One of our concerns is the flat roof - mainly in how it is insulated. The owners claim that they put R30 insulation in the roof, however our expert measured the depth of the roof and says there is no way R30 insulation could fit in the space. At least not without cramming it down. Strike 1!
Another concern was the baseboard heating. There is absolutely no gas hookups on the property, so all the heating is done with baseboard heaters. The owners say this allows for better control - zone heating. My concern is how to place furniture in a room where 1/3 of the wall space is taken up with a heater. I asked if we could place furniture over or in front of the heaters. The owners said that as long as nothing was touching the heaters, we could put the furniture by them. She also claims to have electric heat and says she pays less now than when she had gas heating because of "zone control". Our expert says hogwash! You can't place furniture within a foot or two of the heaters (which would pull almost all the furniture into the middle of the room). And the house is built in such a way that adding a gas furnace / ductwork would be incredibly difficult and ugly. Strike 2!
Given that the house is on a 1/2 acre lot, we thought that we would have plenty of backyard for a garden, play areas for the kids, etc. However, it ends up that there is a 12' easement on the back. Since the property is long rather than deep, this severely cuts into the usable land. Strike 3!
There are other things wrong with the house, and some wonderful things about the house too, but the issues listed above ruled it out for us. So the search continues.
Other houses we looked at included a house on 1 1/2 acres right in the middle of town, but with very strange layout of rooms and a horrible looking front. Another one was beautiful, well-laid out, but had no backyard as streets ran in front and back of it. And another on 2 acres with a collapsed ceiling due to a leaky roof. It would require a lot of work, but for the right price might be worth it. The other problem with it is that it looks like a big box. It almost looks like an eyesore in the middle of beautiful views. (But as my husband says, when you're standing in the house, you have great views). Hmmmmmm...
