oh gawd, here we go....

Getting a home inspection today on a house that we would like to buy. We're first time home buyers, and it's an old house (1898) 2.5 acres, a barn and some sheds. The house looks like it's been very well maintained over the years, was completely remodeled on the inside around 1984 or so (according to buyer legend), but I'm not a home inspector. In fact, i have the handy-man sort of mentality but no real experience. Looks like i'm gonna gain some real quick, and I'm kinda looking forward to it :D.

I see some stuff already that needs attention, which is of course expected. It's all little things and I'm fine with that. I was hoping that the home inspector will be able to find anything MAJOR that i just don't have an eye for, but searching through this NG about home inspectors i don't get a really warm, fuzzy feeling about their abilities. By "MAJOR" i'm talking safety and structural issues. I'm especially paranoid about old wiring. Buyer legend states that the house was gutted and completely rewired top to bottom in the 1984 remodeling. There is a fairly modern-looking breaker box in the house, there are plenty of outlets everywhere and they're all 3-prong.. No GFI outlets in kitchens or bathrooms, and there are a few light fixtures in closets and a chandelier that look like they haven't been touched in about 50-70 years.

I suppose I can get the water tested for lead. I went into the basement and looked at some pipes there but I honestly can't tell what they're made of. I didn't have a magnet to check if they were iron or lead. They look cast and they're shiny black. I see some PVC down there too. I'm of the mind where I'd probably buy a kit and test it at home, and then send a sample to a local lab for a second opinion.

Walls are purported to be 16" concrete all the way up. They are 16" thick for sure, and concrete on the outside for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if there is some brick or stone block underneath and it's just been 'resurfaced' or something. One corner of the wall has a series of really gnarly cracks that go from ground to about the middle of the 2nd floor. A trusted and respected handyman of mine looked at the cracks and at first said he was a bit concerned about them, but then looked at the inside of the basement and said they don't go all they way through so they're nothing to worry about. How would you fix a concrete wall if he's wrong? Fill the crack and hope it doesn't crumble? Knock it out and repour it, and hope you don't knock the whole house down in the process? Sounds like a major undertaking....

Like anyone else that's ever bought a house, i'm doing all the "what if? what if? what if?" stuff... :D

Anyways....

I'd appreciate any suggestions on things to look for in the wake of a home inspector. I know that there is so much stuff to name, and it's hard to do without actually being there to see the house firsthand, but any comment, question or discouragement is appreciated.

Thanks!

-Phaeton

Reply to
phaeton
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Old houses are great with lot's off character and all that stuff, but materials REALLY degrade after 100 yrs!! Don't buy a money pit, you will hate it. Make sure the electrical is good, with new wiring, goood plumbing, and if the foundation is bad or crumbly beware. Especially look at the wood for termites. I was in Eureka Ca a few years back where they have many Victorian homes, and saw a crew ppulling out all the huge floor joist's from under the house, and replacing them due to termites and rot. VERY expensive job. If you don't have 100K to put into the house, be sure and do all your homework.

You have NEVER experienced buyer's remorse the way you will if you buy a house full of nasty surprises. It happened to me once, bought a house in San Diego in '89 for 220K. Gorgeous house on .5 acre, 2400+ sq. ft. with pool. But it turned out to be a money pit, water problems, poorly maintained, etc. On top of that the housing market turned south in '89 in southern cal and didn't recover until '98. I had to sell for a loss in '97.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!

Reply to
twice_redeemed

If you're lucky, an inspector will point you to problems that you will have to investigate and remedy. DAMHIKT. You'll probably be told a series of lies if you ask about various specifics.

You need someone there representing you alone, who knows what he/she's looking at, especially concerning the site, foundation, framing, plumbing, electrical.

Useful tools while visiting house: a big nail for checking concrete/mortar integrity, pocket knife for checking wood for rot.

After 40-50 yrs, typically mortar and concrete lose strength. Salt and acidity speed this up. For house > 100 yrs old, I'd bring along a structural engineer. Or pass.

HTH, J

Reply to
barry

Here in the Wisconsin tundra the ground freezes solid for half the year, so termites aren't often a problem. The basement looks solid so far that I can tell, but it's painted over stone and concrete. The paint isn't brand-spanking new- it doesn't look like anyone's trying to hide anything to sell it, and there's been a little shoring up of the first floor with some timbers but of all the wood i can see in the house, most of it has been already replaced in the near past or the really really old stuff still seems rather solid.

