Well having had my offer of $50,000 accepted
for the house it was over to getting on with things and so on Monday 24th
January 2005 I headed back to Wallaceburg where I got picked up by Ron
Sinclair, the Building Inspector. We headed over to the house so he
could inspect it to see if it was worth buying.
This took around 2 hours and at the end of the
inspection I was essentially told that this was a good solid house and
thus no reason not to purchase it.
While there I met with George, a local
builder, to see if some alterations could be done and so between Ron and
George it was estimated that George could do everything I needed.
Essentially this is to do some update work on the house like extend the
run off of the gutters further from the house, to fix a couple of doors
that are not fully weather proof, to put up windows in the open porch to
prevent the snow from coming in during the winter. To build wee
cupboards around the electric meters, fix a couple of windows and also the
major work of extending the living room and making a guest bedroom with
ensuite bathroom. We will also check the gutters and the roof once
the snow had gone and do a bit of weather proofing in the crawl space of
the house. Also have to replace some of the knob & tube wiring for modern
wiring.
The estimated cost of all this is around
$10,000 making the final purchase price $60,000.
As part of the house inspection you receive a
huge book....
 The
clearest, most comprehensive reference guide available, The Home
Reference Book is provided to the potential home purchaser at the end of
every home inspection. The easy-to-use manual contains 400 informative
pages and over 160 illustrations, organized as follows:
Text and Illustrations
A
simple explanation of home construction, with detailed chapters on each of
the nine house systems - Roofing, Exterior, Structure, Electrical,
Heating, Cooling, Insulation, Plumbing and Interior. Plus illustrations
showing how each component of the house is made, how it works and how it
wears out or fails.
Life Cycle and Costs
A
wealth of information on normal life expectancies of roofs, furnaces, etc.
as well as the ballpark costs of replacing such items.
Maintenance
A handy
chart with text setting out the recomended frequency of household
maintenance so that you can catch little problems before they become big
ones.
Filing System
A
series of files to record and store your house documents including
Aquisition Records, Mortgages, Insurance Policies, Property Taxes, plus
costs for Utilities, Home Improvements, Major Furniture and Appliances.
Improvement Recommendations
Nine
pages to be filled in, recording the condition of a house's major systems
and components. Any improvement recommendations can be noted, describing
the nature, timing and likely cost of each item.
The Bottom Line
The
summary page that instantly tells you how a house stacks up against its
peers, highlighting any and all components requiring significant
improvements and/or major expenditures in the near future.
Of all the tools used by the home owner, The Home Reference Book could
well be the most valuable. It can help inform you, organize you...and save
you money.
.... which details all the things that are of
concern about the house. As the house is around 80 years old it got a top
typical rating. The foundations got a 95% rating and was told these
are key to the viability of the house so that was reassuring.
Here is the leaflet from the Home Inspectors
that I used...
I then arranged insurance for the house to
start on 28th February and that cost me $399.00 for the year which was
truly excellent. The insurance is through North Kent Mutual at
www.nkmutual.com.
They also told me that if I was buying a second hand car for around
$12,000 then the insurance would be around $1,200 a year which was way
down on the $4,000 I was quoted earlier in Toronto. Bruce Wright is
going to confirm this in the next couple of days.
Update Note: Bruce got back in touch and
told me that insurance for a mid range car is likely to be around $2,600
but if you can produce proof of previous accident free insurance then you
can get a substancial discount from that figure. The $2,600 is for
essentially a new driver.
I then went to Tom & Als Quality Home
Furnishings and spent around an hour there looking at the items I would
need to get for the house. Through them I have been able to identify
a washer/dryer, gas cooker, fridge/freezer, microwave, bed, TV and Audio
equipment. It looks like around $5,500 will buy most of everything I need
to get going and that includes a rocker/recliner chair.
I can pick up things like pots and pans,
kettle, coffee maker, etc. at the local Home depot store.
Between Tom & Als and George the builder I
should be able to get everything delivered and installed by the time I get
to the house. Essentially the house will be purchased on 28th
February and it is estimated that George can do the interior work with a
two week time frame and so I would look at moving in around mid to end
March.
The only thing left to do is get the local
lawyer, a MacGregor, to check the title deeds and sort out the electricity
and gas for me and that I'll arrange on Tuesday. So... am getting
there.
I might add that I did check on prices of
appliances and furniture on the Internet at places like Sears and The
Brick and Tom & Als came out pretty much the same so better to purchase
locally. |
