What's the best home purchase you've ever made?

[DirtyJohns97]

We bought a Bissell Big Green Machine carpet cleaner about 7 years ago and it makes me happy that we did every time I use it. In fact, I just cleaned our carpets on Sunday, and when I was done, I said, "this is the best thing weve ever bought"
Prior to that we had rented one a few times when moving. We had also purchased 2 separate cheaper models that broke within a year.
What home purchase have you made that you are happiest with?

 

[millah_22]

ball gag

 

[JustSayOV]

When I bought my first house, even before getting married to TBW, I bought a 14.4v Dewalt Cordless drill and that would have been like 15 years ago and the first battery (came with two) just now crapped out.

That thing has been used on an immeasurable amount of home projects over the last 15 years and 2 houses later.

 

[Whiskeydeltadeltatango]

I'm going to say my little John deere. I paid 600 bucks and I ask it to do way more than it reasonably should.



From dragging logs, to cutting down brush like a damn brush hog, pulling trailers, pushing plows, pulling a sprayer, and just cutting the damn lawn, little thing has paid for itself.

 

[DirtyJohns97]

ball gag

I remember when you were talking about getting one, glad it worked out!

Is it weird to buy a ball gag at my grandmother's estate sale?

 

[joelbc1]

Hands Down, it’s the dishwasher, closely followed by the washer and dryer. I think the $30/week for the lawn boy is money well spent, too.

 

[HawkMachine]

10x10 wrestling mat in the basement.

 

[HawkMachine]

I think the $30/week for the lawn boy is money well spent, too.

Better talk to your wife, he's getting more than $30 a week.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

The GE Opul Ice Maker. About $600

Makes soft pellet ice like the good fountain fountain machines. Use to stop at Kwik Star everyday for a soda so I could chew on the ice.

Thing has paid for itself many times over.

 

[sober_teacher]

Hands Down, it’s the dishwasher, closely followed by the washer and dryer. I think the $30/week for the lawn boy is money well spent, too.

It sounds silly, but I agree. Buying my dishwasher after I’d moved in I’m still giddy about. The previous one was original to the unit, almost 20 years old and SOOOOOO noisy - to the point that I couldn’t use it during the day and still watch tv in the living room.

2nd place is the iRobot I got for the first floor. Just helping with the hardwood floor and keeping dust from accumulating is great.

 

[joelbc1]

Better talk to your wife, he's getting more than $30 a week.

I doubt it….

 

[millah_22]

I remember when you were talking about getting one, glad it worked out!

Ball gag/bissell same thing.

 

[Tenacious E]

The GE Opul Ice Maker. About $600

Makes soft pellet ice like the good fountain fountain machines. Use to stop at Kwik Star everyday for a soda so I could chew on the ice.

Thing has paid for itself many times over.

We had one of those and tried to keep up with maintenance, but it got kind of mildewy since it is only the ice that is cold. During a reno we purchased a dedicated icemaker which is plumbed, and stays cold enough with the door shut that it doesn't have those problems. I wouldn't call it the best purchase we ever made but we go through a TON of ice every day and it is awesome.

 

[LuciousBDragon]

 

[Tenacious E]

We bought a Bissell Big Green Machine carpet cleaner about 7 years ago and it makes me happy that we did every time I use it. In fact, I just cleaned our carpets on Sunday, and when I was done, I said, "this is the best thing weve ever bought"
Prior to that we had rented one a few times when moving. We had also purchased 2 separate cheaper models that broke within a year.
What home purchase have you made that you are happiest with?

Obvious answer is something like a washing machine or dryer, but for something off the beaten path I would go with our shuffleboard table in the basement. I have a sophomore in college and a junior in high school, and we play it all of the time as a family. As the kids have gotten older and are doing their own things, that family time that they actually want to spend together is pretty priceless.*

*edited to add that if anyone is in the market we are happy with this one:

York Shuffleboard - Olhausen Billiards

Olhausen doesn't just manufacture game tables, we make dreams come true

www.olhausenbilliards.com

 

[onlyTheObvious]

We had one of those and tried to keep up with maintenance, but it got kind of mildewy since it is only the ice that is cold. During a reno we purchased a dedicated icemaker which is plumbed, and stays cold enough with the door shut that it doesn't have those problems. I wouldn't call it the best purchase we ever made but we go through a TON of ice every day and it is awesome.

I run bleach through it per instructions every couple months.

 

[ihhawk]

Bought my Cooper City home for 349k in 2010. Have it to the ex wife in the divorce in 2020. It’s worth around 1.2 million right now.

Great home purchase

 

[beanerhawk]

This thread is depressing, outside of the wrestling mat we own all of these things and none of them are something I consider more then a necessity. Our ice machine is a different brand. I guess it's my 90 inch TV, feels like watching movies in the living room now but I'm not that excited about that even.

 

[Flie]

Yoga swing.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

The more you spend on an ice machine the smaller the cubes. The cheap ones spew out that big shit that isn’t chewable.

I am the original ice snob.

 

[GES4]

We bought a Bissell Big Green Machine carpet cleaner about 7 years ago and it makes me happy that we did every time I use it. In fact, I just cleaned our carpets on Sunday, and when I was done, I said, "this is the best thing weve ever bought"
Prior to that we had rented one a few times when moving. We had also purchased 2 separate cheaper models that broke within a year.
What home purchase have you made that you are happiest with?

