[JC]

hello! i am probably embarassing myself but what survey map? how does one get a hold of one of those? thank you!

[JC]

oops. i did not provide enough info. here goes:

* i own
* my wonderful neighbors rent (i will hate it when they move. love them).
* the owners live in another state and apparently do not respond to the property management group.
* a property management group “manages” the propery next door. they have a horrible reputation. (and as i read the input here this fact is not relevant).
*i am not handy enough nor do i have the work schedule that allows me to build my own fence.

dumb question — how do you determine where your property line starts and stops as i dont expect to ever hear from these folks. i guess if you are out of state you dont have to respond or care. 🙂

[JC]

holy moly! i definitely do not want to gas my dogs.

maybe i need to go with the brookstone portable power supply since it looks like it is easy for anyone to use.

i am lucky that folks would definitely tell me if there was a power issue, i would just need to have a solution that my petsitter could use to keep fans or some other cooling devicde working for a few hours until the power came back on.

thank you so much for the input.

[JC]

Ok, it just got even better.

Charlie floated my loan down to 3.5%. Whoo Hoo. (30 year fixed, no cost). How cool is that? What an awesome happy surprise. Such a great guy.

I think my total monthly savings is over $300 now.

Charles D. Mason
First California Funding
4550 Kearny Villa Rd. Suite 215
San Diego, CA. 92123
Telephone – 858 654 4066
Facsimile – 858 654 4062

Ca. Dept of Real Estate Lic # 01275449NMLS # 330764

[JC]

Hi sdrealtor,

Awesome. I am near Balboa Park.

[JC]

Thanks Hobie.

As it turns out, I’m a dork. The hardware I need to replace was a little hard to find online, but it IS at Home Depot and is only $99 and the newer (and safer) springs are like $18 each. (Yay!) Now, I just need to find someone to help me put this in properly.

Hopefully, I can find someone who can assist for less than what was quoted earlier today. (I’m hoping labor does not have to be in the $350 range, but we shall see). Thanks again. 🙂

[JC]

“Something that I wouldn’t be afraid to trash a bit”…..Craigslist!!! 🙂

[JC]

CA Renter — thanks for the reco on Jerry. He came by to look at all of my electric. He was very honest about what was good and what was ok and what was dangerous. Foruntately, the only dangerous stuff was in my garage and he was able to rip all of it our and do over properly in one afternoon. He was polite, timely and reasonable. And, I *think* my garage was actually cleaner when he left. (Bonus).

[JC]

hi sdrealtor,

charlie saved me a total of $289 on the monthly payment. (i may have refinanced more than once since i did not suspect that rates would get that low. i think i mentioned — not a true Pigg — just a wannabe). the amount he saved me in interest was pretty sizeable. i bought an old house needing a fair amount of fix-ups so this is huge to me.

[JC]

sorry. if i was a true PIGG, wouldn’t I have already paid of my entire mortgage? i am just a wannabe so the 3.625 was a 30year fixed no cost. Charlie is da bomb. Sheldon is great too.

i am just giddy to be under 4.

[JC]

LMAO — that is funny and tempting, but not really my style. I’ll keep trying. I usually give people at least 3 or 4 tries before I give up. Of course, I did consider how awful it would be for him if I had teenagers in that back bedroom. I am pretty sure that would be far more annoying?!?!? In fact, if he keeps making being at home tiresome, I might start dating again and at my age they come with teenagers. Hmmm……KIDDING!

[JC]

Ox, I am so sorry that you did not get a better reply to your polite note. So, I have this awesome dog trainer that has given me all sorts of great ideas. For instance, my dogs bark at strangers in my house. Well, I will need to have strangers in and around my house in a few months to do foundation work and I can’t take my dogs to boarding. (I have one dog that is “special needs” and a flight risk and I already went through one episode of not sleeping for 76 days as I tracked her down to bring her home safely. Really can’t do that again). Anywho, I have to have the dogs here for the foundation work and I do not want to bother any of my neighbors so I am going to sound proof my garage so I can have them in there while they do the major work. (I will properly ventilate and such first too). My trainer has sent me info on materials that might be useful for the sound proofing that I could share with you if that might help you in your home? I was thinking of suggesting this to my neighbor too, but I am afraid to bring that up with him since he is so volatile. My trainer had another suggestion that might be useful on my side and my neighbor’s side which is heavy drapes on the side of the house that faces his. And, what works for me in general whether it is power tools or the neighbors i had with the howling dogs — white noise. It won’t completely block the sound but it certainly helps. Good luck to you! PM me if you want the sound proofing info.

