“As Is” — This Old House, Day 0

Two words I never expected to be on an offer I would sign on a house are “as is”. This means, in general, that whatever might be right or wrong with the house is “on you” to deal with. And with a 97 year old house, there could be a lot going on.

The first upside to this is that on a walkthrough of the house, it appears to be in pretty good shape. The main floor especially is well maintained, a clearly recently remodeled kitchen, nice wood floors, nice and clean, etc. The upstairs is also nice, but seems to be the “history of wallpaper.” The basement is a bit more crazy, and seems to be the “history of wood paneling” (4 different kinds, end-to-end). The bathrooms are each a distinct color scheme (pinks, yellows, magentas) of tile and fixtures. The unattached garages (2) are fine, and one was clearly built later and feels equipped to be more of a “workshop” (more on that later).

But what would be of concern is not then what “is seen” but what may be “unseen” so we need an inspection. Based on a recommendation from Dan, our realtor, we called Harold from HJ Home Inspections and he was able to get out to the house in the next week to take a look at it. And boy did he look at it, for over four hours, taking pictures and reporting back to Laura after each section. The result is a 144 page photo and illustration-filled document.

144 pages? Really? Needless to say, during the bidding/buying process, this is something I pretty much had to read through, multiple times, in about 24 hours, and has become a project/pick list for probably the next year. Some bigger/major issues (electricity, HVAC, plumbing) which we need to deal with immediately, and work is scheduled. And many various smaller things that are still important (masonry, concrete, windows, drainage, tree branches over the house, and more).

I should also say that most of the pages are really good news, about features and aspects of the house I didn’t even know about on first glance. The roof is solid, the shingles are good, the framing of the house is solid, etc. But the wear you’d expect on 97-year old bricks, windows, pavement, etc. are all present, and while not “life and safety” issues, things that will need to be dealt with before they become bigger issues.

I’ve clearly not shared a bunch of the pages as they will be future posts/projects, so stay tuned … p.s. there might be a pool (or a pond), we’ll see in the spring.