ATLANTIC CENTRALSo why is housing so expensive there?
I wish I knew the answer to that Sheldon. As far as only rich people being able to afford houses, that isn't quite true. However, the percentage of income that many people have to spend to pay their mortgages is pretty high. What's worse is that a lot of people wouldn't be able to afford any increases in interest rates, even if it was only a couple of points.
There have been dire predictions of housing price corrections off and on for years but so far the bubble hasn't burst and the housing market is still thriving, at least in Ontario. British Columbia has seen some recent pull backs but nothing so serious as to cause a panic. Out there a big part of the problem is absentee owners, most of whom are from China. The BC government has recently applied an absentee tax which has cooled the speculation, but prices are still scary. My sister-in-law just bought a small three bedroom condo in North Vancouver. She paid $865,000.00 Cdn and that was a bargain!
I have my ancestors to thank for me being able to own my own home. They pioneered in the Barrie, Ontario area starting in 1823. At the time the area was just bush, bush and more bush. They were 40 miles north of the closest town and there was only one other pioneer family in the area. That property was sold for a considerable amount in 1997. My parents were able to live quite comfortably off of the proceeds and they were able to help me pay off our mortgage many years later.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter SeeYou190 The Price of this house was just reduced to $379.900.00. That's about $500,000.00 Cdn. You can't buy a house for that amount within 50 miles of Toronto. In the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) a house like that would start at $1,300,000.00 easily. Maybe way more! I'm lucky, my house is paid for. My son is lucky. He was able to buy a nice house in Barrie but it takes him 1hr 15min to get to work. Dave
SeeYou190 The Price of this house was just reduced to $379.900.00.
That's about $500,000.00 Cdn. You can't buy a house for that amount within 50 miles of Toronto. In the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) a house like that would start at $1,300,000.00 easily. Maybe way more!
I'm lucky, my house is paid for. My son is lucky. He was able to buy a nice house in Barrie but it takes him 1hr 15min to get to work.
So why is housing so expensive there?
The house in question getting down in price to right around its "current cost to replace", so it will likely sell soon.
We just bought a similar sized house, on much more land (2.3 acres), with a basement, but less garage space, for $375,000.
Apparently in Canada only wealthy people own houses, because here in many parts of the US, a million buys something like this:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2621-Bailey-Rd-Forest-Hill-MD-21050/36975903_zpid/
And $650,000 will get you this:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2422-Rocks-Rd-Forest-Hill-MD-21050/36947322_zpid/?view=public
Sheldon
SeeYou190The Price of this house was just reduced to $379.900.00.
My best friend lives in Christianburg. If there's anywhere I'd move from here, it would probably be there, although not in his neighborhood, his yard is sloped worse than mine, although his house would work, his master suite is on the main floor, and he has a large basement area. 3 tiers of decks off the back though. I like my seasons - Wisconsin is just as bad in the summer as here in PA, and way worse in the winter, so nope. And the warm states like Florida, Arizona, New Mexico - WAY too hot in the summer.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Not a matter of bite off more than you can chew. I'm sure a guy like you can chew quite a bit.
After hearing from you for many years. It's a matter of how much do you want to bite off and chew for a train room.
I'm sure you have enough room in the house you're in right now Kevin, if you get a little creative.
From my downsize from my house in Prior Lake after the kids moved out, I live in a closet. Reconsidering things now, but I can always upsize.
Train rooms are nice. Mine is N scale and it's in my living room
Judy and I don't need much these days.
Priority is always at hand and how much deeper does one want to dig in thier pocket book as we get older is a definite consideration???
Less is more
Ask that question to yourself next time you feel comfortable in your wonderful stable life in Florida.
Do you want to change or infringe on that with rash compromise for a little more space
TF
BigDaddy I must be the only one here, that is scared off by the planned 4 lane highway? There's a youtube guy who does videos titled chasing trains, and he leaves his home near San Jose CA before 7 am and runs into bumper to bumper traffic on a Saturday, every trip. As a country, we are willing to accept slow and late rail travel, third class air travel and endless traffic around our major cities. 10 years ago a trip to the grocery store was 5 red lights max . Now I sit through 3 red lights at 4 of those red lights. My wife and I are leaving Sheldon's beloved state of Maryland and moving to the Shenandoah Valley. We are building and it is expensive. It is also in a golf course community, which adds to the expense and the HOA rules. I am not a golfer, but at my age, I am too old to move to a few acres, not know anyone, and have any kind of social life. The view is tremendous. I also don't want to deal with neighbors who want to park their decrepit RV's old cars, trucks buses. My present neighborhood has a waterfront access, the neighborhood across the street is duplexes and one guy actually built a fence out of old pallets.
