I found a home! Now what? Questions

Congrats! Here's my best guesses.

<i>1. The front and back yard is already sodded. It is sort of lumpy but is still alive. How do I keep the sod alive and get it to grow into one big even yard? If plenty of water is the answer how do I know when enough is enough?</i>

I hate lawns, personally. They are a pain which is why our yard is all plants rather than grass, but I'm guessing that isn't an option. Three things:

1. Water liberally the whole summer. The sod needs it.
2. Use organic fertilizer and bug/weed killer. Not only is it better for the grass, but it doesn't kill off of the beneficial insects.
3. When you do decide to plant garden plants, use a combination of 80/20 with 80 percent being native plants. They are heat and drout resistant, look great and encourage beneficial insects and reptiles to hang around your house which is great for keeping away aphids, mosquitos and other pests.

<i>2. My garage has 2 doors. Does that mean I need 2 door openers or can one control both?</i>

That I cannot answer because I have no garage. When in doubt, consult Sears!

<i>3. Cable or DirectTV? I'm with Time Warner in my apartment. Each room (4 bedrooms) has an cable outlet so I'm ok there. I'm not completely sold on the satellite tv hype. I don't like the idea of paying for the local affiliates. Pluses and minuses to either.</i>

Had both. Prefer cable. Digital cable is great and you can get Roadrunner to boot.

<i>4. I'd like to put some interior locking dead bolts on the doors. Am I better off getting a professional to install them? Any idea how much a locksmith charges for a house call?</i>

Two words: Reed's Keys. They are down in the Montrose but they'll go anywhere, they are really great people and they are not expensive. They'll do any kind of locks you want. I've used them numerous times.

<i>5. Fridge? How much do I need?</i>

Get anything energy efficient and get an icemaker. How big will depend on how much you eat in. I wish we had a bigger fridge, but we've been ok. One thing you can always do is add a small deep freeze in your garage or laundry room. Ours is almost always stuffed.

<i>Anything I might be forgetting??</i>

Call Ozarka and get a reverse osmosis (RO) water system. It costs $25 per month and is worth every penny. They'll even connect it to your ice maker so you get clean ice. Once you have the purified stuff, you'll NEVER want tap water. Believe me!

Also, the Britta filtration things that go on faucets don't come anywhere close to the RO systems. I used to work for Ozarka and the RO systems they rent remove 99.99 percent of the chemicals and other things from water. Plus, they service it for you twice a year and fix anything that breaks. If you want the name of the guy to call, email me.

Here are a few things to consider:

Tools - Make sure you have good garden tools and a good set of regular tools particularly a socket set, screwdriver set and a cordless drill. Invaluable.

Buy a great ladder. You won't regret it.

Get a good dolly.

Check all your deed restrictions and codes NOW.

If you want any big interior changes done - wood floors, paint, etc - DO IT NOW. There is nothing worse than getting in your house and realizing you should have done something BEFORE you got the new carpet down.

That's about everything I can think of at the moment. Best of luck!!!

 

I think I can help with the garage door question, OS.

My parents live in a house with a two-car garage, and they have one remote, but it has two different buttons on it. It attaches to the top of their cars and they just reach up and press the right button to open the door. In that garage though-the right side is much larger than the left and my parents drive pretty good sized cars so they somehow squeeze in by going through the right side only.

Of course they got 2 remotes, one for each of them, but I believe they dont have to use separate remotes for each door.

 

Congrats!

It's best to water in the early morning about 1 hour or 1 inch all over. Watering in the afternoon causes some of the water to evaporate before soaking down so you have to water more. Watering in the evening causes mold and bacteria growth that can start bad spots in your lawn. That's why automatic sprinkler systems are so nice, but some water anytime is better than no water at all.

You will have to buy 2 door openers - 1 for each door. Since each is a single door you won't need as much hp as a double. If you want to open and close both doors with 1 opener - set each door opener to the same frequency. If you want them to operate independently, set the frequencies to be different.

Installing deadbolt is easy if the hole already exists. If not, I wouldn't take the chance of ruining the door.

Go with what Jeff says. Get the icemaker and get as much as you can afford - but get a reliable brand. I bought a knockoff (thinking they were all made in pretty much the same place) and had to replace the whole thing in just a few years.

Lawnmower, weedeater, etc...Buy what you need when you need it unless you have extra money. Do get the cordless drill if you need a drill. So handy...I'll never go back to cord again.

