The house we found was built in 1925. Yep, getting close to 100 years old. Now a century old house is bound to have its list (and a potentially long and expensive list at that…) of things wrong: old wiring, unstable foundation, old roof, old appliances, water leaks, bad insulation, etc. While it was clear that the house had been updated recently, we were still hesitant to see what the inspection revealed.
Inspection day Matt and I both took off from work so that we could walk by the inspector and ask questions. It worked out well, because we spent the morning going over mortgage details with our mortgage broker, and then took the ferry out to Vashon. A quick drive from the ferry (man this location could not be more convenient!) and we pulled up in front of the house. Same butterflies as last time; this house just feels like us.
We had some time to kill before the inspection started, so we decided to meet some of the neighbors. We walked up to the first house, introduced ourselves, and ended up sitting on their couch laughing, telling stories and learning about the neighborhood (3 houses) and the history of the house we were looking at. The neighbors were super sweet, and immediately made us feel at home. This island, and this neighborhood in particular, is exactly the community we have been craving.
We said our farewells to the neighbors, and headed out to the inspection with them wishing us luck. We walked around back and met Gary, the inspector. He was a sweet older man who made us feel comfortable immediately, and was careful to make sure we truly understood everything he told us. We felt like we were in very capable hands.
We started on the outside of the house, checking out the siding, foundation and roof. Armed with some new information from the neighbors, we were able to answer some of Gary’s puzzlement right away: he could not understand why the foundation looked so dang new. Answer: the house has a 1978 foundation! It turns out that the house was relocated from Seatac to Vashon Island when they expanded the airport. Moved house = new foundation = awesome news for us! The foundation was clean and dry and perfectly intact. Score!
After getting a thorough look at the exterior, we moved inside to go through every room with a fine tuned comb. Long story short, Gary was majorly impressed. Turns out all the electrical is new, insulation is new, and all the improvements to the bathrooms and kitchen are done extremely well. There is even a brand new efficient heating system!
At this point Matt and I were beside ourselves with excitement. Everything is falling into place. Awesome neighbors, awesome house with character AND everything is updated much better than we anticipated! Fingers crossed for a good appraisal on Thursday!
Moose & Turtle on Vashon 
Yay! I’m so glad the inspection went well for you guys!!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeek, so exciting! I absolutely love old homes, but you’re right they can have their problems. You’re so lucky so many updates have already been done!