Good as-is for the most part. Needs some freshening, but other than that it’s a solid place with good bones. Very few issues came up in the pre-purchase inspection, and the seller fixed all of those. If there was one thing I was surprised at it was the lack of insulation in the place. I had an energy audit done prior to purchase, and the first thing that’s being done is a major insulation installation.
The blow-in insulation in the attic space has compressed over the years, so that’s getting more added. It’s on a crawl space with no insulation in the floor joists, so that’s being insulated as are all of the pipes in the crawlspace area. The place had to be colder than heck in the winter time. I can’t begin to imagine how energy inefficient the place was in it’s present condition. That’s being addressed. There is a wood stove in the “new” family room, which is actually the former garage. I have to believe the former owners probably relied on the wood stove for heat rather than the furnace - the energy audit guy said the insulation was so poor that it probably cost big bucks to heat it using the gas furnace. There’s an addition to the master bedroom that is paneled inside with 1/2” thick solid wood paneling, but there’s nothing behind it over the studs. I don’t know if there is a vapor barrier on the outside under the exterior paneling, but I’ve got to believe that room is like a refrigerator in the winter as well, since even 1/2 wood lap siding doesn’t seal well between the boards. We found Kleenex stuffed into gaps around an electrical receptacle in this room, so we’re guessing it was breezy in the winter. Not sure how we’ll deal with that just yet. It may involve pulling all of the paneling off and putting up drywall, I’m not sure at this point. Portions of the house have wood paneling on the (interior) walls that has been painted. Ugh. I didn’t have time to investigate as to whether or not it was glued up or nailed. When I return in September I’ll be doing some discovery to determine this. If we’re living right and it’s just nailed onto the drywall, it will come down, the drywall patched and painted. Roof is solid but about 15 years old, so I’ve got a roofer coming out for an estimate. Like a lot of these older homes there have been issues with ice dams, so I’ll look to a roof replacement to resolve this as well as possibly putting up heat tapes. It’s a small roof with a fairly low pitch, so the area isn’t significant. If the cost to roof it is under $10k I’ll probably go ahead and have it done. The distribution panel is 100A, less than I prefer and it’s in an nearly inaccessible location due to the master bedroom addition. This was what I was asking about a week or two ago about relocating a distribution panel. I‘ve got an electrician who is going to come over and give me some ideas as to how to deal with it. That’s not a priority but something I would like to have addressed. Like any “new to you” home there are lots of things to be done, but in this case nothing seriously significant in my opinion beyond the insulation issue. Amazingly, it has a 92% efficient York gas furnace that is 32 years old! I checked with York and their MTBF for this model furnace is 28 years, so I’m in no hurry to replace it. Visiting every month or two for a week at a time and I should be able to get a lot of this sorted in 6 months or so. Youngest son is all-in on things as well, so now that we’re settled he’s willing to take on some of the work, too. There is an “in-law’s apartment” on the back of the garage that we want to get cleaned up and rented out, ideally to some medium term renter such as a visiting nurse. The space (about 350 sf) has a full bath and kitchenette and would command about $1200-$1500/month in this market. Big demand for space for visiting nurses up there, as many come to work at the local hospital for 4-6 months at a time, and short term rentals for them are really hard to find, so hard that they have a service that scouts out places for them. Good renters, as they’re not there to party and their employer pays their rent. We’ll see. -D On Jul 30, 2021, at 4:32 PM, Randy Bennell via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com<mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>> wrote: Good as it is, or big renos planned? On 30/07/2021 3:20 PM, dan penoff.com<http://penoff.com/> via Mercedes wrote: Not sure what to tell you. Bought a nice older 1970s ranch home with a three car detached garage on about a 1/2 acre in a golf community. Youngest son lives there now and it gives us a place to land when we’re visiting or looking to escape the climate of Florida. We’ll probably be there on a regular basis every month or two at this point, but I can see us living there in the summertime once we retire. -D On Jul 30, 2021, at 4:03 PM, Randy Bennell via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com<mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>> wrote: On 30/07/2021 2:22 PM, dan penoff.com<http://penoff.com> via Mercedes wrote: And yes, I own a house in Flagstaff now. Chez Penoff West. -D So, are you going to provide details? We need to live vicariously since most of us have no plan to acquire a house in Flagstaff. _______________________________________ _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com<http://www.okiebenz.com/> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
