Home Inspection

Our home inspection was a huge day for us. I was really excited about it because we picked out an independent inspector who seemed like he would be really thorough. At the beginning of the inspection, our inspector (Paul) was very eager to talk to us about anything we could think of to ask. We followed him around the outside of the house as he worked. He talked us through what he was doing and seeing, like it was a home inspection class. Once we were quite familiar with the outside of the house, Paul decided it was time to check out the attic. The only access was from the outside of the house in the backyard. It was a hot day. Paul was gone for awhile.

When Inspector Paul returned, he was covered in sweat, and he had a few small pieces of insulation stuck to his face. He looked pretty tired. He reported some electrical issues and disintegrating asbestos. Paul took a break to have some water and dried fruit. Afterward, he seemed mostly perked up. We continued on, inspecting the garage. After the garage, Paul exclaimed, "Now for the easy part!" It was time to inspect the inside of the house. Little did Paul know, but those words would come back to bite him in the ass.

It was nice to be inside, out of the heat. Once again we followed Paul around for a bit, listening to his observations about the bedrooms. When Paul moved on to the smaller bathroom, we decided to take a break and give him some space. Around this time our pest inspector arrived and began his inspection. The pest inspector was the first one to venture into the house's crawlspace. He immediately noticed how wet it was under there. His coveralls started to get soaked right away.

When the pest inspector finished with the crawlspace, he changed and talked to us about his report. There's a significant, unknown water leak under the house. There was about 4 - 6 inches of standing water forming a ring around the perimeter of the crawlspace and under the bathrooms. The source of the leak could not be confirmed, but the washing machine was suspected, due to the condition of the water. Our pest guy said that he didn't think the water had been there for too long, because there wasn't fungus growing up the beams that support the house. He said if that were the case, you'd expect to see large veins of mold in the wood. He did, however, see plenty of dead spiders. "They were hanging, all dead and covered in fungus. It was like a bunch of little white snowflakes." The water issue was a big concern for us, but our pest inspector didn't seem too worried about it. "Fix the leak, and ventilate the crawlspace, and you should be good. The house is older, but those beams down there still look good and strong. The good news is that you don't have any termites. Termites hate really wet conditions."

Some time after the pest inspector left, Paul emerged from the crawlspace. He looked tired and somewhat annoyed. We talked more about the water issue, and about the house in general. Then he took off. We felt pretty overwhelmed by the massive amounts of information we had obtained about the house that day. I didn't know what to think. Were the reports okay? Were they horrible? Should we run while we can? Should we hold firm and fix the problems? I feel a lot better now, but there's still a lot to think about.