Gosh.. if the basement started to crumble, could that even be fixed? Stickframe houses can be jacked up or even set aside while a new foundation gets poured, but if this thing is 16" of concrete or stone all the way up to the top of the second floor, would it be too heavy to work with or too brittle to lift?

Now i'm all paranoid.. uh..heh...

So yeah.. .it's the nasty surprises that i'm trying to avoid, and i'm not qualified to look for this stuff.

Reply to
phaeton

If it's 100 now and hasn't shown any major signs of failure, that's a good sign you can expect it to outlive you. :)

Our house is only 10 years or so younger and has very few problems structurally other than I haven't fixed some drainage issues yet and they are causing some foundation issues--I need to do that! :) As in the case you say, the house was extensively remodelled in the late 70's when all new wiring and plumbing was put in as well as insulation and a HVAC system. There's one area of concern in an old house--did they do this at the same time there? Heating particularly in your area is a concern.

W/ a non-conventional construction such as this I'd recommend a structural guy as a good investment as someone else suggested if you're really concerned. Whatever, you do, be sure that whoever is doing it is on payroll, not the realty company's or even your lender's.

I really don't know about your climate enough to know for sure, but I wouldn't rule out termites w/o at least a rudimentary check unless you have really solid knowledge/basis for otherwise.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Not all home inspectors are bad. Where is the house? Maybe someone has a recommendation. Also the climate of the house will drive, no some extent, some of the things that you should look for. Most home inspectors, even the good ones, will have some common items on their checklists.

You inspector will probably tell you about ground water and that some re-grading is necessary to keep water out of the basement. A very common thing on old houses with basements. he will look at the roof and try and give you a ballpark of the expected remaining life. he will look at heating, AC and give you estimates as to their remaining life expectancy. He will look at your hot water heater and tell you it needs a discharge pipe on the pressure relief valve for safety reasons. he should tell you something about your elec. service and capacity. He will flush all the toilets, run each faucet, open and close some windows, etc. If he does not actually get on the roof and into the crawl space he is probably not that good of an inspector.

He will not tell you specifically about lead paint which you likely have (Put probably safely encapsulated under modern pain). He will not tell you specifically about radon, he will not tell you about termites. All those things are separate inspections around here.

Your Agreement of sale probably says something to the effect that if the inspector(s) find more than $XXX in problems then the agreement may be amended or withdrawn. You seller may opt to withdraw if too much is found, so can you.

You will probably want to come back here to discuss anything that was found. There is a lot of good info here. Some bad too. Remember, this advice is free and sometimes you get what you pay for.

Reply to
No

I really doubt that the walls are 16" concrete. They may be stone with stucco applied or brick with stucco but not concrete. The insides are probably plaster. They may be 16" thick but certainly not concrete

For those interested, concrete, as we know it today, is a relatively modern invention that followed the invention of Portland cement. Its history is here....

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If this house IS

1898 and it really IS concrete it could be one of the first in the world. Concrete was very new in 1898.

Reply to
No

Indeed. Here in the upper midwest, pre 1900 homes virtually all had stone foundations. From about 1900-WWI you see cast stone blocks, and poured concrete really isn't too common in the foundation until you get to 1920 or so.

That said, an old stone foundation isn't necessarily a bad thing - they might not keep the basement bone dry, but chances are your basement has minimal headroom anyway - so it isn't likely you're going to finish it off into a media room or something.

An old house is a different animal - and, yes, it will be a continual project for as long as you live in it.

Reply to
Ranieri

Well, fwiw my fiancee pulled this inspector out of the book and I'm the one who pays for it, so if she (the inspector) has any agendas, they'll be mine ;)

I wasn't there for the inspection, but my fiancee was, and she followed her all around. She says that she did a very thorough job- spent nearly 3 hours on it and crawled into everything she could fit into. She says she was 'impressed' with some things, such as how cool the attic was, and that it had that perfect balance of ventilation and insulation. She said all the wiring is 100A and it was all replaced recently, and the electrician did a good job of it. The floors were sloped a little (which is to be expected) but they were all very solid and the entire house was very structurally sound. The basement appears sound and solid, though it was very humid (about 65%) and she pointed out all the places water was getting in and getting trapped. Most of it is stuff like fixing gutter downspouts that drop right in front of windows, minor flashing, etc. She did note that the ground slopes

*toward* the house all the way around, and that backfilling/planing so that it slopes away from the house would make a lot of difference.

