Walking away

Real Estate update:

The deal is off. We must continue to search for our Oregon home.

Why is it off? It all came down to the inspection. The house is in a great location, but it needs some serious work. We flew up last Monday for the inspection and met Larry, the home inspector and Paul our real estate agent at the house outside of Carlton. We went inside and Larry went to work. Jim and I wandered from room to room, taking pictures and discussing what we might do to make improvements. Larry spent three hours examining the place from top to bottom. He had his laptop with him so he could examine a room and then write his report. He took pictures and poked and prodded what seems like every square inch of the house.

When he was finished, we all converged in the kitchen for a full debriefing. Larry's opinion: for a 100 year old house, the place is in o.k. shape. HOWEVER, it needs some work. The roof is probably 25 years old and needs to be replaced. The plumbing is heavily corroded and restricting the flow of water through the pipes, so there is very little water pressure. The solution: replace the galvanized steel pipes with copper plumbing.

Oh, and the foundation is crumbling on one side of the house.

The list continued on from there, none of it seemed to be minor. I don't want this house anymore. I don't want this property anymore. I don't want to have to do major work on a house before I move in. This place was not priced as a "fixer."

The well inspection was also rather disappointing. For some reason, a well that was thought to be pumping an admirable 25 gallons per minute of water, is only pumping 4 gallons per minute.

Enough. I don't want to restore this place. I want to move in and build my cheese operation. Time to cut our losses and keep looking.

The hunt continues. We'll be back in Oregon on Aug. 10th and will look at several more properties. I'm eager to find a place that's just right.