My grandfather created a nightmare house 30 years after he died
Im just so frustrated at this point. My grandfather essentially had "wont be a problem until after I'm dead" as a life motto when doing home repair. He has been dead 30 years and the can of worms he made is still unraveling.
He bought a dilapidated house like 80 years ago now as a young man. He spent the next 50 years fixing it, and creating fixes that were so convoluted, and accumulated to the point that he spent his entire retirement maintaining fixes everyday that he had done decades before. That might have been heaven for him, but it made a nightmare for my mother and now me.
Examples:
When he got the house the outer wall of the foundation ended 3 ft below the sill of the external wall on one side of the house (place was originally built by farmers that were just as bad as my grandfather). There were also other issues with the foundation. His solution was to built up the wall on that side by only a foot so dirt wouldn't wash in from the rain, and put a post in every 6-8 inches to support that entire wall. Then he put in 20+ posts holding beams under each joist inside the interior of the basement to the point where it is like walking through a forest of trees (he used literal trees soaked in motor oil, not even cut timber). Now the posts are starting to rot and contractors don't wanna touch it unless a fortune is spent.
10 years ago the driveway collapsed in under itself to reveal the base was just half distinigrated cut up tires, somehow a void formed under it all and it collapsed like 2 ft down into a sinkhole.
The garage walls were bowing out from a saggy roof so we have rusting chains with turnbuckles tying it back together. I dont even wanna think about the amount of tension they must be under if they snap.
The plumbing repairs he did have needed to be fixed because a new leak appears every 6-12 months.
The retaining wall he reinforced with random rocks and constrction materials from a dumpster he got his hands on for free collapsed 5 years ago and destroyed the yard.
The in ground pool he built constantly has dirt washing into it and the pump literally blew up 20 years ago, and all the plumbing and electrical he did for it has needed constant repair.
The porch roof he built was leaking and under the shingles he put in were flattened soda cans he used to repair leaks.
When we were digging a garden out we found a random concrete slab, tried to get a guy to jackhammer it but under the concrete was a massive pile of asbestos.
It just goes on and on. I admire my pops in a way, he stretched money out as far as he could and his house looked immaculate while he was still alive. But he created such a pain in the ass this place is unsellable and just a rats nest of problems. Worst part is, he left like a 30 page manuscript of maintenance that needs to be done with a schedule of when. He even predicted a number of the disasters before they happened, to the point where his guess on how long it would last was actually less than how long it actually lasted. Issue is, I just never had the money or time to address things according to his book of repairs.
I'm frustrated, at my wits end, and have resolved that once my mother is gone I'll tear this place down.
Edit: Some clarification based on comments. I do not live in this house, my mother does. I live in my own home and have been just trying to help my mother. Her house isn't a delapidated mess, it looks well kept, but this has been at enormous expense and it still has issues with structure, plumbing, electrical, hvac, etc. People act as though we've been letting this house rot for 30 years, not the case. Also, I'm aware old houses require more maintenance. My own house is 120 years old. Yes, it needs more upkeep, but it has never resulted in regular cataclysms costing tens of thousands of dollars every few years. I love and admire my grandfather, he did the best with what he could. But this simply isn't just an older house that needs regular maintenance. One of the pipes in the wall looked like a garden house reinforced with a coating of tar and fiberglass for christ sake. My grandfather was incredibly resourceful, and made do with whatever materials he could scrounge together. That doesn't mean he did a good job, it means he was capable of giving his family a home when he had to raise multiple kids on a single income. It's admirable and I look up to him, but it doesn't mean what he did is sustainable long term. He was a jack of all trades and incredibly talented considering the resources he had, and the failures of his fixes don't take away from that in my eyes. Also, sorry, but I cannot post pictures of my mothers home for the sake of her privacy. Maybe Ill get some photos of the basement or when we have had the walls opened up over the years.