quote:

Originally posted by wtg:

Sharp eyes!

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
I suppose they have not run gas into that area yet. We were on electric when I bought the house but within a couple years we got together and had gas run into the neighborhood. Heat pumps in that weather can be pretty chilly, but I am sure you could go propane or electric if you wanted.

It's a geothermal heat pump and from what I am reading they are very popular in Ohio. You can heat your house in subzero weather without an issue and do so for a fraction what electric heat would cost, even less than natural gas heat would cost. The A/C side is similarly efficient - 50% more efficient than a conventional A/C unit.

Looks like the laundry room is off of the kitchen.

Please note the pocket door.....

That is a beautiful house!

Public water means it can't be that isolated. I'm guessing internet will be fine. If it's far off the road, you might have to have them dig up the yard to run the cable to your house from the street, but I can't imagine a street with public water wouldn't have cable and fios lines. Though if you look closely at the overhead roof shot, they do have both a large TV antenna and a dish-TV type dish, so maybe I'm wrong.....

My kids had a playdate friend (with a 2 story open floorplan with balcony!) whose house had a geothermal heat pump. Very cutting edge back then - they bought it from the builder who built the house on spec and was fascinated by the geothermal technology and wanted to try it out. It worked great when it worked. But it broke and they spent an entire YEAR without heat while they tried to find a guy who could fix it and then source the parts they needed. I'm sure fixability is better now, especially if it is popular out there -- literally not one HVAC company out here had even heard of geothermal back then. But I would suggest a backup. We had several playdates there in winter coats huddled around electric space heaters, LOL.

Speaking of backup heat, I see there's a woodstove in the fireplace, which is what I was going to suggest. Our house right now has electric heat pumps which cut over to the oil furnace backups when the temp dips below 38 or so (at that point, the heat pumps just can't get the job done). But when we light our woodstove, we don't have to run either of them. We spent a winter without our furnace because it broke and we were trying to decide what to replace it with (we were considering a boiler) and we heated the whole house with the woodstove alone. Yes, wood is messy and kind of a pain to chop, stack, and lug in the house. And you have to deal with the ashes and the dust. But nothing beats being able to come in from the cold and stand by a blazing hot stove. And modern woodstoves are pretty much smokeless if you burn them properly -- they have catalytic converters and smoke chambers to reburn the smoke til there's very little exhaust left.

Basement has those brick textured walls again - seems like that's a thing out there. They are painted, possibly with waterproofing paint, and it looks like there's a darkish discoloration at the bottom which could be dampness. Nothing to get too concerned about if that's all it is - my basement is exactly the same way -- pretty much all basements anywhere that gets significant rainfall are. Masonry walls wick dampness from the soil. If you run a dehumifier (and it looks like they have one) it keeps the dampness down.

On the satellite view in the google map, what is that thing across the street from you? Looks like pretty sizable plowed farmers field. I'd warn you to do some investigating as to whether there's any plans to turn that field into something else at some point. Check the zoning to make sure you aren't going to end up with a strip mall as a neighbor.

Also, check the age on that sub-zero in the kitchen. They are big big money to replace if they break. If you can even get one to fit the opening. And what is that grill-looking thing next to the glass cooktop in the island? I've never seen one of those before.

Re internet, maybe the quickest way would be to call ATT and a few other major companies and ask if they offer service to that address, and if they do, what kinds of service, what the cables and the speeds etc.

A gal in my program bought a house here when she accepted the job, IOW, they were house-hunting from afar and chose their house without having lived here (and they didn't take me up on my offer to help while they were house-hunting) and it turns out that there is not internet/cable service in their subdivision, they only have dial-up!

And they couldn't convince their neighbors to coordinate to get ATT to run service to the neighborhood, so dial-up it is. After corona started, they got a hot spot, but I don't think it's ideal...

Don't skip this step, Steve, we need you here at WTF.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Looks like the laundry room is off of the kitchen.

Seems like a good place for it - keeps the noise away from the great room and bedrooms. It also appears to be a mudroom of sorts - not sure how it all lays out.

How great would it be to turn that laundry sink in to a dog washing station?

Google Street View is available for Dean Street. You can "drive" up and down the street and look at what's there. There's a very cool one lane bridge over the river down the road a piece.

Lisa raises a great point about zoning.

The driveway is probably pretty long. Consult markj about the best tractor/snow plow to buy for plowing the snow and mowing the lawn.....

