Maybe having second thoughts

Isn't it always the way? Just when you think everything's settled and you know what the plan is, one weekend can throw you into complete uncertainty.

The house inspection was Friday, and I am officially a fan of John Turner from Criterion Engineering. John was thorough, straightforward, and focused on solutions. Overall, he said he was generally pleased with the house's foundation and the land it's built on. He had great suggestions about the porches - both short term fixes and long term overhauls. He was honest and didn't sugarcoat the issues, but gave us realistic ideas about repairs, replacements and renovations and some idea about what those things would cost.

So what are the issues? Well, the biggest one is the overall heating system:

1. The chimney is in pretty rough shape. It could fall down soon, and I keep thinking of a few years ago when we kept getting freezes and then melting and then freezing, and several bricks fell off of the bell tower of Ste. Marie and one went through someone's car which was parked in the side parking lot. Yikes! John suggested lining with metal or (his preferred method) which uses a rubber ballon that you pour the cement around and then deflate the balloon (um, cool. If we do that, I call dibs on popping it). Alternatively, we could power-vent the burner and then just knock the chimney in and not use it at all.
2. The boiler and furnace has no tags on it. There's no history of maintenance at all. So who knows? It could last us a while, it could crap out this year.
   
3. The oil tanks are 50 years old. They seem in good condition, but there's not a good way to test them and we could find ourselves with several gallons of oil on the basement floor if it gives way when we get a delivery.
   
4. There appear to be at least some walls without insulation. Hmmmm. Wait... what??? How does a house get built in New England without insulation in all exterior walls?
   

Aside from that, there's just a lot of work which is pretty half-assed. Several of the electrical circuits have ground wires, but aren't actually grounded. The plumbing is okay overall, but then John turned on the shower and the cold water won't come on, the middle (which should be a mix of hot and cold) actually gives no water at all. So, hot showers? check. Yeah, not as awesome as you would think. The kitchen cabinets and counter aren't installed right, so the cabinets are a little crooked and the corner where the counter ends meet doesn't line up seamlessly. So it makes us question what else have they screwed up?

And then there's the house next door. The house next door is one I've always thought was pretty, had a nice yard and I know the neighborhood. This weekend, the house went on the market. I've lived on this street for a few years so I know that they did renovations, and it seemed like they did a fairly good job on them. This house is bigger, it has lower taxes, a pool, a fireplace, a larger lot, and a finished basement. So there's a part of me that hopes that first house falls through. BUT, the house next door has a tiny kitchen and it's subject to third party approval, so it would be a headache to go through the buying process on that one.

That's where we are. Matt made the comment that either the house next door is a distraction or it's the house God wants us to have or He's put it in our radar so that we don't buy the first and wind up with the house He does want us to have. Right now I'm hoping for a clear and hard-to-dismiss sign from God about which way we should go on this.

Because I have absolutely no clue at all.