The Bremerton House

As we had a closing date on this house it will get its own blog.

We pulled up to the Bremerton house with all of the wind let out of our sails. It was now September and we were quickly approaching the end of the tax credit, as well as the end of our lease. Images of us trying to find another temporary place to live with the dog, cat, chinchilla, fish tanks, etc loomed in the back of my head, raising my stress and not doing great things for my general mood.
The front yard was big, nice trees, and the house was very regal looking. The green shutters and door trim would have to go, but that's an easy fix. We look curiously at the side of the house and realize that there used to be a garage door where there is now a stucco wall. Curious, but it could be a good thing. As we walk in the front door I notice a beautiful single pink rose growing in the flower bed...next to a pipe..curiouser and curiouser...
You walk in and have the option to go upstairs or downstairs. There is a little carpeted ledge just to the right. I can instantly picture my cat Demon sitting on that ledge waiting to swat at us as we walk in. We walk upstairs into the large living room and get the view of a red deck off to the side of the living room. Further inspection of the upper floor reveals 3 bedrooms, all roughly the same size, as well as a full bathroom. There is a small attic area as well. Newly carpeted and newly painted, this house is looking pretty good after all of the disasters.
You walk downstairs and go into the dining roomish area. You can then go straight into the kitchen or either direction. I choose kitchen. It's a decent sized kitchen with newer cabinets and appliances. Not much storage room but doable. To the side of the kitchen is a small dark room with the water heater, boiler, and washer/dryer units.
Walking out of the kitchen and to the side brings you to a very large carpeted room with an alcove perfectly sized for a fish tank or entertainment center. There is also a door that leads out to the side yard. The other side has what used to be the garage. The previous owner had walled off the garage door and turned it into two rooms, about 12' by 15'. Fairly decently sized for the area and great storage rooms.
Inspection of the yard revealed a beautiful, beautiful red deck that was larger than our current apartment. It had several layers with stairs going up to the upper living room. The yard was large, with large shady trees and a shed in the back for Scott's bike.
We put in an offer that day.
The seller accepted and told us he wanted a closing date of September 30th, a mere 20 days after he accepted the offer. We talked to our lender who said "no way can I do that", at which point which switched to another lender who said "I can get that done". We meet with him and get all of the paperwork together, then schedule the inspection.

Inspection time! Of course it happens to be a day Scott is working and can't possibly leave work for the inspection. As I am a worrier to begin with, I go to the house with reinforcements in the form of my mom, dad, and brother in law.
We arrive and the inspector is already walking around the yard. He introduces himself and points up at the roof. The roof is bowing slightly and will need to be replaced sometime in the next 5 years. Don't panic, don't panic, breath in, breath out.
He then chips away a section of wood from the support columns for the overhang, and points out some algae growing on the wall. It's ok, these can be fixed with just a little cleaning. Breath in...breath out...
We walk into the house...and I stop breathing. The smell of natural gas hits you with enough force to make you dizzy. Something in the house (the stove? the boiler?) has sprung a gas leak. The inspector finds the leak and turns off the gas valve while we open the windows wide so he can continue the inspection. He walks through the upper bedrooms and they get a clean bill of health. Some paint chips here, a torn screen there, one window that might need to be replaced but that's it.
He walks downstairs. The boiler, which supplies the hot water for the house as well as the heat system, is apparently completely dead. It's going to be around $10k to be replaced and would need to be replaced prior to us moving in. At this point I need my mom to remind me how to breath because I suddenly can't remember. He walks into the garage rooms...they do not meet Virginia housing code because they do not have any heat or air source (vents). So we would have to bring those rooms up to code before we could move in. At this point I'm on the verge of tears and panic all at the same time, and desperately wishing that Scott was there so I didn't have to make the call by myself. I pull my family in for a pow-wow and ask their opinion. All agree I need to call Scott and our Realtor and tell them to pull our contract. I do, choking up and feeling like I had blown it.
Meanwhile the inspector is still poking around the house, now just to see what else there is. I step out onto the porch to try to breath and get my emotions in check. I look into the backyard and notice a very large hornets nest on the deck, grafitti on the privacy fence, and rotting boards on the stairs. How did we not notice all of this? Were we really so blind?
I walk back in and Kurt (the inspector) calls me downstairs. He asks me if I called my husband yet and I told him yes. He said, ok good, because we have a major problem. The house was built in the 70's and the wiring was never changed. Back then the main wire for electricity was aluminum. Now most appliances are needing copper wires due to the increased demand on electricity. He gave the house 5 years to burn down due to a wall spark unless the wiring was changed. We were out $400 for the inspection, and had no house to show for it.
I went home and cried.

We made an offer for $172k, the house sold 5 months later for $112k. The seller had bought it in 2008 for $280k.