I knew that having the gated entrance to our neighborhood behind my house would bring more traffic noise. I didn’t know that meant I get to listen to one of the neighborhood kids drive his shitbox racer with the obnoxiously loud fartcan exhaust drive through the gates at least 5-8 times every day. And that’s just when I’m home.
I didn’t know that buying a home from the consistently highest rated homebuilder in the area would reveal so much shoddy workmanship and cheap materials. No major problems, just ticky-tack things that have needed repair/replacement.
I didn’t know the upgraded Jenn-Air appliances were such crap. Every single one has had an expensive repair issue or recall.
I didn’t consider that having 12 ft ceilings in every room meant another half a room on top of the normal room to paint.
I knew the house was much bigger than we really needed.
Update: well I only fell on my ass twice shoveling my driveway, this is better than last year.
Where the hell are the teenagers who want to make $20? I would have even went to $30. I kept waiting for some young guys to show up and they never did.
We knew our roof had been re-shingled. We didn’t know it had *three * layers of shingles on it. It will be re-done within the next year or so.
We knew the closets were small, but by reconfiguring one to open into the master and adding a replacement in the donor bedroom, at least my husband and I have enough closet space in our room.
We knew the kitchen would need to be remodeled, and we were able to do it ourselves - goodbye Zbrick and crappy old cabinets!
Fortunately, thanks to a pretty comprehensive inspection, we were aware of the condition of the house. Also fortunately, it’s a pretty nice neighborhood - mostly quiet except for the idiot down the street who seems to enjoy laying rubber at our corner. I think it’s a teen who may have moved out on his own, because it’s been quiet of late.
We knew all the windows were rotting and would need replaced and that the street had a whole hotchpotch of different styles of window - so we figured that any frames would do.
But it’s a conservation area and the rules were being tightened up, so we had to get ‘in character’ wooden frame windows at double the cost we expected…
[ul]
[li]Asbestos in the shed’s roof (would cost under a 1000 to remove, so no problem and bargaining point in kepping the price low)[/li][li]Absolutely crappy kitchen. The remodelers siad they’ve removed better kitchens from slum lord’s rat holes. But I didn’t mind, and mentally added the price of a kitchen to my own taste to the house price. [/li][li]asbestos in living room. Turned out it was simple gypsum, but building advisor wanted to err on the side of caution. [/li][li]train tracks behind our garden. I assumed it wasn’t a problem, and it indeed isn’t. [/li][li]Ceiling needed soundproofing. Again, we mentally added the costs to the house price. [/li][/ul]
Things I didn’t know about:
[ul]
[li]crappy plumbing in bathroom/laundry room. Everytime washer runs, it spews some greyish sewer mulch up in our bath. [/li][li]We can’t wash the outside of our windows without doing some serious acrobatics. Hiring a windowwasher gets expensive over time. [/li][li]Nothing else, all in all we’re content with the house. [/li][/ul]
It might work out cheaper to replace those windows with the style that folds in for cleaning. We have these and they are easy to clean. Of course the windows we replaced also were old and in the winter you could feel the breezes blow through them.
What I know now is that I will have to do some rebricking in the next five years – but the upstairs co-owner is also aware of that, and apparently eager to get the work done.
I’ve got some asbestos in the furnace room, which I will get my brother the contractor to deal with, either by yanking it out or covering it up… The furnace itself is 25 years old, so odds are it’s near the end of its life. My inspector says the hot water pressure is too high, but the repair should only be a few hundred bucks in parts.
The trap at the front of the house that covers the pipes that lead to the sewers can’t be pried up. I’m gonna drill a hole in the stainless steel plate so I can check things out.
The venting for the dryer and the basement kitchen hood runs in front of the electrical panels
Everything else that was noted on the inspector’s report is being dealt with by the seller – who is a contractor who spent the past 10 years renovating everything with top notch stuff. Let’s see how those copper eavestroughs look in a decade or two…
