(no subject)

[msmemory_archive]

So we found this house.... it's pretty, it's very large, it's in move-in shape (though it could stand a few fiddly things like water-seal on the deck, and we would need to make sure the house inspector isn't seeing things we're missing). The catch is, it's in Framingham.

jducoeur posted in his journal that we are dithering. Unfortunately, it seems that most of the comments seem to be non-supportive of our moving out there. Waaaah!

I readily admit, we would already have earnest money on this house if it were closer in. No question, if it were in Waltham, or Watertown, we'd be all over it. (Though in Waltham, I think it would be in the upper 7s or low 8s in price.) Would our friends really not come to Framingham? Don't they already not visit us, and if so, does it matter if they still don't? We want to entertain - will we be refused?

More dither.

Comments

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Wadsworth House is The Post-Revel Place. It's practically a given at this point

Currently. The Post Revel Place used to be Sir Michael's house in Concord. Or the original Windsmeet apartment. Or any of several other places. It goes in waves. Someday, some other place will be The Post Revel Place - whether that's us or somebody who comes along after us.

We have no intention of undercutting Wadsworth. We enjoy going there. We hope the folks who live there will sometimes enjoy coming to our place.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

They don't necessarily love being the default either. Having a horde of people descend for an unplanned party isn't always fun, and breaking up the idea that there was one default place might be good. They have plenty of planned parties as well.

Actually, given the locations it seems not unlikely that we will get a town and country division, where people are more likely to go to them for in-town events, but more likely to go to you for events farther out, since you'll be on the way back for many.

[jducoeur]

The paint we've dealt with -- the house paint was in pretty bad shape, so we repainted a couple of months ago. (And we just did the bathroom ourselves, having not really been happy about the state of the paint in there.) Probably won't recarpet, though...

paint/carpets

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

It was the inside paint he recommended, actually. Our outside was stucco. We painted the inside the brightest white possible, and he pronounced it "much better."

If the inside carpet is older than 5 or so years, I would advise recarpeting. It probably has smells that you're long accustomed to, but buyers would notice. Plus wear patterns, etc. But ask your agent about it.

[jducoeur]

For all I know this is a recent development.

Relatively, yes -- you're seeing the way things have been for maybe the past five years, but it was quite different before that.

You have to bear in mind, post-revels in this area are in pretty bad shape, relatively speaking. Carolingia used to do post-revels reliably and frequently: every event had one, and it wasn't terribly unusual to have two on an evening, although we tended to try to avoid that. The most central ones could be huge -- the one we still refer to as "the post-revel to end all post-revels" had over 50 people at it -- although that level was unusual. There was also more variety to them. I really, really miss having filking and SCA storytelling at post-revels, both of which are much more unusual these days.

Back at that time, there was no single post-revel place. Oh, there were always frequent locations -- House Windsmeet, back when it was a physical place, was one -- but when they really were healthy it was unusual for the same place to host post-revels for two successive events.

I don't really expect there to be any conflict here. First of all, I'd probably co-ordinate with Troy on the subject. AFAICT, it isn't that he's aggressively holding these parties -- it's that, since no one else is doing so, he's been stepping into the gap. (And letting himself get talked into it when necessary.) We'll have to talk, but I suspect he's not going to be heartbroken if he's not expected to have the post-revel after *every* event.

Second, we'd probably choose different events. Unsurprisingly, there's a pretty good correlation between where the event is and how well the Wadsworth postrevel goes -- typically, the further out into the 'burbs, the fewer people come. (There has always been a substantial relationship between proximity to the site and postrevel success.) So I suspect that, in practice, we'd mostly do revels for events that are outside 128, and Wadsworth more the ones that are inside, to have revels be more convenient after the event. In that regard, the Framingham location is potentially pretty useful -- it's less redundant.

Frankly, I think that would be for the best all around. The different houses have different strengths, and are likely to draw overlapping but not identical crowds. That can hopefully help to reinvigorate the concept of post-revels in general. The Wadsworth revels are fun, but they've mostly been drawing from a fairly small fraction of the Barony. Having the post-revels rotate a bit more is likely to help with that.

In short, none of this is about stealing the concept of "The Post-Revel Place". It's about the fact that the idea that there is only one place for all post-revels is a new, and not particularly healthy concept. Having a few places trading off is historically the more common pattern, and one I'd like to encourage...

[jducoeur]

As I said in my reply to hfcougar, I suspect that I'd co-ordinate with Troy in exactly that respect, and plan for us to hold post-revels that are out in that direction. I'd rather not split the crowd (I enjoy the Wadsworth parties myself), but picking and choosing events as appropriate makes a lot of sense...

Re: paint/carpets

[jducoeur]

Hmm. Okay, that's useful intelligence. We'll see. The house has *much* bigger problems than a paint job. (The back room is still essentially unliveable, and it isn't clear that it makes sense for us to change that ourselves.) It's going to be a matter of choosing our battles. If we're selling it as essentially a fixer-upper, I'm not going to sweat the paint. There's a real question of attitude: if we're looking for someone who's going to take the house on as a project, the new carpets are largely not a benefit...

Re: paint/carpets

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Quite understandable. After you're out, though, have someone not used to going in your house give it a smell (possibly don't tell them this is what you want them to do! Have them come in first, give an evaluation, then tell them you suspect there might be carpet smell, see what the new reaction is).

If the carpets are smelly (cat and general dust), it will give a general negative impression to a buyer, even if they want to fix everything up themselves -- they probably won't even know *why* the impression is negative. Lots of folks don't pay attention to smells, but are influenced by them anyway.

A professional cleaning & enzyme treatment might solve the issue without replacing, if it is smelly.

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's about stealing at all. Just... changing. And change can take a while if people are used to a particular way.

I don't doubt that Troy would probably be glad to no longer be the only go-to guy.

My point was more that it might take a while for the change to happen, and that distance may very well be a factor in that. Perhaps not, if you loosely divide the in-town and suburban events. I don't think you're stealing anything at all, just that it could take a bit to shake people out of their rut.