A year ago Pam ran a story asking readers to share your tales of the costly and unexpected expenses from owning your home. Your comments — there were 155 in all — painted a vivid and grab-onto-your-wallets picture of dozens of things that could — and did — go wrong in-, around- and under- your houses. Oh my. I went back through all your real-life stories and picked some of the most shocking to revisit today: A sort of “reality check” reminder that — while owning a home can be a wonderful and fulfilling adventure — it can also be fraught with peril, expense and anxiety. And, gulp, a reminder to keep the insurance policies up-to-date and the emergency fund stocked.
The following is a sampling of some of the surprise! problems that readers reported the first time we ran this story:
Water worries
Tess shared:
September 27, 2011 at 3:41 pmOK, here’s my saga: Bought a 1955 ranch with a slab foundation. (In the process of repainting and thinking about it, found your cool website). This spring, the water heater failed, and dumped gallons of gallons of water onto the floor, which ran under walls, and ran into the infloor heating ducts. Insurance came in, ripped out the carpet, put everything I own into the garage so they could tear out the asbestos tile which covered the slab and which was popping and cracking. When they found out the only way to repair the heating ducts was to jackhammer up the floor, they simply stopped calling me back. Just stopped returning calls. It took 5 months and an attorney to get them to resolve the case. In the meantime, I’ve been living in a shell of a house, with most everything in boxes in the garage.
The good news is that they finally got started on resolving it, and repairs are proceeding. I’m putting in radiant floor heating (to the tune of $15K) and floors. All of this, of course, raises other questions, like what about the kitchen? The bathroom? While the house is gutted it seems like a good time to do other things, but the budget is limited.
I had to chip up the bathroom floor, but I’m keeping the yellow tub. Actually, I have some questions: the tub has not been treated well — it looks like someone washed out paint brushes and left lots of drips and washes–and it could use attention beyond the usual cleaning products. I’ve noticed recent posts about finding yellow sinks, so I’m thinking about that.
Thanks for this website, Pam. I’m enjoying it.
Yikes! At least Tess is enjoying RetroRenovation.com! Hopefully things are looking up at her house this year. It seems so many people have problems that involve water, like this longtime reader:
JKaye:
Water factors in many of these stories, in the form of leaking pipes, leaking roofs, overflowing toilets, busted water heaters, etc. We’ve experienced all of these things in the five different homes we’ve owned, ranging from a 1910 cottage to a 1995 mobile home, and including our current ’59 ranch. The worst thing to happen was when the crawlspace got flooded at the ’72 ranch during a giant storm, and the sump pump didn’t kick on, resulting in a ruined furnace. The funniest water experience was at the mobile home, which sat on a hillside — water ran right under it during a storm, so no flooding there!
Sewer pipe predicaments
Uncle Atom:
September 26, 2011 at 9:18 amOh Pam, a painful topic. We settled on a 1950s rancher in 2000, and three weeks later the sewer backed up in the basement. Plumber’s verdict – tree roots grown into the clay pipe. Not only did it set us back about $10k, but we lost a whole row of beautiful 40 year old azaleas in the process. Someone had planted a cedar tree about 8 feet from the front of the house and its roots thrived on sewage for years before we got there. We sold that place six years later and made money on it, but that experience really hurt at the time.
Nocoretro says:
September 26, 2011 at 9:31 am
Exactly what we are going through now. Minus taking down the trees. We have to replace the pipes all through our backyard and through the neighbors yard and driveway.Mary says:
September 26, 2011 at 9:43 am
We are on borrowed time with our pipes as well. Also old clay pipes. Every time I see a crew digging up the street somewhere in the neighborhood, I wonder if we should just act pre-emptively and get it done.pam kueber says:
September 26, 2011 at 9:58 am
This was the very first thing that went wrong in my very first house! Don’t we LOVE to pay for TV colonoscopies for our sewer pipes!Tami says:
September 26, 2011 at 10:28 am
We moved into our present home and FIVE DAYS LATER the septic system spectacularly backed up on us (I will never get that sight out of my head). Long story short, the inlet to the septic tank was 3? HIGHER than the outlets (yes, there are four) from our home. In other words, it had never worked and the inspector did a crappy job of testing it. $10,000 to fix it.Kat the Gypsy:
September 26, 2011 at 11:58 am
Water has been our biggest unforeseen expense in both our houses. 2 years ago we bought a 1985 concrete block house. Drains were always slow, but we didn’t know what the problem was. So last year, on Christmas vacation we got a call from our tenant that sewage was backing up. The main sewage line had to be replaced due to tree roots damage, which meant digging up the concrete and my newly laid porcelain tiles in a foot-wide line from the guest bath through the guest room, all the way to the street, to the tune of $8K.In our current home, built in 1955, we could never run the washing machine more than once or the wash water would back into the master bath (both were added to the original and shared a sewage line.) After cleaning up floods one too many times, we had the camera put down the line and discovered something shocking. When they installed a natural gas line some 12 years prior, they simply drilled through the ground – and diagonally through said sewage line. Luckily the gas company came, dug, and replaced the gas line, and with the digging out of the way it was a simple fix to cut out and replace the damage to the sewer pipe. Now we know why the house inspector noticed the washing machine wasn’t connected and therefore couldn’t be tested.
Old houses are great, but renovations are a pain. You NEVER KNOW what’s inside/behind/beneath all that charm until you open it up!