The other big thing was the cracks in the exterior walls i had mentioned. The house has all new windows in it, but apparently when they were replaced, the timber around the windows wasn't replaced, even though it was probably already starting to rot and it wasn't ever caulked. So now the wood around the windows is all rotten and that's allowing water to get into the concrete and make it crack. She says that once the window situation is fixed the concrete cracks are 100% repairable through various means. She gave the name and number of a local guy that specialises in old house restoration, particularly stone ones. She also recommended a book titled "Renovating Old Houses" by Nash. Most everyone i've talked to about pulling the windows out and re-doing the framing around them says it's not nearly as bad as it sounds, and that the epoxies and things that fill concrete are actually stronger than the concrete.

Most of the plumbing is either copper or PVC, there is one lead pipe leading from the well to the pump area and might be original. The plumbing all appears to be fine, and completely redone recently. Only thing is they re-did it to old standards- it has an S trap instead of a P trap and no gas vents, but since there is a lot of the plumbing readily accessible in the basement (all wrapped with insulation, mind you) this is something that can probably be updated easily. There are a few things that aren't quite up to code, but they could be made that way easily and inexpensively. Case in point: local fire codes require that the water heater sit at least 6" from any wall. This one is right up against the basement wall, but it's a stone wall so the chances of a house fire are probably minimal. It's one of those things that i can probably get to leisurely before anyone would call me on it.

Then there's a lot of stuff that I already knew about. There's a newer concrete block chimney on the outside of the house that isn't anchored and hangs about 1.5" from the wall all the way up. According to owner legend, it has been that way since they bought it in 1984. There's some rusted out ductwork in the basement coming from the oil furnace (it appeared to me that water was seeping in through a slipshod plaster job and contributed to it rusting). My handyman guy (the fiancee's grandpa) says that there's about $50 worth of ductwork to replace in the basement. The oil furnace was getting serviced by a really old guy that probably originally installed it, but he couldn't remember when exactly- he guesses late 1980s.

Then there's lots and lots of little stuff- you know all the "death by a thousand paper cuts". The dryer vents to the basement instead of the outside, the kitchen faucet leaks, the front door has no working locks on it, the doors that do have working locks have no keys, the garage door 'safety backup' switch thingy doesn't work, the kitchen and bathrooms have well maintained but well used floors, there is some hideous wallpaper and panelling choices throughout. I read through this list and i'm not scared yet.

The inspector left with us a very organized and detailed report. She says that most houses half this old run into 40-50 pages of stuff to address, this house has about 12. She listed the loose railing on one side of the front deck as the biggest safety hazard. (!)

All in all she says that the house is very structurally sound and safe, and will remain that way for a long time if i keep the water out. I'm quite pleased, and I'm glad I had it done. I understand that when I move in there will be plenty o' things that i'll find, but it sounds like all the big and/or dangerous stuff is covered.

thoughts? Thanks!

-Phaeton

Reply to
phaeton

What is the wall construction?

AFAIK it is concrete on the outside, probably about 6" worth of it. Underneath that is probably going to be brick or block or fieldstone and mortar. The basement is definately fieldstone and mortar, and in this area of Wisconsin there are a lot of houses of that vintage that go either way- some are fieldstone all the way up, some are fieldstone basement with brick or block walls. For this house, I really don't know for sure what's under the concrete. On the *inside* of the house the walls are some sort of plaster in some rooms, drywall in others, and ugly paneling in others.

Is that what you're asking? :-D

*and* is that good, bad or otherwise?
Reply to
phaeton

....snip long description of inspector...

Sounds reasonable but you didn't answer the question (or it was buried in the tome so deeply I didn't take time to read throroughly) -- is the wall construction?

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

She - I have never met a home inspector who was a she.

She says that she did a very thorough job- spent

How big is the house? Is there gas for the oven and heat? Does it have central air? 100A service could be getting a bit small. The reason I ask about gas is that you will not have as much crunch if your dryer, over and heat is gas or oil. If all these things are electric then 100A could be getting too tight if you are planning to add circuits. Did she not how many open, or free, breaker slots were left in the panel?

The floors were

Sloped floors can be an indication of some pretty BAD things or maybe not. I hope the inspector determined what caused the sloped floors and indicated that they would not continue to get worse. I would want to know why they were sloped, if it were me.

