M is for Money

Answer - Being underwater on a house that is falling apart!

As if being tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of dollars underwater isn’t bad enough, my house happens to be falling apart at the same time. I love old houses, I don’t love the maintenance needs of this old house. This neighborhood has always been respectable, but of lower income. Many repairs that should have been done by earlier owners have been left to pile up for us. We’re approaching the point of no choice, the house will decide for us. There are repairs that we can’t put off any longer.

Last weekend while moving some boxes in the basement we discovered a drip, an old piece of corroded pipe is on its last legs. It’s not quite an emergency, but we can’t put off fixing the plumbing any longer. While some of it was replaced a few years ago, much of it is at least 50 years old. When we return from vacation we have to run the tap for a few minutes to get clear water. The pipes are so rusty they turn the water a burnt orange color when it sits. I knew this day was coming. Fortunately it’s a small house with partial copper plumbing, it won’t cost a fortune. Unfortunately, the plumbing isn’t the only issue.

The electrical system needs a complete overhaul. It’s not original, thank goodness, but still approaching 50 years old. It wasn’t built to handle today’s power loads and we constantly trip breakers running routine appliances. I hope it doesn’t have to be fully brought up to code, I don’t mind replacing the entire system but adding the now required number of outlets would rip apart half the house. Cutting holes in plaster walls is a sacrilege to me. Again a small house keeps the cost down, but I expect it will cost a few grand. And that’s not all…

A tree root has badly damaged one of our main retaining walls - living on a hillside has its perils. The house doesn’t seem to have shifted, well more than it already has. Through 80 years of earthquakes and with 1920’s hillside non-engineering behind it, this house isn’t exactly square anymore. Add this to the must-do-soon list of repairs and you have tens of thousands of dollars of home maintenance. None of it is as sexy as a remodel or even paint jobs, plumbing and electrical are hidden from sight. Perhaps they are more vital than new kitchen cabinets but definitely not as fun.

We’ve started looking at how to fund this work and who to hire, the house next door required several weeks worth of work to become livable and we have the contractor’s cards. This cost would be more bearable if we had equity in the house, being heavily underwater makes it worse. I hate to pour more money into this house, but we need a place to live and can’t walk away.


Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post consider subscribing for updates.