Every House Has a Secret - 5

 

Two days after they had seen the house, Brady and Rand made an offer on it that was less than the asking price. It was accepted almost immediately, much to their relief. They had already been pre-approved for a mortgage and had enough in savings for the down payment. 

 

The next step was the inspection. Thankfully, the inspector found no surprises. It was structurally sound, just as the realtor had said, and the plumbing was good, as were the electrical components. He did tell them they should have the chimney cleaned and that they ought to consider updating the appliances.

 

"The air conditioning units definitely need to be replaced," he said. "As does the bathroom toilet."

 

"But not the tub?" Brady asked. "It looks like it's as old as the house."

 

"It's not. It's an excellent reproduction and the plumbing is fine."

 

"Why would someone…? Never mind. They probably wanted it to look like it belonged to the house," Rand said. "Since we need a new toilet, maybe we should look into getting a real tub or a shower stall at the same time."

 

Brady shook his head, muttering, "Budget, Rand, budget." He turned to the inspector to ask, "What about the cracks and the missing swath of plaster in the wall by the fireplace? Are they something we should be worried about? "

 

"No. It's not structural. My best guess is someone knocked something heavy against it. Replaster before you paint and you'll never know they were there."

 

"Good. I was afraid the house had shifted and we might be facing worse if it happened again."

 

"Don’t worry, it hasn't."

 

The appraiser calculated the value of the house and property at above the asking price, which worried Brady when he thought about property taxes, until the man told him the city's appraisal would undoubtedly be less due to the values of other homes in the neighborhood.

 

The last step was getting final mortgage approval. As soon as that happened, they closed on the house and it was theirs.

 

"Now comes the fun part," Rand said that evening as they celebrated at their favorite restaurant.

 

"Busting our asses for the next six months so we can move in?"

 

"Three months, tops, if we spend every waking hour at the house when we're not working."

 

Brady smiled. "When you dream, you dream big."

 

"It'll happen. You'll see. You already found a contractor to deal with the porch so that's off our to-do list."

 

"It was a fair trade-off. I'll set up much better security on Nick's company than he has now in exchange."

 

"I love barter systems," Rand said. "Now if you had a client who was a plumber…"

 

"Sorry, I don't. We'll hit up the home improvement store for the toilet and air conditioners and hope they don't charge an arm and a leg to install them."

 

"And rent a sander for the floors because that's where we need to start."