In Escrow

During escrow, the house gets "injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected, and selected" and possibly rejected!

It did not get rejected, as no pests were detected, it was not infected, nothing horrible was found when inspected, though it does feel slightly neglected, ultimately, it was selected.

"You can get anything you want..."

Okay, enough of Arlo! The house passed inspections with only a few surprises - two, really. The roof was not in as good a shape as it initially appeared, and the sewer line is old and made of paper.

Rob the Roofer (really) said that it would take "an act of god" for the roof to leak, as the roof that is on there now is the second roof and is over another roof. It's 15 years old, though, and has another 5 years before it starts to show its age and wear and tear. The biggest issue with the roof is that the previous roofer neglected to put the metal edging on the roof that keeps the eaves from rotting, and the plywood under the shingles is starting to get soft - just on the edge of the overhang. $875 to add the sheathing to keep it from further deterioration.

Mike the plumber did a video of our sewer line and it is the original "Orangeburg" paper type pipe that is starting to get squashed into an oval and get full of roots. If we snake it every four months it should be fine, but will need to be replaced eventually. Fortunately, the line doesn't go directly under the nice tree in the front yard, and the plumber said the tree should be okay when he replaces the sewer line for $1300.

Other than those two surprises, there is really nothing we didn't already know or suspect was wrong. We had an extremely thorough home inspection - so thorough, we want to use the notebook he gave us as a record of our improvements and fixes, adding to it as we fix up the house.

After all the inspections, we started getting estimates on fixes and upgrades - removing the "popcorn" ceilings, rearranging the kitchen, doors, windows, all sorts of things. We hope to make a pretty good plan so we don't spend all our money on small things and run out before we've accomplished anything major. We plan to prioritize and schedule renovations in a way that is efficient, logical and financially sensible. We'll see what actually happens!

I've done tons of drawings, which help me to visualize how it might look, and Devin has used Visio to create some floorplans, I've used some online software to plan the kitchen, and I've been spending all my time online looking at home-improvement products, websites, videos, and watching HGTV!!

Now, we have less than 1 week until we are home owners!

I mentioned in the previous post that it has been a roller coaster. When I see the house as we imagine it will be, I feel excited; when I see the house as it currently is, empty, a little dingy, mediocre and sad, I feel depressed and wonder if we are doing the right thing. Then I remember that even if we do nothing, when we move in, it will be home - we'll add our personality to it with our things, and it will allow us to get out of the friggin' trailer park! Then it's all OK.