Why is it important to get a home inspection before buying? During the inspection of our future home, it was discovered that the septic system's leech bed (approximate age: 30 years) was completely toasted and the septic tank's baffles had worn away due to age. What that meant was that the septic system was teetering on the edge of regurgitating raw sewage back into the house, which we were informed, could happen at any moment.

As an aside, our septic inspector was amazing. He legitimately seemed to love his job, was fearless in doing it, and spent about 45 minutes explaining to us the intricacies how a septic system worked. I now know more about septic systems that I do about some aspects of my own job.

Based on the results of the inspection, we made our offer on the home conditional on the seller replacing the septic system with something that would not run the risk of filling our basement with raw sewage. And while the additional work ended up delaying our closing date by a week or so, it was worth the wait.

My one minor quibble with the new leech bed is that the contractor could have done a little better job of backfilling soil, reseeding and laying down hay. I know they're septic system contractors and not landscapers, but look at the picture below. I think they dumped hay into a large pile and let the wind blow it around a little. Also, it had been raining for about a week straight, so there were some pretty significant ruts left in other parts of the yard from where they brought the machinery in and out of the yard.

A Mound of Dirt Covering a New Leech Bed, 2005

Note: I've since filled in the ruts and reseeded that area, but that's a story for another day.

In May of 2005, my not quite yet wife and I bought our first home in Dayton, Maine. We had rented together for the previous five years and decided to buy a condo a couple of months before our wedding, which, based on the stress that accompanied each event, I would not recommend trying.

With the real estate market spiraling out of control, all the condos we looked at were way overpriced. Instead we stumbled across a small house for the same price as the condos in our area. Why was it so inexpensive? The house was built 30 years prior by my wife's great uncle, who, I should mention, had died some time earlier and no longer owned the house. No family deal for us. Rather, he was a man who stood approximately five feet tall and who built himself a one bedroom, one bathroom, 800 square foot house with 7 foot 4 inch ceilings that, I would presume, felt like a mansion to him.

The Little Mansion

Since we were looking at condos, the small size of the house wasn't a problem. And unlike a condo, the house came with land and a basement and it was very close to my wife's family, which was a big plus for her. A deal was finalized in May 2005. The house, while built well and in good physical shape (my wife's family is full of skilled craftsmen), had received a various, mismatched, and often head scratching set of renovations throughout the years. And that is where my home improvement story begins.

I'll be using this forum to document our home renovations, every step at a time. I want to remember all the blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into this thing. Much more to come - good, bad, and painful.