At some point, when my mother dies, I think I am going to have to deal with her stuff, my grandmas stuff, my grandpas stuff and my stuff from high school and college. It probably would be easier just to move in and live with it. And my mom has worked pretty hard to get rid of stuff, but still.

Unrelatedly, why do online house listings offer pictures of the breaker box and the water heater? I am pretty much going to assume that the house has electricity, and the picture of the breaker box tells me nothing! It is so weird. I want to see more pictures of the kitchen to make sure it isn't hiding country oak somewhere. Especially faux country oak WITH faux granite counters in the worst of the 80's and today in kitchens.

the picture of the breaker box tells me nothing!

It tells you that the house has (relatively) new wiring, as opposed to a fusebox.

Yeah, a picture of the box tells me whether or not there's likely to be knob and tube wiring lurking someplace.

Considering that I've looked at houses that appeared to have been wired with stone knives, a nice, big, shiny breaker box is a beautiful thing. (I had to replace the breaker box in this house to put in central air.)

It just seems so boring! Especially since I am not really buying a house but just window shopping!

Yeah, a picture of the box tells me whether or not there's likely to be knob and tube wiring lurking someplace.

Clearly you have not been watching enough HGTV. Don't you know knob and tube wiring is a SCOURGE that cannot be known until you open walls and have to change your whole plan?? Generally because some sketchy contractor or former homeowner did a half-assed update job? :)

[link]

This is the story of how I got tricked by malicious criminals into buying a house that had been illegally remodeled to cover up multiple building code violations. 50% of the house is unusable, and will require as much as $100,000 in repairs to undo the faulty work.

Yes, the home was inspected before it was purchased, and the inspector did find some problems as expected. But most of the problems described below were cleverly hidden behind finished drywall, carpeting, and concrete where the inspector couldn't see them. All of this was done intentionally by the house "flipper" and remodeler to turn a profit on a house that is riddled with code violations.

It just seems so boring! Especially since I am not really buying a house but just window shopping!

Trust me, if you seriously start looking, you'll go from "Oh these carpets." to "Okay, when was the electrical panel updated and how new is the furnace?" pretty fast. Also, at least in Canada, your insurance might require you to upgrade any of those elements before you can be insured, and often mortgages won't be approved without proof of insurability.

After reading TOm's link, I think I may be renting forever. Oh my god. I think I would die if that happened to me. It probably wouldn't because I like original looking things, so I would be much more likely to be beset with problems from things just being too old rather than being flipped, but still.

It's one reason I want to move out of this house into an apartment building.