Gee, thanks everyone for all the kind words. Designing the room and the farmers porch was a lot of fun with the software. My contractor even had me print out copies to use for the permits. cady, you are right; I am sure I will actually save money on heating with the addition, because it is better insulated than the old house (even though there is blown-in insulation in all the old walls) and because those two, drafty plank doors are gone. They looked cool, but they were terribly inefficient and were not even used as entrances. As for a house tour, Id love to host anyone willing to drive all the way up here. With my travel schedule and location Im never able to attend all the great functions everyone coordinates on this forum (sniff). There are five bedrooms (and two barns), so plenty of crash space. August is the best garden show time up here, because all the big players e.g. phlox, rudbeckia, echinacea, heliopsis, etc, are in bloom. Unless everyone likes snowshoeing in the winter. claire, pokeberries I have in abundance. I should take some pics of them before they die back. Now, regarding cadys ideabeing a bachelor, I am intrigued by the idea of having a tarted-up hussy at the house, at least for a while. Is it possible to rent a variegated Artemisia? White wood asters sound nice. I have something that looks kind of like a faerie garden. There is a path off of the lawn through a copse of evergreen trees down to the pond. It is not very large, but it is kind of cool, with almost an enchanted feel. There is not much under the trees except for ferns and a few struggling brambles. Id love to add some woodland plants that could provide some interest and color. Any ideas? diggerdee, we dont have termites up here, but do have carpenter ants. The wood pile is now up on pressure-treated posts, so it is probably safer than it was when it sat right on the ground. But, I do spray around the house perimeter as a precaution. When we tore into the old walls, we found some evidence of carpenter ant activity, but it was not recent and didnt affect the integrity of the walls, fortunately. As for repair of an old house vs. a 1950s cape, Id have to say that they dont make them like this anymore. The house is pretty much built like a tank. Except for the fact that it is irregular in its measurements and has the original horsehair plaster on most walls, it is great to work on it. martinetct, your husband is totally spot on. One of the exterior walls (on the el that houses the kitchen and garage) was/is 2 ½ inches wider at the base than at the top. Try lining up trim against that. And, the floor in the kitchen slopes such that the new room is level through the French doors into the kitchen, but there is a 3 ½ in step up into the dining room (yet you dont notice it in the kitchen). The wall behind the farmers porch weaves like a drunken sailor, which made it fun to line up. And, of course, nothing is level and nothing is square. But, thats part of the fun and certainly part of the charm of an old house. As for the windows, they are Harvey replacements with the grill between the panes. Not practical to try to match the existing windows. When I bought the place all the storm windows were shot and all the main windows needed to be reglazed. I had the option of having the work done or just replacing the windows for the same price. I wanted to keep the look, so opted to have the old windows redone. But, even with the new storms, they are not very efficient. And, they are a royal pain to clean, they stick in the summer, some are missing hardware so dont stay open, and in general they are not fun. Now that weve put in these matching vinyl replacement windows that have a snug seal and that tilt in for cleaning with no grills to get in the way, I see how much easier they are to use and to maintain. Despite the cost, I think that, once I redo the kitchen (this winters project) I will bite the bullet and have all the windows replaced. True, they are real 12 over 12, but they are not original to the house (they are the kind that have the two metal buttons on the sides you push in to open and that lock into slots in the frame at two locations). There is only one place where there is original glass over the front door. The door is original and even has the bar across it to fend off attackers (as in "Katie bar the door") as well as the original skeleton key still in the lock. Over it are six small panes of glass. They are wavy and bubbly, and I believe have been there from the beginning. As for the original family being upstanding, yeah I think they had some money. The rooms are really big for a true colonial with the all the front rooms on both original levels being approx.15.5 x 14 feet and wainscoting pretty much everywhere. There are closets in almost every room, and if you remember that the British taxed houses based on the number of rooms and considered closets to be rooms, the owners either had a lot of money to spend, or, being in northern New England, just thumbed their noses at the British and figured no one would ever collect the tax from them. I prefer to believe the latter. I'll pass on your congrats to my contractor. I may come up with the ideas, but he does all the work. He was my house inspector, a carpenter, and it turned out he liked to work on old houses. We hit it off, and he has done all the improvements (or GC'd them) over the past few years. Another project I did not mention was one we did the first year I bought the place. It is a tradition that my entire family comes up for Thanksgiving two parents, sister, brother-in-law, six kidlings and a dog. It is an invasion on the scale of the Allied landing in Normandy with similar, if not greater, logistical requirements. Anyway, I needed places to put everyone and the house only had three bedrooms on the second floor (one space was converted years ago into a master bathroom, a guest bathroom and a laundry room). So, I talked it over with my contractor and we took that attic and converted it into a finished third floor. There are two bedrooms and a full bath with tub up there. It hardly ever gets used, except when my sister visits and we throw all the kidlings up there. We kept the massive roof beams exposed and used V pine for the ceiling. It looks pretty neat. We did get rid of the trap door to the roof, since it was covered anyway by the metal roof, and we also eliminated the musket holder in one of the windows that was there to steady the gun for plunking Indians or British, I assume. People have asked me if the house is haunted, especially since I live alone (not counting Cord, The Wonder Chow). I figure I am at least the 12th generation to live in it, so there is some history in the place. But, I have never been bothered by anyone or anything. Before I bought the place, it was in a state of semi-disrepair and no one had lived in it for a number of years. I figure that, when my whole family, from three to eighty two, is gathered around the dining room table for Thanksgiving laughing and talking, the house is happy. Anthropomorphic and stupid, I know. But, I feel like a steward and hope to eventually pass on the house in better condition than when I bought it and ready for another 200+ years. Of course, if one day I suddenly stop posting to the forum, youll know that the house got me. narcnh

