New Coastie – Home buying hazards

It has been 18 months since my wife, and I got this beautiful property on the Hibiscus Coast. I love it. We could only afford an old 1940s house but there was so much joy when we moved in. 

After a hard first day of settlement and moving, it was time to take a shower. It was a long reflective shower. There was a sense of independence showering with the water that was collected in the tank. I didn’t have to rely any more on rising water levels in a dam. I collected this water as it fell from the sky. It was mine.

Still in the shower, I thought about the future in my new home. I saw my future kids running around the backyard playing cricket. I saw myself having a beer on my deck just by myself looking out to the sea. My wife then joins me on the deck, and we put our arms around each other to watch the sunset. I was content in my daydream.

Suddenly, I heard a muffled sound. I turned off the shower to listen intently. It was my wife – “stop the water right now”! I put on a towel and ran out. She was downstairs in the garage. As soon as I entered the garage, my jaw dropped. It was flooded. The water from the shower was leaking through the floor and into the garage. My chest got tighter, and the anxiety kicked the contented feelings out like they were illegal squatters in my consciousness. Happy kids and sunsets were replaced by images of me yelling at my real estate agent, lawyers, and empty bank accounts.

I tried to go all legal and argued with my estate agent about how it was the previous owner’s responsibility to fix this. He agreed. But he laid down a path for me that was a bureaucratic nightmare. It required the lawyers being involved, letters being sent, gathering of evidence, and arguing with the previous owner about the intricacies of the contract. Things were made worse by the fact that the previous owner was going through his own troubles with divorce and was elusive with his replies and delayed in his commitments.

The assessment revealed that the whole bathroom had to be ripped apart to see the extent of the leak and the dampness of the floors. How the hell did we miss it? I had a clean bill of health from the building report. I just gave up. To hell with agents, lawyers, and previous owners. I need to get it done for my own mental wellbeing. So, I strapped in, called a very nice builder, and got it fixed myself.   

Readers might disagree with me and posit that I should have fought for it to be fixed by the previous owner. Maybe I should have. But I wanted the feeling back that I had in the shower of owning my new home and a happy future ahead. I couldn’t wait. Lesson: Ignore the cordial smiles, confident affirmations, and pristine building reports before the final settlement. Run the water from all sources to check for active leaks, especially if it is an old house. So that the first shower in your new home is a peaceful one.