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa:
Also, check the age on that sub-zero in the kitchen. They are big big money to replace if they break. If you can even get one to fit the opening. And what is that grill-looking thing next to the glass cooktop in the island? I've never seen one of those before.

Wow. I never noticed the fridge. If it is the original it's 30 years old.

My friend just put a new compressor in his Sub Zero fridge because he could not find a new unit to fit the space. $5K. Yikes!

And then the compressor went out on the matching freezer...

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Google Street View is available for Dean Street. You can "drive" up and down the street and look at what's there. There's a very cool one lane bridge over the river down the road a piece.

Lisa raises a great point about zoning.

The driveway is probably pretty long. Consult markj about the best tractor/snow plow to buy for plowing the snow and mowing the lawn.....

Is that how you do it? The lawnmower becomes the snow plow/blower in the winter?

I think you can do a combo unit, but we're getting out of my area of expertise.

markj's excellent snow blower adventure (guess you have to log in to see the post):

https://www.tapatalk.com/group...45-s20.html#p1332464

I don't know if he also uses that tractor for lawn mowing. Hopefully he'll see this thread and weigh in.

edit: Here's the video from that old thread next door:



https://youtu.be/LU7XJ8rtlwE

Specs on that tractor. From the comments, looks like people use it for both snow removal and lawn mowing.

https://www.deere.com/en/mower...s/x739-lawn-tractor/

I have a long text in to my son in law who is all about snow.

The video is cool - is there a heater in that bad boy?

I actually don't think the driveway is very long at all. If you look at the photo of the street view where wtg said she zoomed in on the mailbox number, you can see the side of the garage.

This link: https://www.google.com/maps/@4...w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Looking at the overhead photos in the listing gives you an idea of how it lays out. Doesn't look like a bad driveway at all. You can actually see the white porch chairs in that photo too so you may want to make sure that's not a super busy road because once the leaves fall off the landscaping, the house may actually feel pretty exposed to the road.

We have a super long driveway. We've owned a John deere lawn tractor since we bought the house but never got a plow for it because they are thousands of dollars and a pain to use... You need chains for the tractor tires, have to take the mower deck off and put the plow on.... It was a whole big thing that didn't seem worth it for the 2-3 times a year it required plowing. So we paid someone to plow it for many years. He moved away and we started having trouble getting someone to reliably come so two years ago we bought a snow blower from Costco. We only use it when the snow is really deep or super wet and heavy though. Most of the time we either just drive through it or hand shovel.

I LOVE my Ariens Snow Blower, just sayin'..

I use it for my own driveway but also for the sidewalks of my neighbors.

Hiring a plow guy is a good thing but you might still need a snow blower to clean up the edges...plow guys don't do detail.

Interesting about the woodstove.

My father retired at age 70 but continued to go in to the office three days a week because he really liked it, no one else could do what he did, and it got him out of the house. He died at age 75, in excellent physical condition but he never stopped smoking and that’s what carried him off.

Two things kept him in excellent physical condition. He was a competitive swimmer up until the day he died. He had lots of trophies and ribbons in the Masters division because by the time you hit 70 there are not many people competing against you, particularly if it means wearing a Speedo. The other thing he did was chop wood. Lots and lots of wood.

My parents house had a fireplace, but it was strictly decorative. If you built a fire in that fireplace the fire would suck all of the warm air out of the house and the furnace would kick on. No matter, my dad chopped wood and if he had any chopped wood by God he was going to burn it.

When he died, I inherited his axe, mauls and sledgehammer. I’ve never used any of them - my fireplace is similarly decorative. The house on Dean Road, however, has a wood stove. There are 2 1/2 acres of woods, which would certainly have downed trees and such that need to be sawn up and chopped to use in the woodstove. I already own a very nice chainsaw and I really, really like using it.

I like this idea on several levels. God knows I need to find something to get me in better shape, and cutting/chopping wood might be just the thing. I have been looking at hydraulic log splitters and they look pretty cool. That might be a nice retirement gig as well.

We shall see. We may end up in a condo, and that is probably the smartest thing to do, but there is something about living in the woods that appeals to me. I originally thought it was the lake, but I think the woods might be even better.

If I had even the slightest desire to live in Ohio, I would snap that house up in a heartbeat. All it needs is paint to get rid of the hideous turquoise walls--and a barn!