This Old House -- a famous song and a famous expression. As a home inspector, I see lots of old houses. The one below was a classic example of a 100 year old plus farm house that had been built and lived in over all those years. The modifications and repairs were not always, in fact seldom, done right and the maintenance had fallen by the wayside over the years as well.
Sometimes people ask: "Why would someone pay an inspector money to report on such obvious problems?" I do not always have a good answer for that. With many homes the problems are subtle enough that it takes an inspector to find and report the issues. At this house I think the fellow knew many of the problems going in, however, I was able to provide specifics, such as what pest was working in the crawl space, what condition the beams and joists were in, etc. In this case, the client decided against buying the house. He had hoped it would be a fairly simple remodel and the problems were way beyond that. He learned that from the inspection, although the problems would be apparent to probably anyone here at AR.
Front Knob and tube wiring
Siding closeup Front porch
Roof Two stories, only source of heat
Steven L. Smith
Check out "This Day In History" -- music and vintage television from the 1950's through the 1980's. I enjoy writing these articles because they take me back to my days in radio broadcasting. Click on Elvis' gold record, below, to revisit those golden hits of yesteryear.
For a few hundred bucks it seems like a good investment to have that second set of eyes, if nothing else! Too bad this home wasn't better taken care of!
Bob Mitchell
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.