Roof problems
Gwen:
September 26, 2011 at 7:16 amMy family and I just bought a little brick colonial house (1940) in a historic neighborhood almost a year ago. The home inspector told us that the cracked and worn slates on our original roof had to be replaced. He told us we were looking at $2K in repair and then to maintain, about $500-$1000/year. About 3 months after our move in, we decided to have the roof fixed, as we were having our attic finished. Long story short, roofer came in and said the entire roof had to be replaced. Irritated by that answer, I had two other companies come in who told me exactly the same thing. A $2K problem quickly turned into one that cost us $45K! Because we are in a historic district, we had to replace the roof with the original material – no synthetic slate. Ouch! Moral to this story – make sure your home inspector knows what to look for when inspecting a slate roof. Glad we replaced the whole thing (even though I can never retire), because with all the rain in Baltimore this year, my neighbors have dealt with leaking roofs and massive flooding! Cheers!
Bad Flipper — not the friendly dolphin
Angela:
September 28, 2011 at 12:07 amThis is my 2nd year in a 1971 Split Level home in Georgia. The house, now I will call it a “flipped” home, had been updated and repaired in a few areas but us a sturdy house with good bones. But, I think it is too much for me. While my mortgage is cheaper than rent, I am scared that I won’t be able to keep up with the repairs and upkeep. I hate to admit, but I believe I just bought the wrong house. First thing, after 6 months of living in the house, the ceiling fell in my downstairs bathroom, result of a faulty install of the toilet the seller installed upstairs. Got that bathroom redone, after repairing and correcting faulty plumbing in that bathroom. A few months later, sewage started backing up in that tub. Had it snaked twice in six months. The people who snaked it muddied up and nastied up my newly updated bathroom it just made me sick! On top of a heating and air system that is old, and has not worked most of the summer months. It has gone out two summers, warranty patches it up but nothing that is long term. New deck built, not so new. Deck needs securing and sealing, kitchen countertops are bubbling up, need replacing, could use new windows, whole house fan went out after moving in, garage light doesn’t work, electrician said it’s a wiring problem, had to replace circuit box after breaker kept breaking, believe tree roots are in sewer pipes in yard, plumber coming to put camera down line, needs this, need that. A tree fell down in the back yard, and I was told I need to worry about one in my yard and another one in the neighbor’s yard. found out a whole bunch of construction crap is buried in the back yard, and I keep hearing a whistling noise when I flush the toilet.
yea, I got the homebuyer tax credit but to be honest, I don’t even see where it went. As soon as I moved in, $200 here, $2300, here, $500 here, $1000 here, yadda, yadda,yadda and my income just doesn’t support these type of repairs.
My mistake. I wanted to take advantage of these affordable prices, especially in the urban area I live in … but I feel I have allowed real estate to take advantage of me.
The home is a beautiful home with a beautiful spirit and warmth to it … but it needs a family with a handyman husband and a better credit score who could just borrow $25K to $30k and just get it in shape and up to date. It was nicely updated when I bought it, but when I moved MY stuff in and started using the home, it soon revealed all its needs to me ….. and I feel overwhelmed by it all.
Woodland creatures getting comfy in the ceiling
Elaine:
September 27, 2011 at 9:53 amI have a the same tale from a 1964 colonial, new roof that had to be redone due to bad work, tree damage thankfully mostly covered by insurance, new furnace, new water heater, new main sewer pipe, new siding, new windows. But this is different.
One evening there was suddenly a huge ruckus in the ceiling. What the heck—-? It sounded like bears fighting. In the ceiling! It turned out to be raccoons. When they got done with whatever, they left via the downspout on the side of the house. Cute little things, we could see them leaning on the side of the hole they made, looking around like proud homeowners. Then down they went and away. We went out and looked at the hole they made. Six foot long and maybe two feet high, a full siding panel ripped off and a huge hole clawed or chewed into the boards right through to the attic. Wow! DH got the ladder and an old campaign sign and went up and nailed it over the hole. That kept them out, at least., but it looked like h-e-double matchsticks. Vote for XXXX for City Council.
Called the insurance company in the morning. The adjuster acted like she never heard of such a thing. She wanted to know what we did to attract them? What precautions had we taken to prevent them from doing that? Answers were Nothing and What were we supposed to do besides having a wall? She sent an inspector over who laughed and said it looked pretty typical. We got a good amount to cover the repair, I think it was around $3500.
The asphalt driveway needs resurfacing every other year, that’s another cost.
pam kueber says:
September 27, 2011 at 10:17 am • Edit
Good one. My husband had a deal with the bats in our last house: You stay up in the attic, we will stay down here. Detente was breached only twice, when bats got into the living room somehow. A tennis racket comes in handy in instances such as these…. Oh, and yes: Animal control to catch and relocate huge groundhogs that were burrowing I forget where into the foundation of the house; we had that expense, too, your Comment reminds me.
Pam’s favorite (her Kentucky shows) — Sink holes open up:
Anne-Marie Cottone relates:
September 26, 2011 at 9:02 am • Edit
A friend of mine went away for the holidays, and returned to learn that a large sinkhole had collapsed part of her backyard! Apparently it was due to an old septic tank that had been removed when the area was sewered, and the fill had decided to settle many years later.
Anything and everything goes wrong
Jill:
October 1, 2011 at 12:58 pmI’m still sitting with 45-year-old red carpet, a bathroom with floor tiles coming up, another one with wall tiles coming up, and a 1970′s harvest gold kitchen, because of all the surprises: new electrical panel when we moved in. Insulation. Replacing clogged galvanized pipe. 2 new water heaters. New oil burner. New gutters 3 times before they got it right. Sump pump. Generator with manual transfer switch. Chimney repairs. Driveway repairs. Now the 3 steps from my garage to the backyard sprung a HOLE and have to be replaced. My downstairs bath has 2 holes in the plaster walls from a plumbing repair. And that’s before we even get to the new siding, windows, and roof that we did.
