Chapter Thirteen

Peter and Elizabeth Scott arrived early the next morning at eight a.m. sharp. Ginger couldn't help but notice the dark circles beneath her new friend's eyes and easily persuaded Chris that everyone was in dire need of a cup of coffee before the filming commenced. Adding liberal quantities of cream and sugar to their mugs of extra-strong brew, Ginger took Liz by the arm, declaring that they would be taking their coffee on the porch.

"I hope you don't mind? I know it's a little hot out here, but it's cooler than it will be in a few hours, and I wanted a moment alone with you."

"I'm used to the heat," Liz dismissed, easing down to sit on the stone steps of the porch.

"Same here. I grew up in Atlanta. What I'm not used to is the cold. I went to college in Billings, and every winter and fall—and early spring, for that matter—was a test of faith."

"I can imagine."

"I'm not well suited to the cold. But I got used to it." Ginger shrugged before moving on to more important matters. "Are you okay?"

"I'm … stunned, I guess you could say. I'll be fine, though. Somehow, I guess I'm not surprised at the bombshell you dropped yesterday," she confessed. "Does anyone know who the woman that died was? Her name?"

"Her name was Annalise, and she disappeared in eighteen ninety-two."

"No last name?"

"None that we could find."

"Was she murdered?"

"I don't know, but probably. Chris is going to talk to you and Peter about that after the filming, show you all the documents."

She frowned, cradling her mug. "I have so many questions."

"He'll do the best he can to answer them, but I've got to tell you we don't have as much information as we would like, at this point. If necessary, we will call in outside investigators, a private detective, most likely."

"I don't think we can afford to pay for that."

"No," Ginger was quick to say, "the network is paying for it. They're paying Chris's bill, too."

"Are you serious?"

"He didn't tell you?"

"No!" she exclaimed, a grin lighting her face.

"I'm not surprised. He gets into a case and forgets everything else. Like Einstein forgetting to comb his hair," she confided. "So, you don't owe us a dime for our work here. Not only that, the network is going to be paying you for your story. I'm not certain how much. So. How's that for some good news?"

"Best I've heard all day." She beamed.

"Good. You done with your coffee?"

"Yes. Is it time to film?"

"It's time."

"Let's do it."

* * *

"Ready?" Chris turned to the Scotts.

"Yes," they answered together a second before Adam called out "Rolling."

"The Scotts' reprieve would turn out to be short lived. During the initial property inspection, the home's foundation had been an item of particular interest. It was thought to be the original early-nineteenth-century ceramic block. Peter and Elizabeth were concerned that previous repairs had been done on the basement, but were assured that this was not an uncommon occurrence. The home's south wall had undergone extensive repair by the previous owners, and a retaining wall had been added on the south, north, and east walls.

"Overall, the basement was reported to be in decent shape and stable condition. The assessment was supported by two general contractors hired by the Scotts to further assess the foundation at the time of the sale. The couple was advised that several years down the road, the south wall might need to be reinforced or repaired if hydrostatic pressure developed at the site.

"They were shocked when, three weeks after wrapping up the renovation of their home, they were unable to shut their bathroom door. The couple claims the door had begun to stick several weeks before this incident. At that time, they noticed no further damage at the site and attributed the sticking door to age and the onset of warm weather. Yet, within a matter of weeks, the door was so badly warped that it gapped by a quarter inch, with noticeable bulging at the wall directly above the frame."

"When we tried to shut the door, it would just smack against the frame. Almost overnight, it was literally impossible to close the door," Elizabeth explained.

"According to both Peter and Elizabeth, the most remarkable aspect of the damage is the speed at which it occurred. Although in all likelihood the structural damage to their home progressed at a gradual rate, the Scotts were amazed at how quickly things progressed from bad to worse.

