Way OT: The Joys of Homeownership

I bought my first house in June 2019. A nice little brick ranch built in the 50s. Solid as a fucking rock. I was very lucky and have not had any major issues. I did add a chimney liner but that was after I got the seller to knock $2K off the asking price. I still think I'm waking up in a dream world every day. I can't believe I have my little house in my little neighborhood.

My previous house had a chimney on the end of the house for the fireplace and furnace, so the entire thing was exposed down to the ground. When we moved in, there were a few bricks at the top that were spalling. It was on my to-do list to get someone out to replace them, but months turned into years and all of a sudden the spalling increased pretty rapidly. I had a buddy who was a retired mason look at it. He said there were about 20 bricks that needed replacing and he recommended a couple local masons. It took 2 YEARS for anyone to show up. These guys were so busy that it was 6 months just to get on their schedule. Then the 1st guy didn't even show up despite my confirming a week ahead of time and taking the day off work to help him get set up. By the time I got someone out there, we'd been through 2 more winters. The chimney had to be torn down to the roof line and rebuilt, and a number of random bricks below the roof line were also replaced. Cost - $7,000.

But here's the silver lining. The house was built in the early 50s housing boom when materials were in short supply. The chimney flue had 8-12 inch gaps in it because, apparently, they couldn't get enough flue material to build it to the proper height. The mason I used said he'd seen this before a number of times. He showed me pictures of the crumbled cement that was put in place to fill in between the flue sections, all charred and black, and the damage from flames that was getting perilously close to the roof. He said if we hadn't rebuilt the chimney, there was a strong possibility of the house catching on fire.

I bought my first ever house this month. I cycle between love and loathing. The most loathsome thing is it turns out the place has roaches. Vile creatures that I will be happy to send to their tiny little graves. 

I think generally there was a lot more wrong with the house than I thought but I think that is partly due to being tired of searching. It is a 130 year old house that is bound to have many things go wrong. That being said I think it will be worth it. I can walk to work and the town I live in is improving drastically.

We've been fairly lucky so far with our house. Been here for just under four years. Couple minor things here and there, couple renovation jobs (but those were for things we wanted vs. things we needed) but for anyone who is considering buying a house, DO NOT HIRE THE INSPECTOR THAT YOUR REALTOR RECOMMENDS. Do your research and find an independent inspector. 

Remember that at the end of the day, your real estate agent is not your friend. They may seem like it, but they are not. Their job is to get you to the closing table and sign those papers by any means necessary. Sure, any real estate agent worth their salt will still want to recommend someone good because they'll want your business again one day, or they'll want you to refer them to someone else. But a lot of realtors are not like that. Some are just slimeballs as well as the inspectors they hire. Some are perfectly happy to sell you down the river and never get your business again because they know they can lure ten other people in to replace your business later. 

Unless your realtor is an actual close friend of yours, a family member, or someone you flat out 100% know you can trust and has placed your best interests above them getting their commission, thank them kindly for their inspection recommendations but tell them you'll find your own inspector. You want someone who is going to come in and give an honest assessment. Someone who preferably has no connections with your realtor and has no incentive to help them out. 

Sorry to hear that--water problems with houses are no fun.

You might want to try the simple things. Water in basement can be removed with a drainage system as you said, but that water is coming from somewhere. Drainage might be something that is an easy fix:

• Look for any broken or clogged downspouts and add downspout extensions to get water further away
• Make sure water slopes at least 5 feet away from house all the way around and add dirt if it doesn't.

We bought our first house in 1989. It was a tiny shack—620 sq ft—built on the far west side of A2 within the Allen Creek flood plain. It was a ridiculous dump, but it was cheap and it came with a fenced double lot yard, so it worked for two parents, a young child, and a dog.

The very elderly neighbor next door told us that she had watched it being built out of used wood by a drunk hillbilly carpenter back in the 1930s, and once we took possession and I started the renovations I could see what she wasn't exaggerating. The paneling in the living room was cheap, crumbly fiberboard, and once I tore it out I could see that about half the wall studs were jimmied together out of two or three shorter lengths of lumber. The upstairs bedroom was a converted attic, and a sizable portion of the ceiling paneling was literally double layers of cardboard coated with fake stucco paint

The funkiest part of the place was the basement—it was basically a Michigan basement whose walls had been covered over with an inch or two of concrete. Half of the floor area was comprised of a bench or shelf that was about three feet higher than the lower level. The seller had installed a new sump pump with an open channel chopped out around the perimeter of the lower floor area filled with pea gravel that led to the sump drain.

I'd had no clue about sump pumps before, so when the first thunderstorm hit, it was an eye opener. Not only was the channel filling with water rapidly enough that the pump was emptying about once every 90 seconds, but at several spots along the foundation wall adjacent to our driveway, rain water was literally spouting out of the wall in an arc. It was an education about hydrostatic pressure.

The pump was wired into the electrical system, so inevitably there came the time when the power was out while it was raining buckets, so things got a little wet on the lower level of the floor. Fortunately, I'd had the good sense not to store anything valuable on the lower level but instead put stuff on the higher shelf level away from the water.

After about 10 years we wanted a slightly larger place in town, and our experience with the water in the basement meant there was no fucking way we were going to buy anything that was prone to that issue again. We sold the first place for twice what we paid for it, and found another small place on the west side of A2 on a hill. The ground slopes away smartly from our foundation on three sides. While we're still technically close to the Allen Creek drain, our house sits at least 40 feet higher than the underground drain in the ravine across the street, so it would take a flood of Biblical dimensions to affect us. 

Even so, the seller said there were problems with an occasionally damp basement, and offered to pay for additional landscaping work to increase the slope away from the foundation. Since the basement was very dry when we inspected, I was curious, and in the course of nosing around outside I discovered that the two downspouts in the front of the house which drained the north and south sides of our roof gave a weirdly solid *thunk* when I tapped them.

The first thing I did after closing was yank those downspouts off, and both were filled solid from top to bottom with God knows how many years of old leaves and other organic crap in them. That meant that rainwater would back up in the gutters and spill over the side, right onto the ground next to the foundation. No wonder there was an issue with dampness in the basement.

With the new downspouts in place and long horizontal extensions to empty the rainwater well away from the foundation, we've never had any water in the basement in the 20+ years we've lived here, and we've had plenty of torrential downpours in that time.

If I was to give advice to a first time homebuyer, it would include 1) Avoid buying homes in low-lying areas where sump pumps are necessary; 2) Make sure the guttering system is in good shape, which includes yearly maintenance esp. in the fall; 3) Buy the crappy house on the good block.

I like a big back yard so I can have fires and drink beer