Sonos

 

[sober_teacher]

This thread is depressing, outside of the wrestling mat we own all of these things and none of them are something I consider more than a necessity. Our ice machine is a different brand. I guess it's my 90 inch TV, feels like watching movies in the living room now but I'm not that excited about that even.

My fridge comes with an ice maker so I’ve honestly never been tempted.

 

[beanerhawk]

My fridge comes with an ice maker so I’ve honestly never been tempted.

Mine too, we have a pool and entertain a lot, the ice maker comes in very handy in the summer when drinks are flowing and the ladies are making margs. We go through a lot of ice. csb/

 

[Jimmy McGill]

poop stick


Sorry, its been too long

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

Hot tub. Use it 350 days a year. Bullfrog going on 12 years old now. Some service calls on leaks...

 

[Tenacious E]

Hot tub. Use it 350 days a year. Bullfrog going on 12 years old now. Some service calls on leaks...

That is dedication. I love ours in the fall, winter (when it is not too cold), and spring, but the days are few and far between during the summer when it sounds appealing.

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

I'm a broken down concrete guy that needs rejuvenation every morning. Big coffee, Tylenol, and watching the sunrise over the Iowa River every morning is therapeutic as well...

 

[fredjr82]

10x10 wrestling mat in the basement.

 

[bagdropper]

We bought a Bissell Big Green Machine carpet cleaner about 7 years ago and it makes me happy that we did every time I use it.

I inherited my mom's maybe 30 year old Bissell (it is remarkably similar to the upright Power Brush they make yet today) and I heartily agree they are damn fine machines.

 

[stanzithemanzi12]

I bought this one house about 10 years ago in this one area for about $212k and now it's worth about $600k.

 

[HawkMachine]

I'm a broken down concrete guy that needs rejuvenation every morning. Big coffee, Tylenol, and watching the sunrise over the Iowa River every morning is therapeutic as well...

You by Iowa City?

 

[bagdropper]

I am the original ice snob.

I am too. So much that I bought Tovolo 1" and 2" square ice molds. The 2 inchers are absolutely fantastic if you like (for example) drinking an occasional bourbon on ice.

One cube in a rocks glass, pour bourbon, let sit for say 10 minutes...perfection.

 

[SeaPA]

A Craftsman riding lawn mower that I bought roughly 30 years ago. I've done very, very little maintenance on it...I think I've changed the oil, at most, 4 times. Replaced the blades twice, finally broke down & replaced the tires for the first time last summer. Replaced the drive belt a couple of times. I think the first battery lasted close to 10 years, but the more recent battery purchases crap out after a couple of years. The thing is just amazing. Even with replacing the batteries, I doubt I've spent more than $500 in repairs in three decades.
Compare that to a POS Husqvana that I inherited from my dad (the last 5 years of his life, he lived in my lakehouse & brought that thing with him, he'd bought it to mow the yard at the house that he & my mom lived in). That POS has been in the shop every one of the three years I've had it, with the bills running from $400 to $850. It's by far the most expensive free thing I've ever gotten.

 

[GES4]

I bought this one house about 10 years ago in this one area for about $212k and now it's worth about $600k.

$600k huh? You must have his AND hers carports.

 

[luvmyhawks]

Hands Down, it’s the dishwasher, closely followed by the washer and dryer.

So, when you got married?

 

[bagdropper]

I've thought about this for awhile here and for the life of me nothing specifically came to mind. I'm doing some housework at the moment, laundry/cleaning etc, and have a movie on in the background playing...and then it dawned on me what My MVP is.

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 from 2009 that I bought back then to be my video/audio editing and networking machine, and I still use it to this day. Intel quad core, 8 gigs of RAM...all I've had to do to keep it running like a top is replace the HDD with a SSD and the PS. Of course, cleaning out the case regularly has helped tremendously, but still...this thing has saved me literally tens of thousands of dollars through the years by being capable of creating all the in-home media I watch and listen to.

It's why I don't really need for example a Netflix/Amazon Prime/Max or any music streaming subscription. Want to watch a movie, pull it up on a PC or a Roku and voila. Want to listen to days on end of my music collection, voila.

My home server has roughly 12 TB (!) of mostly HD/BD movies (rough estimate is about 500 movies, maybe more actually), closing in on 300 Hawkeye football games, and a lifetime of recording a whole lot of other stuff through the years. It also has been my music collection creator/digitizer for my lifetime of collecting.

I keep it (and keep using it yet today) because it has all my relevant editing software to create everything I have.

 

[Colonoscopy]

Asian chick

 

[UNIHawkfan]

I realize this is about household items, but just for fun….

Bought my first house for 150k, had roommates until I got married, rented it out to the same tenant for 10 more years and sold it for $285k…never paid the mortgage on my own. Bought our first house together for $225k and sold it 10 years later for $470k…rolled both into our current house. Sometimes I reflect on how lucky we were to time the housing market the way we did. Pure luck, no skill.

 

[bunsen82]

LOL, the kids got one of those kid John Deere Gators, would load up grass clippings, flowers or limbs in the back and have them drive it down to the forest area about 200 yards away. Had to sell it as the kids got too big for it. Damn do I miss it.

 

[joelbc1]

So, when you got married?

Uh huh… the first time, too!