Bought our first house in 1969---a starter house(built in 1896 or so) in the real estate lingo---had a back bedroom added by the owner---a brick layer. The cement block foundation was nice and plumb---the wood part was out of square 3" in ten feet on the long outside wall and 2" in eight feet on the other two. Plus the floor slanted three inches.

Bought a brand new house in 1978-----wound up working on the new one more so than the old one.

Beware the DIY home seller. DS bought a house with "creative" wiring (done by owner's brother). The seller owned a glass shop, so any fault might be "fixed" with a pane of...glass! A broken interior door had a full pane of glass -- how private! A leaky roof sprouted two "skylights" (mere panes of glass; no flashing).
The newer vinyl kitchen floor had been glued down with SuperGlue. Best touch was the water heater in the garage that was left unvented: The carbon monoxide did wonders for the sellers MJ plants. A prior owner had "improved" the exterior white brick by painting all the grout black. The seller bragged how he and his wife had converted the furnace to wood-burning when they bought the house; now it had been converted back to gas.

Speaking of glass ... our house has a triple bay window over the kitchen sink and a casement in the master bath, both with leaded diamond pane glass, all made by Anderson Windows back in the 70's. The PO apparently didn't think the removable storm windows that came with them were doing their job so he caulked in sheets of plexiglass in their place-- I think he was trying to make 'thermopane' windows. The problem was that leaded glass windows need to 'breath'-- humidity got trapped between the glass and the makeshift 'double-pane' attempt resulted in serious deterioration of the sash frames. It took days to scrape down the frames, clean out clogged vent plugs and regrout the lead cames. Then I bought replacement storms ($150) from an Anderson supplier. Now everything works quite well.

And don't get me started about the barn doors that the cheapo PO made out of OSB. He couldn't figure out why they fell apart almost right before his eyes!

Our most charmng discovery was that our freshly painted exterior hid a severe water problem. Some of the joists under the two-story part of the house were completely gone. But instead of adding gutters, the PO apparently replaced some boards to hide the damage. The house has settled, and most rooms now have wrinkled drywall tape in the corners. This is the same rocket scientist who ran the dryer vent one inch into the attic, so that it was venting *under* the insulation.

We're almost finished renovating the kitchen. The ceiling was off by about an inch every five feet, and the floor by similiar margins. This room was unaffected by the water problems. But the house is old, and I wasn't surprised.

Our best discovery happened with we removed the popcorn ceiling in the living room. Underneath the drywall was a heart pine floor. Much sanding and many coats of paint later, it's a gorgeous ceiling.

My first (current)house is a 1916 home. I thought we got a very thorough pest inspection. But after the first rain, I found that the window on the front bedroom leaked, so started poking around some. The inspector didn't "notice" the trapdoor to look under the eaves, and I found that the gutter had leaked for ages, and the rim joist had rotted to wood pulp. Previous owners had fixed the wall and ceiling under under the leak, but didn't fix the rotted parts or the actual leak! Next concern was the 2" of blown in insulation sitting on the knob and tube wiring in the attic. Let's just say I'm much more knowledgable about what one can find!

Lack of proper underlayment for our sheet vinyl floors (kitchen and both baths) gives us the elegant (?) rippled dippy look. Conveniently not covered in our warranty.

lol.. I can imagine this thread will get some great posts and fill up fast. Two things sprang to mind immediately for me.

We bought our 1967 brick ranch about 12 years ago. It was still a bargain -- a bankruptcy forclosure and we were in the right place at the right time. We weren't sure we could even afford a house, much less one with so much space. Well we ate a LOT of bologna to save for the closing (that we put off as long as possible to keep saving) and were ecstatic. My older brother was jealous we'd gotten such a steal too.

The first day I was here after we'd moved in, DH was at work. I was cleaning in the den and suddenly I heard.. "glug".. then "glug glug glug"...
Then "glug glug glug gluggggggggGGGGG"

The bathtub was suddenly filling with sewage, and overflowing... I heard more noise and ran to the back bathroom.. sure enough both toilet and tub were filling too.

I FREAKED out.. I could just picture that movie "The Money Pit."

Turns out that sewer lines had been run through the neighborhood two years prior, but the previous owner had chosen to remain with his old (and obviously waaaay too full) septic tank. I found someone to come pump it out, but in the time I waited for his arrival, I had several strokes envisioning the huge bill. It was manageable but we still need to hook up to the sewer this year.

The second bizarre thing was when we went to open the living room window.. first one.. then the other.. then the other.. and nada -- nothing. They would NOT BUDGE. We tried most of the windows in the house before we figured out he had actually bolted and sealed every single window in the house shut. For what reason is anyone's guess. Slowly we're replacing the windows.

We were in escrow on a house a few years ago. During the inspection, we discovered a 6x12 beam running the entire 80' length of the house in the attic, and critical, structurally....not supported on one end, at all. The foundation (concrete) was all there, but there were places 8-12 feet across where the dirt was missing for several feet down underneath the concrete; I still have no idea how the house was standing. The only way to fix the attic beam was by adding a column....right in the middle of where the bed needed to go in the master bedroom. Needless to say, we got out of that escrow. As far as I know, the owners were never able to sell it (and Los Angeles is an insane seller's market.)

