Yep. You and Duane Bozarth both called the sloping/humidity issue with
the basement. In addition to this, the prior renters threw down some
thick neo-70s shag carpet which is probably holding a lot of moisture.
It's coming out right away. I doubt I would be able to "finish" this
basement and make it like another room in the house. Home inspector
discouraged pouring concrete in there because it would hold more
moisture. I might consider small pea gravel or something. It's got
really grungy cobblestone as a flooring now. That's all down the road
tho. Why does the earth slope towards old houses? Is that 100 years
of very slow sinking? Water erosion?

Agreed that my first priority will be getting the water out. Window
wells, grading, new guttering. Hopefully all before winter. As best
as I can tell, the walls are ALL stone in the place. The only wood
that's in the walls is what's in the windowframes. The windowframes
are anchored to the stone, and the windows themselves are attached to
the windowframes. The windows themselves are new, self-contained in an
alyewminneum frame and would come out as a unit and go back in as a
unit. I'll have to look at them again, but if that's the case, then i
think it won't be a big deal to redo the windowframes myself, or maybe
with a little help from the handyman grandpa. I'd want to spend a
couple bucks more on pressure treated wood, right?

I'm afraid of heights. This will be a problem when I go to do the
upstairs windows. Also if I have to re-do the gutters. Home inspector
sez they are plastic and are starting to warp. Doesn't have to be
dealt wth right away but probably in the near future. In the meantime
i should be able to tend to the downspouts and extend them away from
the house.

There's a giant wasp nest in one of the eaves. Call me nuts or call me
shadetree mechanic, but i think that a powerful shop vac with a 10' PVC
extension on it could detain the wasps while i knock the nest down.
Then shut it off and run like hell. Or cap it and leave it sit for a
couple of weeks. Or leave it running, go inside and unplug it there.
The wasps will crawl back out but maybe they'll go somewhere else.

100A service. Oil heat. Electric dryer and stove. I would prefer gas
in both cases but I kinda doubt it's available. No central A/C, but in
the few times i've gone in the house when it's 85F outside, it seemed
much cooler. I think that a single window A/C unit to pull the
humidity out of the house in the summer might be sufficient. There are
unused breaker slots in the electrical box, but i forget how many.
Inspector chix0r said that there is one set of wires coming from it
that is still 60A. Word on the street is that an electrician is moving
in next door. Her report sheet had a checkbox for "Federal Pacific"
breaker boxes, and she didn't check it. I just learned about the folly
of those yesterday from googling in this group :-D

Lemme guess: upgrading from 100A to 130A means a new breakerbox, new
breakers, and rewiring the whole house again? Otherwise,
overstressing a 100A system will show itself by popping breakers all
the time, no?

Possible asbestos tape on the pipes in the basement. My understanding
about asbestos is that it's perfectly fine until you start messing with
it. I grew up in a house with asbestos shingles on the outside and i
didn't die. We don't have kids and don't plan to have any so i'm not
going to worry about the lead a whole lot right now. I'll still test
the water, but if it's within normal limits i'll spend my coins on
other things first.

Agreed on the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" part. She says there's
nothing wrong with the plumbing- there's just a better way. There's
plenty of stuff that i *have* to fix first. She wrote down the flow
rate of the well, but once again i don't have it in front of me right
now. I think i saw 35gpm but i'll have to check it again.
(coincidentally last night was my b-day celebration, so a few things
are fuzzy today ;-) )

About the locks in the doors: There are only a couple of doors in the
house that are really old, if that's what you mean by "full mortise".
All the outside doors are probably 15-20 years or less. The front door
looks less than 5. The knobs and locks on them look just like the
stuff in the Knobs And Locks aisle at Home Depot. Interestingly, it's
only the new doors that are screwed up. All the old ones are fine.

Anyways... i better go eat something. Rumor is that once you buy a
house you don't get to do that very often ;-)

Thanks again for everyone, humouring me and helping out a n00b.

-Phaeton