I must be the only one here, that is scared off by the planned 4 lane highway?
There's a youtube guy who does videos titled chasing trains, and he leaves his home near San Jose CA before 7 am and runs into bumper to bumper traffic on a Saturday, every trip.
As a country, we are willing to accept slow and late rail travel, third class air travel and endless traffic around our major cities. 10 years ago a trip to the grocery store was 5 red lights max . Now I sit through 3 red lights at 4 of those red lights.
My wife and I are leaving Sheldon's beloved state of Maryland and moving to the Shenandoah Valley. We are building and it is expensive. It is also in a golf course community, which adds to the expense and the HOA rules. I am not a golfer, but at my age, I am too old to move to a few acres, not know anyone, and have any kind of social life. The view is tremendous.
I also don't want to deal with neighbors who want to park their decrepit RV's old cars, trucks buses. My present neighborhood has a waterfront access, the neighborhood across the street is duplexes and one guy actually built a fence out of old pallets.
I wanted out of Maryland for a long time, but we found a good spot up here in Harford County.
I wanted to move to the Shenandoah Valley, but the wife was not having it, too far from her doctors, not comfortable with the idea of being snowed in, etc.
To each their own, but I could not live in a place where people are told what to do (or not do) on their own property to that degree.
Every time I drive though one of those communities, I think of the "Cat in the Hat" movie, "the lawns were mowed daily, twice daily if needed",......no thank you.
We live in a nice neighborhood, some homes more than 100 years old, many built in the early 60's. But not some cookie cutter picture controlled by the architecture police - to each their own.....
I have 2.3 acres, I'm going to build a detached garage soon. I could build a backyard outdoor railroad if I want.......
My grandson drives his battery powered four wheeler around the yard.......
We have a community pond/small lake with a beach and play ground, and it does not even take an HOA to manage it, people just chip in and step up......
Havre de Grace is truely one of the nices places I have ever been and I am proud to live here, dispite my dislike for Maryland politics.
But we are far enough from any big "city" to not really be a suburban bedroom community.......the rural small town is great......
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
There were several pictures of the garage spaces with some of the doors open which are no longer posted on the listing. Like Randy, I saw what looked like the blue post of a lift in one of the garage bays.
It is possible the sell is planning to remove it, not offering it with the house.
The Price of this house was just reduced to $379.900.00.
.
And, I turned down the job offer in Wisconsin.
It is getting more tempting.
I don't see the car lift in the pictures. The desciption says it has room for a car lift.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
My garage walls and ceiling are insulated. I just put insulation panels in the 9 ft garage door. I ran a 12" dia. trunk line from by HVAC to the garage. blocked off about 3/4 ths of the vent to reduce the cool air input. I keep the garage warmer than the house but far cooler than the outside, works fine. My modular home is all electric and the average monthly cost is about $170. Garage already had lighting and 20 amp service when I moved in in 2006. Small lot, lawn service ($35/mo) and my layout just outside my kitchen, love it.
Train Room of LION is on the top floor of our Library Building. The four windows shown above. 24'x27'.
Got plenty of power and there are no cat five hurrycanes here, B-lizzardas, yes, but alas, the building has no elevator.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
floridaflyerAs a fellow Floridian who has a layout in a single car garage layout attached to a double wide in central Florida, I moved from another home in our park to the one I now have expressly for the garage, and a slightly larger home.
I passed through Sebring just a couple of weeks ago. But then again, I pass through everywhere quite often.
ATLANTIC CENTRALI could never live in the cookie cutter subdivision on a postage stamp like that. I don't want to be that close to that many people.
You sound a lot like my father. We moved to Cape Coral in 1982 as a family. He never liked it at all. In 1986 he moved to the Chicago suburbs. I stayed in Cape Coral. I took to this area very well and I love it here.
