OK...a month or so ago, we had high winds and lost several shingles off our roof - which revealed the fact that there wasn't even felt paper under the shingles, just plywood. Well, one thing led to another and we ended up where we are now. I called the previous owner to find out who had done the roof, and he snapped at me that there didn'[t need to be any felt paper under the shingles....MAJOR BELLS AND WARNINGS went off.
I called the office of buildings and permits and discovered that the previous owner had self contracted to have the roof done, that the 2nd story (added in 2000/2001) had never had a final inspection, that the garage (added in 2003) had never had a framing inspection or anything else, other than the footers looked at. SO......we engaged the services of an attorney and have been working on this for about 3 weeks now.
Here is what we learned yesterday thanks to a courtesy visit from the county inspector:
The upstairs bathroom is basically illegal because they never applied for a plumbing permit and never had any of the work inspected. The outlet in the illegal bathroom is the incorrect type and needs to be replaced The bedrooms are all supposed to have smoke detectors in them The wiring from the main house into the garage is shoddily done and improperly connected (loosely wrapped electrical tape, no caps twisted on the ends of the wires) The garage needs to have sheetrock removed (we installed it because we had assumed that the inspections had been done) The framing needs to be inspected for use of proper materials and proper construction of the door headers - problem with this is that the siding and flashing has already been installed around the main garage door, and would have to be removed in order for the inspectors to see it In order for the 2nd story to pass inspection, we would have to sheetrock the wall shared in common by the house and the garage as well as the ceiling of the garage (effetively making them separate units in case of fire) Any stairs that we put in the garage (currently using an extension ladder to get to the bonus room when we have to) have to be fire rated...we were thinking of just a drop down set, only to be used as an additional fire escape route)
So......in reading the house contract, the previous owner definitely violated the law, willfully and knowingly withheld information that would have affected the sale of the house, and basically committed fraud in the misrepresentation of material fact. Our attorney wants to file paperwork by June 26th, asking for a court date of August 21st to give us time to get estimates and to gather all receipts together.
Can we say "Major stress this week??" All this is hitting at the same time DNiece is getting ready to move in (will be here Sunday evening if things go well), I'm trying to get the house cleaned up, doing summer school with the children, trying to get things ready for a trip to WIlliamsburg, a later trip to WVa to go camping/fishing/horesback riding, DH wants to spend a weekend in DC going to the SMithsonian (promised DS a visit to the AIr and Space Museum), Mother is driving me insane because she wants to do an hour-by-hour itinerary for the Williamsburg trip, my grandfather (Mother's dad) is in the VA hospital and may lose his legs (diabetic who doesn't take care of himself) - nobody knows how long he has really been there because none of the children were notified when he was first moved there...nobody knows exactly what is going on with him because they can't get the full story from the doctors.....oh, and to get DNiece, DH has to drive 12 hours 1 way, stay the night and drive 12 hours back....BIL (NOT dear right now) refuses to meet DH anywhere along the way, and SIL let me know that it was because BIL wanted the entire family to come down so that we could all spend time with FIL...who is doing better, does NOT have cancer anymore, and has not bothered returning our calls......ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, I'm not getting anything done really. I might take down a couple pieces of the sheetrock that need to be removed, vacuum the main level of the house, straighten the sewing room (which is where DN will be staying), scrub down the bathrooms, get laundry finished for the road trip to Williamsburg, and then just collapse from exhaustion (oh, somewhere in there I will be doing schoolwork with the children and our daily reading time).
I think there will be a quilt in this somewhere, but I just can't even begin to design or play with fabric or anything......
Larisa, off to do................something