A Few Years Ago My Neighbor Was Going To Sell His ...

A few years ago my neighbor was going to sell his house and move to a larger house with more land. He and his wife were very excited in the beginning and even put down a very large deposit. They kept their house because they needed a place to live while the newer house was being built. If all else failed, he could rent it and not lose anything.

He loved to go to the work site. He watch as the land was cleared, plumbing and electrical appeared from the ground, and the foundation was poured.

As many of you may know, the next phase was the "framing". Soon the two by sixes were being put up. It was going to be a strong house with that dimension of lumber. He began to notice something he didn’t like; the measurements were off, some by one inch, others by as much as four inches. The supervisor’s comment was, "you won’t notice it once the drywall is taped and textured".

No matter how much he asked, they wouldn’t correct it. After his final plea from the owners themselves he refused to purchase the house. Of course he lost all of his deposit, a year’s salary to most of us, but he refused to buy his and his wife’s dream house if the frame was crooked.

Why would he do such a thing? Because he knew the framing was almost as important as the foundation. Anything that he wanted to hang in the future would be a risk because the framing varied throughout the house.