Hey all,

Wife and I just bought our first house - living near NYC and being on a
budget sort of limited our options and we had to go with an older
house. It was built in 1923 and according to the inspector has a
steel(?) and wood frame on a block foundation. It's a more or less
square house with a wood main beam going through the center in the
basement (supported by three retrofitted permanent steel posts) and a
brick fireplace and chimney going up from the basement near the back of
the house through the roof.

I unfortunately couldn't be there when the inspection was done, but I
have the inspector's report and talked to him afterwards and he didn't
really mention any major problems that we didn't know about (and have
since had fixed). He did mention in the "structural" area of his
report that the floors slope a bit and that there is some previous
termite damage. He said we might want to get some bracing for the
frame in that area but he didn't sound too worried about it.
Unfortunately, this was several months ago now and I think I
misunderstood which area of the house he was talking about, and I doubt
he remembers at this point. I never thought much of it because he
didn't mark it as one of the "major deficiencies" on the first page of
the report, and the termite infestation was 30 years ago so I figured
any damage that had been done would have manifested itself long ago.

Now, though, having fixed some other problems and thinking we're going
to move on to cosmetic issues, I'm starting to obssess over the fact
that the floor on the second story above the fireplace is about one
inch higher than the floor immediately adjacent to it on all sides, and
the rear window above the stairs (which runs behind the fireplace) is
similarly oddly angled. The bedroom that sits about half above the
fireplace is like a carnival funhouse of strange angles - we haven't
been using this bedroom (half our stuff is still packed away in it) so
it's been a while since I really looked at it and it's starting to get
me spooked. I can deal with it as it is, I just don't want it to
continue getting worse and don't know if it will.

The foundation itself is square and true, as is the first floor of the
house. It's obvious that the rear of the second floor of the house has
settled from the top down, and it's settled around the fireplace. My
question is, how worried should I be about this at this point? And how
big of a repair is it to add bracing to the frame in that area? I have
looked around for any new cracking in the walls and I don't see
anything that's obviously recent - a few cracks since the previous
owners last painted but that looks like it was about ten years ago at
least.

The top of the chimney also leans a bit (it's quite a tall chimney);
the inspector did not note this as a problem in his report so we didn't
even consider it before buying the house. But now I'm wondering if
this is being pulled by one side of the house or if it's simply settled
on itself.

I am trying to decide if it's worth just getting another home
inspection done to confirm that this is not a serious and pressing
problem. I do know that most old houses have some settlement issues
and that you're not going to see completely square angles everywhere.
I'm just hoping this is something we can put off in favor of some other
things we'd like to do first.

Thanks,

Jeff