Considering Basements

It isn't always an option depending upon the area, the water table, or even your finances, but a basement of almost any kind is of incredible benefit.   In the course of doing this blog I have collected many pictures of many things, and I noticed that my collection of basement interiors shows a lot of different types of basements. Some basements were built with high ceilings and with the intention of perhaps completing them as living space someday. Some have windows. When a basement is properly finished as living space, it often is a way of obtaining extra square footage , which can be cheaper than adding an addition later.
        It is particularly important that a basement be dry enough to prevent mold growth, to prevent damage to mechanical house systems which are stored there, and to allow the storage of food, furniture, and sometimes even off season clothing.   When we built our last two homes, we selected the location on the acreage to permit a basement, and then we paid particular attention to its height and its design so that it would be very dry.   Sometimes, if you have a basement in a house already, B-Dry or a similar company can make changes to the exterior foundation and to the drainage from the house which can make a damp basement much dryer.  This makes storage there, or completion much more possible.

This is an example of a low ceilinged basement which was never intended to be finished as anythng other than storage. It allows access to essential systems, the potential use of a freezer and bookcases for emergency food.

The other side of this basement is heated in winter, and could be used as a hobby room or a place for a game room.  I could imagine a pool table or table tennis table here too.

This basement also has lower ceilings, and support poles.  Some basements are built so that support poles are unnecessary.  (They were built using walls in the basement as supports.) Many basements do have poles.

                                     

This is a basement that was finished as an informal Family Room and with couches that can pull out when guests come to stay.  If this is your intent, make sure you build your basement with sufficient courses of block to complete the ceiling without its being too low, and that you give some thought to the location of support poles, and where mechanical items such a tanks from the well, electrical boxes, furnaces, plumbing,  and security system control boxes, when planning your project.

                                 

This smart homeowner picked a cool section of the basement, installed lighting, and then placed lots of different sizes and heights of shelving which is well secured.  To the left there are shelves built to help in the chore of can rotation, as they can be loaded from the back, and cans taken from the front.   Todays nailguns can complete a task such as this, after planning, very very quickly.

                                   


                                          

Some basements are truly below ground, and are hidden, but most are below ground perhaps in the front of the house, and the rear has a portion above ground to accomodate windows.  The house above has an entire house below ground which could be used during tornado warnings or some other emergencies.

                                                                    

This is very similar to one corner of my own house when it was first built. The basement walls in this house are made of concrete and were installed by Superior Walls.   Superior Walls create a very solid secure system for tornadoes and for earthquakes, but do require some special tools, strategy and care when the basement is finished.

                 
              If you are building a home, I urge you to look into the possibility of adding a basement.  Even a small one makes your home safer, more liveable, more spacious, and provides a place to hide during certain emergencies.  However, places with high water tables may not permit basements or they may be wetter than would be constructive.  Basements also may enhance a radon problem, although this can generally fairly easily be solved using todays technologies.  If you are buying a home, then consider one with a basement. The storage alone can be very valuable.
         

Basements fashioned to be a workshop can not only be valuable in terms of having a place to store and protect tools, but from a standpoint of winter repairs.  A basement need not be huge to be utilitarian.

     

Utilitarian basements can be useful also from the standpoint of providing locations for battery banks, solar modifications and other technologies which can help to make your home more efficient in future.

       

Another picture of a high tech, organized basement.

                  

Plenty of storage in this  basement.

Shortcuts in Setting Up a New Household

     