The houses in Cape Coral are not cookie cutter by any means. The neighborhoods have been built over the past 40 years. Over 50% of the houses in Cape Coral are bjilt from model homes, but only one of each model can be built on a block. The remainder of the houses are custom builds. Most houses are Stucco over Cement Block, but there are other styles.
I need to be in a city. I would never want a lot bigger than 1/2 acre. My lawn service is less than $100.00 per month, and I am always in code compliance.
ATLANTIC CENTRALWell Kevin, they have basements up north if you take the new job.
I am having discussions with my potential new employer this week. The compensation offer is great, and none of it is variable, but I need to know a lot of other details before leaving the wonderful siutation I have with my current employer.
MisterBeasleyNow, are the garages air conditioned? Insulated doors? How's the power and lighting?
Usually a wall is added inside the doors. You cannot change the outside appearance of the house, but this one might be an exception because it has two garages.
My friend Randy built an insulated and air conditioned 15 by 20 foot room inside his garage for his N scale NORFOLK WESTERN layout. It all pretty easy to get done.
First off get a 30 year. You can always pay it off early or make double payments but with a 30 year there is no penalty if you are short one month the double payment. You can always offer less, start at $300,000.00 , You never know what the situation is for the other party. Had a tenant once who bought a Porshe for $1000. They were leaving the country for good andhe was there with the money the day they left.
Good question. I would say that "retail" is the final price the customer pays. On an individual remodel, that can vary from contractor to contractor, and real estate is a little different in that property tends to increase in value over time, unlike, say, a bag of razor blades bought at the drug store.
If you tend to charge less than the competition, or fairer prices than they do, perhaps your customers get an immediate "return" on their investment when compared to the whole market.
And historical restoration adds a different element. Its difficult to measure value when compared to houses of nonhistorical significance because there are different attributes at play.
I'm simply saying that the TV shows seem to assume an immediate positive return every time, like its a mathematical fact of the remodeling process, and it doesn't matter who the contractor is or what the circumstances are. Remodel a kitchen = 10% more value than what cash was spent. It simply doesn't work that way for the end user, the homeowner. Even when its a good quality remodel.
Ok mods, back to trains.....
- Douglas
So I have one last thought, what is "retail" in the construction business?
Contractors with lots of overhead, fancy offices or show rooms, armies of sales people, lots of office staff, commerials on TV, etc, have to charge a lot, and have to do a lot of volume to cover all that. They mostly charge too much in my opinion, but some people who don't know better pay it.
I guess that is "retail".
I don't charge retail, my office and shop are at my home, I only have one employee and use several other small subs who operate the way I do. I don't have an office staff.....or sales people.
In fact, in 25 years I have never spent a penny on advertising.
And best of all, I seldom do work based on fixed quoted prices. I prepare budge prices, but most of our projects are done on a time and material basis.
The complex nature of the historic restoration work we do, or even the custom remodeling we do, make it nearly impossible to fairly calculate all costs in advance.
Contractors who do mostly just charge too much......
Some customers don't have the trust level or risk tolerance for time and material contracts, I just walk away.
The ones who do get exceptional work at the lowest, fairest price possible.
My callender is full..........
