If I actually buying a house wasn’t enough indication, the quality of this house hunt was tremendously better. This time I was not afraid for my short term health this time around, with only one notable exception: the Elkridge house, or AKA the Porno House.
Every home we looked at was given a nickname to help remember it versus the dozen or so that we looked at over the given two weeks. Most were given names beforehand; some had their names changed after we looked through it. The Elkridge house was originally named the tree fort house. Due to a tree fort in the back yard. Its named was subsequently changed after viewing.
The living room had an interior wall covered in foam brick facade with several “brick” torn off. The Kitchen was mostly unusable and the upstairs had water leaks and signs of mold. None of this scared nearly as much as the basement. The main area of the “finished” basement was covered in shag carpeting. One wall had cheap wood paneling and the other was a full length mirror. There was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. It had flooded at some point down here and it smelt as it would have.
Through a small side door was something I had never expected to find in a house. The room was small and fully tiled floor, walls, and ceiling. The room consisted of one main feature: A slightly raised multi-person bathing tub. It was huge, at least 10 foot squared. One could not walk around it without stepping up of the raised lip. And due to and poor signs of construction I dared not risk it. The tub had collected more then it fair share of the flood water and debris. Its depth was determinable from a visual inspection alone. Dennis, the realtor, being a slightly more braising man (or curious, or stupid, not sure which) then I, found some scrap duct work and found that the bacteria farm was only two feet deep.
Thankfully the Elkridge house was the exception and not the norm. The house we ended up deciding on is a great little house that need far far less work. I have the loan application in and the home inspection is tomorrow. So far everything is on track for closing.