I'm reviving this thread because it cracks me up, and I want more. We just bought our first house in June '06. Issue 1 : The exterior faucet in the back leaked into the nicely finished basement - and not just a little one, instant puddles on the floor - of course, not covered by home warranty. The killer was, I had been wondering why PO had run a hose all the way from the spigot on the front of the house all the way around to the back. Ha. Issue 2: There were several exterior holes in the cinder block foundation along the ground that had been covered up by strategically placed bricks. Neither of which our inspector found. Hmmm, makes me wonder what we paid him to do exactly. Live and learn I guess. So, who else? In the hot real estate market there must be some doozies!

My wife and I bought our first house together about 4 years ago. It is a split level with the kitchen in the basement. I ripped out the carpet in the basement to lay tile and found all the 2x4s at the base of the wall were rotten and the basement floor had been mudjacket in four places. In talking with my neighbors, I was informed that a local Swat Team was a regular here at the house, constantly raided it and could never find the previous owner. I later ran into the guy who painted the inside ( Bought a rehab home, huge mistake) and found out that the place had to be flea bommed 12 times. Explained why the first two weeks, I woke up with little red bumps all over, they did not get them all. I found that there used to be a wood burning stove in the basement and the wall it used to be on was not insulated and they put a piece of plywood over the hole and then sided over it on the outside to coneal it. None of this was disclosed and the seller denied it all. I took him to court civily and criminally and the judge through both cases out b/c of circumstantial evidence.

Beware of what you buy.

Been in my current house for about 3 1/2 years. Had some really fun surprises:

- The PO apparently never cleaned the filter on the water softener. It built up pressure until it let go and sent the filter media through every pipe in the house until it reached a faucet, valve etc and clogged. So every final water connection had to be disconnected and the filter media flushed out to get the water flowing again.

- Used one of the frost-free spigots to clean our cars one nice Sunday afternoon. Noticed as I was turning the water off that water was coming out of the wall under the spigot. Ran inside and found the basement room directly under the spigot flooded. Had no idea what happened until I replaced the spigot. Apparently the PO had a leak there in the past and either fixed it himself or hired an incompetent handyman. The spigot had split from freezing and he merely melted a 1/4" layer of solder over the slit instead of replacing the spigot. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

- Had relatives staying in our basement bedroom. That morning my boys went downstairs to wake them up and asked them why the floor was wet. Unfortunately the sewer was backing up through the floor drain and into the basement rooms. Had to hire an entire crew for cleanup and water remediation equipment. Found out the main sewer line collapsed just past our yard and the entire line backed up into our house. City refused to pay anything but luckily we were covered by insurance.

Where do I begin? Am I allowed enough space to list it all? We moved into a five bedroom expanded ranch almost three years ago, with a fairly decent report from the engineer. We had lived in a traditional colonial for over thirty years - a house with no real problems.

We discovered over the next several months:

1) The cesspool had never been cleaned ( the former owers thought that the overflow was the only receptacle), and had collapsed. New cesspool. (BTW, turned out there are TWO overflows).

2) Washing machine, laundry sink in basement, dishwasher and kitchen sink upstairs, were all hooked into a sump pump in the basement ( which was plugged in to an outlet with a common electrical extension cord), which emptied into a grease pit, which was not only clogged up, but certainly did not make its way to the main cesspool. New plumbing, rerouting, sewer ejector pump, etc.

3) The washing machine emptied out into the shrubbery through a hole in the front wall of the house (see # 2).

4) The neighbor's 1500 gallon buried oil tank was on our property, along with aneasement for access. This was all covered in another thread over the past year and a half. Oil tank is now out, at neighbor's expense.

5) Electrical wires no longer in use were pushed up into the ceiling and ceiling patched. They weren't even capped off, and the breakers were still on. Ditto for the exhaust fans in the bathrooms - the entire fan unit was sitting above the ceiling in both rooms.

6) New roof covered old roof, no weather shield, and ice dams ensued, leaking water into the house. Also covered in another thread, from the disastrous new roofing job we did first, and now the second, hopefully more adequate.

7) Insulation in the attic is tattered and torn and filaments entering the house through high hat openings, possibly even the ductwork ( central AC/HEAT- don't even want to start on THIS subject).

8) Floors under carpet and stone NOT oak - plywood. They creak and things in the rooms vibrate as you walk. Another item to address one of these days.

9) Replacement windows in most rooms - and put in shoddily, without stops, as well. New windows!

10. Jury rigged alarm system. Instead of making repairs, they added certain sections with wireless - half of the system didn't work. New alarm system.

11. CAVE CRICKETS! We're still working on keeping them out. Did I move to a third world country?

12. Sprinkler system in shambles (can't check that in December!).

There's a lot more, but what is listed above is the most salient.

As for the movie "The Money Pit" - I laughed my head off years ago, when I first saw it. Now, it is almost a horror story!

