All Forum Posts by: Johann Jells

@Robin Krieb  here's the best I have of the exiting, and some of the stuff at Costco. My wife, while not very visual, hated my idea of the grayish weathered looking wood pattern, and thinks that matching as close as I can is fine.

https://www.costco.com/laminate.html
https://www.costco.com/vinyl-tile.html

I'm going to throw down some LVP or water resistant laminate in a kitchen with attached hallways that lead to rooms already with a medium oak laminate. Should I try and match as closely as I can get, or go contrasting, like a weathered gray look wood pattern, or a real dark one? I like to do stone pattern LVP for this reason, but I'm tired of the shortcomings of the Tranquility, and most others are pretty expensive like the $2.50-3.70 at Lowes. I just don't want to call attention to the difference between the floorings, and a bad match can be worse than a distinctly different one.

Well, that just screams MOTEL!!!

I'm now thinking built-ins, a 36" vanity between 2 tall 18" cabinets. The apartment really doesn't have that kind of storage. It's got a huge 8.5' wide hanging closet by the bath, but only a 36" closet in the master BR at the other end of the unit.  The below idea would work best with Eurostyle frameless.

I'm turning over a unit I really never did anything major to in 16 years of ownership other than laminate in the living areas. It's got one nice BR, one 100 ft and one 66 ft (not really legally a BR). Longtime tenants handed it over to friends who just moved out. But I have another major reno underway and don't want this one off the market for months also. This is not high end, was renting for $1850, should rent easily even in these times because it has outdoor space.

Major problem is the bath. The shower surround needs to be gutted and the sliding doors pitched. But the whole thing is hideous! Fiberboard paneling walls painted over, ugly floor tile and repulsive vanity. But if I were to rip out the vanity, what to do? It's 6' wide! I could put in a 48" base and top, and a tall linen closet. Any other good ideas?  I'm thinking curtain rod instead of sliding doors, and ripping out that strange header over the tub.

I should probably pitch the salmon tub too, even though it's cast iron in good shape. I don't trust those epoxy coating refinishing services. Should I?

I'm having a hard time filling a 1br here even after I dropped it nearly 10% from what the last tenant was paying.  I have a longtime tenant moving out on the 1st, and while I need a month to work on it, so and maybe things will be better by an Oct 1st move in, I'm worried.  Part of the problem here is new high rise developments coming online are saturating the market and pushing everything down, not just the "luxury" stuff.  They need to hit their rental % targets or they're in trouble with their lenders, so they're giving a lot of perks like free months and gym memberships.

No complications like that. Both emails are primary Hotmails.

I thought the conversion of a rental lead to a conversation was low, but then I tested it by responding to my ad with another email of mine, and my "landlord" response to that was never received! Nor was there any notification that I had also responded in the messaging section. It seems that none of my responses are getting to the potential tenants! WTF??? And yes, I checked my spam.

Don't know about the fire rating, but I think you're 100% on about the fixtures. I've had plenty of LED failures, they don't live up to the hype. The "bulbs" are cheap enough now to not even think about it, and last ones I bought from Costco no longer had the plastic bottom half, I had to actually read to the fine print be sure they were actually LEDs!

I hate recessed can lighting, but I guess that's another discussion.

Long ago I decided that for the DIY work involved granite tile is much more bang for the buck. Once done it's nearly indestructible, unlike laminate. My first counter 15 years ago looks as good as when I built it. Particle board countertops from home centers start to crumble almost immediately.  Custom built on ply is better, but still suffers over time.

This doesn't help either of you, but I bank with a NY & NJ midsized Investors Bank, and I've been amazed with their high level of competence compared to previous experience with PNC & Cap1. Discovered them looking for mortgage when thing were messy in 2012, they were so great to work with that I then moved our accounts there. Cap1 was so pathetic, it would take 2 hrs every time to open a security account and they'd invariable do it wrong!  When I closed everything they couldn't even get that right, I still get a notice of an escrow account with $0.00 balance!