"This is not as peculiar as it sounds," Chris explained, facing the camera. "Many people fail to realize they have a structural issue until the damage has progressed to a moderate or even severe stage. This is especially common in cases where previous repairs were made to the original structure, or the owner has limited knowledge of the structure's maintenance and repair history. In these types of situations, damage can occur or worsen swiftly and seemingly with little to no warning.

"And inspectors and specialists are still people, who are capable of making mistakes. The Scotts found out the hard way that inspections and expert opinions are not foolproof. A good combination of self-education and expert opinion is a much safer bet to avoid such a disaster. Ginger, would you mind elaborating on this point?"

"Not at all." She nodded, twisting the small microphone that was attached to her shirt and turning to face the camera.

"There are several warning signs that indicate not only foundation damage but severity," she began, drawing on the years she had spent working side by side with her uncle and on her course work.

"Heading the list is evidence of previous damage. Previous structural damage is a big indicator that the issue will recur in the future. It is vitally important to obtain documented evidence of the problem and exactly what was done to remedy the situation.

"Cracks, bulges, and bows are other indicators that a problem exists, with bulging and bowing indicating a severely compromised structure. Cracks can be difficult to recognize with the untrained eye since there are so many different types of cracks that can be found in a home. While some settling is normal and will produce small to midsize cracks throughout a home or foundation, cracks that are wide, separating, stair-step-type cracks, and recurrent cracks could indicate a more serious problem. Cracks that appear around doors, windows, and the 'seam' of a house—the edges and corners of walls and ceilings—are often strong indicators of structural damage and should be evaluated promptly by a professional.

"There are a lot of different reasons for a home's foundation or supports to become compromised or even fail altogether, a short list being: water, soil, natural disasters, improper lot grading, and age. Water that sits around the perimeter of a home is the usual suspect when it comes to structural damage. Even small quantities can severely erode stone over a period of time. Proper grading of the property will help eliminate this type of damage. Installing guttering and downspout extensions is also an important part of eliminating damage to a home from water—hydrostatic pressure.

"Tree roots are another major source of foundation damage for home owners," Ginger continued, noting that Adam looked impressed. "The general rule of thumb is that all trees should maintain a space as far from a home as the number of feet it will attain at mature height. If the tree is well established and cannot be moved, then it should be removed, especially if bulging or stair-step cracking in the foundation is observed.

"The age of a home is also an important factor. While many older structures are incredibly well built and do stand the test of time, a lot of older homes were not built with central support beams like modern homes have. These beams are relatively inexpensive to have professionally installed. In the average size two-story home, the cost is usually under five thousand dollars and, in my opinion, well worth the money. Central beams will take a lot of pressure off of a home's walls and help to distribute the load accordingly.

"In some cases, damage becomes so severe that a complete tear out and rebuild of a home's foundation is necessary. Shifting and movement greater than five inches, bulging, bowing, cracking, separation, and severe interior damage are pretty good indicators that a foundation may be a complete tear out. If the damage progresses, it will put enough pressure on the home to crack windows and break water pipes and gas lines. Repairs are extremely expensive at this point and, as the Scotts would soon discover, most insurance companies do not cover this type of loss."

"Thank you, Ginger." Chris smiled, dismissing her.

"You're welcome." She nodded, remaining seated while Chris handed his own microphone to Elizabeth.

"We waited three weeks for what would become the first of many contractors to assess our home," she began. "It seemed like each contractor who came to the house got more expensive than the last. They kept finding new things that needed fixing. It was an absolute nightmare. That's all I can really say about that entire experience. Mistakenly, we thought that by calling a contractor out as soon as we noticed the damage, we had caught the problem early on. During the three weeks it took for our first contractor to come out, Peter and I made a habit of sitting up most nights with a pot of coffee and speculating what would need to be done to the basement and how much it would cost. We asked family. We asked friends. We looked it up on the Internet. We needed to know what we were looking at—financially. We needed to know that we had not made a terrible mistake. I think we pretty well knew we had, but were not ready to admit the fact.