The squirrel that fell down the chimney and died and it was 3 weeks before my cat found the corpse underneath the bar in the basement. The mouse infestation in the cupboards that had me cleaning them out with ammonia. The window caps that went and in a heavy rain water kept pouring into the house. Getting the front steps repaired because my DH decided it would be a good idea to break up some ice with a metal shovel…
Despite all the cautionary tales, there is one that puts it all into perspective, summing up the biggest payoff to this life investment:
sTiLL LoVE iT hErE:
September 28, 2011 at 1:11 pmAfter living in our home for years we have had a full gambit of repairs – some have been completed and some remain, well, incomplete. As an example – our bathrooms have both been “in progress” for about six or seven years. No, I am not exaggerating. Repairs have been both expected and unexpected. The normal things have seemingly all gone wrong, i.e. air conditioning, siding, roof, toilets, and the list goes on for miles – no real surprises.
For the most part the house is a dependable one…with lots of memories both good and sad. It’s your basic 3 bedroom ranch style home with a fireplace – nothing fancy or elaborate. Just a little house with a fenced back yard that separates us from our neighbors’ illegal free roaming city chickens, a couple of barking dogs (including mine) and a little garden in front. We’ve raised our family in this house, nursed my mom after cancer surgery, welcomed new grandchildren and cried over the passing of dear friends and family. We’ve experienced a mixture of happiness and sadness as my son prepared for his wedding here; watched our daughter’s prom come and go and her relationship begin and end in this house. My husband and I have had garage sales, delicious meals, disagreements, made up (yay!) and talked about our future together. We’ve also tried to plan our funeral around our dining room table…without too much success. I know, we will have to complete that task one day. However, the home repairs must be addressed and are almost too many to count using my fingers AND toes. We just don’t have the money… who ever does… there is no convenient time for pay for everything… but that’s okay. It’s our house, and we know that we’ll get it all done… some how. It may not be right away, but we’ll get through. So, it isn’t just a house, it’s a home. It’s a memory spot. A place to hang our hats…a soft place to land. Just a few thoughts about our little house.
That’s me — 22 and glowing with pride in front of my new to me 1890 cape cod fixer upper.
Me? I’m on my second house. I bought my first house when I was single — in an up-and-coming neighborhood in Milwaukee, which basically meant very old houses that needed work… but were affordable… in an area with a mid-level crime rate. I fell in love with a tiny (800 sq ft) cape cod style house built in 1890 with a tiny yard and a detached garage. I immediately knew that I would need to put lots of money into the house and that I would be doing a lot of the work myself. Fortunately, I come from a long line of handy folk. Even so, I had to hire out some of the larger jobs in my new old house — such as replumbing the entire house before I could even move in (there was no water pressure and the drain pipes were all hopelessly clogged). This huge job also necessitated the gut remodeling of the only bathroom — which had been poorly remodeled over the years. Next came slowly replacing all 11 windows in the house because not a single one could be opened due to shifting and settling over time. Other work I completed over the next few years:
- new A/C unit
- new furnace
- new water heater
- new fuse box and service riser (apparently there had been a fire in the old fuse box).
- gut-job kitchen remodel (it is great to make toast with the lights on!), including new appliance appliances
- removed 2 layers of press and stick vinyl floor tiles from all the original hardwood floors in the entire house and then refinishing the hardwood floors
- having the main drain line from the house cleaned out (the previous owner decided to dump cooking grease down the drain for 25 years)
- new garage door
- new garage roof
- new garage side entry door
- replace the front porch (the old one was mostly rotten and was held to the house with 2 nails)
- painting the entire house inside and out, and countless other small projects here and there.
I stopped just short of finishing the upstairs (to gain another 500 square feet of living space) and replacing the roof and gutters — I’ll let the new owners take care of those changes. When all was said and done, I was able to sell my house in one week (in a bum housing market) so that Jim and I could buy our new mid century ranch house where we currently live. Did I make any money on my first house? Heck no. Luckily, I didn’t lose much, though — and I learned a whole lot about being a homeowner, as well as what kinds of repairs I feel comfortable doing myself versus the ones I need to hire out.
Thus far, most of the repairs that I’ve had to make here at our new (1962) ranch house have been things I’d known would need attention from the day I signed on the dotted line. So far, so good. But I’ve read all the comments — and am aiming to keep the emergency fund stocked.
Yes, the headline promised 140+ stories — see them all in comments here.
And, want another downer Reality Check? Read Pam’s post, Remodel and watch your *investment* plunge in value.
We bought our house almost a year ago. There’s a very small creek at the end of the property but our realtor obtained all the documents certifying that we were NOT in a flood plain before the sale. We even had some severe flooding in the area a couple months before we finally bid on the house and I stalked the neighborhood religiously at the time to see if the creek flooded – it got high, but came nowhere near the houses. Inspection was fine, no evidence of flooding in the basement ever, and we have 2 sump pumps that look like they’ve never been used. The neighbors, who have all been here 40+ years, all say they’ve had the sump pumps kick in maybe twice in all the time they’ve lived here.
Yesterday we got a letter in the mail from our mortgage company that says FEMA has remapped the flood plains and SURPRISE! We’re now considered high risk zone AE. We have 30 days to obtain flood insurance or else they’ll just tack on their pricey policy onto our mortgage payment. We’ve gotten no notice of the rezoning from FEMA or our county or township. Just the mortgage company. Nice.
Oh my. Despite all your diligent research — smacked nonetheless. This one really hurts!
