Owning a home is fun! (looooong)

[TrickyBob]

In 5 days my Husband and I will have owned our home for 2 years.

In 2 years we found out that our foundation leaks, had a mass explosion of mold, found out that our house contains no insulation, that our duct work is cut to the upstairs, the wiring is absolutely crappy, the pantry used to be a bathroom until they ripped it out to just install a tub upstairs that doesn't allow for a shower attachment, and that we have an old septic system for the sink/laundry and a new septic system for the bathrooms. Oh and our old septic system backs up if you do more then 3 loads of laundry or 3 sink fulls of dishes a day.

You guys; I'm not entirely sure how we've survived in this house for 2 years.

Our first winter in our home is when we found out we had no insulation; we also found out the hard way that oil companies will not deliver partial tanks of oil unless you've been a customer for a while. That was the winter that for 60% of the winter we didn't have heat because not only could we not find a company to work with us (nor could we afford 250 gallons of oil at one shot) but our gauge was broken and we'd have no idea how much oil was left.

Our first spring was when we started ripping apart the upstairs bedroom only to find out that they had cut the duct work out of the walls. That was also the day we found 2 full baggies of 20 year old pot in our ceiling. We also found out our basement leaked.

That summer we found out it really leaked! The rains of 2010 were terrible. I also learned the hard way that 100 degrees with no A/C in the house or window units make mold grow really fast due to a leaky basement.

That fall is when we realized that we fucked ourselves on this house.

That winter is when we said "fuck it" and started ripping apart our living room. We gutted the living room; Husband wired the living room and we re-drywalled it the start of 2012.

And this past spring is when we really felt like there was no hope; there was simply not enough money to keep up with these renovations that were needed.

This past summer is when we started to buck up and really make a plan. It was also when we put in a make shift shower to get us through. We used to drive 10 miles every night for showers to a relatives since we didn't have a shower.

This fall is going to be us learning how to put in a tub by ourselves and this winter will be a whole lesson on how to tile a bathroom floor and shower surround.

We hope to complete the upstairs bedroom and rip all the carpet out of our house. We want to get the living room sanded so that we can paint, lay the hardwood flooring, and build the built in entertainment center.

And 2013 will be when we gut the other half of the house (2nd bedroom, kitchen, dinning room, foyer).

Maybe our 4th year in our house will be the one where we go "now THIS is a home".

[Ruby Gloom]

(((Moonbeam))) you REALLY got screwed. I'm sorry.

[TrickyBob]

Oct 31, 2012 4:12:43 GMT -5 Ruby Gloom said:

(((Moonbeam))) you REALLY got screwed. I'm sorry.

We did. I often say if I had known all of this, I would have never pushed to buy this house. Our location is amazing but the house itself is a money pit.

And to note; the first 3 months of living in our house our fridge died and our washer died. lol. Life was the suck.

I'm sometimes, angry? that there is no help for those that have this much work to do in order to make the home livable.

We couldn't even sell this house if we wanted or needed to.

[meganew]

Man, do I feel your pain. We've owned our house for 2 1/2 years and in that time we've had to get new siding on the whole back of the house, where we found out it was all dry rot under the old stuff (requiring us to take out a loan!). We had squirrels in between our first and second floors, neighbors roof leaked into our bedroom, our shower was apparently built with drywall (!!!) and it's now leaking into the kitchen and growing mold.

Just want you to know you're not alone. This place was a huge mistake and we have to sell it before we can have another baby. Sucks.

Let's say fuck it and drink wine in our shitty houses!

[cmh06]

I'm surprised the home inspector didn't catch all the problems. Sorry for your troubles. Hopefully everything will work out.

[zitiqueen]

Oct 31, 2012 5:41:17 GMT -5 cmh06 said:

I'm surprised the home inspector didn't catch all the problems. Sorry for your troubles. Hopefully everything will work out.

I'm curious about this too. Was a home inspection done at all prior to purchase? Our home inspector was climbing on things and crawling in things and poking things -- he was very thorough.

[TrickyBob]

Oct 31, 2012 7:20:55 GMT -5 zitiqueen said:

Oct 31, 2012 5:41:17 GMT -5 cmh06 said:

I'm surprised the home inspector didn't catch all the problems. Sorry for your troubles. Hopefully everything will work out.

