Friday, March 23, 2012

Step 3: Inspect the Unexpected

As most people know, before you buy a house it is a really good idea to have it inspected to ensure that you're not about to buy a nightmare of a house!  Yesterday, Thursday, we had our home and pest inspection to ensure just that.  The pest guy was only there for about an hour and his report was as follows:
                                           * No termites! Obviously the best news we could have heard.
                                           * Ants are normal inside and out, especially this time of year.
                                           * For about $65 every 3 months they will come and spray inside and out so we                    
                                              don't have a major ant/bug problem through out the year- SOLD!!!

The homes inspection company sent 2 men to check out the house. One did electrical, plumbing and such and the other did structural.  Here is what we found out:
           Electrical/Plumbing-   * A few outlets are loose, so we need to tighten them to the wall
                                            * Where the power comes into the house, the wires have pulled away from the
                                                house.  Just needs a bracket to hold it against the house.
                                            *  Tiles around the tubs need to be re-grouted and re-caulked.
                                            *  Water currently smells like sulfur, but it is 99% because it hasn't been used                                        
                                                 in a long time.
                                            *  AC Unit is looking very good, maybe 3-5 more years on it.
                                            *  Furnace is looking good, again 3-5 years on it.

            Structural-                *  The slab foundation has shifted (My heart totally dropped when he said this)
                                                 however in Texas this is TOTALLY normal.  It is not major, just something
                                                 to keep any eye on. One way to help- water our foundation!
                                            *   The problems we saw in the kitchen are really nothing and no damage
                                                 because the sub floor on the first floor is just the concrete slab of the
                                                 foundation. Woo!
                                            *   There are couple of minor repairs to make on the roof, but not to the
                                                 shingles.
                                            *   Some siding has pulled away, but it just needs to be checked out and fixed.
                                            *  Some of the double-pane windows have broken down and are now only
                                                single pane. No immediate need for change, but will want to do sooner than
                                                later to save on utility bills.

It seems like a lot, but when you consider a whole house I would say we got about an A-... woohoo!  The best part is that we did not need to ask the seller to fix or replace anything, so we are full steam ahead to closing on our first house!  We also found out that the lawnmower (the exact kind we planned on getting!) and  weed whacker they left in the garage are staying! Woo free stuff :)

While we were there I took more pictures and a video... enjoy :)



inspection day - slideshows

Step Four: Sign our lives away....

2 comments:

  1. Water the foundation? Man, my yankee way of thinking has always been that water was bad in the basement/foundation... but hey, if that's what they do in texas! Yay! So glad the inspection went well!

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  2. We don't have basements... haha. The foundations are often a slab of concrete which can crack when there are extreme droughts.... Like we had last summer :P

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