including monte carlo simulations and la grangian relaxation mixed integer programming, blah blah. We use these types of models to determine whether to make particular types of power or gas transactions that reach far out into the future. The concept here is very similar. You are basically trying to simulate different levels of volatility to determine all the potential impacts of making a decision or taking a particular course of action.

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 07:43 AM) My local electric monopoly here in SA paid us $150 to install a programmable, internet enabled, thermostat in our home. It works really well because my wife and I have fairly predictable schedules. The only downside is during extreme periods of electrical use the utility has the option to raise our temperature a couple degrees to ease usage. Of course we can override the temp. Demand-side management. Does the thermostat pre-cool your house for you prior to the increase? I work for a utility, in the department that determines whether to enable demand-side management, and I override it almost every time.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Nov 4, 2015 -> 08:55 AM) http://sandraacta.com/web/index.php/compon...puesto-de-coach It's in spanish. But they interviewed him yesterday presumably for the bench coach job. Wouldn't be the worst hire

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Nov 3, 2015 -> 06:39 PM) Jam, How much more space do you need? One thing you can do is pop off the door casings and see if you can raise the whole door jamb up some. Chances are there may be around a 1/4-1/2" of shim room you could grab. Sometimes even more. Sometimes none, but usually something. You can always plane the top of the jamb if it's wood to grab another 1/8". Popping off a head casing is a simple way to investigate. I feel ya though, woulda been nice if he spoke up before Thanks! I will investigate...

Floors are done! Making some real progress now. Painting tomorrow, then we wait for countertops. Then backsplash, the electrical trim work, then appliances, then final cabinet work. Two weeks and counting...

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Nov 1, 2015 -> 08:11 PM) I'm a general contractor and can answer any questions anybody has, especially how to maximize your budgets with your MEP subcontractors- that's where prices can escalate if you're not careful. Feel free to PM me to check out any info the subs are feeding you thay may sound dicey. Be happy to talk you through it. Planning, cleanliness & order of operations are key. All plumbing, electrical & hvac rough-ins should only take 1 day of labor, EVER. Keep that cost down. Ok, question for you....my flooring guys realized yesterday morning that the exterior door to the laundry room will no longer swing inwards, because the height of the new flooring apparently is slightly higher than the previous flooring. Is this something the flooring contractor is usually on the hook for, or is this something the homeowner has to fix? The door itself is your garden variety 6-panel door with steel exterior. It seems like cutting it down a bit would be messy. But assuming this door is standard size, I would have to order a custom door, which is going to cost me upwards of $700-800. This is really not something I have any desire to dump more money into...

