Inspection Aftermath

So, as we mentioned yesterday, we really needed the inspection to go well.  And did it?  Sort of.  For a 101 year old house, it went very well.  The roof and structure are both in excellent shape.  The electrical and plumbing have been updated and are in reasonably good shape.  However, there were five major issues that will need to be dealt with immediately or in the near future:



1.  Minor dry-rot on the outside of the house and underneath the front porch.  Nothing that is threatening the integrety of the structure, but some boards will have to be replaced at some point.

2.  The furnace has a life expectancy of 20 years and is currently 29 years old.  So we run the risk of losing that in the middle of next winter and should be prepared to replace it at any time.  Also, we were advised to keep good batteries in our CO detectors in the meantime.

3.  The chimney that vents the furnace and hot water heater is leaning.  We can either line and repair it or just take it down and replace it with a different ventilation system.

4.  The foundation is crumbling due to moisture in one spot.  That section of the foundation will most likely need to be completely replaced.

5.  The sewer line is in pretty bad shape.  It has several holes and will need to be replaced or is at risk of collapsing.

Those last two are the big ones.  The foundation is potentially the biggest expense.  The entire section of wall that has damage will probably need to be torn out and the concrete will need to be re-poured.  The sewer is a whole other issue.  It is also a big expense, costing around $6,000 to replace the entire line out to the street.  However, the other issue with the sewer is that the neighbor's line is hooked up to ours.  This is out of code for the city of Portland so when we go to get the permit to fix our sewer they will have 180 days to disconnect their line from ours, which is an even larger expense for them.  We can't fix our line until they disconnect theirs because if we do they will be left without a sewer.  Dealing with neighbors, of course, makes everything more complicated. 

So long story short, there are a few expenses that we are going to need to prepare for along with a bit of hassle, but the good news is, the house should finance and it still seems to be a good investment for us so we're moving ahead as planned!