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Doughless rrinker People are so sucked in by those shows on HGTV, every single one of which is scripted and fake. Seems like every one of those "buy the crappy house cheap, renovate, and flip" shows has the disastr of the day where there is some previously unknown 'structural issue' which they sem to magically always fix for "much less than we expected". I don;t work int he construction business like Sheldon, but I've been around enough to spot quite a lot of the BS, and I always thought a lot of those shows were kind of fishy, it's more recently that the real stories on some of them have come to light. What's this got to do with trains? Well, unless you are building a garden railroad, in which case you might be better served over in those forums, keeping the trains out of the weather is generally a good thing. Keeping the railroader out of the weather generally makes for a happier railroader, as well. And if SWMBO is kept happy, then you will be happy. --Randy Exactly. Everybody wants those glamourous kitchens and baths, and I don't believe the return on investment they purport to get. They say they spend $30,000 on a reno (to the owner like me that would be retail price), and somehow they'ved increased the value of the house by $38,000. They made $8,000 of "value" by spending $30,000 cash. (essentially meaning the contractor left $8,000 on the table.) Sure they did. I was raised during a time when the narrative was that remodel's cost you money in the end, but certain remodels "held" their investments better than others. Kitchens would net back 80% of what you spent. Decks, OTOH, about 40%. Pools, maybe about that or less. Big additions with a big layout filling it, probably almost worthless unless you remove the layout. If you're a professional who buys an unmarketable dump and renovates it at cost to sell retail, that's a different situation than what a typical HGTV homeowner would have. Being in that business, not sure I would agree with idea of the contractor "leaving $8,000 on the table". That assumes a lot of facts not in evidence, like did he make a fair profit at $30,000 and would the customer have paid $38 000. The one thing that smart remodels do is maintain the long term value and market appeal. Remodels make the most sense when you plan to be there another 8 years or more. And they need not be "trendy", over the top jobs to accomplish that goal. Trendy today will not be trendy in 8 years, but tasteful and well crafted is often timeless. As for professional flippers like my friend, again, sometimes you do well, 20%-30% profit, sometimes not so much. Pools have no value, don't buy one unless you love them and you plan to be there 15 years or more. Sheldon
Doughless rrinker People are so sucked in by those shows on HGTV, every single one of which is scripted and fake. Seems like every one of those "buy the crappy house cheap, renovate, and flip" shows has the disastr of the day where there is some previously unknown 'structural issue' which they sem to magically always fix for "much less than we expected". I don;t work int he construction business like Sheldon, but I've been around enough to spot quite a lot of the BS, and I always thought a lot of those shows were kind of fishy, it's more recently that the real stories on some of them have come to light. What's this got to do with trains? Well, unless you are building a garden railroad, in which case you might be better served over in those forums, keeping the trains out of the weather is generally a good thing. Keeping the railroader out of the weather generally makes for a happier railroader, as well. And if SWMBO is kept happy, then you will be happy. --Randy Exactly. Everybody wants those glamourous kitchens and baths, and I don't believe the return on investment they purport to get. They say they spend $30,000 on a reno (to the owner like me that would be retail price), and somehow they'ved increased the value of the house by $38,000. They made $8,000 of "value" by spending $30,000 cash. (essentially meaning the contractor left $8,000 on the table.) Sure they did. I was raised during a time when the narrative was that remodel's cost you money in the end, but certain remodels "held" their investments better than others. Kitchens would net back 80% of what you spent. Decks, OTOH, about 40%. Pools, maybe about that or less. Big additions with a big layout filling it, probably almost worthless unless you remove the layout. If you're a professional who buys an unmarketable dump and renovates it at cost to sell retail, that's a different situation than what a typical HGTV homeowner would have.
rrinker People are so sucked in by those shows on HGTV, every single one of which is scripted and fake. Seems like every one of those "buy the crappy house cheap, renovate, and flip" shows has the disastr of the day where there is some previously unknown 'structural issue' which they sem to magically always fix for "much less than we expected". I don;t work int he construction business like Sheldon, but I've been around enough to spot quite a lot of the BS, and I always thought a lot of those shows were kind of fishy, it's more recently that the real stories on some of them have come to light. What's this got to do with trains? Well, unless you are building a garden railroad, in which case you might be better served over in those forums, keeping the trains out of the weather is generally a good thing. Keeping the railroader out of the weather generally makes for a happier railroader, as well. And if SWMBO is kept happy, then you will be happy. --Randy
People are so sucked in by those shows on HGTV, every single one of which is scripted and fake. Seems like every one of those "buy the crappy house cheap, renovate, and flip" shows has the disastr of the day where there is some previously unknown 'structural issue' which they sem to magically always fix for "much less than we expected". I don;t work int he construction business like Sheldon, but I've been around enough to spot quite a lot of the BS, and I always thought a lot of those shows were kind of fishy, it's more recently that the real stories on some of them have come to light.
What's this got to do with trains? Well, unless you are building a garden railroad, in which case you might be better served over in those forums, keeping the trains out of the weather is generally a good thing. Keeping the railroader out of the weather generally makes for a happier railroader, as well. And if SWMBO is kept happy, then you will be happy.
Exactly. Everybody wants those glamourous kitchens and baths, and I don't believe the return on investment they purport to get. They say they spend $30,000 on a reno (to the owner like me that would be retail price), and somehow they'ved increased the value of the house by $38,000. They made $8,000 of "value" by spending $30,000 cash. (essentially meaning the contractor left $8,000 on the table.)
