We had our home inspection last Saturday. I was super nervous going into it--I just kept cycling through possible horrifying scenarios in my head: "What if there are rats!?", "What if there is tons of damage from the fire last year!?", "What if the basement floods!?", and eventually, after finding out from our agent that the seller intended on being present the entire time, "What if the seller is mean and defensive and changes his mind about selling us the house?!".
None of that happened. In fact, the inspection went so well that we left the house that day even more in love with it than we were before.
We rolled up to the house bright and early. It was in the low 20's, and there was snow on the ground. Not ideal conditions for an inspection, but we didn't really run into any problems.
Our agent was there, but she only stayed for a few minutes. I found this a little strange, but we didn't really need her around for anything, so it was fine. The seller stayed the entire time, but kept out of our way and wasn't intrusive in the least. He's actually a very nice man, whose parents had bought this house when it had first been built, and lived it in until the end of their lives. The aforementioned fire had started while his mother lived there alone, and she had to move in with him while the repairs were being done. She died before it was ready to move back in.The seller said that he had done many of the repairs himself, and could answer any questions about them, which is why he wanted to stay for the inspection. He had intended to make this house as safe, and strong, and efficient as possible for his mom, and as we went through the house, this became quite evident.
The first thing we did was head outside. The driveway and sidewalks surrounding the house are virtually crack-free, though the porch has settled some over the lifespan of the house, and, while it isn't a hazard now, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for us to consider replacing it at some point.
One of my favorite things about this house is the patio in the back yard. There's a sliding door in the current-family-room-soon-to-be-dining-room that leads out onto it, and I think we can make it a really pleasant place to spend some time once it's warmer outside. Imagine it with no snow, better landscaping, and that gross old table replaced by a nice one. Anyway, aside from some foliage growing too close to the house, and a recommendation that we use some fill-dirt to slope any rainwater away from the foundation (a project the seller has already started!), everything looked great!
Unfortunately, the roof was covered in snow, so it wasn't safe for our inspector to go up there. Fortunately, the roof is only a year old, under warranty, and from what he could tell from looking (on the ground and in the attic), in great shape.
After examining downspouts, gutters, and everything else on the outside of the house, we made our way into the garage. I'm not going to go outside to take a picture of the garage at our current house, in Hamtramck, but imagine a 100 year old brick cube with no lights, no windows, and a garage door that only works sometimes and that is so rusty that it's almost split completely in half. Compared to that, the garage on our new house is a castle. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of the entire garage, in fact, this is the best one:
..but it's so clean, and white, and bright in comparison. It has a window, the inside walls are made of drywall, and can be painted, and the door is new. The only downside is that we have to buy the little box and door-opener, but it's wired up and ready to go as soon as we do.
After a lot of ladder-wrangling, false-starts, and serious acrobatics on the part of our inspector, it was attic time! The attic in this house is tiny, and is pretty much just a place for insulation to go. The entrance is up in a closet, and is nearly impossible to get to. One of the first things the seller told us that day was that we weren't likely to find a house in town that was better insulated than this one. Turns out, he was telling the truth! The inspector came down giddy about the strength of the beams, the quality of the repair that had been done, and indeed, of the insulation. I don't think I'll ever be giddy about insulation, but I'm pretty stoked about low heating bills and being a comfortable temperature.
After that, it was time to check out the dreaded basement. Here's some exclusive footage:
Love you, Dad.
Anyway.
I was super nervous about the basement, because this is our future block when we get a substantial amount of rain:
This picture is from two weeks ago.
The seller told us that since the building of the house, the basement has never flooded. He also said that he noticed a small trickle of water coming down one of the walls after the last hard rain we had, and that he had it professionally repaired. The inspector confirmed this, and thus alleviated one of my biggest fears as a homeowner! Hooray!
The basement of this house is partially finished. We are considering finishing it, but if we decide to, it won't be for a little while. In the meantime, it's pretty large, and with a little bit of work, we can turn it into a decent place to set up a fooseball table and a a place to play boardgames.
I'm not going to post any more pictures of the basement right now, because it all looks pretty much like this. Not exciting. There's an ancient washer and dryer down there that I'm hoping aren't included with the house. There's a makeshift room with walls made of wood panelling, the knocking down of which will be our first act as homeowners.All of the windows are currently glass block, and we plan on replacing a couple of them so that we can get some ventilation should we want some.
If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm afraid this entry is in danger of becoming quite dull. With that in mind, I'm stopping here and slapping a "Part 1!" on the title. I'll post the second part sometime soon, so if you're interested in hearing about what was found upon inspecting the rooms, water heater, and furnace, keep your eyes peeled. We should have the results of the radon test then, so I'll include that as well.
