Bad news. We closed on the house Tuesday, March 29. The movers picked up our stuff in Atlanta and put it in the house on March 30. There was torrential rainfall on March 31 and we discovered a leak in the ceiling when water drops started hitting the floor.
Good news. The seller had agreed to pay for a roof replacement before closing and we already had the money set aside and the roofers scheduled.
Bad news. Chelsea heard a noise that sounded like it was coming from inside the walls or maybe the cellar/basement. I went down to see what it was and discovered a quarter of the basement was wet.
Good news. The seller had told us that there was “a little” seepage into the basement when there was heavy rain. It is unlikely that this amount of water is what she meant, so it may be a new issue. While she didn’t agree to pay for that, we had already designated a ballpark guesstimate of money to take care of it and had scheduled an appointment to get an estimate to fix the basement issue. The waterproofing company arrived on April 1.
Bad news. The guy from the waterproofing company said that there was no way cost-effective way they could fix our basement to ensure it wouldn’t have moisture of some kind enter it. He pointed out that the basement had been modified in various ways over the years. It has windows that are below the grade of the outside landscaping, and some sections of the dirt floor have been dug deeper than the original footprint. All of that had damaged the structural integrity of the house related to keeping out moisture. Even though it would come with no guarantees he did recommend some options to mitigate any future damage from water entry.
We agreed that they are going to add a super thick vapor barrier over all the dirt areas, install a commercial-sized dehumidifier unit to keep the humidity at a constant level, and rework the yard drainage on one side of the house.
Good news. All of that is only a few hundred dollars more than we had planned for.
Overall, we are on track with our budget for resolving (somewhat) known issues thanks to the movers being a bit less expensive than estimated. Let’s just hope nothing else unexpected occurs.