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The Inspection! And a Flooring ?

April 9th, 2016 at 03:11 am

We had our house inspection this afternoon! R, our inspector was pretty awesome I think. He had spent a couple hours going through the house before we got there checking everything out. Then with us there, he took us through everything and pointed out a huge variety of things.

He told us that overall, the house is in very good shape. The main concern is the 23 yo water heater .. Smile There was SO much information ... but he's going to be writing a 17 page report with the same info so we can refer back to it when we need to.

We told C, our agent ... Go ahead! None of the issues raised by R are anything we can't easily do ourselves (well, with a little help from youtube ...)

One thing we found out was that the couple selling the house have just had their 70th!! wedding anniversary! The husband is turning 95 soon. We were SO off - we thought they were maybe mid to late 70s at most.

They also are the original owners - they designed the home themselves - back in 1952. The husband custom made the cabinets (he's way into woodworking.)

I didn't get any photos today - just way too much to take in to also take photos. But I will take some soon!

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One thing R told us was about the flooring used in the kitchen/formal dining room/hallways - it's a wood vaneer? He basically said that you don't want to let it get wet, as it can ruin it quickly.

So ... um ... with all our cats, and possibly dogs in the future .. some with possible "issues" of the liquid variety .. We won't always be home to catch "issues" right away. So .. there's gotta be something we can put on it to protect it? Right?

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So, our next hurdle is the appraisal. Then of course getting the stocks sold for the downpayment. (The T stock has been so UP and DOWN - wish I'd sold it on Wednesday!)

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Just two weeks from now, and my brother/grandma/aunt will be here from California!

I still have SO much to do. I stopped at Dollar Tree and SuperSaver to get some napkins/plates/cups/plasticware for the rehearsal dinner/reception. I couldn't find the plates I wanted, so I might have to go to Party City for them.

I was going to stop at this new store FreshT for some great produce deals, but I hadn't eaten since lunch and was getting a sinus headache. Maybe I'll go there on Sunday after meeting with the photographer.

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I finally made it to 100k points in the Achievemint app again. Sadly though, after I redeemed my points for my $100 gift card, I was told that I'd reached the max reward limit. So, I guess they only let you get 2 $100 awards. Frown Frown

This was a slow way to accumulate extra funds, but it was relatively simple and painless. So I'm sad to not have it as a tiny bit of extra motivation.

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I probably should try to do my thank you notes tonight so I can hand most of them out at church tomorrow. Smile Save on postage you know. Smile That probably won't happen though, plus it might be kind of rude ... I don't know.

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Question about homeowner's insurance and liability -- let's say we had a boat and it was within our fenced in yard. Some yahoos decide to climb our fence and get in the boat and goof off and end up getting hurt. Would we be liable? If so, would it be homeowner's insurance or liability for boat insurance that would cover it?

Mr FT and I were having a discussion about this today (as we were discussing where to check at for homeowner's insurance.) BTW - Anyone use Farm Bureau Insurance? R told us about it, and that they have only one deductible for whatever you have insured with them. (house, car, boat ..)

10 Responses to “The Inspection! And a Flooring ?”

  1. Ima saver Says:
    1460215646

    A hot water heater is a low cost item to have to replace. We put two new ones in ourselves this past year. House sounds great!

  2. snafu Says:
    1460224204

    Wood veneer is generally used for walls, popular in 60's I think. It paper-like, adhered to paper thin board, somewhat precursor to today's laminate flooring. Can your realtor ask what product was used since the owner likely chose it. Can we presume you're officially under contract to buy a house? Wow!

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1460226474

    FB gets decent reviews. I would check several places. I would ask the insurance agent your question. It may be you will need umbrella insurance, but maybe not.

    I'd want to replace that flooring at some point. And I would consider rugs in pet areas or plastic mats to cover water spillage.

    How awesome that the couple could stay in their home for so long! I'd love to be in my own home that late into my later years. Smile

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1460226886

    Ima - That's what I've seen too from pricing it out. Though we are getting the home warranty for the first year at least - give us some time to figure out what all we want to do. Then probably replace the water heater.

    Snafu - Yep, we're under contract to buy. Smile
    CCF- What would be a good replacement flooring? Especially with cats? One we could do ourselves? I really like the look of the current flooring, I'm just really worried about how much damage two of Mr FTs cats could possibly do to it ...

