We knew that we would face some challenges in buying a century home but hey, only 1/3 of the house was over 100 years old and we had a positive home inspection.
Before we bought, we knew that we would need a new furnace, air conditioner and appliances. It was the other surprises that we weren't prepared for. I should have watched a few more episodes of Holmes on Homes - I watch it all the time now, makes me feel better to know we're not the only ones duped by a home inspector. In fact at one point, I thought about writing to Mike Holmes and asking him if we could appear on his show. Our unforeseen problems weren't confined to the older part of our home. Before we even started on the renovations we had planned for, we had to take care of structural issues with the loft apartment -our WOW factor became our OH NO factor. Well, I told myself as the brick wall and fireplace in the loft was removed, I really didn't like all that brick anyway.
On to the kitchen remodel which again, we had planned for but not yet - the kitchen floor joists needed to be replaced first! Didn't the home inspector see the rotten floor joists when he was inspecting the basement? Apparently not. At this point we were beginning to realize that the money we had set aside for renovations wasn't going to go very far. The only bright light during these revelations was that we had found a contractor who had a conscience - someone who we could trust to "make it right" to borrow a phrase from Mike Holmes. Brian was our Mike and we put our faith in him. I still cringed every time he pointed out a new problem (it was a bit like going into the doctor's office for test results) but he didn't make us feel like idiots for buying the house in the first place and for that I was extremely grateful.
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