Hitting a snag

Awhile ago I talked about Heffy's upcoming move to a new location. We thought we would find a place and move in. That's how it goes, right? Now we are much wiser and still in our old place. It's a lot more complicated than we thought! Becky found a Victorian house with 5 bedrooms-ample space for her, our workspaces and the clothes. Lots of space. I dreamed of having room to spread out the clothes, work on them, and still have space to move around. Becky dreamed of where she could put her books and music stuff. It's not happening.

We knew the house had issues before we made an offer. There were no gutters for one thing (pretty obvious) and the porch roof had peeling paint, so maybe a roof leak. We decided to have a home inspection done so we would know what else was in store for us when she moved in. This was a new experience as none of us had been through one before. We highly recommend it for anyone buying an older home. We had to get the power and water turned on for the inspection. Wrinkle #1: the city would not install a water meter without permission from the owners. They are in Australia, so it took several days, but we got it. Wrinkle #2: pay $233 to the city prior to having the meter put in. Wrinkle #3: we must contact the agent and make sure she can let whomever is coming in. Meter person arrived and revealed Wrinkle #4: a plumber must fix the pipes so the meter can go in. I think you get the idea. It took several trips and wrinkles to even get to the inspector. We felt like we were living there already!

The inspector was a gem, but he had bad news. There was illegal wiring outside. The 220 outlets had 120 current to them, making us wonder how the stove even worked. Furnace won't fire. And on and on. After the inspection, we couldn't stop the leak in the kitchen, so I tried to get the city to turn the water off and refund us the money we paid (they said they would). Except we had to have permission from the owners to take our meter out. By now, I hope you're rolling on the floor laughing, 'cause we are. It's just too much!

We tried to renegotiate the price because of the cost of the repairs needed to just have Becky move in. Sellers said no. We cut what we were asking in half. While we were waiting for an answer, we collectively decided to walk away. No 5 bedrooms. No stained glass windows. No more dreams of having more than enough space to work in. But we are oh so much wiser than we were a month ago! So we are looking again, but with a much more skeptical stance.

Here's one of Heffy's selections for you to look at, and please visit our store-there's lots more!
'70's ethnic shirt