I personally spent about 20 hours crawling through the attic on hands and knees with trash bags and a shop vac, removing critter pee-soaked insulation, rodent poop, snake skins and a dead squirrel.

The ceiling... is strange... the drywall is in acceptable shape, but they used these little stars as screws and there are the standard trailer strips rather than proper joints...

I jointly co-owned a property in Chicago, IL with my sibling and sold my interest because it was better that there be one owner.

Crown molding sometimes makes the transitions look better in this situation (and sometimes joint compound and tape works good enough too).Otherwise, you have to be in some upscale area to make these amenities a factor.

Let's talk chimney for now, since roof isn't yet leaking.Get a 5 gal bucket (empty joint compound or empty paint buckets work fine), and go to the basement.

The way it works really well is if the person is totally suprised and inhales a cloud of it - that will probably drop you to your knees quickly.

I just glue them on and caulk the joints, unless you have thinset and grout handy.  

It's also much easier to find partners, joint ventures, and lenders using creative financing if your deal analysis abilities are solid.

We then sign our standard joint partnership agreement that spells out what is expected of each of us. 

If you need help in available for info or joint ventures.