Foundations

 Because every day is a new adventure, today we looked at foundations.  We knew one property was in pretty deteriorated condition and wanted to know the minimum and maximum range of deeply scary possibilities. 

It wasn't an auspicious beginning when the structural engineer said, skeptically, "you want to buy this?"  Because the owner was approaching, I quickly, quietly and truthfully said that I wouldn't buy it as a free standing property but I was interested in the group and wanted to be certain that this property wouldn't take the whole deal down.

For the next one-and-a-half hours and $500.00, we got quite an eduction in looking at the structure and safety of properties. The short version is, it's not likely to fall down.  The medium version is it needs at least one beam added in the foreseeable future and it is urgent that we prioritize guttering and getting water away from the foundation of all the properties.  The long term version is, if we're crazy (in his opinion), over the long term, we can stabilize it one side at a time and it should all work out ok.  

Overall, this was the Martians talking to the Venusions... he was horrified (and trying to hide it) by the way decades of owners had repaired or failed to repair stuff and we were thinking that we'd seen a lot worse. On the other hand, we did tell the seller not to bother to 'fix' anything else, we'd take care of it.

Interestingly, on the overall package, he was more concerned about the condition of the roofs. Fortunately, those we had already identified and had planned for in the budget/project.  It's Oklahoma, one learns roofs early. However, why many many Oklahoma City properties were never guttered is beyond me.

The engineer pointed out several areas, all related to drainage, and gave me a first class overview of where the damage was coming from and how to prevent it going forward. He offered additional suggestions on correcting improper siding and foundation trim.

Overall, it was about what we expected but we learned a LOT and now someone smarter than me has offered guidance on where to start.  $500.00 well spent.