My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

Claire, Just noticed you are from Spain. What part of Spain are you from? My daughter did study abroad in Madrid three years ago and we have traveled a few times to Spain and always enjoyed it there, especially in the summer sitting in the plazas drinking Sangria and eating potato chips!

 

[CometKeith]

Started up my bio-filter today and did some cleaning. Also raised up the back side where the dirt was low. Here is a picture from the 2nd floor off of our kitchen. We will be living on the 2nd and third floors.The water is pretty green but I'm sure it will clear up in time. Also took some pictures of the construction. Getting ready to start flooring next week.

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[claire58]

Claire, Just noticed you are from Spain. What part of Spain are you from? My daughter did study abroad in Madrid three years ago and we have traveled a few times to Spain and always enjoyed it there, especially in the summer sitting in the plazas drinking Sangria and eating potato chips!

I live near Barcelona! (Madrid booh hahah) Nothing can't beat a few beers in a terrace with friends in the summertime!

 

[herzausstahl]

I have remodeled 4 houses in my lifetime and it is not an easy job to do .Plus built sheds an insulated and drywalled them after I ran all the electrical .Built decks and porch's and pergolas .I just got done redoing both my decks last year and it was not an easy job .Hopefully not going to do anymore of it .Though my son is thinking about buying the bank owned house on 5 acres down the street from me .bank wants 28 thousand for it and it is 10 years old .He is just waiting for the bank to let him see it and finish the foreclosure papers on the owners .Hoping it does not need much work .

Careful Addy at that price my wife will want to buy it & move! lol that's cheaper than a new truck these days! I guess the tough part would be getting a loan big enough to cover any repairs needed.

 

[herzausstahl]

Keith if the new place is 2200 sq feet how big was your old house? I get the downsizing, my wife for awhile has liked the idea of a tiny house because it forces you to minimize & prioritize plus the idea of living debt free without a mortgage. As for me I'd love it if it meant a wooded lot but definitely not before the kids have moved out. It does seem the more space we have the more "stuff" we find to fill it with. Luckily last fall she upgraded our floors to vinyl plank, changed the trim & painted. Now she loves it. Everything is looking great so far! Are you going to manage the rents yourself or use a company to go through the hassle of renting it out for you & collecting rent? My guess is being on the top floor, having neighbors won't bother you unless the tenants expect to share the entire yard space. But having the rents cover your housing expenses is a big plus. After talking to my brother who has a dog & the costs he's had to pay, it's amazing you can definitely spend a lot more to rent than own these days.

 

[sissy]

I love the stacked windows on the staircase .I remember my house in NJ staircases were so dark I had to run small lights down the wall on both sides to light them and put them on a timer.Holes in drywall easy but running wire is not easy ,the less damage the less patching was my motto .When this house here was planned the more windows the better .

 

[CometKeith]

Nathan. That sounds nice about the improvements you made. Our old house was 4000 SF not including the basement. We built it 18 years ago. At the time it wasn't that expensive to build even with all the upgrades like solid oak flooring and a custom millwork staircase with wrought iron ballesters. It cost less than 100/SF to build including a finished basement. Our budget is much higher on this project. I used to manage a bunch of rentals and I still keep my real estate license active so I should be okay managing the rentals. Hopefully we have good neighbors! Originally I was a little worried that the tenants might misuse our yard or the pond and we have met other owners in the area and they have told us their renters have all been very respectful of their yards. We plan on having the rents pay for mortgage and taxes so it will reduce our living expenses if we ever decide to work less and have more fun! It will be different having renters but we are staying in a rental building now while we are waiting for the project to be done and it's not too bad. Our building is sound proofed between floors so that should help a lot.
Thanks Sissy. There are 8 stacked windows total and it goes 154 inches high. The lower 4 are tempered and the windows came in units of 4 windows each. The architect designed a shorter run of windows with three long windows in total. We wanted something more dramatic and lengthened the window run by about 20 inches. We looked at where they are on the side of our building and you can almost see in from the street so we decided going with shorter windows to give us more privacy because we don't plan on covering them. Our back windows are 106 inches high and are practically floor to ceiling. We had to use a scissors lift to get them up to the second floor.

 

[herzausstahl]

Careful Addy at that price my wife will want to buy it & move! lol that's cheaper than a new truck these days! I guess the tough part would be getting a loan big enough to cover any repairs needed.

Sorry! I meant Sissy not Addy! Knew that even as I typed it, not sure why the mix up!

 

[addy1]

Sorry! I meant Sissy not Addy! Knew that even as I typed it, not sure why the mix up!

lol figured it out!

Love what you are doing Keith! I love windows!

We put in 3 windows 5x8 and two that are 3x8 across the back of our sun room. Just love the openness and light. We only have critters behind us so we never close the blinds except in the summer as the sun moves across to keep the heat hit down.
In the winter they warm the house, the sun gets us to around 80f during the day.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks Addy. All the great ideas were my wife's. She spent a lot of time thinking about the large windows in the kitchen and we had install a heavy steel lintel at the top of the brick in the wall so we could install them. We started the hardwood flooring today. We are putting in 3.25 in white oak in the rental and 5 inch white oak in our unit. They have to both nail and glue the 5 inch planks so it will take 2 weeks just for the glue to dry when they install that floor. I took a few pictures today. All the green water cleared up 100% since I put my biofilter in on Saturday. Also some of the sedges I brought from my old pond are starting to shoot up and it looks like the lilly I took from my old pond is starting to shoot up some leaves too. I did a quick count and counted 60 fish but I probably have at least another 20-30 black fish I didn't count because they are harder to see.

 

[Usman]

lovely fish and pond ! welcome to ur new place

 

[sissy]

I bought a second house no repairs needed on almost 12 acres for 27 thousand with 2 creeks and the horses love it .I looked a the house down the road from me and it needs updated but nothing major .It has 2 new decks and bank said they would consider offers over 15 thousand for 5 acres .

 

[Usman]

dont walk thru that door in 3rd pic when u wake up

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks Usman. It's supposed to be 80 degrees here today so the fish should be getting a lot more active soon. Oh. There will be a porch soon so walking out the door hopefully won't be a problem. Sissy you can get a nice lot 25x125 in my new neighborhhood for $400,000!

 

[Usman]

Thanks Usman. It's supposed to be 80 degrees here today so the fish should be getting a lot more active soon. Oh. There will be a porch soon so walking out the door hopefully won't be a problem. Sissy you can get a nice lot 25x125 in my new neighborhhood for $400,000!

nice , yes i know must b some thing planed , i was kidding i was talking about 1st floor black door , can b balcony infront ?