After reading the below, I just violated one of Churchill's peeves: “This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.”
My wife and I are looking at a property in Aiken, SC as a potential winter retirement place.
Long story short, the property is next door to my Sister's place (was the family home after we moved to SC from Cali) in an amazing part of town. For those of you unfamiliar with Aiken, it is simply a wonderful place. But I digress.
The house was owned by the same folks for over fifty years, and is built on a slope. Great couple, a Doctor and his wonderful wife: She passed away 15 years ago and he followed two years ago.
The estate manager, a Texas-based lawyer (the family is, as they say, "from means") wants to honor the wishes of the Dr. and find a person that respects the nature of the neighborhood, which is beautiful.
That is where I come in, Mr. Respectful - at least the Mrs. is.
So, we went down Friday to take a look. We expected the usual issues with old houses owned by older folks. What we didn't expect was the amount of foundation cracks, unstable retaining walls, etc., etc. The site is a mess.
So, are there any Civil Engineering folks/Structural folks that are willing to PM me?
I have spent the better part of today (we looked at the house again on Saturday all morning, taking hundreds of pictures) web searching everything I could find on water run-off, site stability, etc. and just need some help understanding the practicalities and next steps.
I think, based on what we saw and recorded, or at least assume, the house is a scraper, but I'd like to share some pictures with a helpful person before I engage a local CE/SE to come and take a look: I want, in other words, to know what to ask and how much it should cost in advance.
seahawkermr@aol.com
I know, aol. My nephew roasted me over dinner Friday night.
Thanks in advance.