What really worries me is that the rezoning might make it impossible for us make any changes to the exterior. We were hoping to put in a fence for our doggie in the spring. Now I’m not sure we’ll be permitted.
We already have a gazebo in the yard that’s in decent shape but it won’t last forever. I’d love to have the option to build something else over the patio when the time comes, but that might be out of the question too.
Though I know it’s faint comfort they pulled a version of that where I live in Canada and now everyone is limited to how much they can add to their homes. Rather a huge disappointment to some who’ve bought tiny cottages from when this area was first built up between 1880 and 1950.
It’s a case of lawyers not doing due diligence over the past 2 years but one would think there would be grandfather clause exceptions for the people who were already in place.
I bought my 1952 home almost two years ago now. I walked through it during the fall. I feel in love with the original oak floors, the mint green bathtub, the yellow sink/cabinet in the kitchen, the beautiful brick fireplace, and the amazing plaster walls. It was like a little dream com true. And then I bought it….
It had been a foreclosure and when the bank repo’d it they installed a new electrical service. Except they forgot to caulk around the flashing. So when it rained hard (as it’s prone to do during the fall), it leaked into my kitchen and ruined the ceiling. Little by little I noticed more problems… The last owners had ripped out the furnace and forced air heating system, which was fine since the replaced it with a nice boiler, but they didn’t install enough baseboard to keep the house warm so I was dropping about $5K per winter on heating fuel. Not to mention the astronomical electric bills brought up by all of the portable heaters I had to plug in when it got -50 outside. Oh and this cute little house? It’s concrete block construction, and that’s basically it. Concrete blocks firred out on the inside, covered with metal lathe and 1 1/2″ of plaster. Where’s the insulation, you might be wondering? Oh, it’s at Home Depot waiting for me to purchase it…. Oh and the windows I thought I loved? Yeah… Those single pane windows stared freezing over and cracking during the winter and the dry-rotted wood frames let out so much air you’d think that I was trying to heat the whole neighborhood. My beautiful brick fireplace was useless as it was apparently missing a flue and doors and did nothing but smoke up my entire living room. To top it off, I had this awful roof problem that left me wanting to curl up in a little ball and just cry. (more about that here: http://mominthelastfrontier.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-great-roof-debacle-or-how-i-barely.html)
Regardless, I love my house because it’s mine and I’ve worked hard to keep it. I can say with pride that in the past two years I’ve completely renovated the heating system, replaced with a staple-up style underfloor radiant heating system fed from the boiler. I have brand spanking new windows. My pellet stove insert (which will look beautiful in my fireplace) will not only supplement my heating efficiently, it’ll also compliment the brick construction. I’ve also completely renovated a basement that once looked like something out of a serial killer movie. It has been stupidly expensive and as a single parent on a limited income I’ve struggled to make any and all improvements. But it’s home and my son has a house that feels safe and warm (warm being a new feature). Best of all, whenever I get really frustrated I can sink into a hot bath in my cast iron tub and get reminded of how awesome it is to have radiant floors that can warm up the bottom of it before I even get in.
Yikes! You deserve Mom of the Year!
I love the line, “warm being a new feature.” Great story.
Last month, my husband was going to replace the window in the enclosed entryway of our house. Before he could take out the window, the surrounding siding needed to be removed. Oh look, rotten boards under the siding, those need to be replaced. The support beams under the entryway and porch are also rotten? Better change those out as well. Who didn’t mortar the cement blocks on the porch foundation before building the porch? Guess we’ll just dismantle the entire porch, mortar the blocks after leveling them out, replace the foundation beams, build new walls and insulate, because there was no insulation on that side of the house. What were we doing again? Oh yeah, replacing the window.
We also lived in a house once where we were going to replace the old wallboard with insulation and drywall. Turns out, about 50 years earlier, there had been a fire in the house on Christmas Eve. Rather than replace the charred beams, they just nailed new ones onto the old and threw up the wallboard. When we took out the wallboard, we were hit with a whoosh of soot which continued to sift through the house, I was still cleaning up soot when we moved out 5 years later.
Termites and dry rot. An undetected roof leak — probably when my in-laws still lived in this house — turned into rotted joists and flooring. Add to that an insidious termite problem on one wall and you have $15K worth of repair. Plus ongoing termite monitoring/remediation. We’ve got to call them out again. All in one little bedroom.
One of the stories addressed a topic not often mentioned – unqualified home inspectors. We paid big bucks for a home inspection last year. When we finally started renovation, many problems surfaced not even slightly mentioned in the inspection report. This topic (might be slightly off retro-renovation) cannot be discussed enough!
Don’t even get me started on home repairs! We moved in to a home last year that was supposed to have been “totally rehabbed”. Unfortunately, the rehabbers only patched over and hid existing problems. In 12 months we had to do the following:
*a full roof tear-off and installation
*replace furnace
*replace air conditioner
*fix TWO (!) sewer backups in the basement
*fix all the interior damage from four roof leaks
*patch cracking plaster walls
After those repairs (totaling about $20k) we may now have to pier and patch the foundation! For someone who just graduated and started work, its been a disaster. But hey, at least I’m moved out on my own. I’d much rather be out on my own and paying for these repairs than living in mom and dad’s basement like so many of my graduating class. I count myself as lucky.
nickarmadillo– I’ve been following your house troubles on your blog for quite a while now. I’m sorry you’ve had such bad luck, but I’m hoping that soon things will level out and you will be able to do renovations that you WANT to do instead of what you NEED to do.
I totally understand how you feel, I bought my first house (aka the money pit) pretty much right out of school and wouldn’t trade the knowledge and experience I’ve gained from working on that house for anything.
