Well, some of you may have heard already, but I thought I would post it here. We decided to not buy the house. My brother, Simon, has a lot of construction experience, working in the industry for many years, until he left his job as a Construction Site Manager for Destination Homes here in Ogden. I had him take a look at the house on Thursday and see what he thought. At first things looked good. Then we went to the basement and discovered that the floor joists were 2x8. The standard is 2x12. Simon told me that the floor would need to be reinforced yesterday. Not a huge deal, but it was bad news. Then we went outside to the back yard.
The yard is beautiful. The owners keep very good care of the yard and have a lot of trees, flowers, and other various plants, as well as a well-manicured lawn. Anyway, Simon and I headed out there and Simon noticed that the roof bowed. Very worried, we looked at the side of the house. The roof there was worse. Simon said that the roof was probably 2x4s and not reinforced properly. With the amount of snow Ogden gets (not a lot, but enough), it is a great cause of concern. I would have to get up on the roof every time there was a decent amount of snow on the roof, or else the whole house could collapse. The owners has said that the house had a new roof, but that must have only meant new shingles. The replacement cost of the roof would be about $20,000 if I did a lot of the work myself, and could cost up to $40,000. The owners were reluctant to decrease the selling price by $4,400 to $125,500, and there is no way they were going to take off another $20,000 to $40,000. Even if they were, we still wouldn't have the money to replace the roof. I pity the fool that buys that house without knowing the roof needs to be replaced.
In summary, we are sad. :( We were looking forward to being in a house by July 4th, but now we have to wait longer. We are now thinking that we may buy a town home for now, something with 3 bedrooms and at least 1.5 baths which could last us a few years while we get more established here in Utah. There may be a house out there that fits our price range and our needs, and if we find it, we will buy it. Otherwise, you will be seeing pictures of our new town home in the near future.
3 comments:
Good choice. And actually Ogden does get a lot of snow some years. Have you guys checked out South Ogden? Thats where we lived for 2 years and loved it. There's tons of town homes there. If you have questions about that area we can maybe answer them for you. Good luck with everything!
There's a blessing behind it all, and there are worse things then a townhouse. The heating and cooling is much cheaper...it's rather nice :) Hang in there!
Bummer...I was so excited for you guys. I think a townhome would be a wise investment...you could always use it as a rental property in the future! Jealous...hang in there and be patient the right home, right neighborhood, right ward, will come soon! Be faithful and you will know when you find it!
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