Absolutely! This offer also is conditional on an acceptable report from the building inspector, and that's one question I will definitely ask. I might even sneak a sample and get it tested if I can, because I think abatement for the whole house would be a budget-buster, and I just can't stomach that texture! It looks like someone used an electric mixer to fling globs of thick pancake batter against the walls, and then painted without cleaning up the mess!
In any case I would not be doing any of the work myself except possibly interior painting. I think that's about all I'll be up to (if that) before I need to be able to move in.
Yeah, it could be any time in there. However, the floor is sheet goods, not tiles. Maybe it's just plain ol' vinyl flooring. One thing I learned on the yellow house is that the adhesives used to glue the stuff to the floor can also contain asbestos. Maybe the best thing to do when I get around to kitchen refurb is plan to leave it in place and add a floating floor on top. I had a popcorn ceiling in my old house that was remediated by sealing it up in place. Maybe there is a way to do that on a floor too, then add new flooring over the top.
Did you get an answer to your concerns about asbestos in the floor coverings or asbestos/lead in the paint/texture on the walls? If there's a problem material in the floor coverings it wouldn't be hard to put something over the top, but if you really can't stand the texture on the walls then you might have a bigger problem.
I don't know what to do. I went to the inspection Monday, and though this house is in much better condition than the other, it still needs several thousand dollars' worth of repairs to make up for deferred maintenance, and that's not including the cosmetic fixes, which would be about an equal amount.
The inspector does not test for asbestos. The contractor I had with me does not think the material is asbestos but in any case he says the least expensive way to get smoother walls is to overlay with 1/4" drywall rather than try to remove the existing texture. As long as the material is not disturbed I don't think it matters whether it is asbestos. The baseboards all need to be replaced and I think I would hire a remediation contractor to demo & dispose of them together with suspicious fibrous material inside the fireplace insert which could very well be asbestos. Amazingly enough, there are hardwood floors under the carpets--seen in the living room and possibly throughout the house except kitchen and bath. It is a mystery to me why so many people covered these up with carpeting. Maybe they are very worn where the traffic patterns were. Even so I think I'd rather look at worn hardwood than worn carpeting any day. Also, the house is already insulated, and has double-pane windows and a new roof. That is better than I expected to find.
I feel sort of rushed. I don't know if it's a buyer's market or not. Also, I want to have my own place again, even though I can't move into it right away. My mom is great, but I miss my solitude and just having the ability in so many areas (diet, schedule, etc etc) not to consult anyone's wishes but my own, which just isn't possible when you live with another person.
If it's worth the trouble to you, it's not hard to send samples out for testing yourself. There are labs on the internet that will send you a kit and directions. Of course you won't get results within your present timeline.
Yes, that's one good answer. But remember that the increased thickness will need to be addressed at all your windows and doors, and that the new drywall will need to be taped and mudded just as though it were a brand new wall. On the plus side--you could fairly easily add insulation to any exterior walls that lack it before putting up the new drywall.
The carpet in our present home had been in place for 50 years when we bought the place--it was disgusting. The hardwood floors underneath looked pretty good. We had them refinished and they look great and have been trouble-free for 7 years.
The improvements I see are, no common driveway (thus avoiding other residents blocking my access to my garage), no common wall (so no late-night thudding bass from neighbors' parties), and enough space and sun to grow my own toxin-free veggies and fruit. The house is significantly smaller than the townhouse was (750 sq ft vs 1100), so I don't expect it to cost more to heat. It has wood siding, which I agree is not a point in its favor, and plan to change when I can. But it's also one story, which means I may be able to do at least some of the exterior maintenance myself. That was never a possibility on the townhouse, which was three stories high. The only way I know of to completely avoid exterior maintenance is to live in a home which has no exterior--an apartment or condo--and neither my budget nor my temperament would easily adapt to such a setting. I don't have an extra hundred or two a month for condo dues; I've never liked living in multi-family buildings (and the more units, the less I like it), and I always felt ripped-off when I was a tenant.
My current tiredness can, I think, be entirely attributed to chemotherapy. It may take a long while--I've been told to expect not to be back to my previous energy level for a year afterwards--but it should eventually go away once I finish my treatment.
That is true, and it's possible that in the future, I may be forced out of my house by ill-health or disability. But I don't want to live as if that has already happened, before it has. For now, I much prefer a detached house to any other form of residence.
It's not as if I'm contemplating moving to outer Mongolia! This house is right in town, and within five miles or less of practically every necessity and convenience (hospital, clinic, church, groceries, library, veterinarian, bank, etcetera, etcetera). Most of the above are bike-able (it's pretty flat) and there's a bus line at the end of the block.
The house will probably cost more to heat. Factors:
The townhouse had only one common wall (more than enough!) and three walls plus roof exposed to weather. I don't have enough measurements to calculate the surface areas of both buildings but I think they are probably roughly comparable.
Yes, the inspector's report says the house is insulated. I saw some of the material; it looks like fiberglass. He also pointed out plugged holes through the siding in other parts of the house, that would have been from blowing-in the insulation. However, it is quite possible the townhouse was more thoroughly insulated than the house is. Next time Angie's list or the local utility has a discount on home energy audits, maybe I'll spring for one to find out where the under-insulated areas are, so I can have them corrected when (in future) replacing the wood siding with something lower maintenance. Some of it has already been replaced with Hardi-Plank or similar. I don't know if I would have the rest of the wood shingles replaced with the same, or have the exterior completely re-done with metal siding. (It might depend on whether the thin spots in the insulation are behind shingles or behind the newer siding...) There's no hurry for that though. With a new coat of paint, the current exterior material is good for at least several more years.
Maybe or maybe not. My mom is thinking about putting this house on the market next spring. It is really too big for one person, and the yardwork would even be too much for me to do, and I can't afford to hire it out. It is a large, sloping yard with multiple rockeries, and not at all designed with ease of upkeep in mind. (The house in Lacey has a flat yard with no rockeries. Right now it's all lawn, but one of my post-retirement pastimes will be designing a low-maintenance garden for it.)
