I can say that one of the things I was most happy about last year was going house hunting. That’s because 2017 was the year when I decided with my boyfriend that it’s the perfect time to buy a home. We looked at different proprieties, but there was only one we came across that really stuck in our mind. We loved it so much that we said no matter the renovation costs, this home and this project is the right one for us.
Lucky that before I started viewing properties I was interested in, my mom said you should ask about certain construction issues, such as how old the wiring is, whether there are any foundation problems, when updates were last done and if there was any hidden issues like asbestos. My boyfriend and I knew nothing about buying a home, besides looking for a property that was pretty, and so we had no idea what questions to ask. Sure, we looked at the layout of the space, the balcony (that was a major deal for me), and whether things looked good on the surface, but we didn’t listen to my mom and ask those important questions about what lay underneath. We went ahead to buy the apartment we fell in love with (balcony and all!) and I’d love to say it was plain sailing, but it really wasn’t.
We found ourselves stuck in a situation where we couldn’t move when we were told – and this happened several times. The promised date was around May last year, and now we have to wait until March – hopefully that will be the month we actually move in. Even if you rent and aren’t in a chain you’re kind of ok but also kind of not. Renting for longer than we anticipated started to eat into the savings we had for the renovations. We really felt like we were lied to in this regard and we also ended up having to spend more on legal fees than we were told because of it. I’d love to say that’s where the difficulties end but it isn’t.
We know the apartment would need some work done. We saw poor work done in some rooms and luckily I could save some of them with a little effort, but others needed things stripped and replaced. The bathroom was a major one – we ordered tiles and hired someone to do the work, only to find we were sent the wrong ones and had to postpone. I think this room was our first major learning curve as we had issue after issue. We were lucky though, one of new neighbours told us they’d found asbestos in their bathroom and had to pay a pretty penny to get it removed. That being said, you should always check for asbestos.
I’ll be honest; I didn’t know much about why it’s so bad to find in your home until I found information by Your Legal Friend. I also read a lot of legal advice after finding out that thousands of people have been exposed to it at work and even teachers are suffering because schools are full of the stuff.
Last, but not least, the AC work was a huge problem. It was agreed that this work would be carried out before we moved in but the pipe construction was just wrong meaning it doesn’t filter air properly, and it still isn’t working properly. For now that’s all the issues we encountered, but it really made me think about what issues you can find if you don’t ask questions or that can easily be hidden but some awful 1960s bathroom tiles. Finding a new home or renovating an old one is hard, and in two or three years I may change mine to a bigger one, and next time I’ll be more careful.
