It begins (well sort of)

Tomorrow I'm going to look at my new house again. We're going to get some measurements for some projects we want to do before we move in. We are also going to have a plumber come over to look at a known problem that needs to be dealt with. See the basement of the house is currently set up as an apartment, with a separate entrance, full kitchen and a bathroom. Although in it's current state we can't really rent it out. I would like to rent it out for a year or so, that we can have the money to put in to projects on the main floor. Here is the problem that needs to be looked at (it's taken from the inspectors report):

Basement - an open plastic barrel is installed in the floor (basement fluids and solids are discharged into the barrel) and a pump lifts fluids to the house drainage system. There is no evidence of a back flow preventer and it cannot be determined a macerator type pump is installed. The open sewer represents a safety/health hazard. A safe/sanitary system designed for this purpose should be properly installed by a licensed plumber.

I do know a plumber and he's going to meet us at the house tomorrow afternoon so we can figure what needs to be done and how much it's going to cost. I'm not really sure how anyone thought that was a good idea at anytime, but it's there and needs to be fixed before the apartment can be rented.

This weekend we drove by the house and the current owners were having a yard sale. We stopped by and ended up chatting with them for over an hour. We got the lowdown on the neighborhood, where they are going after the sale, and why they had to sell it for so cheap instead of just renting out the house. They're really nice guys, but one is on disability and the other is unemployed. Their current mortgage payment is more than they bring in a month, so before too long they would have gone in to foreclosure if they couldn't sell it. It's sad, but they get to start over in a new state and they're happy that we are the ones buying the house. I think they truly appreciate that we want to make the house better and not tear it down, or get rid of everything they have done. We just want to continue on and make the house even better.

I'm getting excited about moving soon. I have already picked out the kind of tree I want to buy and plant when we move in so we can watch it grow as the years go by. It's going to be a good house and an interesting project.