More on The House.
It looks beautiful, lots of gumwood, never painted. The house and foundation are in good shape. The kitchen badly needs a remodel, the pipes are mixed, only one bathroom. One bathroom!
The heating system? Condemned. Coal-converted-to-gas, emits fumes, Keith says, "we had to open a window" to run it, and "the Jack Russell terrier would jump bark out the open window," and there is only one register, in the middle of the hall. No ductwork. Keith is a piece of work.
$8000+ to replace the antique heater with modern, adding ductwork, or perhaps radiant heat tubes, powered by the MiniMunchkin on-demand gas heater.
$7000+ -- The electricity is 100A, a spaghetti mess, some knob and tube wiring, some homeowner's nightnare, the grounded outlets poorly wired by the current homeowner, who admits it is a crappy job. The electricity must be updated, immediately, to ground the whirlpool bath!
That 70s whirlpool bathtub, the circuit is UNgrounded, so one risks death with each bath. Ironix!
Some foundation piers rest on bare dirt!!
Partial earthquake bolting, another $1000.
$10k The end-of-life roof must be replaced. I will consider solar panels, but, blessed with too many trees, the shade probably occludes and precludes summer solar harvesting.
The Koi pond is all algae, and must have a waterfall for aeration. Now! The koi can't breathe!
A root grew through the foundation wall into the basement! It may not be dry down there.
$8k My building inspector warned I'd better have a camera down the sewer, or I would be surprised by an expensive sewer replacement.
The house was on the market for 240 days; one bidder "dropped out" a day before the inspection contingency ended. Another buyer couldn't sign off their previous house sales's contingency. It has a long sales history.
One bathroom, needs so much work. Small garden bedrooms...
I do love the house, the location, the neighbors.
I can do wonderful things with the garden.