Big thanks to everybody who posted their experiences and observations on pellet stoves. Good links, too. That was helpful & informative — and very nice to see so many new people commenting.
Also thanks to everybody who congratulated me on the new house and wished me (and it) well. I almost had to post to say the well wishes were premature. Just when it looked as if things were going really great, I got the first roofing bid.
… After the dogs administered some quick CPR, I took a deep breath and hoped the bid for my roof work had merely been mixed up somehow with the bid for a sports stadium or one of Nicholas Cage’s European palaces. (That was at 4:00 a.m. yesterday; I advise you never to open construction bids until you’re well fortified with the caffeinated and/or alcoholic beverage of your choice.)
A few hours later I got the home inspection report. Leslie’s verbal report on the scene had been cheery and positive. But do you know what it’s like to read 41 pages about all the bad features of the 100-year-old house you’re about to invest your life in? Century-old houses have a lot of bad features. The dogs stood by with defibrillator paddles in case I needed help again. Fortunately, I had been warned about the dangers of reading inspection reports. I survived.
Then the second roofing estimate came in. From the guy known for doing the lowest-cost quality work. It was higher than the first. I vaguely recall something about rising out of my body and seeing a luminous figure at the end of a tunnel, but then the dogs were licking my face again and I was back in the real world.
Anyhow, if I’ve been quiet since yesterday morning it’s because I’ve been scrambling to figure out some work-arounds.
But I think I got it now. Part of the roof, which is cedar shake, can probably be rehabilitated for the time being, rather than completely replaced. There will be a roofly reckoning to come, but the worst of it might be delayed for a few years. In the meantime, I just have to fix about half of the roof/gutter/fascia problems to keep an insurance company happy.
Tonight I emailed the real estate broker to say go ahead, accept the inspection report, and head straight on to closing. So I can safely accept all those good wishes.
—–
Now the part about the small-world department (as promised all the way up there at the top).
Turns out that the people I’m buying the house from are Backwoods Home subscribers. Since there are only about 50,000 of those, that’s quite a coincidence. When the broker told them who I was (and even, embarrassingly, showed them my Wikipedia entry), they knew me.
But it gets better. Leslie, the blessed friend who found the house and has been functioning as my eyes, ears, legs, and brain on the scene, ran into the sellers while supervising one of the roofing bidders yesterday. The husband beamingly told her he owns several of my books. (And I can assure you there are a lot fewer than 50,000 of those people in the world. So how big a coincidence is that?)
I’m not only blessed in my friend Leslie, who has made out-of-state-sight-unseen home buying almost fun (well, sometimes). I feel exceptionally blessed with these sellers — and not just because they think kind thoughts of me. Both Leslie and the broker have told me they’re delightful people. And I know that from my own experience by all that they’ve already given me.
I’ll be bringing one 5 x 8 trailer with my possessions — and not one stick of furniture for this great big house. These people have a lot of stuff (as I could see in the photos Leslie took), and are making a terribly big multi-trip move to another state. So early on, I offered, via the broker, to haul away any of their unwanted junk if they would leave a few useful items for me in exchange — garden tools, area rugs, shop tools, and the like. I figured we’d benefit on both sides. I didn’t ask for any big items.
Yet they’re leaving me, in addition to many of the things I requested, a beautiful sofa with a lounger, a bed, a roll-top desk, and a dining-room set. Yes, perhaps it benefits them not to have to move so many large things. But it benefits me more to have them. Since even half a roofing job will take all my furniture budget, an unexpectedly furnished house is a huge deal.
The husband also told Leslie he was leaving a selection of things that he thought “Claire Wolfe would appreciate.”
Can’t wait to see what those might be. 🙂
And I really do have to meet these nice people one of these days. Being that it’s such a small world, I expect I’ll have that opportunity even though they’re already living a state or two away and told Leslie they hoped they were making their last moving trip.
—–
I hope I haven’t tried your patience with so much house stuff this week. Here’s a promise. I’m going away for the weekend to enjoy a couple of de-stressing days. I’ll come back with Something Brilliant to Say. Or as close to brilliant as I can get.
Anyway, it won’t be about roofs or pellet stoves. :-
Wow, if that’s not the universe/karma/destiny/whatever at work to make it happen, I don’t know what is….
It will all work out, look how far (and how fast) it’s come along already….
Congratulations on the closing.
If those folks are BHM- and Claire Wolfe-knowledgeable, I can understand why the house was owner-financed; they didn’t want to deal with Official Crapola either. And now, knowing the buyer can be trusted, they must feel reassured in their decision.
I’ll toast your success – and theirs, wherever they’re going – with a spot of tea this am.