The basement appears

Agreed - I called this one w/o seeing the house!!! Create slope AWAY from house, extend downspouts away, fix window wells, add window well covers (If non standard sizes see

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for custom made ones). This will take care of most water problems in any basement. That will reduce your humidity in your basement. The water in your basement is most likely what caused your floors to be sloped (Either through rot of your sill or excessive settling of your foundation)

This one has me worried a bit too. I'm not sure what "the timber around the windows" actually is. If its some structural framing then it could get very messy and expensive to replace. Repair of rot is difficult and if not done correctly will be a waste of time and money because the decay will just continue on to unrepaired areas. Replacement is usually better. If the wood you are referring to is just trim then its easy. If repair will involve removing windows that is likely a big job, maybe up to $1,000 per window, more or less.

Did she give you a sense as to the flow rate of the well? Usually measured in Gallons per minute. Also measure how well the well recovers. In other words, if you draw down all the available water in the well (Is that possible first of all) then how long will it take to be able to use it again, etc. I do not have a well so others may interject on the common measurements here. Running a new pipe to the well head is no big deal. I would only worry about it if I had babies or was planning. (If it really is lead)

The

If it aint broke don't fix it. The insulation - Did the inspector give you an opinion as to the possibility of asbestos? Again - I wouldn't worry too much unless its falling apart. If its intact and not flaking off its probably no big deal. Others would disagree I'm sure.

There are

Most places do NOT require an old house to me current codes when sold. Again - If it aint broke don't fix it. You have a lot of other things to work on!

Could be a major job to fix properly. Most likely the chimneys foundation wasn't properly installed. Plus the water issues discussed above. I would at least consider anchoring it to the house or knocking it down if its not used.

According to owner

Don't replace the duct until you prevent the water from coming in. One point I should have made before. Keep the water outside. Repairs from the inside are fruitless as evidenced by the "slipshod plaster job".

The oil furnace was getting serviced by a really old guy

Significantly adds to humidity

, the kitchen faucet leaks,

$.05 cent repair that will take all day Saturday, 3 trips to hardware store and $50 in tools! I've been there.

the front door has no working locks

This one can be a really pain. These are probably what's called 'full mortise' locksets. Finding replacements that fit the existing cutouts will be next to impossible unless you are willing to pay BIG $$$ for replicas or restored antiques or what ever. So what, I'll just get the $10 sets at the blue store. Well, now you need to fill in the holes left by the old se, drill the new holes, etc. Its a lot of work per door. May want to first have a locksmith some in and see if he can just repair what you have and make keys as necessary. That's where I would probably start.

the garage

Could be repairable vs. buying a whole new unit.

the kitchen and

Fun stuff but fix the water, rot, etc. before you start to tackle the aesthetic stuff.

I read through

Whew - Maybe I'm in the wrong business. Can you post some pictures?

Reply to
No

Yep. You and Duane Bozarth both called the sloping/humidity issue with the basement. In addition to this, the prior renters threw down some thick neo-70s shag carpet which is probably holding a lot of moisture. It's coming out right away. I doubt I would be able to "finish" this basement and make it like another room in the house. Home inspector discouraged pouring concrete in there because it would hold more moisture. I might consider small pea gravel or something. It's got really grungy cobblestone as a flooring now. That's all down the road tho. Why does the earth slope towards old houses? Is that 100 years of very slow sinking? Water erosion?

Agreed that my first priority will be getting the water out. Window wells, grading, new guttering. Hopefully all before winter. As best as I can tell, the walls are ALL stone in the place. The only wood that's in the walls is what's in the windowframes. The windowframes are anchored to the stone, and the windows themselves are attached to the windowframes. The windows themselves are new, self-contained in an alyewminneum frame and would come out as a unit and go back in as a unit. I'll have to look at them again, but if that's the case, then i think it won't be a big deal to redo the windowframes myself, or maybe with a little help from the handyman grandpa. I'd want to spend a couple bucks more on pressure treated wood, right?

I'm afraid of heights. This will be a problem when I go to do the upstairs windows. Also if I have to re-do the gutters. Home inspector sez they are plastic and are starting to warp. Doesn't have to be dealt wth right away but probably in the near future. In the meantime i should be able to tend to the downspouts and extend them away from the house.