     My daughter was not contented to let her house go, when her original mortgage company could not close on the VHDA loan for which she had applied.  It took some searching, but with the aid of the original mortgage company itself, she found a mortgage broker who has helped her to reapply, which should enable her to close very close to on time.  Her problem seems to be not a problem with her credit per se, but the fact that not everything she pays gets reported to credit bureaus, and when it does, it does not get reported quickly enough to positive impact her fairly new credit score.  It IS possible to have credit reported and amended to these reports.
         The real purpose of this particular post is to convey that setting up a new household, need not cost a fortune. For some time, we have been collecting things for the households which are soon to be set up for our twenty something kids.  So many people, when faced with the task of setting up a home, run out to Wal-Mart, JC Penneys, Bed, Bath and Beyond, etc. and pay hundreds of dollars for shower curtains, bath mats, place mats and all manner of items.  Facilitating household set up for multiple kids can really be done for very little money, and you can have FANTASTIC housewares and articles, far better than if you entered a store and bought whatever they had.  The first thing to do sometime in advance of planning to set up a new household, is to determine what colors you would like to use in your kitchen, your bathroom, your bedroom, your living room or other rooms if you have them.  Our daughter graduated with an art degree and therefore had very clear ideas for color schemes in her first home.   We wrote all of these down, and while we were at it, we wrote a "choice sheet" for my eldest son, just in case things we found didn't fit her desires, and did fit his.  In the following year, we kept an eye out at garage sales. We weren't really interested in linens which were used, but we were interested in linens which were new with zippered plastic packaging and with the card with photo and description of the item.  Many times people receive linens or they buy linens, shower curtains, rugs etc. and then find that they simply don't need them or that they have no desire to "have a winter shower curtain and a summer one".   We are happy to report that she now has most things she needs to set up a household.  Our daughter was able to put together almost everything she needed using things that were used, in that they were purchased from individuals and were owned before. Most of these items were in fact, new and never used by anyone.  However, I do want to say here that you can use used varietal linens if they are in excellent condition, and you must wash everything you buy anywhere.  Even new linens could have been exposed to MRSA when someone opened the package and looked at it, and returned it to the package later.  Also, many clothing items and household linens can travel in big trucks with pesticides, and so it is essential to buy washables and to wash them before use.
          Most people buying a first house already have furniture and household articles from an apartment, but this is not so of our kids.  They went to college, and then in view of the economy, returned to the farm to launch directly from here. They did not need dishes, silverware, shower curtains, sheets, etc.   Once a person is armed with a shopping list of items needed and a description of colors they would like, then you would be surprized at how many times you can find not only perfect, but high end articles at garage sales, consignment shops, flea markets and other sources.  I also don't pay a lot at garage sales or at flea markets.  A new Queen sized comforter, a JC Penney brand, for example, which has tags for $120. should not go for $75. in a flea market.  I paid $7.    It is very important in this age of money being so tight, that whenever we can, we conserve it.   I can't get much of a discount on a survey for example, or on a housing inspection.  I CAN get great deals on comforters and on blankets during January "white sales.".   We all must save money whenever we can, with the goal of keeping our homes as safe and as comfortable as is possible.
      

Both Stephanie's and my favorite curtains come from a store called "Country Curtains". They also have a website where you can order from them.  www.countrycurtains.com      Saving money on curtains in other rooms means that Stephanie can go to Country Curtains to do the one room she hasn't been able to get curtains for, in our travels of a year, which is her kitchen.  

These are the curtains she plans to place in her kitchen.

     


To inspire you, here is what we got in the past six months or so, for our daughter's home, it's sources, and it's approximate costs:

 
      JC Penneys Queen Sized New Comforter                     Garage Sale                     $7.
      New, in zippered plastic

      Quality cloth shower curtain                                           Garage Sale                     $2.
    (new in packaging, for use with plastic liner)

      IKEA gauzy curtains                                                      Ebay                               $3.75

     Waverly formal curtains for living room                            Ebay                               $6.00

      Quality cloth shower curtain for her other bathroom       Garage sale                      $1.00
       (New, in packaging)

       Exquisite coffee table   (used)                                      Habitat Store                     $30.

Martha Stewart everyday dishes                                        Garage sale                        $5.
(in box , wrapped, new)  
  Crystal glass set   (genuine) 20 pieces                              Consignment shop              $10.
   (Reduced)


Things she selected and bought new:

   Queen sized sheet set                                                      Roses                          On Sale:  $20.
   Egyptian cotton

  Pillows                                                                         Wal-Mart                      On Sale   $10. for 2

 Curtain rods                                                                  Big Lots                         $12. for the entire house
(Brand that was in JC Penneys)

 Towle Quality silverware set for eight                            Tuesday Morning             $35. on sale
(I bought these for her)  stainless

 New locks and deadbolts, front and back door               Lowe's                          $36.

 for toolshed and for one security closet.                                                    
    (on sale items and using $10 off Lowe's purchase coupon found in twelve pack of Gatorade they were selling)

Varietal manual kitchen implements                                   Big Lots                         $11.
 (everything from silicone mat to silicone
  potholders, to Oxo spatula, etc.)



             The more you are able to successfully economize on household, linens, sheets, and other articles, the more money you will have for cushion savings, emergency supplies, a secondary well with hand pump, reserve food supplies, tools and whatever you like.