Sure they did.
I was raised during a time when the narrative was that remodel's cost you money in the end, but certain remodels "held" their investments better than others.
Kitchens would net back 80% of what you spent. Decks, OTOH, about 40%. Pools, maybe about that or less.
Big additions with a big layout filling it, probably almost worthless unless you remove the layout.
If you're a professional who buys an unmarketable dump and renovates it at cost to sell retail, that's a different situation than what a typical HGTV homeowner would have.
Being in that business, not sure I would agree with idea of the contractor "leaving $8,000 on the table". That assumes a lot of facts not in evidence, like did he make a fair profit at $30,000 and would the customer have paid $38 000.
The one thing that smart remodels do is maintain the long term value and market appeal. Remodels make the most sense when you plan to be there another 8 years or more. And they need not be "trendy", over the top jobs to accomplish that goal. Trendy today will not be trendy in 8 years, but tasteful and well crafted is often timeless.
As for professional flippers like my friend, again, sometimes you do well, 20%-30% profit, sometimes not so much.
Pools have no value, don't buy one unless you love them and you plan to be there 15 years or more.
I agree with everything. My comment about the $8,000 bump is not really about the contractor, but its about the fact that people pay retail prices for remodels. Its the price at the moment. The notion that TV shows project, that the value suddenly jumps up higher than the retail price paid one day ago is not accurate in normal circumstances. Its unreasonable to think it would jump immediately, IMO, but rather would keep pace with price increases over time as long as it is maintained and the style remains relatively current, or timeless.
railandsailTaxs on addtion to your existing home vs taxes on significant bigger square footage of that home you are looking at?Aren't the Fl homes basically taxed on their total square footage of living space under roof?
I have owned this house for more than 20 years.
That means I owned it through the Homestead Exemption Reform and the Great Recession. These have both combined in an advantagious way and made my taxable rate on this house extremely low.
I am not an expert, but this is how my accountant (not a real estate lawyer) has explained to rules when I started the house rennovation.
If I make any improvements that significantly change the value of the house the assessed tax value could be reassessed. He has suggested that increasing the square footage, like by adding a train room, could trigger this.
The Homestead reform allows some portability of my exemptions, so purchasing a house worth $150,000.00 more than I currently live might not be as extreme an increase in tax liabilities.
I do not know if everything above is accurate, a Florida Legal Scholar could probably make all kinds of corrections.
Taxs on addtion to your existing home vs taxes on significant bigger square footage of that home you are looking at?Aren't the Fl homes basically taxed on their total square footage of living space under roof?
And might you gain some advantages of 'homesteading' if you added to your existing home rather than buying that new one?
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
I just bought my Delaware house at the end of May.
I looked at quite a few, some pretty nice, but what sold me on this one was the decent sized train room. Other homes had more total square footage, but we're broken up into tiny spaces to get more bedrooms and bathrooms, things I don't need.
We discovered while looking that new construction was considerably more costly. This one was move-in ready, although we did have the interior painted to lighten it up a bit and get better quality paint, not the original builder's paint. The trainroom ended up a perfect light shade of blue, and the view out the big window on the salt marsh tops any backdrop I've seen.
Now, are the garages air conditioned? Insulated doors? How's the power and lighting?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Yes, most of the "flipper" shows are bs in one way or another.
I sometimes do work for a real flipper, sometimes he wins, sometimes not, but has the means and the time.
And he is not just the "boss", he gets his hand dirty, and so does his wife. Her and my stepson do all the painting on their projects.
And he is into high end stuff, buys the $350,000 neglected house in the $700,000 neighborhood, and invests $250,000 and 8-10 months. No 6 week "magic" transformations.
But it is a high risk game, not for me, I'm happy being his design consultant, carpenter, etc, etc.
York1 Doughless After leaving my home of 25 years, and co-workers whom I enjoyed, I still do not feel comfortable despite the fact that I have a better house, better weather, and can buy the same merchandise from the same familiar stores. Its not home. Douglas, You make a great point. I live in the northern plains where winters are long, dark, and cold. (I know, nothing like further north, but we get our share.) Many people live here their entire working career, but dream of moving south after retirement, usually to Texas or Arizona. However, many of them find no happiness in leaving behind their friends, their church, and their "connection" with a location. We have even had some who move back after several years.
