... is the one thing that our Realtor told us when we came upon the house. It was intended as a warning, but to be honest, it was more like a challenge.
Now neither I nor my husband are novices at home repair, having swung our fair share of hammers at walls and worked on our parents respective homes. Neither of us are afraid of blood, sweat, or tears.
Now neither I nor my husband are novices at home repair, having swung our fair share of hammers at walls and worked on our parents respective homes. Neither of us are afraid of blood, sweat, or tears.
Actually, the prospect of working on a house has a romantic quality to it, as both our grand parents, and parents are the sort of hard-scrabble folk who had built their own homes... so we should be able to as well. One of the nice things about romance is that you can sometimes forget the bad and see only the good.
The house was...well...what we could see was reasonable, and the foundation and substructures were sound. There was work... no doubt, house and the land had been laying fallow for more than two years.
The house was...well...what we could see was reasonable, and the foundation and substructures were sound. There was work... no doubt, house and the land had been laying fallow for more than two years.
Now homes, unlike dirt, need constant attention. When not lived in, homes have the tendency to degrade, as there is no one in them keeping them lit, warm and clean. Little things like spiders, mice, birds and rats notice immediately when there is no human occupying a house, and are quick to take up residence. After the animals comes nature, doing its best to reclaim the land. Unfortunately the house wasn't sealed well, and the spiders have evolved and managed to stake their claim... along with the Rats. Thankfully there wasn't any O.K. corral showdown, but we have had our share of angry rebukes from the 'tenants.' The land... well it's been a couple of very dry years, so the one cactus plant has happily flourished whereas the Meyer lemon tree is shriveled and quite thirsty.
Standing back and looking at the house... we knew that there were some things that needed to be done, immediately.
The roof, needs to be replaced. It has 4 layers.
You may be asking yourself... why does 4 layers matter? The "standard" is one layer. Think about it mathematically, (my brother in-law explained it best), Consider that the standard slate shingle weighs approximately .5 lb per shingle. Now a 25 x 40 shaped house is approximately 1000 sq ft for the roof alone. Now .5 lb times 1000 means it probably 500 lbs to cover a house's roof. Multiply that by 4. Remem ber that roof framing (with 2x4's being the 'standard') have a stress point of maybe around 600-700 lb's. So by this point we've far exceeded that weight.
Plus, once you stand back and look at the roof from a distance, the house actually looks a bit 'squashed' under the weight of the roof.
2. The "cripple" wall on the north east corner. Unfortunately the wall has some severe dry-rot and needs to be replaced.
...and that was it for the "original plan."
By the way, we've since moved on from plan A to B, to C...
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