I know you will hate me for this, but please understand my view point. I am an old house LOVER! I also spent twenty years as a banker trying to talk people into understanding that their future home purchase had to be about love....and practicality. When you are in love with a house you think that the fact that it slapped around the last owners was likely because they were bad owners...they probably deserved it because they didn't do the maintenance you would do to keep it in check. You justify the little issues like the third eye as something minor instead of realizing that a third eye is not actually a normal thing and will require some seriously expensive custom lenses. You turn a wet basement into a couple puddles.... Ten years,..no lets make it five if you get the house....if you find that my pessimistic attitude was totally incorrect and your home turned out to be perfect beyond compare...please tell me I am wrong so I can learn a lesson. But if on the other hand my gazillion years of trying to make people understand that they should buy a home they love....but should equally involve their brains and heart in the equation turns out to make some sense in your potential chris brown like situation.....well be sure to share that valuable experience as well so that others can learn from you...and make light of your experience because "that will never happen to them". I tried to buy the egg and I farm as a young wife ohhhhh so many years ago thinking that a house with walls falling down and a tree growing in the living room just needed our tender and inexperienced care to bring it back.....the bank laughed...thank god!

Yep - you can cause HELL for the current home owner. Just like complaining about a car sitting on the street for over 24hours... Course - your actually trying to BUY the house.... "Tennessee Ground Water Protection Division" might be able to scream at them... Demand they upgrade the system - or remove the bedrooms. So they could remove the bedrooms. Undo the entire remod. Course the house will be off the market then, and you wouldn't want to buy it - since it would no longer be a 5 bedroom house... People remodel stuff all the time without permits. And I know of no house that is perfect. A manufactured house can have bedrooms added to it. Safely. Even without the county's blessings. Instead of trying to FORCE the current homeowner to do something - why don't you try communication and negotiating?? The current homeowner doesn't have to do anything. They can take the house off the market. Have you offered full price? They can refuse to sell to you - if you have not offered full price. You obviously have a counter-offer based on the septic - so they do as well. They might decide they don't wish to redo the septic. And say no go to your 'offer'. You have 5.5 acres of land. It is possible - but maybe unlikely - that in all of these 5.5 acres - no land would be suitable for a 5 bedroom septic. I mean - what if the septic can't be ugraded?? My brother lives on a lot of land, and the cost to upgrade his septic is quite high... It functions fine, but now the county demands that it meets code when the house is sold... and it does not currently meet code. It met code when built - but not now... It is not in the sellers best interest to have tests conducted to see if the current septic, or surounding land can be made to function for a 5 bedroom house. He has a 5 bedroom house. It functions for his family. If a septic eval states that his septic is not adequate for a 5 bedroom house, and cannot be upgraded - this makes his house virtually worthless. He must disclose this info on the disclosure form, etc. So - it is not in his best interests to allow a septic eval - when his septic functions fine. Course - an eval might state it is adequate for a 5 bedroom house... Then he's fine... Don't know what the septic rules are in Tenn. If you like the house, you might try teaching your children to be more careful about what they're doing, and still go ahead with the purchase. Only a septic eval can determine if this is sufficient. And ground conditions, etc. SUBSTANTIALLY come into play with the cost for a septic. NO WAY are you going to know the cost to 'upgrade' without a substantial eval. And if the county doesn't require it to be brought up to code during a sell - as here where I live - than no way are you going to FORCE this guy to do it... I can't believe how adversarial people are! If the septic is currently working fine for 6 people, and you like the house - buy it - and do yearly maintenance on the septic, don't have a garbage disposal, flush tampons, etc....

Talk to a realtor in your area who can give you hard numbers. However, I would have to say that the project is only worth doing if you are able to incorporate that half bath into a master suite and add a shower or tub/shower. Depending on what type of footings were dug for the garage, your project may require demolition of the garage and new footings dug before you can use the space for living quarters. If the realtor gives you an idea of the numbers on this as far as any gain in value to the home, you will then need to contact your local permits office and find out what type of permits and inspections you will need to go through to do this. Do not even think of doing it without, as it creates a big nightmare for you to have unpermitted work at any eventual sale time. Plus, lots of neighbors just live to turn you in to the codes people. Then your third stop is a structural engineer to be able to assess the scope of construction needed for the project. As previously mentioned, the foundation will need assessing, as will the existing walls and roofing structure's ability to be insulated to current code without affecting the required head height. It could be a really simple project, or it might not be. After you have gathered all of the above information, then it's time to develop a written scope of the project with all of the specs for the products that you want to use and the structural requirements of the engineer. Then you use that document to seek bids from contractors so that everyone is bidding on the same project with the same products. For a mid range master, expect costs to come in somewhere between 120-140K if you have to rebuild from the foundation up. If your foundation and existing walls will work, then you can probably shave off one half to one third of that amount. If you DIY everything, then maybe one half to one third off again. So, between 30K and 140K depending on what the reports say and how handy you are.

Exactly, although I really appreciate your critique of my bedroom space. DH would not allow me to switch chest of drawers. That's his "side" of the room, bed, bench, lol. Y'all don't know what it took to talk him into curtains! Although, he has been pretty good throughout this decorating process. I did previously try to put the basket under the side table, but it is too tall with the pillows and would be a pain to get under to retrieve them. As for the air return, I cannot block it with anything that large and solid. You should have seen the dust on the solid painted screen. The heating and air guys were not thrilled with that, either. One of these days, I'll see the perfect console table to put there, but in the meantime, that's what I feel comfortable with and it's staying. I can't believe y'all have not seen these decorative screens as just that...decorative! Must be a southern thing. Anyhow, all I wanted to do is show you my newly revamped space because it is such a big improvement over what it was. Thank you for the kind words, tryingtodecorate. The color is Decatur Buff in the bedroom, and my fireplace wall is as well. I have considered painting that entire wall like the trim color, a paneled look like my previous home (seen below) and may do so when we replace the fireplace box (another story.) yayagal - We may sell, so come on!