"So, the night before the first repairman was due to arrive, Peter and I prepared by resigning ourselves to the very real possibility of having to replace the entire south basement wall. We estimated this would cost ten thousand at most. We had done a little research on the cost end of things before we had purchased the home. We'd been warned it might come to that in the very distant future. I don't know about anyone else, but 'years from now' and 'a year from now' are two very different statements. So are 'maybe' and 'definitely.' It was a frustrating situation to find ourselves in, and ten grand was going to be hard to come by.

"The contractor quoted us fifteen thousand dollars to replace the south and east basement walls. He explained that both walls would need to be replaced in order for the house to be structurally sound. It got even better. The north and west walls would be soon to follow. He estimated that within five years the remaining two walls would also need to be replaced.

"Also, the leaning basement walls were putting an excessive amount of pressure on the floor joists, which were beginning to buckle. The final bid came in at just under forty thousand dollars. It was official—we had made a big mistake. From that point on, it was all about damage control.

"It came down to one hard fact: In the bank's eyes, our house was not worth it. Our property appraised for very little, with the foundation being in the shape it was. And we didn't meet the stringent criteria for a home improvement loan. We tried federal agencies and local programs that were designed to help people get emergency renovation loans but were immediately disqualified. Most programs had strict income limits and denied us on that ground. Other programs were unable to help us for much the same reason as the banks—our potential loan to value was flip-flopped. It seemed as though we had fallen through the cracks … no pun intended.

"The news from the insurance company wasn't much better. They did not cover any type of foundation damage that was not caused by a natural disaster such as a tornado or fire. We found out that the typical insurance policy actually covers very little. Ours didn't even provide for earthquake damage. We filed a second time, under our policy's loss-of-use clause and were subsequently denied. Two months had passed since our contractor had delivered the bad news.

"We were heading into summer and wondering how this could have happened to us. Peter and I felt that, mostly, we had done everything right. We had looked at several homes before purchasing. We had used a realtor and hired a home inspector. We had a home inspection, and two contractors to verify the inspector. So how in the hell was our house on its way to falling in on itself? Basically we felt like we'd been duped.

"The insurance adjuster confirmed this by informing us that a good contractor will not specify how much time your foundation has left. They simply do not know. So many factors that affect a foundation are subject to change. The adjuster also speculated that the retaining shelf was never intended to 'fix' the home's foundation, but was to serve as a bandage until the property could be unloaded … on us. That was a hard concept for us to accept. We wanted to believe that people were basically good.

"It was probably the one thing that Peter and I had not already discussed during one of our nightly stress hours. Think happy hour for the depressed. We put the boys to bed, made fresh coffee, and proceeded to bitterly complain. In between the coffee and criticizing, we would kick around solutions to the problems looming over us.

"Several banks had approved us for a loan on a new home, though. There were two choices available to us—new purchase or new construction. With a new purchase, we could walk away from our current property and find a new house to buy. The thought of buying another property scared the daylight out of us. We had sunk so much of our savings into our current house that there wasn't much available if anything were to go wrong with another property. Peter and I were petrified of ending up right back into the same situation we were already experiencing. We no longer trusted our own judgment. There would also be the matter of having two bills for upkeep and property taxes if we purchased a second residence. Selling the current house was briefly discussed and quickly discarded. We would get next to nothing for it in the shape it was in.

"Ultimately the construction loan seemed to be our best option. It was logical, would solve the problem of having two sets of bills for property maintenance, and we would have a brand new home. The bank was willing to finance nearly one hundred percent of the cost, including the tear down on the existing structure. The chances of something going wrong would be slim, and it would better allow us to build up our savings and get back on our feet." Liz shook her head. "And then things … got worse."

"Thank you, Elizabeth," Chris said when she fell silent.

Adam stopped filming and moved to stand near Ginger while Chris motioned the Scotts to follow him into the kitchen.

"If you have a minute, I'd like to update you on your case."