The Insulation Blog...

I put an old house up for sale. Within a week, I had a buyer who was planning to put $50,000 in upgrades prior to moving in. He's in the restaurant business and a few weeks before the closing, due to COVID-19 is out of work. Ignoring the money he has in savings, the bank cannot verify his employment and refuses a mortgage. The deal is off.

The house goes back on the market and again within a week another buyer shows up. This buyer has a stable job and also plans to put a chunk of money into renovations. Just like the other buyer, they paid for a home inspection. Different from the other inspector, this guy comes with video equipment capable of sewer and drain pipe inspections. In most areas he does a more thorough job.

I was there the day of the inspection (intentionally, to my benefit) and met the buyer who came along with the agent. I already know the plan is to completely gut the kitchen and bathroom that share the plumbing wall, remove all the room air conditioner units, tear open a hall closet to install central air conditioning unit, remove all the windows and install insulated impact windows, change the front door to solid panel, close in the car port and make a family room, move the laundry station to the back of the house that requires 60 feet of plumbing. With all those changes, I'm sure the water heater will be replaced with a tankless system.

The inspection report came through this morning and I have to laugh as many of the items that were noted as missing, marginal or failed will be removed/replaced when the new owner does their renovation. One item the inspector tried to make an issue was the lack of attic insulation.

10 years ago, my neighbor had a central air conditioning system installed. After they cut the ceiling and attic space for pipes, they installed 'blow-in' insulation a few inches thick in the top. His electric bill in the summer is over $400 a month. I was running window units in every room and only had the bedroom a/c on at night. My electric bill peaked at $125. He's got insulation and insulated impact windows, I've got no insulation, old style windows, some don't close tightly, and a jalousie front door that on a windy day you can feel a breeze.

Sometimes I feel that having insulation is a non-issue. At least, that's the way it worked out for me.