I'd like to spare you the details of demo, and instead just elevate some of the more important items. We gutted two rooms and found horribly scary things in both as you've read about in previous posts. The main safety concerns included mold beneath the drywall, plumbing, and electrical. But at this point, we knew we needed more help than just Joe. Luckily, I am a highly organized individual so I was able to get everything and everyone we needed together.
We needed inspections. The person that "flipped" the house had done all this work to it, and pulled zero permits. This means that there were no inspections done on this house. When I went to the city building to pull our plumbing permit, it actually showed that no permits have been pulled on the house since 2010. So behind those walls laid a mystery that nobody knew--was it safe? Was it healthy? We had no idea.
I called a roofer to have it inspected.
I called an electrician to have it inspected.
I called a septic company to have it inspected. Interestingly enough, nowhere on any documents for purchase did it state that our house was on septic. Had that initially been disclosed we would have never bought the house because once a septic system goes bad, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to replace.
I planned it so that all inspections were to occur in the same week so they were just back to back.
The roof was actually good! Whew. That's a relief.
The septic tank, although about 20 years old, is in really good shape as well! The weight that was lifted off our shoulders after this inspection was tremendous because with this being the House from Hell, we just KNEW it had to be replaced.
And then, the electrician came. As he was walking through the house he found some interesting treasures. So interesting actually, that he physically began ripping wiring out of the walls, stating that the house was unsafe to run electric. He removed breakers from the panel because he was so concerned! He told Joe that if it were him and his family that were living in this house, he would remove every ounce of wiring and redo it because the house would eventually catch fire in the state it was in.
Every single picture below is exactly how we found the electric in the house. Nothing had been cut by us at the time of the photo.
Exposed, live wires, just chilling through some concrete. If they had touched anything metal they would have sparked and started a fire.
This is what the majority of the attic looked like. Improperly spliced wires, without wire nuts, open junction boxes.
This is a fun little mess of wires. Apparently, it's not good to have wires going through a metal box at an angle like that because the metal could cut the sleeve around the wires and then bare wires are touching metal. The brand new plumbing that the "flipper" ran is visible, so he cannot say he was unaware of these electrical concerns.
I have zero words for this picture.
Everywhere! These scary wires are EVERYWHERE in this house.
This was holding up the brand new ceiling fan that the "flipper" installed. He literally had the ceiling fan hanging by wires. It was not mounted to a bracket or anything! That would have eventually fallen on someone's head. Luckily, the ceiling fan was in a bedroom so it would have just been over a bed when it fell...on top of someone sleeping. (If you haven't picked up on my sarcasm by now you may want to stop reading).
Given all of this, there were just too many concerns to warrant keeping the house whole. So we demoed it. The entire inside, besides a few framed walls--gone.
The back room/den/family room. Also, please notice that there is nothing holding up the cinder block beam across! That mortar looks crumbly!
View from the hallway to the front door. This used to be the living room.
Note to self: if we ever end up in a situation like this again, invest in Junk King stock first. Eleven dumpsters were filled during the total demolition of this house.
Plaster is heavy.
Concrete is heavy.
Two by Fours that have been petrified over the years are heavy (and impossible to nail/screw into).
Pro tip--buy the demo bags in bulk--they are white and yellow and can be drug across the ground without ripping open.
Pro tip x2--during demo, always wear a mask but be prepared to blow dirt out of your nose for about a week.
This was month in the making. We were supposed to be moved in by now. It is almost my birthday and I'm not in my home. We are in that tiny AirBnB. I'm paying on a house that is unsafe to live in. We feel duped. The "flipper" is a realtor. He knew better. At this point, we are both highly depressed. We feel like our life is ruined. But we can't be depressed. We can't hide in bed. We HAVE to get through this house. Just as empty as you see it in the above picture, is how empty we feel inside. We leaned on each other more than ever. There were so many tears in this past month. We were physically exhausted and emotionally empty. We saw our life savings dwindling. But we knew that at least now, we had exposed everything that the House from Hell had to offer. There were no more secrets. No more hiding. And it could only go up from here.
コメント