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Nov 1, 2015 -> 01:01 PM) On that last drive by the Vikings, did anyone else see that the WR that caught the ball over Rolle might of ran out of bounds on his own before catching that? I thought I saw that as well, but I went back and watched it again and it appeared he stayed in bounds. These last two games have been disappointing, but for the best in the long run.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 27, 2015 -> 10:23 AM) I'm so glad I bought a home built in the 1960's that so far has required zero dollars in work, only what we wanted to update (finished basement and an ongoing kitchen facelift). Reading your guys' story and listening to a couple of friends who bought older homes...sounds terrible. Honestly, we didn't really have to do anything, except maybe replace some appliances, but what the wife wants, she eventually gets. That being said, we purchased our home for 3 reasons: 1) Location; 2) Size of the lot; 3) Design/quality of the house. We're sitting on a property with a ton of potential, but in appraisals we've had done, we continually get held back because of a lack of a garage, a lack of a pool, and in part, the lack of functional renovations. While the market seems to value our home better than the appraisal process, the fact that 95% of buyers in the market rely on financing, we've got to try and appease the appraisal process. However, we also want to keep the market appeal by gracefully bringing the house into the 21st century. Not to be lost in all this, is the most important thing, that house and property is as functional as possible for our own enjoyment. Because we did well on the purchase price of the property, and we bought when the market was still fairly depressed, it makes little sense to sell and buy something that has already been upgraded. Add to this the fact that there really is nothing similar to our property in our location shy of a million dollars or more. Thus, we've decided to go the renovation route.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 27, 2015 -> 08:32 AM) On another note, today continues the saga of fixing the "self remodeler" problems that we've been doing since we moved in. The guy two owners ago was an electrician and decided he was also a remodeler, a plumber, a mason etc. The electric is good but the rest is just lazy. I'm slowly fixing everything with a huge project next summer including ripping off the roof, adding a bathroom and closet and repurposing a closet into a bedroom as well as fixing all of the HVAC and finishes on the first floor. The plumber today who just began some of the work just laughs every time he finds something else. I feel like im on an episode of Holmes makes it right at times. Hah. That was my motivation behind not doing any of the work myself My renovation has been interesting. It isn't that any of the work was really done poorly before I bought the house, it's just that so much of it is from a different era. Most of the contractors I have brought in have been sort of marveling at the way most things were done. I'm in a similar boat as you though, Rock. I've got so many massive projects lined up over the next several years: 1) remodel master bedroom and bath 2) remodel guest bath 3) install new fence and electric gate 4) large in-ground pool 5) build garage with apartment above it 6) potential addition to house 7) install large sport court I can only imagine all these things are going to cost me somewhere in the range of $300-350k over the next 6-8 years. Then the day we'll get done we'll probably decide we need to remodel the kitchen we are remodeling at the moment.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 26, 2015 -> 04:17 PM) Of course that value increase depends on what you are actually doing. If you add a bathroom to make a master suite or completely gut and expand a kitchen those are HUGE at adding value or improving negotiation position. Changing from hardwood to bamboo flooring or adding different countertops or something of that sort can be a wash. Yeah, kitchens and master suites sell houses. We're putting about 15% of the value of our home into this kitchen renovation, and while I wouldn't expect it to increase the value of our home by 15%, I suspect it will increase it by 10% or so. Bottom line though, the kitchen needed an upgrade in functionality simply for us to continue living here, especially with a young child. That being said, I have a particular vision for our property, and this was the first step in fulfilling that vision, both for our enjoyment, but for resale as well. We were very careful to choose high quality materials and equipment based on what is commonplace in our general location. I hope that will pay off if something happens which causes us to need to sell.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 05:50 PM) As far as permits go, every town is different. You are probably better off just asking to not have any future problems if you sell. Plus , you are not in money sucking Chicagoland so they are probably not as bad. I've complained enough but our addition project is finally almost done, only about 7 months late. The house is great, despite all the headaches we went through. Biggest thing I learned was don't make any assumptions with contractors, ask about everything Yeah, you've got that right. My electrician, despite having the specs for all of our appliances, heard my cabinetmaker refer to our ovens as "double ovens" and only put in one power source. Well, if he would have read through all the specs more closely, he would have realized there ARE two ovens, but they are separate ovens with TWO power sources, not a double oven with one power source. I caught this after the drywall went in, but luckily before the floors or cabinets went in, and so yesterday I was literally crawling through the crawlspace underneath my house (which is not really a crawlspace in the true definition of the word), to bring cable from the power supply to the panel, because my electrician couldn't fit. Had I missed this, we wouldn't have found out until the appliances were to be installed, at which point it would have been much more difficult.

Over the course of a season I develop such a dislike for our division rivals that I can't help cheering against them in the postseason. Go Mets.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 09:44 AM) Demo, drywall, flooring, cabinets (install anyway), tile work etc. can be done by anyone with some patience and a little practice. It's not difficult and, IMO, well worth the savings. The key difference between a professional and doing it yourself is time. If it needs to be done within weeks, hire someone. If you can take your time with it and tackle one project at a time, try to do as much yourself as you can. Knocking out a wall and putting a header in is going to take someone with some knowledge and experience on how to do that. Electrical and plumbing the same. But everything else can be done by the average home owner. Read up on what you're doing, go watch youtube videos and be patient about it. Agreed for the most part. We've asked for a very particular look for our cabinets and how they interact with our appliances. We wanted everything to be exactly flush and precise, as if the cabinets were made to fit with these precise appliances. If I tried to install the cabinets, it would be a disaster That doesn't mean someone who is handy couldn't do it, however, I suppose. We took a very aggressive approach on the schedule, because we are simply too busy to be without a working kitchen for very long. The entire project will likely take about 6 weeks, but the lion's share of the work will be done in 3 1/2 weeks. About half of the time is just waiting on countertops.

