Chez Botkin back on the market

[uber frau]

Like she's excusing their participation in this project because they just had to support their brother. I guess a woman is allowed to use her brains and skills for something other than home-keeping as long as she's still doing it out of a sense of duty and not just for herself.

You've got that exactly right. One of the Robotkins mentioned basically giving up her composing to free up the equipment for her brother.

[batwing]

Well the mere fact that Papa Botkin lived there instantly raises its value against all other properties in the area.

Haha!

GC- I'm in Ohio, and our tax assessment value is no where near what our actual market value is. There's about a 20% difference in my house, and that seems to be the norm. The tax assessment value only takes into account the square footage, number of rooms, and lot size. An actual market value takes into account that we have new floors, roof, gutters, electrical, replaced plumbing, and have made significant upgrades throughout the interior.

Here it's very common to do your upgrades in such a way that the county assessor will not be aware of it (they only look at the outside/front of your house and verify that it is the correct square footage), but then to list them when you're selling. I know someone who built an extra 800 square feet onto their basement, dug by hand, in the back yard and concealed it under a garden so they wouldn't get dinged on their property taxes.

When we bought our house it was listed on the county treasurer's site as having one bathroom. It actually has one and a half. About 20 years ago the owners added a bathroom in the basement. There's also a finished basement, which would count toward square footage, but they somehow managed not to include it- if they had it would almost double our total square footage and also add an additional bedroom to the county's assessment.

[GenerationCedarchip]

Haha!

GC- I'm in Ohio, and our tax assessment value is no where near what our actual market value is. There's about a 20% difference in my house, and that seems to be the norm. The tax assessment value only takes into account the square footage, number of rooms, and lot size. An actual market value takes into account that we have new floors, roof, gutters, electrical, replaced plumbing, and have made significant upgrades throughout the interior.

Here it's very common to do your upgrades in such a way that the county assessor will not be aware of it (they only look at the outside/front of your house and verify that it is the correct square footage), but then to list them when you're selling. I know someone who built an extra 800 square feet onto their basement, dug by hand, in the back yard and concealed it under a garden so they wouldn't get dinged on their property taxes.

When we bought our house it was listed on the county treasurer's site as having one bathroom. It actually has one and a half. About 20 years ago the owners added a bathroom in the basement. There's also a finished basement, which would count toward square footage, but they somehow managed not to include it- if they had it would almost double our total square footage and also add an additional bedroom to the county's assessment.

Interesting! I think it's like that in some parts of VA, but in the densely populated areas, the combination of amped-up building permit enforcement and frequent reassessments has an end result of tax values being roughly in line with market value at the moment. When the boom was on, houses were selling for WAY more than tax value, though.

[batwing]

Interesting! I think it's like that in some parts of VA, but in the densely populated areas, the combination of amped-up building permit enforcement and frequent reassessments has an end result of tax values being roughly in line with market value at the moment. When the boom was on, houses were selling for WAY more than tax value, though.

I'm sure that's right about the permit enforcement, we're suburban but the county doesn't go inside our house or walk around our property to assess and most upgrades are DIY. We have reassessments every 3 years, and this year they put our values way down, but market value is still a bit higher. Zillow tends to get all screwy in our area, I think they take the county assessment into account. I look at houses that sold recently and the Zillow estimate is off by a lot. If I look at my house's Zestimate I poop myself.

I'm going to guess since the Botkins are fairly rural they have some "interesting" areas in their house.

[liltwinstar]

Re: the blog post...

It sounds like the boys went on a way-cool trip to Egypt. But instead of buying the Lonely Planet guide like normal tourists, they had their sisters "research" a bunch of stuff and send it to them via the web. And now they're writing a book to go with their (admittedly spiffily produced) home movie about their trip.

And this is supposed to be "taking dominion"....how???? If I want to learn about Egypt, I'd Google or go to my local library, and I'd try to find books by experts, or, you know, actual Egytians who live there. I would not buy a book by someone who spent merely weeks touring around and being an ass to a major world religion.