    I know! Mr FT and I were talking, and 70 years from now we'd be 110 and 119 ... so probably not happening for us. Smile But even if we could make it 40 or 45 years out .. Smile

  5. snafu Says:
    1460241092

    In our area the popular floor covering is vinyl planking as our brutally dry climate is hard on hardwood floors. It's super easy DIY once thee first course is down, clicks together, cuts with a utility knife no serious equipment needed. Swiffer and damp mop maintenance.
    Looking forward to photos, so delighted this is working out!

  6. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1460241709

    Snafu - Is the flooring susceptible to cat pee? We were talking tonight, and were thinking about putting tiling in throughout the whole main floor. Something that would be easy to clean accidents off of and wouldn't be ruined if we didn't see it right away. Mr FT isn't interested in doing this ourselves - is worried it would be obvious that it was a DIY job.

  7. creditcardfree Says:
    1460253631

    Tile or vinyl for cats in my opinion. Laminate faux wood probably would work too. We've only done a small entry way with tile ourselves and overall it looked great, but we ran into many issues since we were amateurs, but there are more You Tube videos these days.

    I would definitely not change anything until you live there for awhile and see how it works. For all you know it will be a non issue. I can't even quite imagine what kind of flooring that you describe. Is it original to the home?

    Was about to post and decided to google veneer wood flooring and came up with what I call laminate wood flooring, which is super popular right now. We had it in our last house and it was great! We only had it in the kitchen, dining and entry to garage area. Litter box was not on this type of flooring, but water bowls were. The water would just bead up and eventually dry. It is not a porous surface. You just don't want to put down a ton of water while cleaning that might slip between boards, but even then it is really tight together. Your version could be made differently, but I'm sure there is a water resistant layer on top. Again, I would consider rugs that can be washed under a litter box, or a plastic table cloth to give an extra later of protection.

  8. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1460256338

    CCF - I think we need to find out for sure what type of flooring it is from the owners. I've tried googling veneer wood flooring too, and like Snafu said, it seems like it mostly was used as paneling or on furniture. So .. I'm wondering if we somehow misunderstood. Although he did make it clear to not use anything wet to clean the floor with .. I don't know if it is original or not. If it is, it's in mighty good shape after 60+ years and raising two kids!

    We are going to have to take carpet out of both of the bathrooms (why carpet in bathrooms???) And the living room is also carpeted .. I guess we could wait and see if my efforts of keeping the litter boxes *extremely* clean AND having them in multiple locations AND the cats having lots of room to get away from each other ... will help the two cats with issues. (I'm also planning on putting up "cat shelving" on the walls, so they have more ways of getting away from each other. I think some of the issues are a result of territory/personality clashes personally.)

    I just was thinking it'd be easier to redo the flooring before moving in, rather than after we have all our furniture, etc in place.

    We definitely will be having rugs under the litter boxes = a plastic table cloth too is a great idea! Any rugs we put out, we probably should put some kind of a removable plastic coating on the backside too as a precaution. I wonder if there is anything made like that?

    I just absolutely refuse to have our house that we are paying so much for smell like cat accidents ...

  9. creditcardfree Says:
    1460292046

    Yes, get more information if you can. I completely understand not wanting the smell! And tile would likely be best. Although I know grout can absorb urine.

    Yes, I'm completely against carpet in the bathrooms too! Good plan to take that out.

    I just feel bad you may have a big flooring expense before you move in! But it is easier when empty.

    I also just remembered that my BIL put down sticky plastic on his carpet under litter boxes. It's the kind of stuff that movers use to protect floors when they come in. I'm positive I've seen it at Home Depot, near the moving boxes. I wouldn't put it on the veneer floor though. It could then be pulled up every so often. Urine wouldn't absorb and could be cleaned up. Easy to sweep up the litter. He also used under bed bins with rollers on one end as litter boxes. So huge boxes for their four cats.

  10. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1460303071

    Thanks CCF! I'll have to look and see if I can find the sticky plastic.

    I'd rather not have the expense of replacing the flooring either, but I figure it probably will be less expensive to do it NOW rather than six months to a year from now when the cats have ruined spots of it and we have to both sanitize/clean AND replace. I wonder if there is a sealant or something you can cover grout with?

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