So You Bought a Fixer-Upper | Columbus Monthly

One morning last winter, after dropping my daughter off at middle school, I returned home to what sounded like a hissing river rushing through my basement. I dashed down the creaky stairs of our two-story Craftsman, built in 1925, to discover a water heater disgorging dirty liquid across the floor. I needed to think fast, but to do what, exactly?

My wife and I bought the house in summer 2024 after nearly a quarter-century of renting in New York City apartments. Landlords were always responsible for repairing housing calamities, be it cockroach infestations or a busted furnace. Amid the panic flooding my brain, a small thought bubbled up. We had a water-cutoff switch. Right there, in the corner. I sloshed over and ceased the deluge, solving the pressing problem. Now I just needed to clean up gallons of water and replace a water heater.

Buying an older home is equal parts charming and exasperating. All that architecture! All those headaches! Over the decades, previous owners repaired and renovated properties to their best of their abilities and inabilities, leaving current owners to contend with the ghosts of renovation projects past and aging infrastructure. Nothing lasts forever, especially root-clogged sewer pipes. Homeowners in historic older neighborhoods such as German Village, Olde Towne East and Clintonville often face major home challenges, from upgrading knob-and-tube electrical wiring to contending with cat pee, fixing crumbling chimneys and remediating lead paint.

I canvassed Columbus for stories of fixer-upper housing woes and how homeowners overcame unforeseen obstacles. Let’s hope raw sewage never tsunamis across your basement.

Columbus Monthly let me tackle this topic for the April 2026 cover story.