There's a giant wasp nest in one of the eaves. Call me nuts or call me shadetree mechanic, but i think that a powerful shop vac with a 10' PVC extension on it could detain the wasps while i knock the nest down. Then shut it off and run like hell. Or cap it and leave it sit for a couple of weeks. Or leave it running, go inside and unplug it there. The wasps will crawl back out but maybe they'll go somewhere else.

100A service. Oil heat. Electric dryer and stove. I would prefer gas in both cases but I kinda doubt it's available. No central A/C, but in the few times i've gone in the house when it's 85F outside, it seemed much cooler. I think that a single window A/C unit to pull the humidity out of the house in the summer might be sufficient. There are unused breaker slots in the electrical box, but i forget how many. Inspector chix0r said that there is one set of wires coming from it that is still 60A. Word on the street is that an electrician is moving in next door. Her report sheet had a checkbox for "Federal Pacific" breaker boxes, and she didn't check it. I just learned about the folly of those yesterday from googling in this group :-D

Lemme guess: upgrading from 100A to 130A means a new breakerbox, new breakers, and rewiring the whole house again? Otherwise, overstressing a 100A system will show itself by popping breakers all the time, no?

Possible asbestos tape on the pipes in the basement. My understanding about asbestos is that it's perfectly fine until you start messing with it. I grew up in a house with asbestos shingles on the outside and i didn't die. We don't have kids and don't plan to have any so i'm not going to worry about the lead a whole lot right now. I'll still test the water, but if it's within normal limits i'll spend my coins on other things first.

Agreed on the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" part. She says there's nothing wrong with the plumbing- there's just a better way. There's plenty of stuff that i *have* to fix first. She wrote down the flow rate of the well, but once again i don't have it in front of me right now. I think i saw 35gpm but i'll have to check it again. (coincidentally last night was my b-day celebration, so a few things are fuzzy today ;-) )

About the locks in the doors: There are only a couple of doors in the house that are really old, if that's what you mean by "full mortise". All the outside doors are probably 15-20 years or less. The front door looks less than 5. The knobs and locks on them look just like the stuff in the Knobs And Locks aisle at Home Depot. Interestingly, it's only the new doors that are screwed up. All the old ones are fine.

Anyways... i better go eat something. Rumor is that once you buy a house you don't get to do that very often ;-)

Thanks again for everyone, humouring me and helping out a n00b.

-Phaeton

Reply to
phaeton

....

Yes, plus there's a tendency for the yard elevation to go up owing to the many years of accumulated thatch, etc., that builds up and eventually ends up as additional humus/soil. Where I am that process was accelerated drastically in the 30s w/ the blowing dirt of the Dust Bowl which is a significant contributor to my problem as I mentioned before...

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

The windowframes

Could be easy-ish. PT would not hurt but shouldn't be required with proper flashing, caulking, etc.

Gutters can be DIY but I have found that, if you shop around, you can get instaled seamless gutters for same or better price that the DIY variety. Better quality and no hassle, more color choices too! Shop around before you decide to DIY.

In the meantime

Easy and cheap.

Probably a bad idea - I always chuckle at an advertisement I once saw. It was of a guy with a weed whacker heading for a hornets nest. The tag line was 'bad idea' or some such thing. I have no idea what the ad was for. This sounds similar. There are sprays designed to help you with this. Do it after dusk for maximum effectiveness. It will kill the wasps and keep away any you missed. After a day you can knock down the nest. See

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and look for a long reach spray. Or, if you are getting new gutters, your gutter installers will likely have this as a standard item on all their trucks and will take care of it for you free of charge!

Nope - You would go from 100A to 200A, not 130. All that will do for you is give you more spaces for new circuuts. May just require a new box, may require new box and larger service cable. Not typicly a DIY project.

Otherwise,

No - If the breaker and wire are sized properly and the circiut is not over loaded you will not have popping breakers. They will pop when you have your microwave, oven, hair dryer, and toaster, all on the same circuit and running at the same time. Not a likely possibility if house was re-wired in the past quarter centry.

You may find it useful to map out what each breaker turns on and off. Make a list and hang it on the door of your breaker box.

Read this

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it describes full mortise versus what cylindrical (Cheapies at lowes, etc). A mortise is an area carved out of the door to hold the mechanical parts of the lockset.

Reply to
No

While I agree they are uncommon, there are pre-1920 poured foundation homes. In fact I live in one, built in 1905, While mine aren't 16" thick, they are every bit of 12". And, what I originally thought were horizontal foundation cracks, are simply where the form boards were moved higher from the previous days pour. There is a bulge of approximately 1/8" where the later (higher) pour meet the previous pour.

