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October 13th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Wow, that house is almost as big as mine, I'm in a small little 3 bedroom house but it is a nice house | 
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October 13th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Hi Gremlin. Sure looks like you hav your work cut out for you.
I know that you're excitd and I sure don't want to be a killjoy.
Have you had an inspector come in?
I would worry about that black mold and see how far it extends into/behind the wall board, floors and ceiling.
It can be pretty harmful. | 
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October 13th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Mold remediation will be about $2,000 since it is limited to the one room.
Latest update - still waiting on paperwork and mortgage to go thru...... | |
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October 13th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Quote:
Originally Posted by gremlin  Mold remediation will be about $2,000 since it is limited to the one room. |  I'm glad to har you have that covered. Hate to see you stuck with a 'sick house'
Last edited by Lucy; October 13th, 2009 at 02:50 PM.
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Out of curiosity, on the mold subject; is that room immediately below where the AC used to be?
It looks like that room has rain damage, and I'm guessing that the same water ran down between the walls, but I doubt that Arizona roofs get beaten up enough to allow a leak like that to get in. Condensation from the AC could easily have been the cause (someone around here had their AC collapse a ceiling in their house).
Which leads me to a secondary question: is all central AC put on the roof in Arizona? My central AC is on the ground next to the house and feeds into the furnace/fan in the basement, which then cycles the air through the entire house. I just presumed that was how all central air was hooked up, but I've seen several references to this rooftop AC recently, and now my curiosity is piqued. | |
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Quote:
Originally Posted by sirdarksol . . . (someone around here had their AC collapse a ceiling in their house). | That was me. My bedroom ceiling landed on my bed at 2:30 in the morning (yes, I was in the bed at the time).
The mold damage is in the back of the house, the a/c unit is towards the front. No, not all a/c units are on the roof. We don't have a lot of basements here in Phoenix due to the difficulty of digging in the kalichi (desert clay-like soil that is very difficult to dig in and has no drainage). A lot of the houses I looked at had the a/c units sitting on the ground. A lot of them had no a/c units left (due to being stolen). In fact, a friend of mine had her a/c unit stolen - it was sitting on the ground to the side of her house in front of her fence. When she had it replaced, she added another fence so that the a/c unit was no longer visible/accessible from the front yard.
I was at the house this morning with a couple of general contractors to get estimates on the repairs needed. The guy I had doing an estimate before that I thought was a licensed contractor, wasn't. Anyway, I spent 2 1/2 hours this morning going over everything at the house with them, so now I get to wait for them to send me their estimates. Both of them said it looked like the back part of the house was the original house and the front was added on. The back is where most of the repair work needs to be done and one of the contractors said it might be easier and cheaper to just raze the back part of the house and rebuild it. The majority of the repairs are in that back part of the house.
As for the leak in the one bedroom, it is right where the old and new parts of the house meet, and the roof has a funny little valley in it there that probably holds rain water and lets it soak in. If I decide to rebuild the back of the house, that would solve the roof issue as well as a lot of the repairs in that part of the house. Decisions, decisions... | |
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Not sure how I missed this one....Gremlin, what area is this home in? I think everything looks fixable....Actually looks like a nice property.... | |
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinismommy Not sure how I missed this one....Gremlin, what area is this home in? I think everything looks fixable....Actually looks like a nice property.... | What, you want to come help? Do you know where Christown (Spectrum) Mall is? This house is not too far from there. Slightly south and barely west of the mall. | |
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Well I can't come help but I can give you moral support lol..Yes, I know the area....Did you bid on it yet? | |
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Yes I did. I am actually in the final stages of getting the mortgage and all. I bid slightly higher than their asking price, but due to the damages inside once I had the inspector come, I asked for a reduction in the price and they gave part of it to me. So I am actually getting it for less than the asking price. Hmm, should I put on here how much I am spending? | |
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| maybe after everything is official?  | |
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| i agree lol
lets wait untill its written and you have the papers | |
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October 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| That's why I haven't said anything yet. I don't want to jinx it! | |
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October 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Well - this isn't gonna happen. The mortgage company wants more time for all the paperwork and will only allow x number of dollars to make the house livable. Unfortunately, it will take xx number of dollars to make the house livable, and the only way to get the extension is to pay through the nose in cash up front. And I was so close on this one! That's what I get for not buying things on credit...no credit history anymore because my last transaction has now dropped off because it was too long ago. Well, back to the house hunting. It only took looking at 145 houses to find this one, maybe I'll get lucky next time around. | |
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October 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| <hugs> | |
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October 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| oh no gremlin  You were so close too 
Sorry | |
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October 24th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| I'm sorry, Gremlin. I'm sure you'll find another one soon. | |
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October 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| sorry!! hugs | |
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October 24th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Sorry it fell through. Don't worry, though. You'll find the right place. Quote:
Originally Posted by gremlin A lot of them had no a/c units left (due to being stolen). In fact, a friend of mine had her a/c unit stolen - it was sitting on the ground to the side of her house in front of her fence. | I would like to nominate Arizona for the "Most Determined Thieves in the US" award. Those things are huge! People just run off with them?
The idea of seeing a couple of guys running down the block with an AC unit between them is actually making me laugh (yes, I know, they probably load it into a truck, but still.) | |
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October 24th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| [quote=sirdarksol;688528I would like to nominate Arizona for the "Most Determined Thieves in the US" award. Those things are huge! People just run off with them?
The idea of seeing a couple of guys running down the block with an AC unit between them is actually making me laugh (yes, I know, they probably load it into a truck, but still.)[/QUOTE]
+1-here in GA, they just steal the copper. They're too lazy to take the whole unit.  | |
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October 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Mentor
| Quote:
Originally Posted by sirdarksol I would like to nominate Arizona for the "Most Determined Thieves in the US" award. Those things are huge! People just run off with them?
The idea of seeing a couple of guys running down the block with an AC unit between them is actually making me laugh (yes, I know, they probably load it into a truck, but still.) | Yes, they load them in a truck. Mostly they are after the copper in them, and since (unfortunately) we are close enough to Mexico to have a lot of illegals in the area and warm and dry enough to have a lot of homeless in the area, they will do practically anything for money. It is sad what some people will do. | |
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October 24th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Quote:
Originally Posted by gremlin Yes, they load them in a truck. Mostly they are after the copper in them, and since (unfortunately) we are close enough to Mexico to have a lot of illegals in the area and warm and dry enough to have a lot of homeless in the area, they will do practically anything for money. It is sad what some people will do. | I doubt it has much to do with being close to Mexico. We have similar problems in MN, thieves just tend to focus on uninhabited buildings (or they steal more portable things like tools from the garage).
The setup of our neighborhoods might help quite a bit. Most houses are within twenty feet of each other side to side, and maybe a hundred feet back to back, with many yards completely fenced in. There's usually no way to get a truck right up to the unit, and even if there was, or even if they carry it to the street, they're likely to be noticed by one of the many close-by neighbors.
Last edited by sirdarksol; October 24th, 2009 at 06:38 PM.
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October 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| stealing copper is a felony in Texas | |
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