America....The Land of Lowered Expectations

( A Vogue cover from 1981, www. retronaut.co )

      

     I remember that when I was in high school, things were very different than they are now.  Many of my classmates, even from an upper middle class suburban high school, went right into jobs with insurance companies,  drug manufacturers, or other large companies, following high school graduation.  Sometimes, they had a parent or an uncle who worked at their new employer, but often they didn't.  It was possible for a fresh faced person who wanted to start at the bottom to get a job with real potential for growth. Many of these people started in these types of jobs while I was in college.  By the time I completed college, many of them had made use of the training opportunities they had while working for American companies.  One was a junior level lab worker for a drug company. (I think it might have been Sandoz)   One worked for M&M Mars, and there were others who in a sense, did an apprenticeship for a company who trained them as they wished.  By the time I got out of college, they were all married, and most of them had bought a small house, and most had tiny children.  Many of them eventually went to college part time, the expenses paid wholly by their employers.  College slowed me a bit.  When I graduated, I had so many offers for jobs that I was unclear as to which path to take, so I accepted two.  I declined one just before starting. It seems unethical now, but was commonly done at the time.  There was a recession when I started life as a full time working tax paying person, and it was frustrating because it fuelled high interest rates, especially for buying starter homes.  Somehow sellers and buyers adjusted by locating owner financed properties, or by adjusting prices downwards in order to acomodate buyers whose payments would already be high with what was then, a 14 1/2%  housing interest rate.  Still, most of those who wanted to, entered the housing market if they wished to.  Our first two children, of the five, were born when I was 24 and 25, so to my way of thinking, they were not born eons ago.  Now, the eldest two have completed college and are in the life stage I was then.  It's hard to be supportive and understanding when the world is so different.
          Now, not a single one of my kid's friends have been able to consider high school as an educational completion point. There simply are no good jobs that any of them have located, which could support them, or in the future, support a family.  Even the lower end jobs are seeking someone with an Associate's degree, or even a Bachelor's.  These may not be good jobs and often they have low pay, and not a lot of potential.  Jobs in the trades are hard to come by here.  The public technical college, in a city far away has a waiting list of years and is very particular.  Training slots as electricians and plumbers seem to be going to the sons of people who already do that.  The community colleges, which are a good educational value in our state, but not always in others, have entrance exams, and are crowded with people who would normally have attended a state university in a better economy.  Fast food jobs are about the only jobs available here for young people, and even then, in some places, there is fierce competition.   Our kids all went to college, one by one.  Some years we had two in universities and that was difficult.  We survived by being frugal and helping them as we could. They worked when possible, and took some student loans when it was necessary. We are fortunate that they owe less than many of their friends.  In sharp contrast to my own graduation, there weren't jobs to meet them upon graduation.  The job offers our daughter had  were offered six months prior to graduation, and were no longer there upon her graduation with honors.  Our son who graduated a year later found absolutely no jobs, for him, or for any of his classmates.  They graduated to find that if they did not have a job prior to graduation, like Subway, the movie theatre, Barnes and Noble part time, or at the gymn, then they would not have one afterward.   This has made paying student loans for this generation, difficult to say the least.   These loans are no longer $35 to $112. as many of them were when I was in college, but are $500. to $800. monthly.  My kids friends have become expert in quoting terms and procedures for things like "forbearance" , something no one in my generation knew anything at all about.

It doesn't look like progress to me.   (Graphic:  obeygiant.com)

 

           My kids and their friends in large part, don't expect to buy homes, prosper in their twenties, or to have children.  Most of them, even with college complete, expect a life of simple survival or of endurance.  How could we have fallen so very far in terms of an anticipated standard of living in just twenty years ?

Mortgage Woes

I don't think she is looking for a dream house, just a place to start, and perhaps remain for ten years, or maybe if the economy crashes, forever.  The dream house dream, is just gone.  (Photo:  metfund.com)

     
     Our daughter continues to seek a mortgage banker who can help her to close by her contractual closing date.  Today, our realtor and the former banker sent us to a woman who is a mortgage broker and who specializes in non-conforming loans.  Our daughter needs a loan where the company writing it, does not plan to sell it immediately, as many do.  She is presently getting her ducks in a row in order to provide sufficient documentation to get the new loan.

           This is a rare case however for lots of reasons.   In the past, many people have bought homes in which they are virtually assuring that they will be in over their heads.   Our daughter is buying a home, which once purchased, will have a lower payment than if the same house were rented.  This makes sense and is of benefit to her.  She realizes that electricity, internet, food, phone, maintenance, etc. will all swell her anticipated expenses there.  Her back up plan, is that if she loses her job, she will come home and rent out this house. This would certainly be very sad and stress provoking, but it would prevent a foreclosure.