I’m so pleased to hear that things are going well, actually better than well, in the house acquisition. I’ll bet that most of the things from the inspection report are things that you can fix yourself and enjoy doing. From Joel’s reports, you’re quite the Jill of all trades and amazingly capable. I, for one, look forward to ongoing reports which will never try my patience. Hope you have a wonderful de-stressing weekend.
Congratulations Claire! It sounds wonderful. Ain’t life amazing. I hope you are considering a metal roof. Regardless, have a great move.
Claire,
With all the doom and gloom from various quarters coming at me for the last few months I would like to thank you for writing some good news.
Having built our log home out in the woods I know how it is when you open contractor quotes. The stress of building our log home almost cost us our marriage but somehow we made it through.
One thing to keep in mind is that when a contractor sees a century home to be renovated in their mind they see a person with a lot of cash and will try to milk it. For example, the first contractor we had a quote from came in at around $400,000.00 for putting up the structure doing the interior work (walls, electrical, basement foundation, heating etc) plus the cost of the kit(exterior shell). The finally tally was around $300,000.00 including the kit. So shop around and haggle plus don’t be afraid to deal in cash. Good luck and I hope that we will read more stories about “Cabin, Sweet Cabin II”
BTW My wife and I have stated categorically that since we built the log home the next pine box we inhabit will be when we take our dirt naps. (;~>)
I don’t know what your threshold for sticker shock is nor what kind of roof you are talking about putting on but I do remember when I had to replace the original shake roof on my merely 50-year-old house. I went with composite shingles because, even with all the plywood sheet that had to be laid over the original lath, composite cost about one-third the best estimates I got for a new shake roof.
Claire,
One more quick note, don’t forget to try and recycle the shakes you remove. Makes great wainscoting or decorative designs on a wall.
I would sure take composit over shakes and metal over anything but sod. If you are going to have a cistern or other rain water storage (if allowed) you might want to get a bid including gutters.
Again, good luck and have fun. Looking forward to the story.
Thanks, guys. 🙂
Tahn and parabarbarian: Asphalt shingles are what it’s going to have to be. Metal was my first choice. Cedar shake would be second. But the prices … I knew just from online research that I didn’t even dare ask. I may be able to stick with cedar shake on the house roof if I have it rehabbed now and replaced gradually over time. But the detatched garage will definitely be asphalt shingles. Great idea on saving the shakes, Tahn (as long as they haven’t been treated with anything too toxic)! And yes, gutters are in order. No insurance company will touch the place without a complete replacement of all gutters and downspouts.
Mike R: $400,000 makes my sticker shock feel more like a mosquito bite than a heart attack. I know what any construction project can do to a relationship and totally sympathize with the pine-box building intentions.
Pat: Yep, I’m guessing the sellers probably aren’t so fond of banks. But in fact, by owner-financing the place, they’re letting themselves in for more potential hassle. What if they sold to somebody who quit making payments? In this case, I’m pretty sure they offered owner financing (which is unusual these days) because they couldn’t afford to bring the house up to bank-financing standards. But it’s a great thing for me and I’ll try to make it great for them.
When I ran into those out-of-line roofing quotes, they were kind enough to offer — on their own, with no prompting from anybody — to take a lower down payment and let me stretch the mortgage term beyond the present 10 years. It was tempting, but I simply didn’t want to ask one more thing of these nice people.
Karen and naturegirl: Synchronicity, indeed. I really can’t quite get over it. But ever since Leslie found the place, things have moved along as if they were really meant to happen. Karen, I’m not quite as handy as Joel makes me out to be. But yes, I will do a lot of the work myself over time. And what I can’t do … well, it turns out that two of Leslie’s sons are a professional plumber and a flooring contractor …
I understand about using asphalt because of cost. Sigh.
Please keep in mind that while the sq. ft. cost of metal is higher along with life span, the labor in getting it on is usually much less.
Sounds wonderful as long as it doesn’t leak, being the main goal.
Well, you know what “they” say, “Good things happen to good people.”
I’ve been reading your blog for a few months, now, and I think I can safely say you are good people.
Good luck with the new home!
Maybe something about house-buying conduces to the “small-world syndrome”?
When I bought the house I live in now (on Jupiter), 23 years ago, I discovered on my walk-through it was owned by a guy who had been a high school classmate of mine.
That’s, out of a class of less than 50.
And lying on his coffee table was the recently released paperback edition of my novel, THE CYBERNETIC SAMURAI.
Good luck on the house! Commiseration on Roof Repair/Replacement Shock. Been there, done that. And am well pleased with my metal roof, though I suspect that wouldn’t be appropriate for you.
And remember: nothing that complex is ever easy. Just breathe deep. And concentrate on visualizing the time, which *is* coming, when you’re living there contentedly.