Kudos to you for keeping it positive!
… and I agree that unqualified home inspectors are a major problem. Not only do they fail to perform their job, they also refuse to be held liable when there are major problems that they missed, even when they should have been obvious. The whole home inspection thing is a racket.
Egads! After condo living for the past 22 years, I am now having to do outdoor maintenance. My DH and I knew we were walking into a challenged home. So for the past 3 weeks it’s been working 8 hours then coming home and working till 10 or 11 at night on the inside of the house, just to be able to move our stuff from the garage.
Our dogs decided it’s time to fix the cedar plank fence so they wouldn’t be tempted to visit the dog next door anymore. Thank god, we have block walls everywhere else. Thank god, I live in So Cal and I don’t have to worry about snow and floods (just earthquakes).
My friend bought a 1920s craftsman style home and all her communications were about fixing the house. What a bore, I thought! Now I’m boring.
Elaine, I’m still wiping the tears from my eyes after reading your entry aloud to my husband. LOL! We deal with raccoons here at our summer place and I’m now wondering if the ghastly odor seeping from the ceiling along the fireplace in June was something bigger than a dead mouse. (Sealed that up by stuffing paper towels into the crack with a screwdriver, which worked, until it was gone.)
Everyone else, not funny. Not funny at all and I whole-heartedly commiserate. We all have horror stories but these are especially gut wrenching.
It makes my blood pressure rise too much to even talk about it.
I told the Mister that we’re one repair job away from sticking our cats in a Winnebago and living in a campground for the rest of our days.
I too commiserate with all of you dealing with such nightmare problems. I am lucky because I am married to a contractor who can do anything from excavation and septic systems to electrical and plumbing, bricklaying and siding. We built our second house and I mean built it ourselves except for the heating system and sheetrock at the end when we were running out of time. It was a dream house and for twelve years it was perfect. We were lucky and sold it in 2004 when prices were still high, and moved into a small forties cape and are renting until we find ourselves a house up in Maine. Our rent is cheap for this area but we take care of the place and do the maintenance for the owner. Phil graded the entire yard to prevent the water in the basement, and ripped out all the overgrown shrubs and bushes and flower gardens. He replaced the boiler and the furnace after it caught fire (the landlord said to just keep using it!), replaced most of the old copper plumbing in the basement and the drain from the bathtub which involved ripping out half the kitchen ceiling, installed a water conditioning system to prevent the corrosion and plumbing problems, rewired and installed lights in the dim basement, fixed the chimney that kept raining pieces of bricks onto the front porch, and on and on it goes. We sure got a taste of owning an older home! I also fought the carpenter ants for years and we need to replace the old wood siding but we are afraid of what we will find when we start stripping it. Between the ants and the woodpeckers, it looks like Swiss cheese! And right now there is a leak into my bedroom closet, presumably from the bad chimney flashing, so I have to keep a dishpan on the floor. What REALLY bothers Phil is the old wiring that is getting brittle but to fix that, we have to rip out all the walls. But we do love the house regardless, and it isn’t even ours!
We too think the home inspection people are a racket. My husband can walk into any house and he can pick out so many problems, no-one would ever get bank approval on it. We have been searching for a house in Maine for EIGHT years now and he finds too many things wrong with each and every one we look at. We just looked at one in August and it was the worst one we have ever seen. I can’t think of one good thing it had going for it other than I thought it sounded charming, having belonged to an elderly schoolteacher who kept it original since 1942. My mistake. So we just keep looking but I am glad he can figure out what is wrong and that we don’t get stuck, although I sometimes wonder if we will ever find a place that meets with his approval.
Okay. I think we should be careful before casting aspersions on the whole home inspection industry. I am sure that — as in almost all situations — the vast vast majority are working very hard to do the right things on their jobs!
I think a key takeaway should be that, no matter what: Stuff is gonna go wrong in an old house. In any house! The reason I *like* doing this story (and I say *like* cuz I know it’s painful) is that readers have surfaced so many things that can and do go wrong. Homeownership is a serious enterprise — it’s EXPENSIVE. Go in with eyes wide open.
Do you watch Holmes on Holmes? My husband loves that show.
Deal with bona-fide professionals. Get your permits. Get your inspections. Learn about all the things you must maintain. Then do all your maintenance. Pay attention. Have an emergency fund, ugh.
You are right, Pam. We too love Holmes on Homes. He is one person in the home improvement business who I think has alot of integrity AND knowledge. Unfortunately, as mentioned, there are good inspectors and poor inspectors, as in any profession.
When my husband & I bought our fixer, the inspector was very good. he crawled under the house and up in the attic. He was very thorough. He took tons of pictures. In fact, the seller’s agent was afraid we wouldn’t want the house, but there wasn’t anything that we couldn’t do ourselves (except the roof). He was a contractor before he became an inspector, so that might have helped.
I am sorry that so many of you have horror stories! I guess I feel lucky that we have had no major surprises. (It also helps that both my boyfriend and my father come from construction backgrounds.) We knew we needed things like a new roof etc when we bought it. I realize that many of you have had bad experiences with home inspectors, but I would just like to say that our home inspector was awesome! He has been in business for many, many years and came highly recommended. As with any profession, I am sure that there are some bad eggs, but I don’t regret hiring an inspector.
October 7th I will have owned this 1951 ranch house for two years, and so far the repairs have not been surprises. We repainted inside and out, rebuilt the front covered patio, gutted and rebuilt the bathroom and most of the kitchen, put in new plumbing and lots of new light fixtures, grounded wire and plugs.
