Home Inspection: Round II *ding*

The home inspection was last Thursday and I am happy to report that the home is still standing and is predicted to continue standing for quite some time now!  With that said, of course not everything was perfect.  But overall I just get a better feel for this place.  And this time I have Inspector Julie (aka Inspector Gadget's) full support!  Julie was very gracious to join me on the inspection as my personal engineering consultant... not many could be so lucky.  I just got to lounge in the sunny backyard while she and the inspector ran throughout the house discovering little problems here and there.  Or at least that's what I wanted to do!  I did follow and learn and such too.  And, most importantly, I took some photos.  So, for those of you who haven't been following this on facebook here is a peak at my house to be!

I LOVE the original cornice... and the newly added star bolts (even if they are for structural stability) give it charm as well!  Maybe add a pop of color on the window lintels and a new transom above the door and of course some window boxes and this house will be the cutest on the street.

 

 Welcome! Come right this way into our living room.

You can see their use of particle board gives the space an "urban loft appeal".... well, at least someone out there may think so.  I'm very excited to lay a new flooring over this perfect subfloor! (some sort of wood probably, maybe bamboo?)

By the way, the living room is HUGE for a Philly rowhouse space.  Here we have an 18' width.... typically a rowhouse is between 14'-16', and it is long too!  We're going to split this up into living and dining space and it will be quite fabulous I think.

following the living room we walk right through this perfect little kitchen and up two steps to what I believe will be our office/studio/whatever else inspires us space.  You can't see it, but double sliding glass doors lead into the backyard from here (eeeeeee!).  Maybe my favorite part of the house....

Did I mention the backyard?  Its adorable!  I will sunbathe here.  Bring me my iced tea please!

The bathroom is huge... maybe my second favorite part of the house?  Julie demonstrates its awesome-ness here posing for the photo (ok, I may have caught her off guard).

I don't really have great pics of the bedrooms, but just believe me, they're a good size. This is the smaller of the two.  Painted wood floors throughout the upstairs.  I'm not sure as of yet if I'll be able to restore them, or maybe just paint a cool pattern on them.  We shall see what lil O' will let me tackle!

So back to the discussion of the inspection.  The seller has agreed to give me some $$ to compensate the few "major concerns" and "safety hazards" found on the report.  I think we came to a good, quick compromise and I'm really excited to see things moving on this house purchase.  As of right now the closing date is set for May 4th and I don't anticipate it changing!

My homebuying experience (so far)....

I decided I was going to take the idea of home buying seriously this past December and then I put an offer on a house in early February.  WOW, that happened fast.  Well.... not as fast as you may think.  I found a house, a house that seemed practical (sloppy), cozy (small), and the right price (too cheap?).  The clincher, it was on the most beautiful little park and right where we wanted to be located.

I put in an offer maybe a little sooner than I would have otherwise, but there was another offer on the house so it was do or die....and the offer was accepted!  We went forward with the inspection... some structural problems with the joists in the basement, some termites, some wrongly constructed basement steps, and a few other major/minor problems.  Okay, I thought...this happens, not too horrible.  Well, turns out the owner thought his property was perfect and was "shocked" to see all the issues on the inspection report.  I found this suspicious since it was pretty obvious to me that you couldn't walk up the basement steps without tripping due to the different height risers.  Needless to say, the owner did not want to give me money for repairs and I was NOT about to have him fix a single thing.  This sort of debate went back and forth slowly over three weeks and three contract extensions.  But, how could I give up on this awesome wagon wheel? (ha!)

The time came for me to make a quick final decision and I was starting to get a weird feeling about these people.  The flipped house with some bad cosmetics seemed like more of a risk everyday.  So, I put detective lil' O on the case.... She did some legal research and quickly we found out some not so good things about these people (several lawsuites including issues with contractors and L&I).  Done. No thank you.  Kapoot. Terminated. 

So moving on to bigger (literally) and better (without a doubt) things (a house).  I quickly acted (with the full support of lil' O) on a house I had fallen in love with while under contract with Palmer Park (above). Now I was up against two others for this house and it was not only bigger and better... but of course, more expensive.  But see... I don't like to lose... and I don't really like not getting what I want (I think O would definitely agree with that).  So, I went for it full force (after some positive reinforcement from Lil' O) and put in all that I had.  Apparently that is all they needed to see.  I am doing the inspection this week but already this house feels like the real deal.  I can really see us living here and loving it.  I will take some pics during the inspection on Thursday and I'll be sure to post them.  But all in all, its just so exciting.  Can't wait to start our life in Fishtown.