The bathroom renovation which destroyed the house, part I

So working with a national bank, the random appraiser asked for a structural inspection by a structural engineer, because the bathroom floor was uneven. This is a rather expensive inspection, $600-1000, plus mileage since they have to drive the 70 miles from Albuquerque. That would be fine if we actually got useful information out of the inspection (wouldn't it be great be able to consult a structural engineer who also knew about old adobe buildings?) but since I cannot pick the structural engineer, I predict that one of two things would happen:

1. He would declare the house unsound because it is 150 years old, period. It's clearly not built to modern code (hmmmm...PVC in 1880?). Therefore it is not habitable.

2. He will have absolutely no idea how to evaluate it and will put something vague that protects him from lawsuits and pass it.

So since we had a quote for $1000 to replace the bathroom floor we informally asked if we could just fix it, and get a second visit by the appraiser (not as expensive as a full second appraisal). While this wasn't what we had expected to do first on the house (central heat and a second bathroom would have been our priorities) we did plan on doing it eventually, so why not now?

What was wrong with the bathroom floor? The floor was built on wooden beams, covered by subflooring (I forget what now) then two layers of linolium (I use the term loosely). Water from the bathtub had leaked out and rotted the floor under the tub. The tub was 300 pounds of cast iron. Something of that mass should never have been placed over a wood floor without extra support to begin with. In addition to rot under the tub, there was rot around the toilet.

So rather than the purchase going through, we wound up with a one year rental contract with an option to buy and permission to renovate if we wouldn't hold the current owner responsible for the cost.



And...as long as you are going to tear up the floor, you should replace the 100 year old plumbing...and as long as the plumbing has to come out, it's no more expensive to move the bathroom fixtures. And as long as we are moving the fixtures, we should get the washer and the dryer out of the kitchen, where they are in the way. Sound like a expensive project? Yes, well...just wait.