I have had some wonderful opportunities to meet neighbors and tour their old houses which makes me feel even better about my decision to buy a fixer upper in a questionable part of town. What I like best is that my house has not been molested by shoddy additions over the 60 good years it has been here. I think the lesson I have learned is if you outgrow your house, just move, don’t ruin it for a junky add-on, which you will lose money on. Love your house or leave it alone. Additionally, get a very thorough and well regarded inspector and with the water turned on, flush a few halves of a banana down the toilet. Have someone look in a clean out and see if the banns go by. If they don’t you know you have plumbing fun to look forward to.
Wow. This is a story I never saw, probably before I found RR (thanks to Chutti and her hubby). This has been very eye opening, and also so sad in a way to read the surprises the readers came across after purchasing their dream homes.
I feel rather lucky when I read all these stories. We’ve only had one real huge surprise, and that was replacing the oil tank that came with the house to the tune of $2,000 in our first few months here. I have a modest savings (thanks to the generosity and years of hard work of my parents, may they RIP).
The first big thing we did was install a hot water heater as we didn’t want to pay for oil year round if we didn’t have to. That was probably $975. We thought we were so ahead of the game. That was in May 2011. In Sept or October we called a local company to clean the heater for winter. That’s when we found out we needed a whole new oil tank. I choked on the price, but sucked it up and well, that’s what savings are for, right?
Since then we’ve had no major issues, except the basement flooding once during a very very heavy rain storm. Mr. Wonderful happens to be a handy man, so we’re lucky there. He got the basement all taken care of, found out where the rain made it in (bulk head, and not the walls) and then bought a shop-vac for any future incidences.
We did have some issues with the kitchen drain on one side for a few weeks, but after several snakings and him finding out where the clog was – that problem is behind us.
The rest of the work on the house he’s done, most of it ‘sweat equity’:
1. New flooring in kitchen prior to move in ($200)
2. Painting (which is still a work in progress for the living room, hall and bedrooms)
3. Gutter cleaning and maintenance
4. MAJOR tree trimming/removal, we have PINES lining both sides of the back yard (while we were under contract, a willow in the back fell crushing the neighbors fence – the bank paid for that) – he does NOT want a repeat of that while the house is ours!
5. Restoration of the kitchen cabinets (stripping old paint, restoring wood).
6. Installed a sliding glass shower door (vintage, etched)
And that’s about it besides minor cosmetic upgrades.
We still have to install a tile bathroom floor, and strip/clean the wood flooring in the LR and hallway.
So, I do feel quite fortunate compared to other stories I have read here tonight. The house has great bones, our inspector was a friend of a friend and he’s a builder himself – and for the house being a 1961 and empty for 2 years he could not believe the great shape it was in. He said “someone, took very good care of this place over the years.”
I need to ask – clay pipes? That’s even scary just to type out. We have all copper pipes – and I feel blessed.
Hannah-
Thanks for the shout out-love to see you here.
The clay pipes (we has em) are the exterior pipes to utilities, not in the house. We got a mix of copper, PVC leading to the clay.
Our 1920 house was an estate. The 94 yr old former owner was in hospice, and visiting nurses thought they could flush lots of wipes…wrongo. Hence, the backup of the clay pipe in our front yard, and subsequent replacement to the utility.
We’re SO lucky this happened right before we came.
It’s a big issue in our neighborhood. The local water CO will have to replace all the clay pipes in the next few years. Other parts of town are grousing about how we should be surcharged. Hey-these houses were here paying looong before the others….should be factored in.
The cracks are a fun one. Looking at some extensive work on those in mom’s 1972 home. Our 1920 stucco is cracking by the day.
We are going to get good at that one!
I still love my 1931 cottage even though…yes there have been many unexpected repairs needed in spite of it getting a very good pass on the home inspection. I’d been in two months when I thought I was smelling gas in my backyard. Everyone told me I was crazy that they did not smell it. Gas bill comes and its huge. Gas company comes out…yes, you have a leak somewhere from the house to the meter. And we have to dig it up and move your meter to be closer to the house. That was like $1,500.
Six months later….tub and sinks start backing up when I run the clothes washer or dishwasher. Toilets stop flushing when all worked great upon inspection. Plumber says my red clay sewer lines are totally broken down. Need a new sewer line….$3,000. I actually got off good on that one because they didn’t have to tear up a deck or patio…just the yard on a diagonal. Now when neighbors say they are having plumbing issues…I just tell them…get a new sewer line…it’s time…Eighty years is more than those red clay lines can do.
Three years ago my central air quit. The unit was only about 8 years old. Service technician said there was something in the line probably originating from the original install. $4,000.
Water heater started leaking last month….thank goodness I noticed it while it was still leaking into the pan beneath it. New water heater….$1,250.
Water leaks in the water line both in the front and backyard…water bill was huge – $500 and plumbing bill both times $400. This problem caused by a home owner long ago who did the water line changes himself. I was thankful it was fixable and did not require a whole new line.
Then there are the small things. A toilet that quit working even though it’s rarely used. Plumber said I just need a new one. Even though it’s not very old. How does a toilet just break? Especially since it was rarely used in the guest bath? I never have guests?
Still….I adore my house….but yes….houses are so expensive to maintain. Something my Mom and I did not realize because before my Dad died…he pretty much did all repairs himself on their house and saved them tons of money.
Still I love owning. You just have to have extra cash on hand at all times. Which I am not good at.
