The kludgy stuff

This house was advertised as "recently rehabbed". Let's just say that the term "rehab" should be used loosely. Admittedly, the "rehab" that was done on the house really did help us to envision the spaces and their potential use probably better than if they had been left unfinished. The problem is, when they "rehabbed" these spaces, they did it REALLY half-assed. Fundamental things like roof repair, basement sealing, proper plumbing, etc. were blown-off in the interest of making the house LOOK nice. Unfortunately a whole lot of those "nice looking" finishes will have to be UNDONE to make sure everything behind it gets done properly. There is added cost to this.

Off the top of my head, here is the initial list of what needs to be done in the house to make it "right":

• Roof repair - The roof is largely serviceable, but several areas of flashing were improperly done so will have to be redone. There are signs of leakage in many of the "rehabbed" areas of the house.
• Chimney repair - There are at least 2 chimneys (for the 2 furnaces...don't know yet if there are more for the 4 fireplaces, 3 of which we will be reversibly sealing) and none of them are properly lined or capped. This allows moisture seepage into the mortar which causes "bubbling" in the plaster around them. We will have to have this done (we did it in our last house...not cheap).
• Basement sealing - The "finished" basement showed signs of seepage on 3 of the 4 foundation walls. There was mold in a lot of the drywall at time of inspection despite the fact that mold remediation had already been performed over the 9 months the house was listed. All of the new carpet will need to be pulled up (which is fine 'cause it is off-gassing some seriously toxic stuff), much of the drywall ripped out, areas of seepage analyzed to determine the source of water, any remaining mold remediated, etc. We'll probably leave the drywall cut away for several months to get a good sense of where the water is coming from. There is indication that, in several areas, it may actually be coming from interior plumbing leaks, which leads to...
• Plumbing repair - This was fun: we turned on the water to the house at the main for the sake of the inspection (the listing agent actually had to pay the city to have it turned back on after all the back-bills were paid). A wastewater line that had been run in a wall right next to the electrical panels was leaking (pictured right). In the short time before inspection of this area, water from the line had pooled-up in the wall insulation just below the electrical panels. Our contractor, who was there for the inspection, wouldn't get ANYWHERE near it to even look at it. This, among other tell-tale signs, led us to believe that the plumbing work that had been done during this "rehab" was highly suspect. We were right:

It looks like some inexperienced choad started to weld the copper pipe together (pictured left), singed a 2 X 4, got freaked-out and decided to "seal" all the joinery with some sort of teflon-based mastic. YUM! The water main closet (pictured middle) not only was not properly sealed (the pipe just comes right out of the dirt) but is coupled with 3 different diameters of pipe within a 2 foot run. Not so good for water pressure. PLUS, the pipe was leaking which caused mold in the dirt on the floor of the closet and on the surrounding drywall.

• Exterior Fascia and siding repair - Not only is it BUTT UGLY, it wasn't even installed right. There are gaps EVERYWHERE letting in air, water, bugs (yech!), etc. We really want to re-do the whole exterior to take it back to its original style, but we don't know if we can afford this right now. Either way, it NEEDS to at least be sealed-up to keep water out for the time-being.
• Insulation - This house is what energy-raters like to call a "leaker". It is SO drafty it has about 4 air exchanges per hour...about 4 times more than it should. Not very energy efficient. There are MANY areas of no or poorly attempted insulation so Steve (our contractor) will be remedying this and establishing a heat envelope for the house. Drywall will be ripped out on almost all floors in an attempt to seal up all rim joists, superfluous doors sealed, window & door seams properly sealed, etc. According to our energy rating report, all this work should result in the cost of heating/cooling this house to be less than our last house, which was 1/3 the size.
• Venting - There are NO exterior vents in the kitchen, laundry room or any of the bathrooms.

That's all I can think of at the moment. There's more kludgy stuff, but it's mostly cosmetic and can be dealt with over time. You'll hear about it here later...promise.