Take it from me, I learned the hard way.

Our first property was a condominium that was managed by a well run homeowners association. Our second property was an old house that would serve as our primary - and when I say old, I mean very old. We didn’t know what we were getting into and, if we had, we probably wouldn’t have gone through with the purchase. Everything is fine now - the house is far better after the repairs than it was when we purchased it - and we learned a lot despite the difficulty of situation.

So what happened?

We had purchased the house just more than a year prior and my wife was pregnant. We traveled during winter and the driver who picked us up at the airport started talking about how cold it had been in the week that we were away. He mentioned his son’s basement flooded after a pipe froze and burst, filling the basement with water and causing significant damage. My heart sank. I had no way of knowing in that moment, but I felt we may be about to walk into an issue with our own home.

We did. Four feet of water in the basement. The house wasn’t well insulated at the time and one less than one inch small pipe running up the wall from one corner split just at ground level. For several days while we were away, the basement filled with water. Our furnace, heating oil tank, hot water heater and water tanks holding water from the well were all damaged beyond repair. There was a faint hissing sound upstairs and we soon discovered the rapid changes in water pressure somehow opened the shower valve in one of the second floor bathrooms and that it too had been spraying uncontrollably for several days. The paint, flooring, vanity were all destroyed.

Over the next 6 months, we worked through remediation and installing new equipment. We proactively replaced our aging cedar single roof so that we could avoid future leaks that could damage all the new equipment and we insulated the house.

Our son was born. The house was inhabitable again. We felt optimistic about our years ahead.

Then, distaster struck again. One day in the middle of summer, about a month after our son was born, I found an old pipe in the basement had sprung a leak. The leaky section of pipe was deep in a crawl space and the conditions were perfect for toxic mold to grow. As we started demolition of the first floor bathrooms to gain access to the leak and repair the pipe, we realized moisture had climbed up the wall. It turned out our new roof was leaking, too. We demolished yet another bathroom, the 3rd bathroom that simultaneously required repair and the 4th bathroom we would remodel within that 9 months time span.

I know now that I could have hired a general contractor to manage all the remediation and repairs. At the time, I didn’t, so I did it mostly on my own. I interviewed specialist contractors that I felt I could trust. Some lived up to my expectations, some didn’t. But the work got done and five years later, the trauma of all the catastrophes is mostly a distant memory.

In total, we demolished, redesigned and remodeled 3 full bathrooms and one half bath. We replaced the roof and insulated all the rim joists and attic/ceiling spaces. We upgraded our electrical system, installed pex plumbing which expands during a freeze instead of copper that’s known to split. We installed natural gas-powered furnaces, air handlers and water heater to improve the efficiency of our home. We ran duct work to replace the cast-iron radiators from most of the rooms in our house. We we did all the cosmetic things you have to do after an army of contractors race to fix what’s broken in every corner of your home over the course of 9 months.

Of course, we got dropped by our insurance providers due to the size of our claims and the fact they happens so close to one another but, finally, after 5 years we’re once again eligibly for standard insurance.

We now have two young kids who are growing up in a home that’s been (mostly) brought up to modern standards. I’m thankful for that. As hard as it was, I’m sure it would be even harder if we were to happen today - juggling grade school and work plus their emotions on top of our own sounds infinitely harder.

What I learned was invaluable - if it looks like a problem, it probably is. Get it checked out by a qualified contractor or service provider. It’s never ‘fun’ to pay for repairs around your home, but if you wait too long, you can wind up paying a whole lot more and you’ll never know exactly how long you have.

If you’re like me and you think getting ahead of things is a good idea, reach out and let’s talk about Churchill House Property Management helping get you and your home on a better path to anticipating the work you need to have completed, rather than scrambling to catch up when something goes wrong.