           What is interesting to me is that in my many travels this week, as I see friends, complete purchases and projects here on the farm, people ask about her, what she is doing now, and how things are going.  I have told a few of them of her mortgage issues.  Interestingly, almost everyone I talk to is on the edge of buying a home or a foreclosed home, or has an adult child who is.  They are all too scared to progress right now, citing such financial and market uncertainty, and job uncertainty also.  I am especially privately surprised to see so many people I consider fairly wealthy choosing not to move forward, and to sit and watch.


Update:  The original company which changed their underwriting guidelines while our daughter's loan was in underwriting, ultimately referred her to a mortgage broker at another company..  The mortgage broker has a number of groups she works with, where she can place non-conforming or more difficult mortgages. She really earns her money !  Despite delays due to one thing or another, including a storm which took out the electricity at the mortgage bank for a week, it appears that the loan will be funded and closed in July.  Others may be choosing to sit it out and wait, but our daughter moved full speed ahead.

One of the Reasons There Will Be No Economic Recovery in the US

(Cartoon: massrealestatelawblog.com)

 
 I am as livid as I ever tend to get. Our daughter, who is in her twenties, has a good job, has saved her money, and worked hard to pay student loans and establish good credit. In our area, there are no apartments for fifty miles, and so in this economy, people tend to come home after college, save their money, and either build a home, or buy one. This is a challenging task in the economy in which we find ourselves. In many places in the US, three or even four generations now live under one roof. Our daughter had been looking at homes for sale, mostly repossessions for about eight months. She finally had found one that she thought she could work on and make liveable. It's a nice house, less for the house itself and more for the setting and the locale. She had already qualified for a loan and had a qualification letter. She has already paid hundreds of dollars for a home inspection and hundreds for an appraisal, and is about to pay hundreds for a survey. Today, two weeks before her closing and moving in to her house, the word comes through that "Underwriting has denied the funding of her loan". What the hell ?  Why?   Apparently, their answer was that "She had too many bad debts and insufficient savings". What ????? She has no "bad debts" whatsoever ! On a credit report they found one bill for $123.00 from a hospital about a year ago which has long  been paid, and that's all there was . Not having sufficient savings ? Well this they knew when they wrote a letter for her to go with the Contract she put on it !
 
Having done a little research on this, this evening, I learned something. Apparently, mortgage companies are pulling people in by promising a 3.3% or even a 3.0% mortgage rate, and then finding a reason at the last minute not to fund the loan. Then, when the person is heavily invested in the home, and has paid for the survey, the appraisal, the inspection, had the power put into their name as of the closing date, and rented the moving van, they bail, only to offer a higher rate for a nebulous reason at the last minute. At this point she has not been offered the higher less attractive arrangement. I would imagine they will let her stew in horror for two days before they attempt to rescue her with a plan which makes them more money. Little do they realize that she won't play. As disappointing as this is, she takes this as a sign that this is not meant to be. She will not be baited and switched. If they don't find a way to find her loan without adhering to the terms in her disclosure agreements thus sending her to the poorhouse, then she has decided simply to save all her money, stay here, and then build a home for cash in a couple of years, quite possibly on a piece of land on the edges of the farm. I suppose I have the space to accomodate the furniture, dishes, silverware and everything else she has collected from my parents and on her own for her house, for a few more years. The mortgage company is particularly stupid. Had this worked, she is in a particularly prominent position at work, and has no less than fifteen friends who would have followed her to this realtor and to this mortgage banker.  Now she will tell them all what happened, and who she was using.  She would also have guided her brother, our eldest son through the same process. I would also have told my friends who have post college kids living at home. People who buy homes in their twenties and who have a positive experience, tend to do it again and again. I bought my first very tiny home at twenty two. Then I sold it at a profit when I was twenty-six, and then bought another, with more money down that time. We moved up about every four years, each time, going to a larger home, and putting more money down, and so each time, our mortgage payment decreased. Most people tend to be loyal about their mortgage companies, and this had been a golden opportunity for them, and for her. In addition, people with homes tend to buy furniture, have home maintenance done, have children, and buy things which contribute to the economy. By stalling people into the home market, they stall any type of economic recovery in the US. More and more ordinary people think that the US, and the world, are headed for a complete economic collapse, and a genuine Depression. Perhaps our daughter's inability to get her loan funded at the last minute, is in fact, a gift, as much much worse economic times are coming.