I am going through this right now. My cabinets are being installed as I type. Here is what I can tell you...we had a kitchen that I thought was original to the 1956 build, but after demo, appears to have been a renovation from perhaps the mid-to-late 60's. My kitchen was not small, especially for the time in which it was designed, but it was semi-enclosed by a wall of cabinets with a pass-through on one side, and a breakfast bar on the other side. The cooktop and oven were ancient 60's models, and the countertop, which I thought was kind of cool, was stainless steel and my wife did not care for it. Our fridge was nice but old and on its last legs (a 28 year old subzero). Basically, it was dark, kind of enclosed, in need of new appliances, the electrical was outdated, etc. I originally set out on just finding a way to replace the cooktop and stove. I found a cabinetmaker on Angie's list and had him come by the house to take a look. He did come up with a design and present it to us, but then that evening, he called me back and said that he was having second thoughts. He asked me if we had any plans in the near future of doing a complete remodel of the kitchen. I told him we had gone back and forth about it, but we just weren't sure the timing was right. He said well, I will tell you this. I can do this project for you, and I would make more money if I did this for you now and then you called me back in a few years when you wanted to remodel the entire thing, but I think it is smarter for you to just wait until you are ready to remodel the entire kitchen. So my wife and I discussed it, and ultimately decided to pursue a full remodel. We had the cabinet maker provide drawings for a complete renovation. He proposed knocking out the wall of cabinets with the pass-through and the breakfast bar, and completely opening everything up. My wife and I liked the plan, and decided to move forward. We started costing everything out, including floors, countertops, cabinets, appliances, demo, electric and plumbing. As we are both very busy at work, have a 4 month old son, and generally are useless when it comes to doing anything handy, we knew we wouldn't be able to do any of the work ourselves. We knew this would cost more, but at least I felt more confident the work would be done right. I basically leveraged my cabinetmaker's knowledge with my project management skills to handle the general contractor role. This was a large project. Everything was so incorporated into the existing design, that changing it required us to address nearly everything, down to changing the location of HVAC vents and installing a new downdraft exhaust vent underneath the floors. Additionally, we chose to not only replace the flooring in the kitchen, but also in the dining room/den and laundry areas. We also had the cabinet maker build cabinets for the laundry area as well as one in the dining room/den. We've actually stayed fairly close to our original budget, which I am pleased with. However, there were some items we forgot to budget for, basically because we simply didn't recognize the level of destruction which would occur or what exactly we would unearth in the demo. The most expensive things were as follows: 1) appliances (high-end) 2) cabinets (custom) 3) flooring (mid-range, but we're replacing 650 sq ft and we encountered a LOT of issues once the tear-out of the original floors began) 4) countertops (silestone quartz) 5) electrical (needed lots of updates) Those were the major costs. We also spent about $1600 on the ventilation work, $1500 on drywall and ceiling repair, anticipating $1,000 or so for backsplash and install, I'm sure several hundred to paint, etc. Then we also bought a new kitchen table and 5 chairs, a new ceiling fan, new steel vent registers, etc. You can see how the costs start adding up fast. It certainly has been a major, major project. We are through the worst of it now, and I anticipate things going more smoothly from here on out. Floors go in on Monday-Tuesday. Then we will work on some finishing work while we wait for countertops to be fabricated, and then finally, appliances get installed. I am hoping to be finished by mid-November or so. So can you do it for $12k? Possibly. Utilize handymen that are friends or friends of the family. Do as much as you possibly can yourself, without significantly putting the finished product at risk. However, don't overlook things like electrical, drywall, plumbing, etc., which can add up quickly. Lastly, I fully agree with Y2k...you want to do it right the first time. If possible, spend a little extra if necessary to get it done right, and the way you want it. However, you will have to make decisions to stop the bleeding at some point. I've tried to push this envelope as far as I am comfortable with, and I think we will be really pleased with what our finished product will be. Edit: Oh, and I did not mess with any permits. We did not remove any load-bearing walls, nor did we change the sq footage of the house or anything. However, Las Vegas is a bit more lax on those types of things than the Chicago area is, I'm sure. It's still a little wild wild west out here.