Marlena hits (literally) 1st post-closing snag

[Anonymous]

I'm going to whine about my first real post-closing problem, which is of all things, the DRIVEWAY! Every time I came to property pre-close I parked on the street, so I had no idea of the problem I was about to encounter when I actually pulled into the driveway. Long story short, steep driveway, deep curb gutter. The result - my car bottomed out so badly it probably woke the neighborhood the first time I rolled up, all happy and proud, and swung into my new driveway. It was bad. Bad, bad. After a bit of practice (and a few more bottom-outs, albeit lower speed ones, I figured out how to angle in and out of the driveway so that only one wheel approached the curb gutter/driveway edge at a time. It's a two-car driveway, so that worked until we moved in and now had my daughter's car to contend with. With one car already in the driveway it's impossible to angle the other one in, so dear daughter was stuck parking on the street.

So, I called a concrete contractor for an estimate to fix the problem. $7000 to dig up the existing driveway and grade it properly to the street. Called a second contractor - $6500. Not willing to go there at the moment, I ordered some Bridjits - 3 center sections and 2 end pieces - $600, which temporarily fixed the problem. Both cars can now approach the driveway without bottoming out.

Alas, that is not the end of the story. After the first severe bottom-out I noticed my car was handing differently and that there was a grinding/clunking sound on accelaration coming from the undercarriage, so I knew I had done some kind of damage, wasn't sure what, but knew it probably wasn't pretty.

Which brings me to yesterday. I finally took the car to a suspension shop to have it checked out/repaired. The result? Two broken motor mounts, two broken front struts, two broken front tie-rods. The pain? $1050.

So, $1650 later I have a tip to pass on - PULL INTO THE DRIVEWAY BEFORE MAKING AN OFFER!

Signed,

Sad Marlena

[Anonymous]

Oh my goodness, Marlena!!!!  As I read about your car I told myself, "Oh no, her car has to have more internal damage!"  I know from first hand experience.  Sigh. 

I am glad your daughter didn't damage hers, too.  That is the bright side of it, right?!

All kidding aside, I hope this is the last post-closing mishap. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Oh my goodness, Marlena!!!!  As I read about your car I told myself, "Oh no, her car has to have more internal damage!"  I know from first hand experience.  Sigh. 

I am glad your daughter didn't damage hers, too.  That is the bright side of it, right?!

All kidding aside, I hope this is the last post-closing mishap. 

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Thanks for the sympathy, Bananas. If that's the worst thing that happens post closing, I'm good with it. What really horrifies me was that I had been driving that car on the interstate in that condition. My bad, I know; I should have taken it to the shop pronto, and I shudder to think what could have happened driving a car in that condition at 80 mph (I know, bad Marlena again). I literally could have hurt somebody, which would have been devastating. Lesson definitely burned into my brain.

[StrawberryIce]

Sounds like we need a list of things to check pre-closing.  We were just talking about this yesterday.  What in the world would we look for when we do our final walk-thru meeting?

[Anonymous]

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@StrawberryIce wrote:

Sounds like we need a list of things to check pre-closing.  We were just talking about this yesterday.  What in the world would we look for when we do our final walk-thru meeting?

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I don't know. I think it's nigh impossible to catch everything. For instance, my garage door openers are weirdly wired. There are lights in the garage ceiling just above each door opener unit. The switch for the lights is inside in the kitchen next to the garage door, which is OK. The kicker is that if you turn off the garage lights you also turn off the power to the garage door openers. Which means if you leave (or your dear daughter stays out late at night) you have to leave the garage lights on to open the garage doors when you return. So I need to get around to having that rewired.

Dryer plug. When I moved in and went to hook up my clothes dryer I found that the plug in the wall was different than the plug on the dryer. Had to call an electrician to come out and change the dryer power cord to match the wall plug.

Internet connection. Realized that the bedroom I chose to use as my home office had no cable/internet connection. Had to call Time Warner to install an internet connection in that room.

Front storm door handle. The afternoon sun beats right on the front door so the metal handle on the storm door gets so hot you cannot touch it without burning yourself.

The area between the left side of the house and the fence - I was planning a small oasis with nice water feature and comfortable chairs surrounded by my beloved Angel Trumpets. The area is perfect - morning sun, afternoon shade, shielded from the winds, etc. When I viewed the property that area was covered in leaves (lots of trees around here) and my assumption was that the owners just raked all the leaves into that area because it was out of site (lazy, I guess). So, the other day I decided to remove all the leaves from the area so that I could put down some compost and prepare the area for planting my Trumpets. But no. What do I find under all those leaves? A brick patio! I can't plant jack until I get the majority of those bricks removed. Probably 12 x 30 feet of brick.

Every day is a new discovery. lol

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@StrawberryIce wrote:

Sounds like we need a list of things to check pre-closing.  We were just talking about this yesterday.  What in the world would we look for when we do our final walk-thru meeting?

---

I don't know. I think it's nigh impossible to catch everything. For instance, my garage door openers are weirdly wired. There are lights in the garage ceiling just above each door opener unit. The switch for the lights is inside in the kitchen next to the garage door, which is OK. The kicker is that if you turn off the garage lights you also turn off the power to the garage door openers. Which means if you leave (or your dear daughter stays out late at night) you have to leave the garage lights on to open the garage doors when you return. So I need to get around to having that rewired.

Dryer plug. When I moved in and went to hook up my clothes dryer I found that the plug in the wall was different than the plug on the dryer. Had to call an electrician to come out and change the dryer power cord to match the wall plug.

Internet connection. Realized that the bedroom I chose to use as my home office had no cable/internet connection. Had to call Time Warner to install an internet connection in that room.

Front storm door handle. The afternoon sun beats right on the front door so the metal handle on the storm door gets so hot you cannot touch it without burning yourself.

The area between the left side of the house and the fence - I was planning a small oasis with nice water feature and comfortable chairs surrounded by my beloved Angel Trumpets. The area is perfect - morning sun, afternoon shade, shielded from the winds, etc. When I viewed the property that area was covered in leaves (lots of trees around here) and my assumption was that the owners just raked all the leaves into that area because it was out of site (lazy, I guess). So, the other day I decided to remove all the leaves from the area so that I could put down some compost and prepare the area for planting my Trumpets. But no. What do I find under all those leaves? A brick patio! I can't plant jack until I get the majority of those bricks removed. Probably 12 x 30 feet of brick.

Every day is a new discovery. lol

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Wow, am sorry about your car but this drives home for me how unready I would be to purchase a real home I suspect.  Halfway house condo was probably a really smart decision on my part.

How much of this really is inspectable / demand credit / fixable?  Some of it is dumb, who thought leaving the garage light on to use the garage door clicker was a reasonable way of hooking it up?  They suffered under that for how long?  Why?

Leaves over brick, even had you known would you have changed gears?  Internet connection is all you... wireless yo .

[Anonymous]

Alas, I work with somewhat confidential information; no wireless allowed on my work system (wireless has been disabled by my company). I have to use a hard wired connection. The rest of my house is wireless, of course. Wouldn't have changed gears over the brick patio, but was surprised at the monkey wrench thrown into my garden plan. Other than the driveway, it's all little, quirky stuff I just stumble upon unexpectedly.

I do agree the garage door wiring is beyond stupid. I don't know why they put up with it or why they allowed it to be wired that way. It's annoying and senseless.