This is the red flag: "The sellers are aware of a leaking sliding door off of the living room which would be directly above this point, but one floor up. They said they are going to completely replace the sliding door with a contractor before sale. They are also going to fix the skylight that has a leaking issue but that is in a completely different part of the house." If they intend to correct the known problems, why are they showing the house as is? What are they waiting for? Do they plan on using the info from your home inspection to develop a repair list? Why would they let such problems persist? Have they lived there the entire 21 years? What other maintenance issues have they ignored during their ownership of this property? Think about buying a used car. After the test drive, the seller says they plan to get a tune up to fix that knocking noise before you actually buy the car. When you check the fluid levels you discover the oil is very low and the dipstick is dry. There is no extra coolant in the radiator reservoir. 3 tires are bald with uneven tread wear. Obviously the previous owner is not keeping up with the maintenance. Do not buy that car. Houses are only a little different. You can restore them. But it costs lots of money. If your heart is set on that particular house, buy it "as is" and require a significant reduction in list price in order to restore it properly. Do not trust the current owner to do it right. Without a doubt, they will have a cheap and dirty band aid solution, if anything gets done at all.

When you buy a foreclosure, you are taking on someone else's problems. Sorry to hear about your situation. This is a major issue that requires a thorough solution. There is no easy fix. Be careful of hiring anyone who claims to have a simple solution. Be wary of any professional who claims anything different from what I'm about to tell you. I did one of these last year. The circumstances were identical to yours: foreclosure, patio above the garage, leaks inside, mold, low budget, and many professionals with different opinions. The patio was a thin slab poured over plywood, conventional framing, no waterproofing. It sloped toward the front wall (away from the house) but the water was entering where the slab met the wall, and pouring onto the sheetrock ceiling in the garage. For us to fix this problem cost about $5K. It was major work but we kept the cost as low as possible. The homeowner found a skilled handyman to do much of the demolition. Here is what it took: 1. Remove all sheetrock from the ceiling below. This will allow the professionals to see the problem. Right now you are getting different answers because they are guessing about things they can't see. 2. All structural members need to dry out. Any ones with rot must be replaced. We timber-shored the upper level of the house and rebuilt 2 of the garage walls, plus some of the joists supporting the patio. The stucco had to be taken off for this. Replace the stucco promptly, as soon as the framing is complete. 3. Fix the slope of the patio. I packed a mortar bed over the slab. The tiles have to be removed, of course. 4. Waterproof the patio befor laying tile. Make sure the side where the water runs off is flashed and waterproofed to the gutter, or rain channel. If the water just runs off and down the side wall, fix this. At a minimum there should be a drip edge. Water running off a horizontal surface and down an exterior wall is likely to enter the wall cavity. For waterproofing under tile, I use Schluter Kerdi and Ditra. I like the Schluter products because they are specifically designed for tile. Torch down roofing is also a good choice, for under a deck. Cope the membrane at least 6" up the side walls (where the patio meets wall) 5. leave the ceiling open and check the membrane is doing its job, before laying tile. I know you asked if there is anything you can do, other than tearing everything out. Sorry to say, the answer is "no" Anything else will be a waste of time and money. Because your problem is identical to one we fixed last year, I thought detailed instructions may be helpful. We had some serious rain and flooding in December and I am happy to say the problem is 100% resolved. I talk to the homeowner and her handyman frequently, plus I have been back to the house for other jobs. No more leaks.

Consumer Reports: For certain items, their advice is good (things like digital cameras, cordless phones, some appliances, etc.). The advice seems unbiased and reliability data is gathered from consumers. But for things like cars, I believe the editors have a strong bias against US manufacturers and the "scores" in their ratings include subjective categories like how the car feels and its styling---things that don't mean a hill of beans. Somehow, someway, an imported car (typically Japanese) will always "perform" the best in their tests, even if objective data like 1/4 mile times and braking distance is better on the domestic. The overall score ends up lagging if the GM product is "long in the tooth" or has "shiney plastic on the interior trim" or other nonsense. Honda somehow does everything perfectly as far as CR is concerned. It cracks me up to read their ratings of wine and ice cream---things that they have no business rating since it's all a matter of personal taste. Then for something like a mattress---part of it is comfort but part is price and how well it's made---they seem to have no opinion at all. Decking? Well, I think they pretty much admit that they don't know it all. I evaluated a bunch of them for a deck and screened porch I'm having built. For a variety of reasons, I wanted composite on the deck portion instead of wood (wood in the porch). In the end, I settled on Fiberon Professional Series with the slots to accommodate hidden fasteners. The contractor I hired seems most comfortable with this particular material as he has specified it many times before and seems to have satisfied customers. I liked the darker brown color enough to go with it. I tested it against the Fiberon "Tropics" which looks nicer to me, but I didn't like how easliy "Tropics" scratched. Pro Series took harder keying before showing gauges. Also, he gave me a better price on Pro Series. One material I liked is Pro Cell which I guess now is called Azek Deck. It's lighter weight and I think all plastic with no wood fill. The colors were a little light in shade---like pastel---but the material was nice looking, like painted wood. Evergrain was nice, but not reversible. I heard good things about Geo Deck, but didn't like the look as much as the Fiberon, and it didn't feel as substantial. I might regret not picking the Azek Deck because over the long haul, it probably ages better than the Fiberon, but I do think the Fiberon is a good product in its own right. "Veranda" is made by Fiberon and appears to be the same product but with the HD label on it. Fiberon is 2nd to Trex in Sales, but has not had nearly as many issues reported as Trex has.