Offer Accepted!

"The seller accepted my offer!" The excitement I felt hearing those words was overwhelming. I knew this was the house for me and I would do anything to get it. Later I would find out that anything was actually a lot to do. I called up Pillar & Post for the home inspection, the same company that inspected the previous home that my offer was accepted for. They came out and did the process again for me, but this time found many things that needed attention. 

The gutters around the house were in need of repair or replacement. One such gutter in the rear of the house was hanging down and the inspector recommended replacing it. There was a hole in the side of the garage near the corner where it connects to the house. The inspector recommended fixing the hole before pest related damages occur, if they have not already. Some of the trim around the house was rotting away and recommended to replace. The same situation was found on some siding where the deck was connected to the house. Speaking of the deck, the inspector recommended destroying the deck and building from scratch because of how rotted it was. In a corner of a fascia board the inspector noted a large hole where squirrels were getting in at. He recommended hiring a pest control expert to resolve the issue I though to myself, "It's just some squirrels, I can take care of that." All of these I expected to find and all I had confidence I could fix, I would just need to set aside the time. 

And now for the inside of the house. I knew there was some work in there too, but nothing major that I was aware of. The basement had a hole in the ceiling from a pipe that had been and still was leaking. The inspector suspected that it just needed some insulation. The pipe was at a very awkward position to get to. The electrical panel contained a double tap, which is no big deal but should be resolved. The hot water tank was working, but near the end of life. The furnace, air conditioner, dryer and gas range worked. We even took the time to fill up the hot tub to see if that worked. We filled the water up past the jets with a hose that we found outside. The inspector turned on the hot tub and.... there was smoke. The motor of the hot tub appeared to be seized up. So we thought to just drain the hot tub through the drain attached to it. But wait.... that won't work unless we get the motor running. An hour later and many buckets it was finally almost emptied. We even tried to suction the water out but could not get a consistent flow. That was fun...

Upstairs the inspector pointed out a hole in the brick wall where a wood stove or something similar used to be. The guest bathroom was missing a shower head and the master bathroom had no ventilation fan resulting in some yellow forming on the ceiling. He went up to the attic and noted that there were visible squirrel nests with feces and urine. Some of the soffits were deteriorated and should be fixed for proper ventilation of the attic. The shingles on the roof were estimated to be around 10 years old and should have 5 to 10 years life left. Boy, that was a long list! But still nothing major was found. I was happy with the results. All these issues were things I could fix and the price was right. I confirmed the offer and scheduled Chase to perform an appraisal on the house.  I had to wait for the results before moving forward. There sure was a lot of waiting during the house buying process.