I do see where Pam is saying not to malign the home inspectors. But, tell me how, HOW, can they miss SO many things? We had a very reputable company do our inspection 2 years ago, and it wasn’t cheap. They completely overlooked the spaghetti/fire hazard wiring in the kitchen. It all had to be totally reworked. Never even mentioned the rot and the cut support beams on the raised deck. Oh, and how about the $10,000.00 in gutter and roof repair?? The roofer asked if we had the place inspected, because he could have had a roofing apprentice stand on the driveway and see the problems. All of these things should have or could have been worked into our offer when we bought the house. Now it’s all been out of pocket. I’m sorry, but I’m not seeing where home inspections are all they’re cracked up to be.
Hey, I think I might excerpt all the skary comments with all the “everything that can possibly go wrong in the real world” examples into a hit-list and sell it as a download for $5 to homeowners overseeing the work of the home inspector. Maybe I’d make a million bucks!
People expect their inspectors to be experts in all aspects of buildings. How can they know all there is to know about electricity if they’ve never worked as an electrician?
If you are buying an older home that hasn’t been updated in years – hire a professional electrician and a professional plumber. The older the house, the more I’d want someone trustworthy and knowledgeable. Even if the house looks good, get somebody in their who knows the trades, not someone who took an inspectors correspondence course in order to create a business.
In our state, you can write the contact subject to the inspection and walk away if the owner isn’t going to fix the items and you can’t come to some agreement on the repairs or a price adjustment.
These stories are sad to read, but comforting in that I don’t feel so alone now! I bought a condo in a 1920s building 2 1/2 years ago. Within the first 18 mos. I’d had two floods (boiler went wacko and caused water from the radiator to flood my bathroom, then the hot water riser in the kitchen sprung a leak and flooded my kitchen over the hardwood floors I’d paid $1K to refinish). I initially spent some money on new windows, a small amount of electrical work, and refinishing the floors. Now I’m scrimping and saving for the big stuff. Kitchen plumbing is OK now, so I might reno the kitchen next year, but meanwhile my bathroom is a disaster (85-year-old cracked toilet, bad subfloor, sewer gas smell, nonfunctional & leaking tub shutoff) and I’m just waiting for another emergency to occur in there. I always thought the trailer for that movie “The Money Pit” looked silly. Now I’m thinking I should see it, since it’s clearly my biopic!
Approaching the ten year anniversary on owning my 57 ranch. The future work was pretty much predicted by the home inspection at the time of purchase – complete roof tearoff, new furnance, new electric service w/breakers, new built in place shower (the pan was disinegrating and was visible in the crawl space). New windows, etc. The payoff just came while refinancing and the appraisal noted average + on all these items, meaning that the property is being maintained and livable. The prior owners deferred so much maintenance which cost me much money but still I love the house in a neighborhood with great pride of ownership.
It’s nice not to be alone though I still feel awful so many people get taken.
Tiled over hole in foundation floor, unbelievable dryer vent run….not the one right over the dryer but the one across the room fed by a z pattern hose….black mold behind the walls because of that hose being full of lint and leaking moisture…..the lady who’d owned it before thought she’d paid to have the old panelling removed and proper insulation done and new drywall….nope, the contractor put it over top and added no insulation at all though there was pieces of packing Styrofoam here and there (I know this to be true as she was telling me about the strange panelling with plastic wood grain over drywall she’d had removed….or so she thought).
Hot wires from old light fixtures left dangling inside the walls and ceilings….improperly installed pot lights from the 60′s insulated with super flammable packing Styrofoam….duct tape used instead of insulation around the windows….leaking shower downstairs but at least it had the hole in the floor to leak through….Improperly done roof where they shingled over disintegrating plywood which is still OK so it is waiting for me to save that kind of money.
And so on and so on and so on.
She’d spent almost 80 thousand most of it, seemingly, given to the ethically challenged and another 80 thousand was needed. Tiny house but great view and location so it’s worth it once you recover from the repeated shocks and the sad fact most of the spent money disappeared behind walls, ceilings and the basement floor.
Oh wow, is this ever timely! We bought our house 3 years ago, and I’ve just recently realized (while spending entire weekends working on complicated maintenance projects) that I’m totally fed up with this. Before this house, we owned two different condominium apartments; we loved them both. Our first was in a 1919 tudor building, had a fireplace and great woodwork and casement windows and needed all cosmetics but was otherwise in good shape: We painted and refinished the floors and renovated the badly beaten up kitchen. We put our china in the original built in cabinet with leaded glass in the doors and lit fires in our working fireplace and watched others shovel the snow outside and fix the roof. Our next place, quite different, was on the top floor of a 1965 highrise, with original Geneva kitchen and original bathrooms. We had 5 large rooms with sliders to a 24 foot long terrace with amazing views. We filled it with good mid-century furniture, papered the living room in grasscloth, and watched sunsets from the terrace and cooked amazing meals in that lovely kitchen. As before, others got to worry about a lot of the major issues; a heating pipe broke in the wall, someone came and fixed it and someone else came and patched the wall. The roof leaked, was fixed. The snow was shoveled, the pool was cleaned, the leaves were raked. We spent the weekends visiting friends and throwing cocktail parties…
And then this house. Roof leaks. Yankee gutters are devastated and must be completely rebuilt or stripped off and new regular gutters hung. Plumbing leaks, destroying living room ceiling. Boiler is undersized and second floor heating zone is too long, so house is hard to heat in winter. Huge lawn (for a city house) takes AGES to cut. Snow needs shoveling. Constant chores and responsibilities. No one to help.
I seriously wonder what were we THINKING? We could have stuck with our lovely penthouse and not worried about this. Was it expensive, Heck yeah! But totally worth it. Spent days off swimming in the pool or reading on the terrace. Now I spend days off painting and caulking and cleaning and cutting and trying to schedule contractors and trades-people to fix all the stuff that breaks. I love the house, really I do, and think I just need to stick with it and let it stabilize. But I never realized it would be so much work! I know, naive!