Oh, one last thing: I've used PicturePaste to instantly paste these pictures from the PDF Inspection Report into Blogger, and would recommend this quick little download to anyone else who wants to quickly paste images from PDF files. It's easy as pie and a serious timesaver!
We rolled up to the house bright and early. It was in the low 20's, and there was snow on the ground. Not ideal conditions for an inspection, but we didn't really run into any problems.
Our agent was there, but she only stayed for a few minutes. I found this a little strange, but we didn't really need her around for anything, so it was fine. The seller stayed the entire time, but kept out of our way and wasn't intrusive in the least. He's actually a very nice man, whose parents had bought this house when it had first been built, and lived it in until the end of their lives. The aforementioned fire had started while his mother lived there alone, and she had to move in with him while the repairs were being done. She died before it was ready to move back in.The seller said that he had done many of the repairs himself, and could answer any questions about them, which is why he wanted to stay for the inspection. He had intended to make this house as safe, and strong, and efficient as possible for his mom, and as we went through the house, this became quite evident.
The first thing we did was head outside. The driveway and sidewalks surrounding the house are virtually crack-free, though the porch has settled some over the lifespan of the house, and, while it isn't a hazard now, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for us to consider replacing it at some point.
One of my favorite things about this house is the patio in the back yard. There's a sliding door in the current-family-room-soon-to-be-dining-room that leads out onto it, and I think we can make it a really pleasant place to spend some time once it's warmer outside. Imagine it with no snow, better landscaping, and that gross old table replaced by a nice one. Anyway, aside from some foliage growing too close to the house, and a recommendation that we use some fill-dirt to slope any rainwater away from the foundation (a project the seller has already started!), everything looked great!
Unfortunately, the roof was covered in snow, so it wasn't safe for our inspector to go up there. Fortunately, the roof is only a year old, under warranty, and from what he could tell from looking (on the ground and in the attic), in great shape.
After examining downspouts, gutters, and everything else on the outside of the house, we made our way into the garage. I'm not going to go outside to take a picture of the garage at our current house, in Hamtramck, but imagine a 100 year old brick cube with no lights, no windows, and a garage door that only works sometimes and that is so rusty that it's almost split completely in half. Compared to that, the garage on our new house is a castle. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of the entire garage, in fact, this is the best one:
..but it's so clean, and white, and bright in comparison. It has a window, the inside walls are made of drywall, and can be painted, and the door is new. The only downside is that we have to buy the little box and door-opener, but it's wired up and ready to go as soon as we do.
After a lot of ladder-wrangling, false-starts, and serious acrobatics on the part of our inspector, it was attic time! The attic in this house is tiny, and is pretty much just a place for insulation to go. The entrance is up in a closet, and is nearly impossible to get to. One of the first things the seller told us that day was that we weren't likely to find a house in town that was better insulated than this one. Turns out, he was telling the truth! The inspector came down giddy about the strength of the beams, the quality of the repair that had been done, and indeed, of the insulation. I don't think I'll ever be giddy about insulation, but I'm pretty stoked about low heating bills and being a comfortable temperature.
After that, it was time to check out the dreaded basement. Here's some exclusive footage:
Love you, Dad.
Anyway.
I was super nervous about the basement, because this is our future block when we get a substantial amount of rain:
The seller told us that since the building of the house, the basement has never flooded. He also said that he noticed a small trickle of water coming down one of the walls after the last hard rain we had, and that he had it professionally repaired. The inspector confirmed this, and thus alleviated one of my biggest fears as a homeowner! Hooray!
The basement of this house is partially finished. We are considering finishing it, but if we decide to, it won't be for a little while. In the meantime, it's pretty large, and with a little bit of work, we can turn it into a decent place to set up a fooseball table and a a place to play boardgames.
I'm not going to post any more pictures of the basement right now, because it all looks pretty much like this. Not exciting. There's an ancient washer and dryer down there that I'm hoping aren't included with the house. There's a makeshift room with walls made of wood panelling, the knocking down of which will be our first act as homeowners.All of the windows are currently glass block, and we plan on replacing a couple of them so that we can get some ventilation should we want some.
If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm afraid this entry is in danger of becoming quite dull. With that in mind, I'm stopping here and slapping a "Part 1!" on the title. I'll post the second part sometime soon, so if you're interested in hearing about what was found upon inspecting the rooms, water heater, and furnace, keep your eyes peeled. We should have the results of the radon test then, so I'll include that as well.
Oh, one last thing: I've used PicturePaste to instantly paste these pictures from the PDF Inspection Report into Blogger, and would recommend this quick little download to anyone else who wants to quickly paste images from PDF files. It's easy as pie and a serious timesaver!
i agree about your patio. super adorable!
ReplyDeleteMos Stef is the awesomest screenname ever. Stephen should move back to Michigan, and then you guys can come over in the summer for bbqs on our patio.
ReplyDelete