What Have I Seen

2253 Klemm

I was out showing houses today and ran across a house for which someone thought they had a bright idea. Nicely done. Old historic. Kept most of the old woodwork and baseboards. Nice layout and floorplan. Did the old painted basement floor to make it look cleaner. But, the master bedroom was turned into a suite by adding a master bath --- up a couple of steps and behind it. And that's alright. I can understand the need to run plumbing under the floor to add the bath. But, someone didn't think out the location very well.





The bath is located behind the wall on which the bed is located and above the bed is the heating/a/c vent. Well, on the other side of this wall is the shower and above the shower is another vent for heating/a/c.





Well, it reminds me of other multi-families that I've seen where the owners thought they would put a/c in one unit but not in both. So, they put the a/c in the second floor and not the first. Well, when the a/c is turned on, the cool air goes up and makes the downstairs walls sweat, causing wet walls on the first floor. Same thing happens when the tenant on the first floor doesn't turn on their a/c but the upstairs folks do.





I've seen lots of attempts to make property updated. In one house, there was a carport to the left of the home. Well, when you went into the basment of this ranch style home, the owner had opened a hole through the foundation wall to get under the carport so they could make a space to have more storage. They dug out under the carport slab. Only problem now is that you've got a foundation wall with a hole in it - compromising the strength of that wall.





How about the house with the master bedroom on the second floor and the whole floor turned into a master bedroom suite -- with a bathroom. But, the only problem is the bath room had no walls. The bathroom was up two steps (running plumbing underneath it), and the tub, vanity and toilet were in full view of the bed! No matter how much you love someone, that's a little much.





How about the home with the waste stack replaced with plastic and held together with duct tape?





Or how about the home with the indoor swimming pool off of the kitchen and a deck on top of it. Not only was the moisture affecting the ceiling/floor of the deck so that the deck was saggin inward but also, the pool room and the kitchen all had mold everywhere. Too much moisture and not enough venting. And...a pool off of your kitchen.





Or how about the house with a chunk of the basement foundation cut out, and moss growing up the backyard wall all the way up to the roof? on the brick and in the tuckpointing.





I guess the premise behind this blog is that I've seen EVERYTHING and if you are thinking of buying a home, condo, investment property, don't think you know it all. Have a building inspection done and not just a general building inspection, have every kind of inspection done you can think of that might apply: termite, radon, lateral sewer are most common, but there are also structural engineers, lead paint, mold, septic and well water, to name just a few more of many. Don't get caught with a home that will cost you lots of dollars in the future.