Maybe this is who is doing the underwriting.    ( Photo found on: leovou.wordpress.com )  

Update:   Before posting this, we decided to let the mortgage banker see if he could find another loan program that would finance this home, albeit, at a higher interest rate than was first discussed.   She was actually considering this until she read the attachment, which is the "Statement of Credit Denial, Termination or Change".     Let me preface this by saying she plans to borrow only enough that her payment would be lower than rent in this region.  The reasons they are stating for declining her loan are as follows:

    X    in the box which reads  " Delinquent past or present credit obligations with others."
      
     This is completely untrue.  She has a medical bill for $123. which went to collection which we never received as an actual bill, which was paid in full in January, 2011.  It's on her credit report !

    X in the box which reads  " Garnishment, attachment, foreclosure, repossession, collection action or judgement"

        What ?   There is no such thing in her experience, on her credit report at any time.

   X   in the box which reads   "Payment Shock"

          Going to a house with a payment of half the payment of local rents is a shock for everyone, but not nearly the shock of  being turned down for a loan based on dishonest, incorrect and misleading information.

          The house must close on time, and now she has no mortgage company, and no more time she can take off from work to try to rectify this.   House lost thanks to a mortgage company.

Toronto's Fatal Shooting

The Eaton Shopping Center on better days than this one.

     

   There has been shooting in Toronto's Eaton Shopping Center.  One man of age 25 was killed instantly.  A thirteen year old boy is in critical condition, and a total of five other people have been shot, some of them critically.  This is an unusual occurance in Toronto, which is a huge widely spread city in Ontario, Canada. We have many friends in Toronto.  One of them is Julia Bentley, whom we are featuring in a video below.  We have not yet heard from Julia tonight, an avid shopper. Tonight we pray for Julia, and the other people of Toronto, especially those impacted by this attack.  Some have said that this may be due to increasing gang activity in Toronto, although there is as yet, no official confirmation of such.


Julia Bentley and Andrew Gunadie           "Canadian Please"




UPDATE: June 3, 2012. The perpetrators or the shootings at Toronto's most famous shopping center have not yet been apprehended. There has been no update from media as to how those who have survived the shootings are doing in the hospital. Articles in today's Toronto "Globe and Mail" speak of how inhabitants of Toronto, a normally very safe and comfortable city are in shock, in much the same way they were in Norway when the shooting there occurred. We have not yet heard from Julia, but have a message out to her.

Valuables Left Behind Walls

This bookcase has hidden shelves in which one must know the secret in order to access.  If you had this, would someone in your family know ?  (Photo:  barefootfloor.com)

       

       I have been meaning to mention this to all of your for some time.  A friend of ours used to work for a company which dismantles old homes and then sells the salvaged doors, stained glass windows, wood floors, etc.  A number of times, his crews have had to stop working because they have discovered valuables hidden in walls, sometimes from a very long time ago.  When this happens, our friend's company stops all work, and the owner must come down to remove the articles before they continue with the dismantling of the home. If this were rare, it might be amusing, but it happens far too often.

              Robert Spann was a man who lived in a Phoenix Arizona suburb and who died in 2001.  He apparently did not trust banks and he placed over $500,000 worth of gold, bonds, cash and other items in the walls of his home.  After he died, his daughters sold the home as is, and new owners discovered the cache.  The police seized these assets leaving the courts to decide who the rightful owner is. Judge Maurice Portley found this week that the assets were the property of Mr. Spann's heirs.   I know of other cases where the police did not step in, and the new owners enjoyed the objects found in the walls.
             This raises a very important question for you.  If you have hidden a safe or two, or had a secret room or hiding place constructed within your home, have you told anyone ?  If you and your wife pass, how would your children know about these areas.  How would you tell them, and how would you direct them to such a treasure ?   Don't forget that elderly people, and not-so-elderly people, often forget what they have hidden or what arrangements they made prior in terms asset management and estate decisions.

This is designed to hide long guns and other valuables.  (Photo:  tactical-life.com)

   Their website:   http://www.bedgunsafe.com/

         There are wonderful commercial concealment safes.  There are lower tech hiding places which even a moderately gifted carpenter may construct, but please be careful to leave a treasure map for your loved ones.  For many of us, the reason we strive hard to survive natural disasters is that we wish to care for our families and pass our family heirlooms and valuables on to them.  If they don't know about them, they may never receive them.   Please consider this part of your concealment plans for just a moment or two.

     

This is a hidden drawer below a bookcase   (Picture and item:  stashvault.com)