At a party a couple of weeks ago at least a dozen of us admitted to starting to wonder if apartment/condo living might not be the answer. Your last place sounds amazing but I’m sure this one will be a dazzler when you’re done….well, done-ish, it’s never really all done ;o)
My grandmother lives in a condo, and the association’s strict rules made it really hard to make repairs to her apartment. We had to take vacation time just to bring materials in. Of course some condo boards will be more lenient than others, but I’m pretty turned off to high rises after my experience there. There is no “answer;” you just have to pick which inconveniences work best for you.
Yes, very true. You are also at the mercy of the board when it comes to repairs in common areas. We have 85-year-old plumbing and the board was considering replacing it when our boiler went on the fritz — so now plumbing’s on indefinite hold since we have an unrelated special assessment. Now I’m in limbo because I have sewer gas and other big issues in my bathroom, but I don’t want to invest in a renovation when I’d be hooking up a new toilet, tub, and sink to 85-year-old, corroding pipes.
I hear you Chad and Charlotte!
Most of us were talking renting, condo’s can be just another version of reno pain and as you said, you are at the mercy of a frequently crazed power mad board. le sigh.
For any considering a condo, just get on the TOP floor. I have owned two and your greatest risk are the plumbing issues from those above you! Something is always leaking: ice makers, toilets and washing machines are the biggest threat because they run and run.
In our condo complex of only 36 2-story units, I know of at least 5 or 6 first floor units being damaged by leaks from above in just the past few years….one to the tune of $30,000.
When we owned my mother’s FL condo for 2.5 years, we had two incidents of water from above doing damage to our place. And, under FL law (!) WE were the ones responsible to make repairs and to pay for it! Even though negligence (like not turning off water when owner is absent) is a factor, makes no difference. Whew, glad we’re rid of that place.
Anyway, it’s a consideration with a condo.
First time commenter here, lurker 4-eva
In my 1965 Condo (which I’m restoring and reshaping) I’m on the second floor of a two-story. My neighbor, also on the second floor, complains of drips in his bathroom ceiling. Where do they come from? The attic? No, my mid-century loving amigos. The drips come from the woman downstairs, who takes loooong showers. The steam rises through her ventilation fan, into the attic, then settles on his ceiling, and thence atop his head. My contractor said the attic doesn’t have enough insulation to prevent it. So, living on the top floor can present issues too. But I LOVE my condo, despite the black mold behind my original, fugly tan 1965 bathroom tiles, and the not-to-code electrical panel. Did I mention the scotch tape holding the console sink piping together (which the inspector missed 
.
Hi Ann, and welcome out of lurkdom! Hmmm, surely the exhaust is not vented INTO the attic? I always thought that was a real no-no. THROUGH the attic to the outside — that’s okay. Although as I always say: Consult with a pro.
UGH.
WELCOME!
Hi Pam, thanks for the warm welcome! Yes, ALL the bathroom fans are currently vented into the attic. But the HOA is going to take care of that. So the good part is, as other condo owners have said, it’s not MY problem.
Thanks so much for being here on the www. Your site is a perfect example of what makes the Interwebz so great. My sister is a devotee too!
You people are seriously scaring me! My husband and I just bought our California ranch house (1958) three months ago and we are NOT handy people. Eeeek! This post has convinced me to start setting aside some $$$, but in the mean time I’ll knock on wood that we don’t have to face any major repairs any time soon.
Wow, these stories are making me feel lucky. We moved out of our 1947 cute Cape Cod into a 1909 Arts and Crafts bungalow. We’ve had many surprises: big leak in the basement, really shoddy electrical “upgrades,” structural support lacking in the basement, a dryer plugged in via extension cord (!). At least the inspector caught that last one.
We also had raccoons in the attic. I wish I had thought of filing a homeowners claim on that one. Instead, we re-roofed. We had planned to do a roof tear-off in a year anyhow. It wasn’t that fun to have it done in November, especially when we got an early cold snap during the period when all the insulation in the attic had been removed. I’ve slept warmer camping than in my own bed during that period!
Raccoons in attics and basements are very common. A friend of mine had them under her walled deck and they were driving her crazy. Someone told her a story about them getting in their attic. They were told to throw mothballs up there and the raccoons would abandon the attic, so they proceeded to throw them in the attic window. The smart critters picked them up and threw them back out! I can’t swear this is true but I thought it was pretty funny. She tried it and it didn’t work for her either. I guess when they find a comfy home, they don’t want to leave.
I’ve heard blasting rock and roll music and leaving the lights on in the attic can work but it’s all anecdotal from when I lived in the country..
I asked a professional once the best way I could get rid of raccoons and he said “Got a 22?”
There are a lot of scary stories on here! Our house needed a lot of repairs but we knew about them going in – no surprises. I think your best bet to avoid surprises is to have trusted, experienced people look over the place before you buy. I’m lucky my parents have bought and repaired quite a few houses, so they were a great resource for me.
I think the rule of thumb is to plan for about 1% of the home’s value per year in maintenance, for example, if your house is worth $250k, expect to have $2500 in expenses per year.
I think the rule of thumb is a short of shocking 3%, actually! I need to write about this some time!
We had your usual leaks and things falling apart during our new homeowner “break in” period… Add “what could have been a disaster” to your list: when we got our home inspection, we learned the jacuzzi tub in the master bath was not grounded. A bathtub, with electrical components, with no GFI.
I wonder if the former owner ever even used the tub (we soon learned that even filling the thing up uses the entirety of our hot water tank, so I’d guess not often… but still.).