It's Time to Measure the House and, um, is that a County Red Flag???

Sunday, August 7th.

Church this morning and then 'camping out' at the house after lunch. It's time to find out how big these rooms are. We'll have to wait for the appraisal before we know the actual square footage of the house, but at least we can measure the rooms that we plan to keep - and further planning can continue.

As we pulled up, the neighbor was out front and greeted us with, "Wow, you guys are serious about this house, huh?" We had met her on our first visit 8 days prior and had spent some time talking to her that day. Other than waving at her in passing one other time, we hadn't seen her again. We told her we were in contract with the bank and were here to do some measuring. "Wonderful! It will be so nice to have a family in here. I'm on my way out, but if you're gonna be here for a little while I'd love to introduce you to my father." Seriously? The man who did most (if not all) of the add-ons to this house? Yeah! We were stoked. A great chance to find out about all the mysterious places...

We went in and began measuring the rooms. Before long the neighbor and her 80-something father came over. Here was a man who loved to talk and while he had some trouble hearing, shared much about the house with my husband. I spent the time with his daughter. She shared what she knew about the house, and answered many of my questions. For instance: I found out that there is some parking. In fact, quite a bit. Not conventional, but definitely do-able. Thank God for that! How do you have people over if they have no place to park???

 This is bedroom number 1. The newer, dual-pane French doors lead to a small balcony around the left side of the front of the house. This is the door that has the lockbox on it, so we always come through this door first. The closet is huge compared to what our daughter has now. About 3 times the size - before you count what we call her walk-in shoe closet (on the left in the picture). We will restore the hardwood floors underneath the carpet and buy an area rug. About the middle-right-top of the picture, you can see a bit of the large shelf that is over the closet space. A great area for decorating with mini-white lights. She's excited.

A shot of the other side of her room. This room measures about 10.5' x 15'. These windows are old, single pane - but they open! Out the door into the hall and immediately left into the other daughter's bedroom.

Stepping into the other bedroom you see the closet space running along the far wall. The door in the middle opens onto the master bedroom (remember, it's going to be permanently sealed). These closets will quadruple the size of our daughter's current closet. There are wood floors under this carpet, as well.

Walking into the bedroom and turning back, you see this shot. The room is bigger than it looks here, measuring about 18' x 11'. Three large, single pane windows (that open!) let in lots of light.

The afternoon wore on and we finished gathering dimensions of the main part of the house. We were tired and it was hot so we decided to head for home.

I do want to mention that a few days prior, we came across the county electric meter permit folder. Since the house is empty, the water meter and the electric meter have been removed. Before our loan can be funded (or the appraisal and inspections done) we need the meters replaced. Well, we may have a problem. This is what we found inside the permit folder...

In case you're having trouble... "8/4/11 Need to expand permit scope. Unsafe wiring."

And this means...what? Well, guess we'll find out. We know that there are multiple places where the wiring is sketchy (remember the picture of the potting shed???). Now we get to see what the county thinks.

Day Nine