...uhhh, I'm pretty sure I busy that weekend, weekday, week, month... Congrats again!

 

1. The front and back yard is already sodded. It is sort of lumpy but is still alive. How do I keep the sod alive and get it to grow into one big even yard? If plenty of water is the answer how do I know when enough is enough?

You will have to pay an ungodly amount for your water bill for a while. If the stuff is all newly planted and you are closing in May - that is the worst time to start. We closed in May and had serious issues keeping things alive because they were getting baked and weren't strong to begin with because they were newly planted.

If it is uneven, you might want to see what the builder will do before you close. You hold much more influence before you close. If it is really uneven, you will not really be able to do much to change it yourself. Is there any kind of landscape warranty/maintenance or anything like that...or is it all up to you?

2. My garage has 2 doors. Does that mean I need 2 door openers or can one control both?

Generally, 2 doors means 2 remotes - 1 in each car. I never understood the need for 2 door garages, but I remember my grandparents had one and that was how theirs worked. Run the doors a few times before you close - they can often have weird problems.

3. Cable or DirectTV? I'm with Time Warner in my apartment. Each room (4 bedrooms) has an cable outlet so I'm ok there. I'm not completely sold on the satellite tv hype. I don't like the idea of paying for the local affiliates. Pluses and minuses to either.

Unless you get a deal, it can be expensive to have multiple room satelite.

4. I'd like to put some interior locking dead bolts on the doors. Am I better off getting a professional to install them? Any idea how much a locksmith charges for a house call?

Unless you are good, don't do it yourself.

5. Fridge? How much do I need?

Depends on how much and what you cook. We have an Amana with the fridge on top, freezer on bottom and loved it. It was big.

Important - find out if any sized fridge will fit in the space. That often will be a big determining factor depth, heigth, and width could all be limited.

Anything I might be forgetting??

Security system? ADT is good.
Have you had the house inspected (structurally and electrically)?
Do you provide your own, or will the city provide you with a garbage can? If it is city, request it early because they are slow.

 

As for the fridge, if you get an automatic icemaker and water faucet in the front, make sure that the bin where you would place your cups is large enough for any cups you might use frequently. My wife and I bought a great 25 square foot GE model from Montgomery Wards before they closed and thought we had gotten a great deal. But after getting it home and using it for a while, I realized that I can't get my giant plastic Enron Field cups under the ice dispenser. I have to do that special slanted cup hold with my pinkie finger pressing on the dispenser button just to fill up that cup. The bin area is about two inches too small. This is not the most important thing, but the next time I have to buy a fridge, I'll take this into consideration.

(If anyone was wondering, I do have an entire setting of Enron cups to go along with my collection of Taco Bell sporks. They're great conversation pieces for those formal dinner parties! )

 

Great news.....here are my answers below.


1. The front and back yard is already sodded. It is sort of lumpy but is still alive. How do I keep the sod alive and get it to grow into one big even yard? If plenty of water is the answer how do I know when enough is enough?

I am a YARD GURU, you need to water the heck out of it for the first 2 month to let the roots grow in to the natural dirt underneath. Use weed and feed fertilizer to kill all the unwanted weeds and to fertilize the yard. Also, and this is crucial if you have St. Augustine grass, use Diazanon poison to kill grubs in April and in October....get a spreader....Grubs eat the roots of grasses and cause large circular dead areas.

Water 2 times a week in the spring and fall, and 3 times a week during summer. If you can afford a sprinkler system, they ROCK !!

2. My garage has 2 doors. Does that mean I need 2 door openers or can one control both?

2 openers will be needed.

3. Cable or DirectTV? I'm with Time Warner in my apartment. Each room (4 bedrooms) has an cable outlet so I'm ok there. I'm not completely sold on the satellite tv hype. I don't like the idea of paying for the local affiliates. Pluses and minuses to either.

Time Warner...and a cable modem...my Direct TV system is rotting in the garage.


4. I'd like to put some interior locking dead bolts on the doors. Am I better off getting a professional to install them? Any idea how much a locksmith charges for a house call?

This is really easy, go to home depot and they will help you....does not take a lot of experience, though if you want a professional to do it, they can hook you up.


5. Fridge? How much do I need?

25cb feet. You can NEVER have enough fridge baby !!! Oh, and an icemaker and water dispenser is crucial.

