i'm here with jason and brenda, and you guysare right in the middle of what's turning out to be a bigger remodel than you thought. we're right in the middle of something, i'lltell you that. so what's going on? what happened? well, we thought when we bought the housethat it would be pretty much, throw some paint on the walls, do new floor covering, granitecountertops, stainless steel appliances. the fun stuff. right.
cosmetic stuff. stuff to get the wife exited. all of that. [laughter] unfortunately, it's turned into somethingcompletely different. she doesn't look too excited. nightmare. so what happened? well, when the painters came in, we had totear out some sheet rock because it was warped
and everything and unfortunately, we discovereda lot more than what we originally thought. opened up a whole can of worms, huh? one of the first things that we found outwas that the house is infested with termites. don't know yet the extend of the damage orhow much it's gonna cost. and that's not to mention the cockroach infestation. cockroach infest... everywhere, so gross. who doesn't love cockroaches? disgusting.
it's exactly what you want... you buy a house to put all new stuff in andyour wife finds a cockroach infestation. gross. but all of that is dwarfed by the other thingthat we found which was aluminum wire. yeah, yeah. well, unfortunately this happens all the timewith used homes and you just don't know what you're gonna get. it's stinks to see, it's frustrating to seeyou got termite damage right here. you literally have termites eating the structureof the house.
so not only do you have to replace structure,tear down more walls, you don't know where else it's at in the house. and then you're gotta have chemicals sprayedin here. that's not good for anybody. and then aluminum wiring, we're not even allowedto use aluminum wiring anymore here, because aluminum expands 33% more than copper does,so you have literally hundreds of these little connections around the house with outlet plugs,switches and that expansion causes the wires to loose, that's a fire hazard, burns downtons of houses each year and you guys have a family.
we have five kids. we're gonna have to pull all the wiring outand completely redo the electrical in the house. so the majority of your budget was gonna gotowards stainless steel appliances and back splashes and now it's all the ugly stuff. that alone will exceed the budget. and that was a surprise. and you guys had other surprises. wait till you see the bathroom.
let's go take a look. [music] goodness. you don't have to be a home inspector to knowthat this isn't good, this is definitely not up to code. how does this even happen? well, like any old house this bathroom wasway too small, so we decided to enlarge it and take the closet out and move the toilet. while in the process of that, we discoveredthat originally the floor joist was totally
cut [chuckle] and so because of that, thebathtub is sinking and there's just a whole other set of problems and another nightmare. you look thrilled. just been insane. it's been one thing after the other. it's just been insane. nobody wants a bathtub in their kitchen. no. 'cause you fill this thing up right now, it'sprobably gonna fall through the ceiling and
that's something that you have to be awareof when you're buying a used home compared to a new home. with a new home, there's phase inspections. you know the builder, you know the superintendent,you're getting to see it go up from the inside out, so you know everything's good. with a used home, you're kinda buying it fromthe outside in. everything's covered up already and you don'tknow where the plumbing leaks, is there mold down there? did some crazy contractor or home owner decideto just cut through a floor joist underneath
the bathtub to make a drain fit when he couldhave just rerouted it right here. you just don't know and that's a risk thatyou're taking. let's go downstairs and talk about it. okay. okay, guys, check this out. i was walking downstairs and i noticed this. this is the air return, this is the air supplyto the whole entire house and i don't know if these previous owners were boarding dogshere... they probably had 10 dogs here or something,look at this, this is disgusting.
not only is it hurting the air quality, thisis gonna pass over the coils in the air handler, so you're gonna ruin the ac system and thenyou're gonna hurt energy efficiency but these poor people are gonna be living with somebodyelse's dog hair probably forever because this stuff is gonna be nearly impossible to getout. i like the furniture, guys. thanks. so you guys got yourself in a bit of a situation. yeah, it's been a lot more than we bargainedfor. you come into this and you're excited andyou're together and you think about picking
out lighting and plumbing fixtures and faucetsand fun stuff like that and the reality of it is that you end up dealing with termitedamage and cockroach infestations. the fun surprises. well, i'm a licensed home inspector not alicensed therapist, but it's stressful, right? how're you guys holding up? how's the relationship? we're still married, [laughter] that's a goodthing. but it's been really stressful. basically our lives are on hold, no date nightsand spending all of our money on the house.
it's been very tough. a lot of people don't realize the realityof doing a remodel. there's so much that goes into it. if you're out there and you're thinking aboutbuying a home, consider the whole package. with a used home, you don't know who was livinghere before or before them or before them. who was working on the house? and there's so many things behind walls thatyou can't see, under floors that you can't see. and with a new home you know exactly whatyou're getting into.
so save your time, save your money, possiblysave your marriage. [chuckle] so start fresh and buy new.