We knew going in that the house we bought had its quirks and Lee decided very early on he wanted a series of inspectors to look at different aspects of the house and give us quotes on various upgrades and to get a head start on anything that would need attention. Although some of the inspections came at a cost, overall knowledge is power and since we only had a specific pot of money to work with it was important to get quotes and then prioritize enhancements/repairs. Turns out our house inspector for the loan was VERY good so happily no nasty surprises but we did learn a lot about the house along the way and what was actually possible. Since we have had professionals in and out of the house for the last two weeks I am not going to list them in order but I will group the experiences by category.

Water Softener – We lived in a house with a well and an inadequate softener for six years when we were younger and know firsthand how unpleasant that can be. Iron heavy water stains sinks, and toilet and water doesn’t taste good along with having an unpleasant smell. The water here wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great, and I wouldn’t drink it unfiltered. Worst of all the softener was down in the scary dirt cellar, and I had serious concerns about how we would carry a 40lb bag of salt down those steps. So, a high priority was getting that softener on the first floor, but I wasn’t confident it wouldn’t be super expensive. Quick story to show you how serious this is to me. When we left the 6 years with a well I had lots of iron deposits in my hair weighing it down. I went to a hair place that “stripped” the iron out and the smell of rotten eggs from that process was overwhelming. I couldn’t believe how much the texture of my hair changed after that experience and I know I never want to have that many deposits in my hair again!

Thankfully we had an amazing experience. For $3800 we got a new installed softener and better yet filtered water at the sink, and they even ran a new filtered line to the fridge. The salesperson was knowledgeable, and the installers were terrific and best of all I can monitor and fill the salt myself. Truly this was a game changer, and I am so grateful that this change was affordable. We also found out that our land was on an underground lake with a near limitless supply of water which really made me feel good!

Electric: Although our electric panel has open breaker spots, we had no idea what capacity we could add without upgrading the service to the house. or what the cost would be. A good friend of ours recommended an electrician and we learned that we could add a single 50 amp circuit. This was good and bad since we wanted a hot tub and a kiln but we learned we could only have one initially before having to upgrade to 200amp service. The distance we needed to run wire also was a more significant cost than we initially thought, which ruled out running 50 amp for an RV spot on the property. The hot tub with trenched wiring was a pretty reasonable $2700, but the upgraded service, additional panels, garage wiring, and kiln wiring will run $14K. Not great, but at least we know.

Chimneys – There are two fireplaces with separate chimneys in the house but they were both designated “decorative only”, which means at some point someone disocvered that they weren’t safe and didn’t want to fix them, so I wanted to know what it would take to make them working fireplaces. This service call costs around $400 (which was NOT disclosed to us over the phone) and ultimately all we learned was it would be FAR more money than we wanted to spend to make either one of them a working fireplace. We did discuss turning it into a propane fireplace but unfortunately the chimney would need to be lined for that and again, pretty expensive. After that information we decided we will probably buy an electric insert, and we learned Lee will need to put a cap on the two fireplaces before winter for weather and critters.

Septic – Once Lee completed the initial mowing (see picture below), he found a section of yard next to the house that was SUPER soggy. Like a swamp. Stepping on that area you would sink 4 inches immediately. We were both really upset because although we bought the house “As-Is” the seller did sign a disclosure saying there were no issues and and provided a receipt from a local septic company for a septic lid crack that was repaired. We called the same company back out and after researching they validate the septic system was fine (whew) but the sump pump discharges into this weird sepearate system, and someone previously had routed the diascharge from the washer into the same system, instead of through the septic system. Pretty crazy DIY nonsense, but was not causing any immediate issue and should be relatively easy to fix, we just have to live with the soggy corner for a while. No health hazard, no property risk, just a minor annoyance.

Windows – About half of the windows are original and half are vinyl replacements, and the older aluminum windows are the crank open style, and all of the cranks are broken or missing. So we wanted to get quotes to replace those. Also, one of my main goals when buying a house was to have an office with a view. Unfortunately, my window is pretty small and for some reason at like 5’5″, so we started discussing enlarging the window or better yet adding a sliding glass door. We had a recommendation for a small window company, and they came out and gave us somewhat reasonable quotes. ALL of the windows we want to replace and the door came back at $12.5K, but the sliding glass door by itself was $5K. We were pretty excited about that price since a larger hole had to be cut, but when the technician came out to look at the house he stated he couldn’t do it because our house was block.

Turns out around 10% of the houses in our area have block outside (with a frame and plaster inside) and in order to verify that I actually had to have him drill a small hole in the wall. Cutting block is done by a mason and hardly any window companies do it and Lee and I were both pretty annoyed that the salesperson didn’t catch that. Actually, I was beyond annoyed and crazy disappointed. The one window company who said they would do it wanted $8K so Lee decided to go to a mason. The mason will charge less but still a lot, but we would need the hole framed and the sliding door installed which is probably beyond our abilities. Structural integrity comes into play as well and now you are coordinating two different companies. All in all super expensive and tricky. But we are in the process of figuring out a way forward, because this is a VERY high priority for both of us.

Propane – The propane company came out and filled the propane and Lee wanted to check into running a propane line closer to the house for our grill, possibly a propane stove, and possibly a propane dryer and water heater in the future. A second person had to come out and that took a little longer but it’s good because the cost to run the line for the grill is only $400. I say “only” because at this point that’s a steal. There was some confusion though because the propane company has to do external lines, but interior line is handled by a plumber. Oh and one really nice thing is a third person came out and cleaned the propane tank and checked it for structural integrity. We didn’t ask for that but it was a very nice free service the propane company provided.

Floors – Lastly this house has a variety of older wood floors in it and they were all a bit dusty especially after moving in. We were not sure if we were going to need to replace some of the flooring but after some discussion we splurged and bought a robot floor cleaner (our first) and wow did that make a difference. The little guy is really amazingly good at what he does, and the floors have literally sparkled since he took over. To be honest I always thought these purchases were a bit overkill but I am a total fan now and don’t think I will ever want to live without one again. Big big fan.

All in all there was a mix of good news and bad news but at least we have the information going forward. Since we are committed to not going into further debt this is a definite pay as you go situation and we will determine priorities based on a variety of things. We knew moving back into a house our costs would definitely go up and we don’t have a full picture yet of what our monthly nut will be. Once we get that information it will allow us to put together a plan.

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