[JC]

*cough* *cough*

a little info on dog barking from a somewhat reliable 3rd party: http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/guide/understanding-why-dogs-bark

i have kind of the opposite problem which is a bit comical. my two current dogs are essentially “angels”. my first dog had separation anxiety and was not. (i still miss her, but she was not easy).

i live near balboa park in a home that has what you might call a half block behind it. this means that my back yard is about 2.5 feet and about the same for my neighbor. i had a great realtor who advised going by at all times of day and night to be sure i was ok living in this area. (i was. i have lived in more cramped quarters before but it was GOOD advice and I carefully considered this before moving here).

about six months ago or so, a new guy moved behind me who HATES dogs. (i have cutesy dog signs in front of my house to be very upfront that my kids are canine as I think no one likes surprises and after one actual break-in and one attempted break-in, the signs seemed like an actual safety item too). note the dogs were not here when the break-ins happened/ were attempted. no one bothers me now that the dogs are here.

so, my new neighbor has passive aggressively slammed doors at me for months every time i make a noise or my dogs do (yo, i got the message). i live alone and work 12 hours a day or more from home so i am pretty damn boring/quiet. last week, he stormed by to threaten to file a complaint. my next door neighbor was appalled by his behavior and offered to sign an affadavit about how quiet my dogs are. (i am SO lucky to have awesome neighbors on all other sides).

so, my dogs bark during the daytime when strangers come by (so, i do my best to make sure no one stops by unannounced) and they bark when my dog hating neighbor works on his house with power tools or when he has other workers crawling around on his roof). um, i dont know many dogs that would not bark in that situation? and, he has people working on his house since moving in. this is totally his right. i would never complain even if the noise is not always convenient for me as we live in close quarters.

so, i have spent thousands (yes, thousands) on dog training (the neighbor is often a topic of discussion), calming dog supplements, calming dog music (yes, they really make these items and they do help), i close doors and windows when he is home, and do everything possible to be a good neighbor. even so, he likes to slam doors in protest if they so much as utter a playful peep.

i have to say, at this point, a little sugar would go a long way. (just for those of you who have neighbors that you would like to send a message to). some of us are willing to be quite cooperative, so maybe try a little sugar before go for the threats.

just talk to us like we are humans and we care. frankly, if this guy was not being such an ass with the slamming doors and the threats, i would try to figure out what his schedule was to see what else i could adjust so we could all be peaceful.

heck, when he first moved in, i let his plumber come into my house like 3 times which was really inconvenient since i work like 12 hour days and such and my dogs are afraid of strangers. interestingly, he did not mind when it was for his benefit….

in San Diego, you are allowed to have up to 5 dogs. I stopped fostering just to try to appease this guy. interetinly, as he was yelling/threatening me last week, he acknowledged that the dogs were much better now. huh??!!?

this kind of negative reinforcement for trying very hard to be a good neighbor kind of makes me want to stop trying. especially, since none of my other neighbors even notice as they never utter a peep during quiet hours…

now, i have lived next to neighbors who just leave dogs outside unattended for days. first, i dont understand how you could do that to your dog. second, that can be a nightmare. my neighbors dogs would howl ALL night long. even in that extreme, i still think talking to the owners first is a good first step. if they don’t take action or try to work with you, i can see taking that to the next level. so, i do empathize with those of you that are in that situation.

so, i guess the point of my unfocused rant is to encourage you to talk to your neighbors first. i think most people are pretty nice and try pretty hard to work with each other. we have rules and codes in place for those people that dont, right?

[JC]

Just a recommendation….IF you are thinking about doing a Refi, call Charlie Mason. He is super nice, down to earth and works very hard. He got me a 3.625 and I am not really Piggington material if you know what I mean. 🙂

Charles D. Mason
First California Funding
4550 Kearny Villa Rd. Suite 215
San Diego, CA. 92123
Telephone – 858 654 4066
Facsimile – 858 654 4062
Ca. Dept of Real Estate Lic # 01275449NMLS # 330764

[JC]

Anyone have a good electrician they can recommend that has worked on one of these older properties? I made note of the electrician listed in th “Contractors I Would Recommend” thread, but looking for a backup in case that person does not generally work in the older neighborhoods near downtown.

[Author]

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