Gaps in the doorframe show how far off square the house was. I was used to how it was so there is a sense of off-kilter like you'd feel in a fun house now that it is square.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Inspections - Meth Testing
Part of the process of buying a house is making as sure as possible that you know what you are getting. Inspections are one of the key ways of doing this. This is particularly important when buying a foreclosure, since the seller has no idea what has been going on with the house.
One of the things I did was test the house for meth residue. Apparently this is unusual as neither the Realtor's representative nor the house inspector, both of whom were there at the time I tested, were familiar with the idea. I ruled out the option of having a test done because it requires state certification and the local company that used to do it just lost their certified employee. I did a little bit of research into test kits and picked a product called MethAlert, which is a quick screening test than you can run yourself in a few minutes. The main drawback of the test is that it only registers to 15 µg and Oregon will require homeowners to decontaminate if there is contamination present at a level of 5 µg. However, most properties I've heard of are far more contaminated than that (plus the instructions tell you how to find the most-likely-to-be-contaminated areas.) Also I felt I could carry out the test accurately and didn't feel so comfortable with some of the more accurate ones given that I'd be in a messy ad-hoc test area, not a lab. Plus it was inexpensive and simple enough to do multiple tests for confirmation.
Needless to say, my house tested clean or I wouldn't have bought it. However my friend sent me a link today to an article about a family a bit south of here who didn't test in advance and weren't so lucky - Oregon Meth House Owners Settle with Freddie Mac
Friday, June 7, 2013
Dehumidifier = Magic
Given how damp and musty the whole house is, I bought a dehumidifier. After reading a bunch of reviews, I picked the SoleusAir Energy Star 45 Pint Dehumidifier, #DP1-45-03 I'm trying to buy efficient appliances and fixtures for the house when ever I can - although I'm sure that at some point I'll come up against a place where I can't get the function I want at a price I can afford. It actually had pretty-mixed reviews, but that seems to be par for the course for dehumidifiers at this point. Which is rather disappointing, because I'm pretty sure the dehumidifier I bought 20 years ago is still drying out my neighbor's basement. It did lose a wheel from our rolling it back and forth across the street depending on whose basement was flooded (until I got the problem taken care of - her basement was hopeless, it had literally been built with a small creek running through it so people would have somewhere to keep their milk cool.)Anyway, after a couple weeks of dehumidifying, my house smells significantly less musty and is staying drier. Living there actually seems like a reasonable idea (which is a good thing, since I need to move out of my apartment in a week.) I still need to get a hose so it won't stop when the pan fills (and the drain pan is really small), but it's been such an improvement just running to full once a day. Of course, once the house isn't sitting on the ground and I get the sump pump fixed, things will be even better!
(Disclaimer: If you actually follow the links and buy something, I get affiliate commission from Amazon - I'm not holding my breath.)
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