It must be ours--it's busted

[muckefuck]

One of the downsides of looking at "duplexes down" is that I knew sooner or later we'd have to deal with water in the lower level. I mentioned this at every place and the sellers' agents were always like, "Oh, we've never had any water down here!" and I was always like C'mon, it's a BASEMENT. In CHICAGO. So, yeah, I knew we'd have to deal with seepage problems.

I just didn't know it would be this soon.

The only bright side I can see right now is at least I know that it wasn't just my issues about the floors that had the Old Man so completely bummed last night. He's halted unpacking or buying anything for the new place until we get these two issues resolved (which will be a while, since we haven't even been able to get anyone into the apartment to evaluate them yet). Given how much he was looking forward to being settled in with beautiful new things, he's dealing quite well for the nonce.

Another consequence is increased uncertainty about my place. Do I rent it out or do I kept it vacant in case we need to retreat there while the work gets done? If I hold it vacant for a month or two, will I ever find anyone to rent it over the winter?

Comments

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

Irritating. Is it seasonal there? Here the basements are uniformly damp or wet in summer but dry in winter.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

You'd have to ask bunj. He's had a basement for ten years; we've only had one for a week.

[areia.livejournal.com]

My advice would be to rent out your old place as soon as possible. The risk (and worry) of not being able to rent it out all winter outweighs the inconvenience of having to live on one floor of a duplex while repairs are carried out downstairs.

When we bought our house in Cambridge we had to have three feet of plaster stripped from all of the downstairs walls, and then have them injected with a damp-proofing chemical. We camped out in the upstairs rooms for several weeks, but it was still better than paying rent on the cottage we were living in before.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

The trouble here is that the dampness is in the lower half, the floors in the upper. If we have to have work on both done simultaneously, the place will be uninhabitable.

[areia.livejournal.com]

That does add a complication, but I still think I would rent out the old place. Not being able to rent it until spring would cost a significant amount of money, and you can always have the work split into two stages. I doubt a contractor would have a problem with that; after all, most people don't have a handy second condo hanging around every time their homes need major repairs.

As it happens, after we had the downstairs of our house damp-proofed, we decorated, moved the furniture downstairs, and started on the second floor. We slept in the living room for several more weeks during major repairs upstairs, and at no point did we even consider moving out. Sure, you end up with furniture in awkward locations, and you feel like you're camping out a lot of the time, but it saved us so much money it was absolutely worth it.