Just another $700,000 house
#11
A good friend wanted me to accompany him to look at a house he is interested in buying as a vacation getaway. Location: Blue Ridge, GA. It was a five hour drive for us and I suppose it was worth it in its own sick way.

I knew it was trouble when he said it was a former rental cabin but I was not ready for this. Everything here was not caused by wear and tear from renters. This was either original install or later modification. Im only posting this because I am ignorant of vacation rentals in general and how such places are built originally and am asking the trust if this is normal or if this is exceptional. My friend passed on the place by the way.

First thing I noticed was the main entry door was sticky. It also seemed like there was quite a gap between the jamb. This is what was found.



There was a 1/4 inch air gap when the door was fully closed and the deadbolt engaged.

The kitchen was nice in a way but obviously built on a budget. The cabinet doors must have been made from scraps. The carcasses were actually made from what appeared to be high quality cherry faced ply so that was something.





I only actually looked closely at this one bathroom. There were 4 others in the house though. This one had a double vanity with separate cabinets and sinks. Here are pics of each one. WHY? Why couldn't you just do the second one like you did the first one?





Also in the same bathroom was the linen closet. This is as far as I could get the door open.



That bathroom door also did not close. The door frame, the jamb, the strike plate and the latch all did not line up. As in, none of them lined up at all with any other part of what they should have been lined up with. The door was trying to close in an out of square casement. The latch would not fully retract when the knob was turned, etc. All 5 bathroom doors had this problem. Most of the other interior doors worked just fine though. Odd.

I went to open this bedroom closet and the knobs were installed very poorly. Probably should have been on the other side of that panel.



The trim in this place made no sense. The walls were knotty pine and they were trimed with this knotty pin moulding. They just ran the moulding up to itself without worrying about any cope joints. It would have been better if they just forgot the moulding altogether so they could have had proper abutments. Everywhere it was like this. I could not stop looking at it.







Nail/staple holes galore.



Great miters.





It was hotter than blazes in all the bedrooms and about 10-15 degrees cooler in the living areas and kitchen. The only explanation I have is that either the HVAC is screwed or that there are so many air leaks in the doors and windows that the living areas stay cooler because of this. Probably both.
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When something has to be done, no one knows how to do it.  When they "pay" you to do it, they become "experts".
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#12
Is that a log house? Log or no, that's a whole lot of wood movement to account for... which obviously they didn't.
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#13
Not log. Made to look like log though. Log siding I guess. It is a typical looking vacation rental cabin for that part of the state.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. It was built in November of 2014. Barely a year old.
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When something has to be done, no one knows how to do it.  When they "pay" you to do it, they become "experts".
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#14
They must have grabbed the trim out crew from the HD parking lot that morning.
Matt

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
-Jack Handy

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#15
It was a rental. Does anyone think the renters really cared about the trim work? It was built as cheap as possible and served its purpose. Now that it is time to sell, the owner is learning about the foolishness of that approach.

A lot of the door and trim problems might be because of wood movement.

Twinn
Will post for food.
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#16
Only one year old though. Sooooo, probably suspect discount wet lumber.
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When something has to be done, no one knows how to do it.  When they "pay" you to do it, they become "experts".
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#17
Axehandle said:

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I would have assumed the kitchen looked like that on purpose. Would look out of place to use FAS no sap cherry then have knot holes all over the pine walls.

No excuse for the rest of it...
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#18
I only ever stayed in a rental in Utah. As someone said above, I'm not sure I would notice details like that because they were not my house. Can't get much for 700k nowadays. Ok, so here in Happy Valley, we have a fairly strong market, and you can get a pretty good house for that much in a good location. We never really saw much of the most recent bubble. There is a new cabin in the state forest nearby, I'm not sure how much it would go for if it was being sold. The older ones don't get 100k, as far as I know. But they sell fast.
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#19
JosephP said:




I would have assumed the kitchen looked like that on purpose. Would look out of place to use FAS no sap cherry then have knot holes all over the pine walls.




That was my thought as well, although that one pictured knot was a little over the top, even if you're going for the rustic look.

JosephP said:

No excuse for the rest of it...




Agreed.
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#20
thooks said:


Also....if it wasn't built by the owner/weekend warrior, this is what you get when you want to pay a skilled trade $9/hour.




No it isn't. You can't get a skilled tradesman for nine dollars an hour and even if you could they couldn't turn out work like that if they tried.
Mike

Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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