Wow, Mary, I'm so sorry that happened to you! I think I read about your problems over on the manufactured homes forum, or was that someone else? My ex and I bought a stick built house in 1988 in Sacramento. A home inspection was, of course, required. A couple of weeks after we moved in, I happened to be in the backyard while hubby was showering. I looked over and saw water just gushing from the window sill and coming down the exterior of the house like a waterfall. It cost a little over $10,000 to fix, and was only that little because our new neighbor loved fixing things and had every power tool known to humankind, lol. It took a month of weekends for hubby and neighbor to fix it. We sued the home inspector and recouped all our costs plus punitive damages, which we split with neighbor guy. Good thing ex is an attorney! :-) Thanks for the advice, Chris. It looks like ~$300 is the going price, and in the grand scheme of things, I think it's worth it if, as Steph recommends, I find someone with experience in manufactured homes. In this case, the inspector doesn't have to please any realtors, sellers, or buyers. Since I've already bought the house, lived in it as a houseguest with my friends for the entire month of September, and know everything my friends know about the house, I can be very specific about what I want her to look for. As Chris said, it will be helpful for prioritizing. I'm hoping to refurbish the entire house top to bottom. I have an eight to ten year plan. I love a good ten year project! I started going back to college in 2007 and hope to graduate with my PhD in 2017--a ten year project, haha! (I'll have had 13 years of higher education! You'd think I'd know something by now, haha!) I have a list of what I think are priorities, and rough estimates of what everything will cost. My first project, next September, will be an asphalt driveway and carport. Because of my mobility disability and the necessity of using a walker, and because I can't get soaking wet entering/exiting my home and car, a dry, smooth surface and dry carport is a necessity before next winter. I'm going to replace all the electrical wiring and plumbing regardless of current condition, only because they're original to the house and will need upgrading at some point anyway. I'm also redoing all the floors because they're hideous, lol, so while I'm at it, I'll do all new floor insulation. There are no leaks, and I had the roof snow coated in October, which is guaranteed for ten years. So a new roof is down lower on the priority list, but still in the ten year plan. I'll blow insulation into the "attic" when I do the roof. The siding and skirting are much newer than the house and are in beautiful condition, so replacing them would be almost last on the list. The gut remodel of the kitchen/living room, major remodel of both bathrooms, and closet systems and cosmetic touch ups of the bedrooms will be in the middle, somewhere after electrical, plumbing, and floors, but before roof and siding. It's a ten year project because I'm paying as I go, in cash, as money becomes available. That's MY plan. I want the home inspector to tell me if my priorities are right or if I need to do something sooner rather than later. The yard will be an ongoing project. I've figured out how to do an aesthetically pleasing yard using various kinds of rocks, drought resistant plants, and ornamental grasses, for very, very little money and very low maintenance.

And just for fun, self leveling cement (SLC) is not self leveling. It has maximum and minimum requirements for thickness. The type of water you use, the temperature and the humidity in the home at the time it is mixed (and sometimes even altitude) will affect the work-ability of the SLC. Let's just say you will have LOTS of learning ahead of you. While you are taking out the fibre board (yep...either take it out or lay down new plywood over top) someone can be practicing mixing batches and spreading it on random pieces of plywood (that you purchased extra off just so you can practice).

The challenge with a new basement as part of the addition is to not undermine the foundation of the existing house. A structural engineer or architect is needed for proper and safe design. Good luck!

There is no other place to install another return, all supply's are in the floor, 4x10 register's, and only 1 return in the wall, I definitely don't want a return cut into the floor, I have 2-14" supply's, 1 supply goes into a duct board that runs the length of the home on one side,and the other 14" supply feeds the other side of the home.