Here's a similar thread I started on the buying and selling homes board :

Here is a link that might be useful: the link

Oh this is a great thread!
I just bought a house built is 1974. It has a great Lava Rock double sided fireplace.
Turns out the LAVA rock is not black in color but a
gray-ish color. See, the rock is covered in years of smoke, ash and creosote....which I am cleaning. It needs a sweep and tuck pointing too...but...all in good time.
The garage is leaking down the side wall and the slab is wet due to condensation. The chimney flashing is leaking.
I picked up 3 bags full of dog poop and I do not own a dog.
The PO works for General Motors as an electrician and has mickey moused the house wiring so that sometimes the basement lights do or do not work. There are wires running all over this house, with every light switch being seperate on a different line. Really weird. A washer came with the house and it turns out that it is broke. The wet clothes spun(we were gone) for 7 hours and dried itself.
They claimed this house to be cable ready but the cable company was here two days ago laying lines for us, inside and out. The PO have "cable" running all over, hundreds of yards in the unfinished basement ceilings drilled into holes going upstairs but the cable is not connected to any thing just draped and nailed here and there.
None of the locks on the doors work inside the house but one. The garage door locks but there is no key.
Yes, we were locked out once already.
The front door locks but there is no key.
Serious. No key, the locksmith is coming today.
Our door bell is connected to a gothic 70's yellow 2 foot long rectangle wall hanging mid wall that flashes as the bell rings. There is no outlet,no switch & it runs a bright yellow light day and night. (what?)
This is just what I found living here for 2 weeks.
I am a-twitter to see what else is broke or breaking as I write this. And yes I paid for an inspection!
Stop the world I want to get off.

In the kitchen remodel I'm in the midst of, I'm removing a sliding glass door and installing a single full-light, in-swing door. When removing the drywall around the door I discovered that the sliding door had been added by a previous owner in a previous remodel.

Originally 4 different electrical circuits ran along through that exterior wall. When the sliding door was installed, they installed a large junction box on either side of the door, ran all four circuits into the first box, and then had 2 12-3 cables going up over the door, somehow carrying all four circuits, and then these two 12-3 cables going into the second jumbo junction box, where four normal 12-2 cables emerged and continued to their original locations.

I'm pretty sure that there's no way that it could have been a valid, to-code solution. (How do you route 8 conductors through 6 wires? Must be magic.) Although even if it were to code, I'm sure it was easier to rip it all out and replace it than to try to figure out the tangle of wires in those jumbo junction boxes.

-Bob

bob_cville,
The answer is I think, that the circuits are sharing some neutrals. I'm no electrician, but this is okay in some instances but not in others. I think if it's lighting circuits and _not_ gfci, you're okay. There are some electrical people on these boards, maybe post this q to the wiring board.
Casey

Our 1946 bungalow has been pretty good, all things considered.
Except the electrical...
We've had most of it replaced since it was obvious the previous owner not only knew nothing about wiring but also enjoyed doing it!
One example was that every receptacle box was wired with each separate wire going through a different little hole in the box.
It's never good when your electrician is constantly grabbing you and saying, "you've GOT to see this."

First Timer

We bought a farmhouse & 7 acres out of a 160 acre farm. The living room had been extended 10 feet. The new foundation had no footing under it. When the lawn was watered outside the extension, it sunk. When we bought it there was a 3 inch lump across the living room floor. That was the original foundation. I thought I could correct it, so we bought anyway. Great thinking, huh?
Oh, well. The roof was wood shingles & leaked like a sieve. Replacing the roof wasn't too bad, though. Since wood shingles require gap sheathing & the $ were short I opted to move the sheathing up to close the gap & only had to buy a few boards to fill in the bottom. That worked fine! When we came to the roof over the addition, they had neglected to nail the sheathing where the addition roof connected to the old roof. I take that back; there was one nail in one board of the sheathing over an 18 foot height. But it was still sound & we just had to nail them down. There was a 6 X 6 X 6 grease trap outside the kitchen. I didn't think too much about it because the folks who rented it before we bought it parked their pickup on top of it. That means it has a really good cover on it, right? Four years later I came home one evening & there was a hole about 2 feet in diameter above the grease trap. That weekend I dug it up to see what was what. The lid was about 18 inches down, so that's a LOT of digging to see the whole lid. The "lid" was actually rough-cut 2 X 6's. It held up for more than 25 years till the last straw was laid on. The $ were still short, so I went them one better; I used railroad ties! When we sold the place, I made sure the buyers (who are friends) knew about the new lid. Oh, remember the leaking roof? Well, 3 years after the new roof we were in bed reading the Sunday paper. There was a loud whoosh and thunk from the dining room in the middle of the house. When I got there, a 3 X 3 chunk of the plastered ceiling was upside down on the oak flooring. I guess the leaks finally made the ceiling give way. That's when I found out that the ceiling was celotex blackboard that was plastered. I had to get my prybar to pull the nails out of the oak. Two of our cats were missing & didn't come out of hiding till that evening. In the process of replacing the ceiling, I discovered that the ceiling had been made level by the original owner (a plasterer) by simply building up with plaster. In one area, the plaster was 2 1/2 inches thick.
But we did love the place, so I guess all turned out O.K.

Don