Last Monday was the moment of truth for our current home: the whole house inspection, the pest inspection, and the appraisal.

Good news is that nothing majorly unexpected turned up as a result of either inspection. (Yay!) The pest inspection showed nothing of concern. We haven’t seen (and probably never will see) a copy of the whole house inspection report, so we’re not sure what all was commented on there, but we were relieved to find out from our real estate agent yesterday that there aren’t any major repairs being asked for by the buyer.

The inspection did point out the lack of GFCI outlets in our kitchen as being a safety hazard, so our buyer is requesting that we replace them. Good news is that there’s no requirement that we hire the work done, so that’ll probably be our do-it-yourself project for the weekend. The inspector also noticed that our washing machine has been discharging into the utility sink in the laundry room rather than using the stand pipe. (We’re somewhat ashamed to admit it’s been this way for a couple years … we’ve just been too lazy to make the call to Roto Rooter to have the problem fixed.) Even though it’s not a safety issue or anything that could really prevent the sale from going through, they still requested that we do what it takes to get that problem corrected; something we were planning to do anyway … eventually.

The not so great news from last Monday was related to the appraisal. Unfortunately, our buyer’s appraiser wasn’t as impressed with our home as everyone else involved in the transaction and he assigned a value less than what we agreed to sell it for (something that everyone we’ve talked to tells us almost never happens … ug). So, now, we’re waiting on a second appraisal, which is scheduled to take place at the start of next week, hoping that will help us figure out how to handle the discrepancy in price. Thank goodness our buyer has been understanding enough to work with us on this!

So, one concern abated thanks to the positive inspection results and a whole other can of worms opened with the appraisal results. Looks like the next week and a half (until we start signing papers for the closings) are going to be full of negotiations …

We got to spend a couple of hours at our future home this morning doing a walk-through with the current owners. We went through each room with them and got lots of great information about the changes they’ve made over the years. (It sounds like they have gutted a number of the rooms, fully insulating the exterior walls, installing new dry wall, and having the walls Kal-Koted.) Overall, we’re feeling a lot more comfortable with everything and are getting really excited about moving in.

We were also presently surprised to see that they had taken their copy of the inspection report and started to fix items that we hadn’t even asked for! In the last week, they’d fixed some concrete and tile on the back porch and reattached a gutter that had come apart. It sounds like they are also planning to purchase a new cover for the swimming pool and have it closed for the season before they move out. While we were there, they showed us the tricks to opening the doors and windows that the inspector wasn’t able to open during the inspection as well. Now all we have to do is sell our home so we can move in!

Our home inspector emailed us copies of the inspection reports from the whole house and pest inspections earlier this week. The reports are pretty thorough and cover most everything we discussed when we were walking through the house, but we were a little disappointed that they didn’t include any more pictures of the property than they did. The inspector had a digital camera with him for the entire inspection and took a bunch of pictures all over the house. He made a comment about his flash not working right, so we’re guessing that the interior photos must not have turned out since they weren’t really included in the reports. It’s kind of a shame that that didn’t work out – it would have been nice to have those photos for our reference.

Based on the reports and what we saw during the inspection, we’re asking that the homeowner fix a few items before closing. Top on our list was a telephone/electrical pole on the property that looks as though it’s being held up by the power lines. There’s another cable running from the pole to the house that looks like it’s supposed to bolt into the house to help support the pole, but it’s come undone. The fix might be as easy as just re-attaching it, we’re not sure. We also asked that they fix the problem with the grounding cable not being attached to the grounding rod on the exterior of the home. We’re pretty sure this is going to be just a couple minute fix, so hopefully there won’t be any objections there. And the last thing we asked them to look at was the three exterior doors that wouldn’t open. There were two on the sun room that wouldn’t open because the carpet was a little tall and it looked like the doors were hung a little crooked too … hopefully tightening the hinges or maybe trimming the doors will fix this problem. The third door that wasn’t opening right was the main back door of the house. We couldn’t get the dead bolt to release on this door … there’s probably just a trick to it that we don’t know about, so hopefully they’ll share whatever that is.

