Home Inspector: "Don't Buy This House!"

So this past Friday we had our home inspection.  We were planning on leaving Jack with my sister so we wouldn't need to bring him along, but he was not feeling so good once we got to her house so I stayed with him and Mark went to the inspection on his own. 

Boy am I glad I didn't go!  The inspection took about 3 hours and we found out some things that we didn't really want to know.

First off, my dad recommended the home inspector to us who is a very knowledgeable guy and we got a great deal on the "no frills" home inspection.  "No frills" just means that we don't get a written report about the house, which we were ok with.  We probably saved $350 to $400!

When they walked into the kitchen/family room he was like, "You don't want to buy this house."  That particular part of the house, which is the addition, is very open (which is why we like it so much) and it does have a significant slope in the floor.  However, he wasn't concerned about that.  He said "There is nothing supporting this roof."  WHAT!?!  There needs to be a girder truss that supports the roof of the addition.  They looked in the attic and there was a wall blocking the view into the space above the addition.  At that point the inspector didn't really want to continue any further, but Mark asked him to.

Here are some other things we learned:

None of the outlets in the house are grounded
The bathroom fans are not properly vented
The attic needs more insulation
There is a crack in the concrete pad in the garage that's allowing water (ie. snow and salt from the car) to leak into the basement and it's creating salt deposits on the basement wall! 
There are no heating vents in the bathrooms or kitchen
The floor in the addition is sloped because the current owners laid a new bamboo floor ontop of the original hardwood that stops just after the kitchen.  Why!!!!
And the main breaker for the house is located outside where anyone one can walk by and shut our power off!

Needless to say when Mark told me all this I was disappointed.
But then he told me the good news!

They ended up finding the girder truss through an opening in the garage!  Thank goodness!  The addition was put on sometime in the 70's so we just knew it had to be there! The next day it was confirmed by a friend (a former inspector from the 60's/70's) of the home inspector who drove by the house and remembered everything about that house!  He knew who the owners were and the name of the guy who built the addition, which was very important!  We now have the whole history of this house and I think that is so cool.

The house was built in 1963 and it was the first one built in that area, which was the premier neighborhood of that time.  It was the spec house so that explains why the main breaker is outside.  The original owners of that home lived there until 2010 when they sold it to my friend's parents who bought it for their daughter (my friends sister).  She lived there for only a few months before moving in with her boyfriend, who is now her husband.  So basically there has only been 1.5 owners of this house.  Oh and one other tidbit.  The original owner was a blueberry farmer and he had his own gasoline tank buried under the ground for fueling up his truck so he could go out to the fields!  The tank is still there!  Isn't that crazy! 

So to make a long story even longer...we are still going to buy this house.  We just have a few conditions for the sellers that we hope they can address.  We have a meeting tomorrow with our mortgage lender and then we just have to pray that the FHA inspection goes well so we can be approved for our mortgage. 

Talk about stress!  We have not been sleeping well lately, but it will all be worth it in the end.  I do sleep a little better knowing that I have 3 brothers-in-law that are home builders/contractors and they can help us with those other issues.

-WW