Welcome to Old House Living! Regarding pre-purchase inspections: They can only report on what they see, so if they can't see it (covered up with stucco) they can't evaluate it. And if he's going to be a weasel, well, you're probably still stuck unless you go law over it. Regarding bulge, you might need to jack up and fix-up the foundation wall, which sounds outrageous but isn't usually as traumatic, or expensive, as it sounds. (Though it's not dirt cheap, either.) The key is to find a mechanic who knows what he's doing vs. some one who just thinks he does. That can take some time. Here's what I'd do right away: Take some measurements (bulge, walls, floor slope, etc.) so you can tell if this a dynamic thing, or an old, slow, decline. Also, inside on the walls, examine any cracks in the wall surface. Take a long straight edge and draw lines across the cracks and mark and date the farthest ends of the cracks. If the wall surfaces are starting to move the cracks will shift and the lines across them will begin to be offset. Never mind how unattractive it is, this will give you peace of mind while you work out a solution, or alert you some sudden and potentially catastrophic change. Photograph the walls so you can inventory the cracks and identify new ones. Meanwhile, locate a structural engineer who has experience (and hopefully, affection) for old houses to help you sort out what the problem is. Engineers with no old-house experience will often be needlessly alarmed because they aren't used to the structural quirks (and strengths) of older, better-built buildings. A way to try and find a compentent mechanic for the jacking, and/or the right structural engineer is to hunt up people who are active in historic preservation or local history. They may know where to find the good ones. Meanwhile, make sure you've got insurance ..... (just kidding). Don't be too discouraged, either. People in new houses have problems, too. At least our buildings have withstood a lot, already, and probably will be just fine years from now. Do you know about the series of Preservation Briefs from the National Park Service? Excellent advice, courtesy of our tax dollars. I'll attach link below. Molly~ Here is a link that might be useful: Series of Bulletins on many aspects of Old House Care

We are doing similar project. New construction, first floor dining room, 2nd floor open wood deck. Our climate is mild rarely falls below 32 degrees F and annual rainfall is about 16 inches per year. I will get more specific details about our contruction set-up from contractor, ie exact size of deck, degree of slope, waterproofing material to be used between floors. He did not use the phrases cement board or membranes. I'm also seeking advice to make sure this never leaks. How are you progressing?

Hi, @Anglophilia Thanks for your reply. It's not about the money. We're a military family stationed in CO and are on a travel ban for at least the next four weeks. Before closing, we visited the house several times. It's such a long story...knowing we were moving to the Fort Hood area, we started searching online and found the home. Our daughter viewed it for us. We went to TX, did a home inspection, and were aware of all issues before purchasing. The previous owners allowed farm animals to live in the property...goats, chickens, poo, and pee everywhere! The stench was unbearable, lots of damage and everything from the floor up to 4' needed gutting/replacing, plus a redesign of kitchen and baths. The house is a diamond in the rough, sits on 5 acres, close to our daughter and two grandkids, and priced well below market value. It is a dream home for us and really suits our lifestyle. We hope to decide on the floorplan while homebound in CO so that once we get to TX, we can move ahead with construction. @millworkman - spiral stairs can be a pain for sure! Yet not a dealbreaker for us. Whoever had this custom house built seemed thoughtful of that specific stair. Downstairs, there is a living room, an open space for dining and kitchenette, laundry, office, and a jack and jill bath with two separate toilets and sinks. For us empty nesters, it's a great floorplan. Our grandkids will have the lower level to themselves when they visit. There will be a washer and dryer added to the master bath, so no lugging laundry up and down those stairs! @Patricia Colwell Consulting, we have a construction loan in place, ready to go, and have allocated more than enough to cover the entire reno. My husband and I have years of experience working on houses with an understanding of expenses, so budgeted accordingly. We drove to TX for closing - right before the virus hit full force and impacted the U.S. We brought our tools with plans to stay a few weeks to demo, meet with contractors and an architect, yet got word of our post lockdown and had to get back to CO quickly, leaving many loose ends. Wanting to move things along and to help family, we've hired our son in law to demo what's definitely not staying and to meet with contractors. He's a muscular guy, is loving the work. Plus is surprising us with his quickness! I'm a home stager by trade @ANNARTHUR HOMES | Home Staging + Design, and we've reworked rooms before, yet adding a bath to this situation is a challenge, and we felt it'd be money well spent to hire an architect. He talked with us while visiting the property...went over our wishes and design ideas in great detail. We received the rough floorplan, and we're working on tweaking particulars with him. Meanwhile, my hope is another professional will see the floorplan and share ideas on how to best to work in a guest bath and redesign the kitchen layout. Thank you all. Very grateful for advice

Just wanted to provide an update since I got such thoughtful comments when I originally posted: We pulled the trigger and are now about half-way through the remodel. It took 11 months for the permits to be approved and the contractors estimated it would take ~9 months to complete the job. We were extremely fortunate and were able to rent the house next-door during the construction. We just got lucky - neighbors were renters who were moving-out at the right moment. The move was easy and there's been basically no disruption for the family since we're able to stay on the same street with our friends. The job is quite a bit more extensive than I appreciated it would be. It was basically a tear-down except one bedroom and two bathrooms were left intact on the ground floor. Everything else was basically demolished and half the foundation was ripped-up to reinforce. Turns-out it's complicated adding a second story to a house that wasn't built for one. Realizing this has helped me get comfortable with the cost, for what it's worth: I was under the impression that adding 1300 square feet was costing something like $800/sqft which seems insane, but in actuality, the ~1600 sqft on the ground floor are being completely rebuilt, too, so it's more like $400/sqft to build a 2900 sqft house. Still a lot, but seems reasonable on a per-sqft basis. Below is progress from ~6 weeks ago -- basically a new house. We were filled with trepitation at the start of this, but honestly now that it's getting closer to completion we're really excited and feeling good about the decision. The new house will be amazing, the construction has gone smoothly (knock on wood) and we get to keep our community which took years to cultivate. It's been really fun to watch the construction and the design-build firm has been pretty good about everything. Permits took a long time, but they 100% handled it. I walk the house with the GC once a week and have had a few meetings and discussions of course, but basically they just take care of everything. I'll post again at the end of the job, but for now we're feeling pretty good about the decision. Thanks for all the thoughtful comments