Doughless After leaving my home of 25 years, and co-workers whom I enjoyed, I still do not feel comfortable despite the fact that I have a better house, better weather, and can buy the same merchandise from the same familiar stores. Its not home.
Douglas,
You make a great point. I live in the northern plains where winters are long, dark, and cold. (I know, nothing like further north, but we get our share.)
Many people live here their entire working career, but dream of moving south after retirement, usually to Texas or Arizona.
However, many of them find no happiness in leaving behind their friends, their church, and their "connection" with a location. We have even had some who move back after several years.
My tolerance for cold weather has diminished as I've gotten older. But, I also believe that weather has little impact on where I would choose to live. Certainly many months of cold and cloudy would be a drag, but weeks in the mid 90's like its been here in GA don't provide much more opportunity for activity at the moment. In the end, up north, you just put on your coat, hat, and gloves and go about your business, provided the streets have been cleared quickly enough to to that.
The way I see it, like houses, weather is just something that you deal with in order to satisfy other important thngs in your life.
And, yes, having an ideal train room is becoming a bigger priority, so the stuff that used to weigh heavily on the decisions is becoming less important, outside of economics of course.
I haven't changed jobs in over 23 years. Name on my paycheck has changed a few times though. Typically not too much travel (as I prepare to leave Sunday to be gone most of this month...) as much of what I do is done remotely - even for customers that might only be a 20 minute drive away. There are occasional times when there is a lot of travel activity, then nothing for a year or more. Only bad one was several jobs ago, when my oldest was a baby, we were rolling out new systems to every location across the country so we had to physically travel (and today's remote technology did not exist), so I missed much of that transition from baby to toddler - missed his first words, missed his first walking. They're both in their 20's now, so finding a house for me is well, pretty much about me.
As a geologist, I did quite a bit of traveling for a number of years and have had more than enough of my fill and gave up that life over 10 years ago. No more of that thanks.
DoughlessI hate renovations. I never feel like I get my money's worth. I hate waste also. We once decided to redo our kitchen (due to my mother in law moving in) and changed appliances. I asked the guys who delievered the new appliances what they were going to do with the perfectly good 5 year old refridgerator they were removing. They said the easiest and cheapest thing was to just take it to the dump.
When my wife and I moved into our fixerupper late 2017, we replaced all of the builder appliances in the kitchen and it was an easy descision what to do with the old frig - we kept it as a beer/spare space fridge. We'll use it till it dies and look for a used replacement. The new large side-by-side still fills up pretty quickly so it's nice to have the overflow space in the spare fridge for frozen items or dishes my wife makes up on the weekend for us to have ready-made for quick prep during the week when we are too tired to cook.
As far as renovations go, I can see why people don't feel the get their money's worth. It can cost a lot. Buying a fixer upper has meant we have needed to do renovations, like the kitchen and the master bath. We've done a good deal of the work ourselve to keep costs down and only hired out some parts of it, like installing the granite countertops. My wife and I have learned how to do a lot of the reno work oureselves and it's saved us many thousands.
After leaving my home of 25 years, and co-workers whom I enjoyed, I still do not feel comfortable despite the fact that I have a better house, better weather, and can buy the same merchandise from the same familiar stores. Its not home. Consequently, however, the lack of attachment to an area does give me more opportunity for more change. After all of this, we have an opportunity to move to Alabama where I can find a house better suited for a proper train room.
Yep. For better or for worse, I was raised a military brat and for much of my childhood didn't live in the same place more than maybe 3 years. It wasn't until I was around 14 that we moved off-base from Travis to a college down 30 minutes commute to the north that we actually stayed put for longer and I lived there from grade 6 through first few years of college.
Point being, having grown up a somewhat nomadic life, I've never been so attached to an area or had enough roots that it was difficult to relocate. The advantage to that was, if I need to move for a better life, or to get out of an economically depressed area, I could move, rather than languish and suffer like I've seen so many "locals" do over the years.
York1 I live in the northern plains where winters are long, dark, and cold. (I know, nothing like further north, but we get our share.) Many people live here their entire working career, but dream of moving south after retirement, usually to Texas or Arizona. However, many of them find no happiness in leaving behind their friends, their church, and their "connection" with a location. We have even had some who move back after several years.