Hey - you know what? I could use some extra cash. Anyone want to pay me to write about book about Russia? I went there for 5 weeks when I was 17, so, you know, I'm totally an expert. I'll even turn my photos into a slideshow that I will send to you - free of charge - when you finance my book!! Any takers??? Anyone? Helloooooo??..................... (thought not)

[Kate]

And this is supposed to be "taking dominion"....how???? If I want to learn about Egypt, I'd Google or go to my local library, and I'd try to find books by experts, or, you know, actual Egytians who live there. I would not buy a book by someone who spent merely weeks touring around and being an ass to a major world religion.

Sad, isn't it?

Because the QF/VF "machine" has done such a good job teaching their followers that they can't trust science, academics, the secular press, etc... I would expect many of them will buy this because it's from these young chits who they feel they can trust.

Funny thing was as I was watching one of their spiffy vimeo videos, there was something Isaac said and I thought, "oh, I didn't know that"--but immediately had to remind myself that with the fundie universe, there's really no telling whether or not anything they say is true.

Guess that's what separates fundies and the rest of us.

ETA: I mean trusting Botkins, Douggie, etc. or not is what separates us--definitely don't mean you could trust what someone says just because they're not fundies!

[Deleted12]

They also have a new recording out: "Jane Austin & Vampires."

westernconservatory.com/products/jane-austen-vampires

ETA: I'm reading, about the Egyptian curriculum. Someone, doesn't know how to use a comma.

[liltwinstar]

Literary Eating Disorders???? What the heck is that?

Also, I'm insulted that they seem to put Jane Austen in the same category as Janette Oke and Stepanie Meyers. Just sayin'

[FuManchu]

Re: the blog post...

Hey - you know what? I could use some extra cash. Anyone want to pay me to write about book about Russia? I went there for 5 weeks when I was 17, so, you know, I'm totally an expert. I'll even turn my photos into a slideshow that I will send to you - free of charge - when you finance my book!! Any takers??? Anyone? Helloooooo??..................... (thought not)

Don't forget to stand in St. Basil's Cathedral and give a talk to camera on how Russian Orthodoxy is absurd and heretical.

[Guest Anonymous]

Literary Eating Disorders???? What the heck is that?

It's probably what happens when you read Margaret Atwood and Douglas Adams instead of Jonathan Edwards and John Milton.

[treemom]

Okay - I got off my behind and did a little research. Here's what I found:

1. Per Hickman Co. (TN), the property was purchased by a Danielle Taylor in 2004 for $172,000. That's the highest sale price it's ever had, btw. Prior sales of this home were reported as being significantly lower. I don't know the area, so I don't know if that is a normal price or not.

2. The current tax assessment value is $268,300. I wonder if properties there sell at assessment or if the market is really good and they go high. I haven't seen properties going $50,000+ over tax value in most places since about 2007, but maybe central TN has a stronger market than DC.

Tennessee assessments are usually lower than the selling value by a lot.

My house is assessed at about 124 K but we could sell it for 160 easily.

(And to make those of you jealous about property costs...I have 2200 sq foot house with 4 bedrooms and 4 baths, garage, corner double lot, in ground pool, tile and hardwood throughout in our mid range suburb and we pay 150K for it in 2000 when the market was decent).

[treemom]

Re: the blog post...

It sounds like the boys went on a way-cool trip to Egypt. But instead of buying the Lonely Planet guide like normal tourists, they had their sisters "research" a bunch of stuff and send it to them via the web. And now they're writing a book to go with their (admittedly spiffily produced) home movie about their trip.

And this is supposed to be "taking dominion"....how???? If I want to learn about Egypt, I'd Google or go to my local library, and I'd try to find books by experts, or, you know, actual Egytians who live there. I would not buy a book by someone who spent merely weeks touring around and being an ass to a major world religion.

Hey - you know what? I could use some extra cash. Anyone want to pay me to write about book about Russia? I went there for 5 weeks when I was 17, so, you know, I'm totally an expert. I'll even turn my photos into a slideshow that I will send to you - free of charge - when you finance my book!! Any takers??? Anyone? Helloooooo??..................... (thought not)

We went in 2010 and we just bought some books and hired a guide. It was easier.

[emmiedahl]

How does one even build a house for that much? There are outfits in my town that will put in a home on land that you own, but it would be 150-200K for the home Treemom describes and that is just the structure.

[treemom]

How does one even build a house for that much? There are outfits in my town that will put in a home on land that you own, but it would be 150-200K for the home Treemom describes and that is just the structure.