Anything I might be forgetting??

Blinds? Do you have them? Lawn Mower?

DaDakota

 

Don't get to comfortable with Diazanon. Like Durisban, it is on the EPA's banned substances list because it has been found to be harmful to children, particularly young children. It is highly toxic to birds, mamals, fish (it ends up in water runoff) and beneficial insects. It is also one of the leading causes of insecticide poisoning for humans and the number one cause of bird kill. The EPA is asking companies to phase it out and it will very soon be gone from shelves. You can read up on the EPA's concerns at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/op/diazinon.htm . Many companies are going to organic bases for their fertilizers anyway now.

One book I would highly recommend is Texas Organic Gardening by Howard Garrett. You can visit his site at http://www.dirtdoctor.com . He has reasonably priced organic ways to help with your lawn, garden, etc. You can also find lots of great information at http://www.uni.edu/yardsforkids/ . It explains the dangers to children of inorganic fertilizer and weed killer and gives lots of recommendations on how to have a great yard without them.

My wife has researched this much more intensely than I have but I've picked up a lot. The problem with using too much inorganic fertilizer or weed killer is that it creates a mono-culture in your yard. There are a lot of beneficial insects and plants that help promote healthy grass and other plants but the inorganic stuff kills them off so, whatever natural resistance you may have had goes out the window.

If you have any children or pets around at all, you would be well-advised to avoid any inorganic stuff. There are so many organic alternatives out there now, that it is easy to find good substitutes.

Da is dead on correct about watering. The best time is in the evening at dusk because the water will hang around most of the night. A good way to do it is to set out sprinklers and let them run for an hour at dusk. Good luck.

 

Dawn or earlier for watering as the grass grows in the morning and rests in the evening. Not to mention the ground is still very hot in the late afternoon early evening, and you could literally boil your grass.

There is a reason that the good golf courses all water EARLY in the morning.

DaDakota

 

Definitely. The best is to have a timer on a sprinkler (you can get inexpensive one's at Home Depot or Lowe's) and set them to start EARLY in the AM.

 

Um ... is it because that's when there are no golfers using them?

 

OS: Just a couple pieces of advice on this.

1. Don't buy what you cannot afford. I'm still paying off things we got for our house near the time we moved in 5 years ago.

2. If you want good appliances, Sears can hardly be beat. If you want less expensive appliances, you can definitely find them if you look.

3. Don't buy the biggest washer and dryer just because. You can do an extra load of laundry if it saves you a couple hundred bucks.

4. Gas dryers are cheaper when it comes to energy costs but more can go wrong with them.

5. Rather than buying a giant fridge, try getting a moderate-sized one and using the extra cash on a small deep freeze. You'll find that the biggest space problem you have is in your freezer rather than you fridge. A small deep freeze will run you about $150 and it is well worth it.

Keep us posted.

 

I had SWB DSL and it sucked. But, I've heard other people say it is great. To me, the biggest concern is how close you are to their nearest switching station. The closer you are, the faster your connection. The further away...you get the picture.

I haven't had any problems with Roadrunner and it is generally less than DSL if you have Time Waner Cable. That's just my experience.

 

RoadRunner has worked out great for me. I'm too far away from the CO to get DSL and after finally getting high speed internet at home, I'm glad I'm not able to get the SWBell DSL service. I work only a few blocks away from my home and my company has the same DSL service that I would have had at home and comparing the RoadRunner and SWBell DSL service, I can say that the Warner product is far better than the DSL service in my office. Of course, my office may be on the outskirts of the CO distance boundary and I might be closer to Warner's internet pipe.

One thing with RoadRunner is the demographics in your locale. I live in a townhome community where 90% of the residents are probably 55 or older and I think the majority of them do not use RoadRunner internet service. And since RoadRunner is somewhat of a shared community resource that experiences degraded performance when more people are sharing the internet service, I think my results are better because (I'm guessing) the majority of homeowners in my area do not utilize the RoadRunner service. If you live in an area that is younger, or has a lack of satellite dishes, you might find that cable usage (for internet and television) is higher and therefore might mean lower connect speeds for your internet service. Even if that's the case, you won't crawl at 56K speeds.

 

roadrunner tried to tell me i owed them 150 for the modem i returned to heb...aftera couple collection agencies and me telling them to f off...they got the picture...or they found the modem...

as far as service...ehhh ok...