Anyway, their real estate agent is out of town for a few days, so they probably won’t get our requests until the first part of next week. Since there shouldn’t be any major cash outlays to fix any of these things, we’re hoping they won’t have a problem with what we’re asking them for, but it’s hard to say. Up until now, they’ve been very reluctant when it comes to the home inspection … I think the whole idea made them really nervous. At first, we thought it was because they had something to hide, but now it seems like they just didn’t know what the inspection would focus on and they were afraid it would bring up all kinds of negatives that were out of their control. Between the time that our offer was accepted and when we scheduled the inspection (about a week apart), the homeowner had gone through the basement and pulled out all of the inactive knob and tube wiring so it wouldn’t show up on the report. He also said he’d removed some exterior lights that had been in the front trees (they probably weren’t to code). Given how concerned he’s obviously been about the results of the inspection, we’re hoping he’ll be relieved to see how minor the things on our list are and hopefully not challenge us.

The whole house inspection was completed this afternoon. Good news is that there wasn’t anything too surprising. We spent about three hours with the inspector going around the entire property, starting with the tool shop and garage. These two structures were probably in the worst shape of anything on the property. It looked like the garage had probably had some structural problems over the years that have since been remedied. There’s also some concrete that’s in pretty rough condition, most likely due to water run-off problems, but nothing a lot worse than we already knew. Both buildings are structurally sound, so we probably won’t make a issue of it.

Inside the house, the inspector took notes about several things, like a few exterior doors and a bunch of windows that won’t open (maybe due to the high humidity since we’ve seen them open before). The railing to the second floor was also pretty loose, so we’ll probably ask for them to fix that before we move in. The inspector also took note of some knob and tube wiring in the basement and some plumbing that probably could be replaced. We’ll get the full report in the next day or so and we’ll put together a list of requests for the current home owner. Based on what we saw today, though, there was nothing too shocking and the things we’ll ask to have remedied will be very minimal and mostly safety related.

The current home owner showed up near the end of the inspection also. This was the first time we’ve had the opportunity to talk to him face-to-face. It sounds like he’s put a lot of work into the home since they moved in in 1986. It will be interesting to talk to him more to find out about the history of the home. From what he said during our short conversation today, it sounds like the family that built the house lived in it until about 10 years before he purchased the home. Hopefully, he knows some of the history about the additions and changes to the property over time.

Overall, the inspection went pretty much as expected today considering that the home is nearing 100 years old. It was a little discouraging to go through the home looking for (and finding) imperfections, but hopefully that means there won’t be any surprises after we move in.

We just heard back from the swimming pool inspector with the inspection results – so far so good. The inspection was performed by a local company (Pete’s Pool Service) and they charged $65. Pete indicated that the pool is in good working condition and he didn’t find anything wrong with it. The liner has been replaced within the last 2 years and the heater is new. There don’t appear to be any problems with the pump or filter system and there aren’t any leaks in the pool. He also checked the cleaning equipment they had near the pool (the pole/net, etc.) and found no problems with what they’re using, but noticed the lack of a vacuum hose and couldn’t find the winter pool cover. I think we’ll probably check with the real estate agent to see if she can find out for us whether the current owners have either of these items and what type they have. (We’re suspicious that they have hired a pool service to do the maintenance on their pool and may not own their own equipment.) Hopefully there won’t be any major expenses in purchasing or replacing anything that won’t come with the pool.

Pete also offered to train us in swimming pool maintenance once we move in, which is certainly something we’ll need. We’re hoping that (since we’re closing at the end of October), the pool will already be closed for the season when we move in so we won’t have to do anything for the first few months, but we’ll definitely be giving him a call come next summer.

We’ll be getting a formal written report in the next few days that will outline all of the details of the inspection, but from this afternoon’s phone conversation, it sounds like everything is in order. I hope Monday’s whole house & pest inspection results are just as positive!