Over the past few weeks, I've been cautious about posting too many details on the house that our offer was accepted. This is only because I wanted all of the details to fall in place, and know that it was going to "ours" before disclosing too much information.
This past week, Kyle and I had an inspection on the house. The inspector was someone who was recommended by our realtor, and overall he was very thorough. The inspection itself took over 4 hours. Overall, he found some minor issues with the house including a retaining wall that was pushing into the back deck, the balcony off our bedroom could use additional support, and a piece of siding was missing from the south side of the house exposing some OSB board. His recommendation was to have a licensed contractor come out and look at the above listed issues.
On Friday, Kyle, the contractor and our realtor went out to the house. The consensus - the retaining wall, deck, and balcony could easily be fixed and were really non-issues. The large issue began when the contractor began looking around the area of the missing siding piece. He noticed that there was no Tyvek house wrap in this area. Thinking that the Tyvek may have ripped off or the builder may have missed a small section, he began looking at other places of the house where Tyvek would be visible. He could not find any Tyvek paper, which is a major problem. Tyvek is a barrier between the siding and the outer wood structure that protects the house from moisture. Our house was built in 1987, and the contractor assured us that they were using Tyvek long before then. It's something that a builder would put around the entire house, not just a few sections.
This poses a pretty significant problem! The current siding on the house needs to be completely ripped off, and the OSB needs to be inspected for water damage. If water damage has occurred, that needs to be addressed. The house will need Tyvek house wrap and new siding. At minimum, the contractor feels that the project will cost $20,000, and that is assuming that there is no water damage.
So, right now everything is at a stand-still. Kyle and I are bummed out. But, we feel even worse for the sellers. Already, Kyle and I were buying the house for less than what they paid for it in 2007, and they had put over $50,000 in renovations in the house since purchasing it. Our gut feeling is that there can't be a lot of water damage, as the inspector saw no evidence of water leaking into the inside of the house. One of the current owners is very sensitive to scents/pollen/mold, and hasn't really been bothered by anything since purchasing the house, but we ultimately won't know until the siding is removed. Kyle and I are still interested in the house. We don't want to back out at this point, and we are in the process of writing up a counter-offer which would make the current owners responsible for repairing the problem, with the purchase price remaining at or around our initial agreement. Of course, Kyle and I would want a say in the type of siding and color, so the purchase price would have to reflect the difference from equivalent siding.
Our realtor is still recommending that we put our house on the market this next week, as the market in Winona has really picked up this spring. After talking to Kyle, we don't think we can. It's taken us over a year to find this house, and if this current house falls through, the selection within our price range in Winona is small. Nonetheless, Kyle and I have been still preparing our house for going on the market all weekend/or what can be called some major spring cleaning too. A huge thank you to Micah's grandparents for watching him, and a huge thanks to my parents for allowing us to temporarily re-home Brutus at their house.
More on this fiasco as more details arise...
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