All my savings from switching to homeownership from steadily-increasing rent are being practically wiped out!
Don’t get me wrong; I actually love this place. It’s a pretty choice first home, even if it’s a fraction of what I grew up in for double the price. (But that’s a whole other conversation…)
I’m beginning to wonder how homes worked before the modern era. Apparently, the Tudors burned fires in the center of their homes to keep warm and brought their prized pigs in during wintertime. Were they just adapted to living in pig shit and mold and smoke? How long were those homes expected to last? I suppose having single-family houses stand for several generations wasn’t much of a thing until industrial times… Seems like anything older than about 60 years requires constant upkeep. I guess that makes sense.
Meanwhile, a smallish leak from rain in some part of the rear wall of my condo has already caused, through slow and trickling deterioration, thousands of dollars of damage to adjacent floors, walls, and ceilings. It hasn’t even been two years since I’ve owned this place! But there it is, the early curse of homeownership — the first-years surprise expenses. And, as it is with nearly all my problems, the source is, of course, difficult and yet to be found. Extensive to diagnose, expensive to fix!
Built to Pass
I suppose all things are temporary. Century houses in particular usually need a great deal of updating to continue being lived in. Those houses would have only ever hosted a few generations of people at most, existing not before the early 1990s (I hope). Even the house in which I came of age is coming close to being that old… And even young houses that are neglected and ill-maintained fall apart. Mine is just a little bit younger than me. (Let’s not get into builder-grade materials and the youthening of our wood stock… There’s a reason I didn’t buy new.) Like with our bodies, sometimes it’s simply difficult to sus out the source of an issue or when it even started, which is what I’ve been dealing with.
These days, it gets legal as well. When X was updated, did it affect Y? Does the HOA (bleh) have a record of permits pulled to modify the home in the past? I own the interior building, but what about the doors and windows? How fast can you wrangle estimates for remediation when you don’t even know where to start or who to call first?
Of course, water is a time-based problem, too: the longer your leak persists, the more the damage compounds. Part of the subfloor in my bedroom has been ruined and restored, but with the water source yet unknown, was this all in vain? What other house structures are at risk?
Then there’s also the latent mold issue. Contained? Yes. The effects on me? Negligible, for now. But my pets are also at risk! I have to consider them as well!
The Home-Killer
It was raining when I first scoped this place out. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But my nightmare was waiting: water in the walls! Make sure your home inspector uses a moisture meter, folks!
I’ve never lived somewhere where there was a leak or other water problems, even having moved and lived in over 15 different houses in over 7 different states. Even the huge 2010 Nashville flood didn’t affect my home at the time that badly. I assumed water damage was relatively rare, and considering the conditions under which I bought the place, it shouldn’t have been anything to worry about.
Since then, I also found out that far-former owners of this unit knew about black mold (and presumably couldn’t afford to remediate it or negotiate with the HOA about it). Good to know. Not my first experience with black mold in a house, but unlike that place, this house isn’t even slightly underground…
Live and learn: a lot can change between walk-through and signing. Any small changes as part of a contingency can actually lead to bigger issues! Keep that in mind if you ever vie for the “millennial dream” of homeownership.
Also, buy a brick house! I knew there was some reason I had an aversion to vinyl siding.
I Guess That’s It
That’s my current plight. Of all house problems, I’d rather deal with things like infestations, drafts, or even electrical issues before water, because at least then the solution and the onus of responsibility is more clear-cut. It is what it is, however. I do love my condo and its location, “red state” be damned, and I’ve lucked into having decent neighbors. I’ll just have to put my go-getter attitude into overdrive and hope my meantime mitigations pay off!
I may update this post later with the results of a final fix, which hopefully won’t take another two years.
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