How Firm a Foundation
The house hunt continues. We've tweaked and expanded the radius of the search, which obviously yielded more results, but on the other hand it also brought us back to a conversation we'd had earlier in the search. What kind of foundation?
The important bits of a house are roof, walls, insulation, but without the foundation it's all going to fall down. We know it's important, but... we have three options in this area. Slab, crawlspace, and basement (more on basements shortly). There are pros and cons for all three, although frankly I'm of the opinion the pros for crawlspace are very few: you can access the underside of the floor. Not very well, and so can all kinds of pests and vermin, and in an older poorly built house, there's a lot of water down there, very close to your floor joists making them sag. But still, if you need to get to your plumbing, you can.
Which brings me to the semi-controversy. The First Reader wants me to take every house on a slab off the list. If something breaks under the slab, he points out, or in it, we'll spend a potfull of money tearing up the concrete to fix it. Sure, I say, but how often does that actually happen? I don't know. And I'm not sure how to find out. I have to say the slab appeals to me on the grounds of it not rotting underneath you - we live in the Ohio River Valley area. To say that it gets and stays moist here is an understatement. We're one of the only areas in the contiguous US to have our own fungal disease. But I digress. A slab is also invulnerable to termites. The house we had under contract that failed inspection had three major issuse: a leak in the foundation where pipes came in, termite damage to floor joists, and soft spots in the roof. Oy.
Basements, then, seem to be the best of the options. Well, maybe. Not all basements are created equal. Some are, as I commented in one old house while I was ducking under beams and ductwork, more aptly termed dungeons. I know the kids won't go in those. Old laid-stone foundations and seeping water and spiderwebs and eugh! what was that? are not ideal but can be lived with right up until someone gets the bright idea to put the washer and dryer down there at the foot of very steep rickety stairs that aren't really stairs, more like a slanted ladder. Other basements are bright and shiny and dry, and some basements have even been fully finished and set up as a living area, albeit a slightly cave-like one. Probably cool in the summertime, although as we walk through them in the tail-end of winter they are more shivery than I'd like.
So I don't know. We come down to a bunch of houses that are all OK, and fit most if not all our criteria, but none of them sing to us. And maybe this house isn't going to sing, it's just going to be a roof over our heads until we're empty nesters and then we can follow the sound of the siren singing about beautiful houses with perfect accoutrements, and... Sigh. This is hard, and tiring, and if I screw it up, has the potential to be very, very expensive!