From the ridge marks on my foundation, the form board were about 4" wide, and laid horizontally. In fact, I wouldn't be too surprised if they were the same boards that went into the framing of the house. My house is balloon framed, with 20'+ long, 2"x4"'s. That is 2"x4" in true dimensions, not that 3 1/2"x1 5/8" stuff they sell now.

BTW, after 100 years, there are NO cracks in my foundation. On they other hand, the concrete floor is rather uneven, and quite thin.

I also 100% agreee that an old house is more something you form a long term relationship with, rather than purchase. I often kid people that my house is my mistress! That said, she has real character, the kind that seems to be lacking in newer boxes. Not to mention, I haver seen major problems caused by some of the shoddy corner cutting that is so widespread in recent construction.

DLGlos

Reply to
DLGlos

My only concern is that what look like small repairs on old homes turn into large repairs as layer after layer removed reveals other repairs needed underneath.

If you are in a place in your life where you feel like spending a lot of time on a house go for it. Seems odd though as you seem pretty young, and I doubt you consider this your final house.

Maybe youll get good practice.

Reply to
CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert

My foundation was also formed with horizontally placed boards (the days before plywood). The character thing is something that some folks get and others don't. When we first moved in, the neighbor lady (age 98 at the time), told us she remembered her cousin building the house and excavating the basement with a couple horses and a scoop. I was under the front porch a couple years later replacing a rotted sill plate and found an old horseshoe in the packed earth.

Reading all the threads about home inspections, however, I really don't look forward to the day I sell. It's a great house, but it's quirky - some coppper plumbing some galvanized, some cat iron drain pipe, some PVC, some conduit, some romex, some bx.... and of course there's the wrought iron fence that the neighbor built sometime in the 1930's that is 6 inches on my property...

Probably won't matter much, though - the next buyer will probaly tear down and build a tract mansion..

Reply to
Ranieri

Ranieri wrote: ....

....

Yep, Grandpa dug the basement for the house (and the pits for the grain elevator and a whole bunch more) w/ mules and a similar "scoop" (called a "Fresno"). I still have the bill of sale for it--as I recall it was something exorbitant like $50 or so...

The walls were formed for a single pour, however, using 1x12s. One has to look quite a bit to find the tiny knot impression... I can't think what the form lumber would cost today if you could even get it.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Thanks to "No" for the link about mortise locks. I didn't pay attention to the front door (or any of them for that matter) regarding the type of lock. I'll know now to look, and if they're full-mortise types I'll give a call to a locksmith for some quotes vs. replacement. Thanks for the tip!

Wasps: Jmagerl in a recent thread had a neat idea using a small fan near their nest to whittle them away by chopping action. I just so happen to have all the materials to do that, just for kicks.

Upgrading Electric to 200A: I wouldn't attempt that myself. I agree it's not DIY.

Planing/Grading: I'll have to look at it again. Sounds like lots of shoveling. Maybe I can rent a small tractor. Still haven't regretted purchasing a small pickup truck last time around. Sometimes wish it weren't a stepside. Probably want to do that in the spring, so i can plunk some sod down on top of the new grade to keep it from going anywhere, right? I might have to pull a small porch off the front of the house to do this. It's there, it's sturdy, but it's ugly. I'm not going to tell you guys how I plan to move it. This house needs a wrap-around porch anyways.

"the kitchen faucet leaks---->$.05 cent repair that will take all day Saturday, 3 trips to hardware store and $50 in tools! I've been there. "

Me too. It was a 2 beer job last time I did it ;)

buying a whole new unit.

I tinker with solid state electronics so i'm not so worried bout that. I could probably build the IR laser emitter and "electric eye" detector from scratch if i had to. Honestly, I think those things are annoying when you're trying to shut the door and run out real quick, and you have to jump over the beam path while a door is coming down to crush your cranium.... I'll have to invent the "just this once ignore me walking through the beam" button for the door opener/closer ;)

CL Gilbert: I'd guess the small problems turning into big ones as layers are removed can happen even in newer homes. I suppose you are right, though. Hopefully there are no surprises, but it's very possible that there are.

Once again though.. yep... all the water leaks first.

Thanks to everyone for the help thusfar. Usenet is properly the last bit of the Internet that's still awesome.

Reply to
phaeton

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