Nothing's perfect

We are deep into inspections here. Our house was inspected last week and found to be in need of termite treatment (find me a house in LA that isn’t). Also a dozen ‘safety issues’ aka  minor building code infractions. The silliest one being that our front steps lack a handrail. Overall, a pretty clean inspection and stuff we’ll either fix, or ignore, or give the buyers a credit to fix.

At Casa Del Sol the picture is less rosy. The inspection noted 36 safety issues including items like ‘Dozens of exposed electrical wiring connections and open electrical boxes as well as exposed stand wiring that present shock & fire hazards’. The inspector wasn’t really into our seller’s DIY approach to roofing either: ‘a shower enclosure glass door/panel were noted being used as an over-head awning at the guest house entry stoop that is not suited for this application, presents a shatter hazard and requires removal.’ Apparently ‘the guest house window is too small to meet the ‘natural light and ventilation’ requirements of sleeping quarters’ but I think our new proximity to the beach means our guests won’t be deterred.

As for us, we weren’t put off. We’re buying a wreck and we know it. The only thing we considered a deal breaker was the wasp nests. I really wanted those to be removed before we moved in. But the seller countered with ‘well do they want the golf cart, or not?’ To which we conceded. We might be the first real estate transaction ever in which the words ‘drop the wasps' nest, we’ll take the golf cart’ were uttered.