We had our pre-purchase inspection of The Escher House yesterday, and it looks like we didn’t miss anything in terms of repairs or condition of the property…
The biggest concern I had was a crack in one of the poured foundation walls, and since my inspector is also a structural engineer, I was confident that he could give me a definitive answer as to whether it was a structural issue or not. He was certain that it wasn’t a structural issue, and verified that there were no other major issues that we needed to be concerned with in terms of structure.
The few other structural things he did point-out we had already known about. For example, there was some major rot in a couple locations around the exterior band joist (the framing piece that runs the perimeter of the house and supports the floor joists) that will require some repair. Also, the screened-in-porch addition on the back of the house was poorly constructed and will likely need to be torn down. Lastly, the previous owners apparently tried to level out the kitchen floor by cutting several of the floor joists that weren’t completely level; we’ll need to install a beam-and-post system below the floor to support the joists and re-level the floor.
Other than those structural issues, there was really nothing too concerning. As we knew, the roof and siding need to be replaced; one of the two furnaces needs to be serviced (and perhaps replaced), the front deck needs to be rebuilt and the rear deck needs to be stabilized with new footers; etc. The rest of the issues were purely cosmetic.
Now that we’re confident there are no repair issues that we didn’t know about, the last piece of the puzzle is to ensure that the property isn’t in a flood plain. According to the tax records, it’s not. But we know there have been some FEMA flood map revisions in the area since the recent Atlanta flooding, so we want to be certain this house hasn’t recently been moved to a flood zone.
Assuming that’s not an issue, we will be moving forward, and if the bank can meet the contractual closing date (unlikely, in my opinion), we should have this one closed within the next two weeks.
And yes, I still owe you pictures…I’ll try to get some over the weekend…
Leave a Reply