Total Bummer = Understatement of the year.

Okay so forget the tacky christmas wreath and this house is fabulous right? Yeah Pat and I thought so too. That is why we put an offer on it, put our deposit down, got our loan approved, picked out new granite for in the kitchen, designed a fabulous new patio area, picked out paint colors, and ordered one last extra little inspection just for "peace of mind" before we moved in.

Well guess what? That one last (extra) inspection that we had done killed the deal. I am soooooo sad to say - we are not buying this house anymore. Apparently my anxiety and Pat's skepticism kept us from falling into a really really bad situation, but still I am more sad than anything else.

As it turns out we really did dodge a bullet with this one. Our first inspection came back basically fine. There were a few minor things that we asked to have fixed (as one would expect) but all in all we were pleased. After we got the "okay" report our 1st inspector, explained to us though that in Ohio stucco on houses can sometimes be problematic. With the snow and other wet weather it is possible for moisture to accumulate between the stucco and the frame of the house blah blah blah so he suggested that we do this one other inspection. We debated becasue it was $1,500.00 but ultimately decided that we would sleep better if we did it. Well the $1,500 probably ended up saving us somewhere in the 5-6 digits in repairs.

The moisture readings were apparently off the charts in some places. We aren't sure if the seller knew about this or not ( it obviously wasn't part of the disclosures), but regardless it still is pretty devastating and sooo weird becasue there were not any visible signs of water damage in the house, outside, or in the basement. I thought that this house would be the end of a very long, very frustrating house search, and the beginning of a fabulous "settled" life in Ohio, but no dice. With no other immediate prospects in sight it looks like my landlord just totally lucked out. We are staying put for a while. To be honest - I couldn't go house hunting right now if i tried. I hate houses and I hate the snow that casues gorgeous houses to turn into giant crap heaps without you even knowing.

Take this as a little lesson for whenever you are buying your next house. It is so easy to fall in love with it and rush to the finish line without being as careful as you should. If i was doing this alone, I might not have ordered the extra inspection (especially since our realtor said we didn't need it - interesting huh!) BUT, A little bit of extra work upfront can save a huge huge headache in the future.....you just have to deal with the fact that the extra work might just make all of your fun design ideas worthless. Eff.