I will say, after spending enough time in a sunny place like California, I found living in places with long dark winters to be unacceptable to me as the lack of sun light is not good. Must be seasonal affective disorder to some degree. Moving from central New York to northern Virginia was good in that regard as well as much better economic conditions. The down side here is cost of homes is high, so finding a decent sized basement with a house on top would be out of many budgets and town homes, which are the affordable option for many, aren't so good basement wise.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Agreed, buildings do not make a place your home.
As for renovations, if you are not handy, or construction savvy, it can be frustrating.
Think of it this way, new houses are build with "production" methods, like a car on an assembly line.
Renovating is more like restoring a vintage car, there is way more "careful hand work" required.
It will cost more per sq ft, no question. But, if you already have the building, if your cost position in the building is favorable, than renovating is a good idea.
But I agree, there is far too much trendy, wasteful, style driven remodeling. We did old old Queen Anne 24 years ago, it still looks pretty good. Hopefully the next owner just freshens up a few things and appreciates all the work we did.
DoughlessAfter leaving my home of 25 years, and co-workers whom I enjoyed, I still do not feel comfortable despite the fact that I have a better house, better weather, and can buy the same merchandise from the same familiar stores. Its not home.
York1 John
After reading more of the thread, I'll add a few more thoughts:
I envy some of the situations where it seems like they can buy/build a house with a train room in mind. I still have school age children which demands certain accomodations, most recently an area for a weight bench for the teenage boy. That's about an 8x8 space needed for elbow room. Neighborhoods, sufficient driveway space, etc are things that would take priority over train room space.
I hate renovations. I never feel like I get my money's worth. I hate waste also. We once decided to redo our kitchen (due to my mother in law moving in) and changed appliances. I asked the guys who delievered the new appliances what they were going to do with the perfectly good 5 year old refridgerator they were removing. They said the easiest and cheapest thing was to just take it to the dump.
I'm not an environmentalist, but sheer waste like that...just to basically change from black appliances to stainless steel (with marginally useful doo-dad upgrades) ....was really disappointing. Economically speaking, wasting good product eventually works its way into the cost of the new one. (contrary to popular belief that sheer consumption propels the economy, no, waste eventually makes everything more expensive than it should be). Which is maybe why I feel like I never get my money's worth.
A house is a house. A home is made. After moving several times to fairly significantly different areas and situations, first early in my adulthood and now three years ago, I realize that personal relationships is what makes a home. After leaving my home of 25 years, and co-workers whom I enjoyed, I still do not feel comfortable despite the fact that I have a better house, better weather, and can buy the same merchandise from the same familiar stores. Its not home.
Consequently, however, the lack of attachment to an area does give me more opportunity for more change. After all of this, we have an opportunity to move to Alabama where I can find a house better suited for a proper train room. Even with the kids needs.
dknelson Not to split hairs or anything, but it is probably more accurate to say we're really talking about buying a house due to its train room, not buying a house just to get a train room. I mean you also intend to live there. I think most of us when house hunting had the train location in mind in one way or another. I know we looked at houses that had wonderful basements but the headroom was too low for me to consider using it for trains (I was 6'8" when we were in house hunting mode), or the access to the basement would have been awkward for lumber. Locations of staircases matter too. Dave Nelson
Not to split hairs or anything, but it is probably more accurate to say we're really talking about buying a house due to its train room, not buying a house just to get a train room. I mean you also intend to live there.
I think most of us when house hunting had the train location in mind in one way or another. I know we looked at houses that had wonderful basements but the headroom was too low for me to consider using it for trains (I was 6'8" when we were in house hunting mode), or the access to the basement would have been awkward for lumber. Locations of staircases matter too.
Dave Nelson
LOL. In my youth and vigor, I too was 6'8" tall. I tell folks now that I am gathering in the middle, as I now stand 6'7" but am much wider.
On a related topic, changing jobs, I never worked for someone else for more than about 4 years, and have been self employed for 30 of my 44 adult years.
I can't even imagine working for some big company for 29 years, nor could I travel like you do.
I'm not sure they have printed enough money yet to motivate me to spend 35 weeks a year traveling for work.
So good for you since it appears to be your kind of thing, and good luck no matter what you decide.