Apr 20 2006
Inspection
Not one but two inspectors came by this morning. The home/building inspector was hired by us to see if there aren’t any major defects to the building that we hadn’t noticed. The other inspector was sent by the bank to see if they can give us a mortgage for this building. If it’s a shack that almost falls apart I’m sure they won’t give us that amount of money. Fortunately it isn’t falling apart yet, and after he looked at three apartments (of course I showed him the nicest ones) he was very positive and left within 30 minutes. So we might actually get the mortgage.
The building inspector was more thorough and rightly so because we pay him to be that way. He went up the roof (unfortunately I was with the other inspector at that moment; I’d have loved to see the roof myself) and looked in every nook and corner of all the apartments, inspected the staircases, the state of the brick and the windows and spend a long time in the basement. All in all his inspection lasted over two hours. WeI’ll receive his report in a couple of days but we already know that he found some pretty serioues defects. The walls in the basement are in a very bad state because of leakage. The owner has repaired the leakage a long time ago but hasn’t put in piles to take the weight off the crumbly walls. The inspector thinks these piles have to be put in, otherwise the house will, over time, sink into the ground.
Also the brick wall in the front has to be partly taken down and then built up again, because it has detached itself from the interior walls. The anchors that bridged the gap are probably rusted over the years (the house is built in 1928). Both issues are major repairs that I can’t do myself, and that will cost a lot of money.
So we might not buy the house after all, if the owner isn’t willing to lower the price. I’m sure she doesn’t like it, that’s for sure.
So don’t congratulate us, yet. But keep your fingers crossed.
On a more positive note: Our kitchen and bathroom passed the inspection!
Thursday, 20 April, 2006 @ 18:51
well yeah, they did (pass the inspection) because you rock!
it’s better for the inspector to find stuff out now (and any inspector should see the same problems, so any potential buyer should ask for a price reduction…) than after, of course. when the house where i lived was inspected, it didn’t even last one hour, he didn’t see the roof (which i knew had to be redone!), and he didn’t see half of the problems i knew existed. but hey – the buyer was putting me out of an apartment, it’s not my business to tell him he paid too much for a house he is now completely gutting and redoing! (i don’t know about him, but to me, seeing the cinder blocks between “our” house and the next actually shift in less than 2 years, enough so that our neighbor could see when our light was on in the garage, is pretty frightening!)
my fingers are crossed (and now typing is painful and slow, thanks!)
Thursday, 20 April, 2006 @ 20:05
Okay, okay, no congratulations, then, but fingers and very much crossed.
Wednesday, 26 April, 2006 @ 12:52
Any news yet?
Wednesday, 26 April, 2006 @ 16:24
Hallo landgenoot,
Ik heb een deel van je loglog gelezen en probeer via deze weg in contact te komen met je.
Ik woon in Montréal sinds januari 2005 en ben de laatste tijd op zoek naar andere nederlanders, of geÔnteresseerden in alles wat met Nederland te maken heeft, om eventueel een Dutch Meetup in Montréal te starten.
Ik vraag mij af of jij, en eventueel je partner, geÔnteresseerd zijn in dergelijke bijeenkomsten. De invulling van deze meetings is geheel open (voorstellen zijn uiteraard altijd welkom), en ze zullen waarschijnlijk 1 a 2 maal per maand plaatsvinden, bij voldoende interesse uiteraard.
Ik zou graag van jou/jullie horen of je al dan niet genegen bent aan eventuele bijeenkomsten deel te nemen. Als je meer wilt weten over mij en/of mijn plan, neem gerust contact met me op. Je kunt me bereiken via mijn website, https://www.equicycle.com.
Ik hoop snel van je te horen. Met vriendelijke groeten, Mark, een andere nederlander in Montréal.
Friday, 28 April, 2006 @ 15:06
Nog nieuws???????