Happy Halloween
"Everyone leaves home and everyone finds a place to call home. Exodus, it turns out, is Genesis." Mickey Pearlman- A Place Called Home - This is a great book by the way. Short essays by twenty women authors on the concept of home.
Both the home inspections are complete and I met with my RE agent Kris yesterday morning. The condo appears to have structural and water issues on the two sides of the building, faucets & pipes on the condo property are leaking down the outside of the foundation and into a crawl space on one corner. On the front side is the kind of a crack you might expect at basement level but up above ground level is a larger crack that looks like the front has shifted forward towards the raised bank the condo sits on. They had removed all the trees on that side because the roots were destabilizing the bank, uh oh. The newer asphalt roof is damaged (wind? ice?) and is just patched with some black stuff that looks ready to go. Nothing inside has been maintained in 20 odd years, I expected a lot of upgrading and redecorating. I give up, as the advertisement says "it's out of my network."
My house, better but...I have an electrician coming over today to give me an estimate. There were several items found that were probably there when I bought my house 13 years ago but not on the original inspection, so this was a surprise. I've done a lot of rewiring I thought I was good but I was wrong. These have to be fixed no matter who lives here and the house cannot be sold until they are. There are other obvious things such as replacing the shingles that recently blew off along the roof ridge. I thought I'd have that done before anyone made an offer. The prospective buyer also requested little picky things like moving the smoke and CO alarms to different locations as she doesn't want them in the bedrooms, which was exactly where I wanted them, to each his own - I think she needs to buy some tools. They also wanted a lot of routine homeowner tasks done that I am not going to do. She wants to close in three weeks. Ha, ha! In our small town getting a plumber inside of three weeks can sometimes be a miracle unless it's an emergency. I will see what can be negotiated, especially the closing date which I understand, the holidays are staring us in the face.
Got the estimate for the back bumper on the van and need to call the fellow who backed into it and get it to him. It will take two days to fix as the bumper has to painted. My DIL's father owns the body shop and he fixed my passenger side mirror for me while the estimate was being done. What a nice thing to do. A new one is about $300.
I saw this quote just awhile ago after reading about Chinua Achebe after his death this March. He was an inspired teacher and author. It fits my mood this morning.
"When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool." - Chinua Achebe
Both the home inspections are complete and I met with my RE agent Kris yesterday morning. The condo appears to have structural and water issues on the two sides of the building, faucets & pipes on the condo property are leaking down the outside of the foundation and into a crawl space on one corner. On the front side is the kind of a crack you might expect at basement level but up above ground level is a larger crack that looks like the front has shifted forward towards the raised bank the condo sits on. They had removed all the trees on that side because the roots were destabilizing the bank, uh oh. The newer asphalt roof is damaged (wind? ice?) and is just patched with some black stuff that looks ready to go. Nothing inside has been maintained in 20 odd years, I expected a lot of upgrading and redecorating. I give up, as the advertisement says "it's out of my network."
My house, better but...I have an electrician coming over today to give me an estimate. There were several items found that were probably there when I bought my house 13 years ago but not on the original inspection, so this was a surprise. I've done a lot of rewiring I thought I was good but I was wrong. These have to be fixed no matter who lives here and the house cannot be sold until they are. There are other obvious things such as replacing the shingles that recently blew off along the roof ridge. I thought I'd have that done before anyone made an offer. The prospective buyer also requested little picky things like moving the smoke and CO alarms to different locations as she doesn't want them in the bedrooms, which was exactly where I wanted them, to each his own - I think she needs to buy some tools. They also wanted a lot of routine homeowner tasks done that I am not going to do. She wants to close in three weeks. Ha, ha! In our small town getting a plumber inside of three weeks can sometimes be a miracle unless it's an emergency. I will see what can be negotiated, especially the closing date which I understand, the holidays are staring us in the face.
Got the estimate for the back bumper on the van and need to call the fellow who backed into it and get it to him. It will take two days to fix as the bumper has to painted. My DIL's father owns the body shop and he fixed my passenger side mirror for me while the estimate was being done. What a nice thing to do. A new one is about $300.
I saw this quote just awhile ago after reading about Chinua Achebe after his death this March. He was an inspired teacher and author. It fits my mood this morning.
"When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool." - Chinua Achebe
posted by Celia | October 31, 2013
3 Comments:
Frustrating process for sure but looks like you are making progress. It's turned gray down our way with rain supposedly tonight. Good luck with the last part of your move
Moving is not easy at any time, but it is so much more frustrating as we get older.
If you are supposed to move- it will happen-. Our selling and buying went pretty easy, BUT we did not have a good inspector for the house we bought here in Northern California. He missed a lot of grievous needed repairs that we have had to fix as the flaws showed up: leaking roof in more than one place, bad wiring, sloppy workmanship, breaking down well pump etc etc. Be thankful that the needed work on the condo is being addressed. You don't need to find those out the hard way.
Wjhen we sold our house we purchased a home warranty for the new owners that paid for any repairs needed the first year of ownership. The owners of our new home did the same, but they managed to purchase a cheap warranty that did not cover anything but the failing well pump. All those things we got through and are happy with our purchase- we just wish the realtor here had hired a better inspector. Keep us posted!
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