Well the majority of the costs here is the land. Costs are cheaper in Memphis for most things anyhow.

[Deleted12]

Not to contribute to the derailing of this thread, but a 20 acre undeveloped lot on the river here goes for $300,000, and we're in the "Caltucky" part of the state.

Since my mom is an inveterate HGTV addict, I wonder if the house is in that "neither fish nor fowl" situation where it's too big and too fancy for most people looking for a "modest" home, yet too dark, cramped, and funky for people looking for a luxury home.

(I know it sounds odd to say that it's both big and cramped, but in the 4,264 square feet, there's the upstairs bedroom which looks like it belongs in a much smaller mountain home (320 sf), there's 5 smaller bedrooms downstairs (180 sf, 150 sf, 150 sf, and 2 unknown), there's an office, there's a dining room (300 sf), there's an odd other room between the dining room and kitchen, there's the kitchen (300 sf), there's the living room (540 sf), there's 4 bathrooms, and there's a one-car garage. Even though some of the rooms are big, I've been trying to visualize a floorplan, and I don't see how the whole thing isn't a maze.)

Like, my 12x15 bedroom in my 900-sf house seems much more bright and airy than any of the bedrooms shown in the listing, probably because I have two windows, hardwood floors, and a paint color I like. Not only do most of the bedrooms shown in the listing seem dingy and charmless, but there's an odd disconnect between the knotty pine part of the house and the gray carpet and wainscoting of the rest of the house. Also, I bet the windows are small because heating it would otherwise cost a fortune, but who could afford to heat a house that size anyway? I know they cut wood for the woodstove, so apparently they faced this problem too.

Other than crazy fundies with a pile of kids, I don't know who would want to live in that house.

[Sola]

Not to contribute to the derailing of this thread, but a 20 acre undeveloped lot on the river here goes for $300,000, and we're in the "Caltucky" part of the state.

Since my mom is an inveterate HGTV addict, I wonder if the house is in that "neither fish nor fowl" situation where it's too big and too fancy for most people looking for a "modest" home, yet too dark, cramped, and funky for people looking for a luxury home.

(I know it sounds odd to say that it's both big and cramped, but in the 4,264 square feet, there's the upstairs bedroom which looks like it belongs in a much smaller mountain home (320 sf), there's 5 smaller bedrooms downstairs (180 sf, 150 sf, 150 sf, and 2 unknown), there's an office, there's a dining room (300 sf), there's an odd other room between the dining room and kitchen, there's the kitchen (300 sf), there's the living room (540 sf), there's 4 bathrooms, and there's a one-car garage. Even though some of the rooms are big, I've been trying to visualize a floorplan, and I don't see how the whole thing isn't a maze.)

Like, my 12x15 bedroom in my 900-sf house seems much more bright and airy than any of the bedrooms shown in the listing, probably because I have two windows, hardwood floors, and a paint color I like. Not only do most of the bedrooms shown in the listing seem dingy and charmless, but there's an odd disconnect between the knotty pine part of the house and the gray carpet and wainscoting of the rest of the house. Also, I bet the windows are small because heating it would otherwise cost a fortune, but who could afford to heat a house that size anyway? I know they cut wood for the woodstove, so apparently they faced this problem too.

Other than crazy fundies with a pile of kids, I don't know who would want to live in that house.

$300,000 for 20 acres? I seriously need to emigrate to the USA! (OK I don't, I like my healthcare too much!)

[Marian the Librarian]

A-S and E's latest post about their "Egyptian Adventure:" yet another example of methinks the ladies protest way, way too much (No! Really! We really really really like our lives of staying home, learning basic HTML and Photoshop, knowing our wimminfolk place and keeping to it!!).

"We didn’t do this because we believed we had a biblical duty to submit to Isaac, or to be his junior helpmeets." (Defensive, much??) "Isaac was about to take a big step, a bold risk, a fearless stand, and we didn’t want to miss that for the world!" (Code for "The men in our family are SO annoyingly full of themselves! And we enable that!!) "...we, for one, wanted to be on his home team." (We, for one? SOTDRT writing fail, folks...just sayin'...)

I also find it interesting that they're advertising on goodreads.com. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time they've gone outside the convent walls of fundie-land and pushed their swag on a mainstream website aimed at book lovers. Given the news that their house is up for sale, perhaps this is a move born of desperation.