Solid Foundation

It is OK!
So I'm going through with it. :)
A good house starts with a steady foundation, right? Well, the foundation may be steady or it may not. The recommendation is to watch, measure and see, but if it is repaired, it will take three piers at a cost of only $2700. The Olshan guy is sending me the information in the mail. He also walked over the rest of the house. He noted the sagging lintel (is that what that is called??? I had no idea. I lintle is the front porch roof) and said in his opinion, they took out two columns (mine, too!). He said he would put another beam in the basement with new basement jacks (and they can provide that service, too, lol). I think it doesn't look too hard to do myself though to get a beam and Ellis screw jacks for the basement.

All in all, though, he said it looked like a "solid little house with lots of potential".

YAY! Proceeding...

Structural Engineering

I'm meeting the Olshan guy at the house at 5pm. He's close by and he's doing me a favor by coming out to inspect it and give his opinion. No charge. Last night I stayed up waaaay too late learning about PEX plumbing and how to repair house foundations. These folks use a pushed preformed pile system - kinda like a string of beads pushed down into the earth to the point of stable ground. Then the house is jacked up under the existing foundation and set on top of the pilings. Underground. Hopefully it doesn't need much/many. We shall see! The idea is that I would then follow up myself and seal the cracks with injection epoxy - "set and forget".

I haven't bought the house yet, but I am nervous. I guess I want this to work out and make sense. I don't want a money pit. A project, yes, a money pit, no...

Keep your fingers crossed for my foundation and please send steady solid thoughts for non-shaky foundations or inexpensive repairs my way!
I did find this site that I thought was pretty cool: http://www.basementanswers.com/

Inspection Happens...

I had the inspection today! There was good stuff, bad stuff and ugly stuff.
I'll touch on the highlights.
There is a stair step crack in the foundation. He is not sure if this is a terrible thing or not. Honestly couldn't tell me. He said I needed to get it looked at by a structural engineer. SO, I called around and found one and gave them a call. They can maybe come out to give it a looksee tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully it is nothing too horrible and they can anchor it with their cable system for not too much trouble and expense.

The plumbing. Ohhh. It is bad. Pretty much it leaks everywhere there is a pipe that brings water to a faucet or back from a drain! But he gave me a tip. He said to look into PEX plumbing. WOW! I can do that. I could replumb the whole house in a day or two using pex. It is flexible tubing with special fittings. No elbows. They even have special manifolds with separate shut-offs so you have the water come in from the street to the water heater and then to the manifold and then there is a separate shutoff for each new connection - like a breaker box for your water lines! Running up the costs associated with replumbing the entire house with PEX (including that new bathroom I want) and replumbing the whole drainage system with PVC - totals about $800 and this suddenly becomes do-it-herself-able. Wow, wow, wow.

The roof. It needs one very soon-like. Sooner, rather than later. They never used flashing. It has two teeny tiny vents. That's it. It needs a ridge-vent or something. The chimneys are not doing well, either. They need to be rebuilt or removed. The rafters need to be tied. They are just toe-nailed together.

There is water damage in the basement, but it is water damage that can be fixed. Oh, a few 2x6s. No big deal.

Heat and air work fabulously!

Floor in bathroom is sound and nice!

Wood looks good!

Good bones!

Under the asbestos, there is wood siding... The house used to be red. How about that!

He agrees that there are two columns missing from the front.

The electric service is good! Modern 200 amp service with good looking wiring.

So the next step is to get the foundation looked at.
The plumbing is a non-issue to me.