I'm curious about this too. Was a home inspection done at all prior to purchase? Our home inspector was climbing on things and crawling in things and poking things -- he was very thorough.

We got a home inspection that was issued by the mortgage company, we did not get an inspection that was paid out of pocket. We got one that said "yes the house is livable, the wiring is sound, there are no real bad mold issues, it looks like there was once water damage, there are no termites or bugs".

A lot of this stuff started creeping up because we had a very wet winter/spring then a really hot summer. I mean we could see, before we bought the house that at one point the basement had water; just by looking at the block. But no matter what anyone tells you, when your house does not have A/C or any way to really circulate the air around your whole house and you go from very wet to very hot, you're going to get a mold explosion.

As for the wiring; my Husband is an electrician and it wasn't until we started ripping walls out that we got the extent of how crappy they wired the house. They grounded nothing. They also spliced as much as they could.

And there was no way to tell whether or not the house had insulation. They just double dry walled everything, even the ceiling!

We knew the house needed fixing up; we knew we were going to redo things, we just didn't know it would all be this fast.

[Deleted]

Dang, I would be tempted to give it back to the bank. That sucks. I didn't know that mortgage companies issued home inspections, do you mean appraisal?

[TrickyBob]

Oct 31, 2012 7:38:04 GMT -5 @mjmksb04 said:

Dang, I would be tempted to give it back to the bank. That sucks. I didn't know that mortgage companies issued home inspections, do you mean appraisal?

No, it was an inspection. We had an appraisal and then an inspection. This inspection wasn't in depth but more surface stuff.

I will fully admit we should have gotten an in depth inspection done and just paid for it but hindsight is 20/20 and shit happens.

[Kore]

I would be very tempted to let the house go. That is a nightmare. Especially without tons of money to burn.

[TrickyBob]

Oct 31, 2012 7:47:21 GMT -5 Kore said:

I would be very tempted to let the house go. That is a nightmare. Especially without tons of money to burn.

How does that even work? We cannot sell it.

And we really don't have else where to go. It sucks but I know we'll get through it. Just some days I look around and I'm like "this fucking blows".

It's not as bad as it was the first year but it's still not a nice comfy home.

[lkoenig]

yeah I would want to burn the entire thing down, that's a horrible suck-fest of a house......I do feel your pain, our house was built in 1910, so no insulation and there's always something going awry, it's not easy.

[TrickyBob]

Oct 31, 2012 7:51:40 GMT -5 lkoenig said:

yeah I would want to burn the entire thing down, that's a horrible suck-fest of a house......I do feel your pain, our house was built in 1910, so no insulation and there's always something going awry, it's not easy.

Our house only ever had one owner and her Dad built it in 1940. He also built the house across the street, it was her sisters house. Plus the house next door to us and the one across from them were built by a different guy. None of us had insulation. No insulation really sucks the heat out of the house fast.

We've contemplated knocking it down and rebuilding; but a mortgage company would never agree.

We were going to add on to the house but I told my Husband that at this point, I want to fix the house and do it right. And by the time we are done, we might just sell the house and move into a newer home. Unless we really love it.

This house has good potential and the loan is only 101,000 at the moment. But it's amazing how fast all the shit piles on top of itself.

I'm lucky my Husband can do most of it and I'm lucky we have friends who do this stuff for a living.

[pantsparty]

What a freaking nightmare! I'm sorry.

[TrickyBob]

Oct 31, 2012 8:04:46 GMT -5 @smace said:

How on earth did it pass inspection?!

I think if we had done an in depth inspection; it might not have.

However; when we first moved in, things seemed fine and dandy until it started raining and didn't stop.

And then my Husband was changing a light and didn't like the wiring so he wanted to re-wire the whole house. Then he went to put a new outlet in and realized we have no insulation. And then it snow balled from there.

I do, however, think it's weird that everyone was cool with the house not having a shower. That was the oddest thing I found about our house. ha.

[Deleted]

This story makes me glad that we are renting right now.

I am so sorry. That sounds like a freaking nightmare.

2014 isn't too far away!!