For Liz Martin, a Home Inspection Is a Teaching Opportunity

For Liz Martin, a Home Inspection Is a Teaching Opportunity

BBR member Liz Martin has an appreciation for older houses that she brings to her work as a home inspector as well as restoration work on her own Roslindale two-family home.

Liz, who has been a home inspector for 13 years, found the educational aspect of the job appealing. “It’s fun talking to people about how houses work—because we live in them, but we don’t necessarily know how they work.” A lack of knowledge may result in new homeowners focusing on cosmetic upgrades rather than foundational, but less glamorous, projects. “It’s not whether the paint is pretty or the wallpaper is nice, but it’s the age of the water heater, or the safety features on the heating system, or the age of the roof,” she says.

The house Liz purchased was “a serious fixer upper.” After 10 years of working on the bones of the house—furnaces, water heater, and roof—before she finally had it painted. “It took 10 years before I could do anything fun,” she said.

After taking a workshop at BBR on window restoration, Liz began the process of restoring her home’s original windows one at a time. “I started with the hardest window first. I used Flex-Tec epoxy to rebuild that frame and added the bronze weather stripping.” Liz also replaced the glass panes with antique wavy glass. “It’s a lot of work. Switching out the glass made it a bigger project.”

The work has made Liz feel very connected to the house. “I had the bedroom gutted, and, while the work was going on, I’d go in after the crew left at the end of the day. It was just wonderful to be in this bare room and seeing the studs that were clearly hand cut.”

Likewise, she encourages new homebuyers to consider their place in the history of owning an older home. “Today I did an inspection of a condo in a three-decker. Along with the report, I included two articles about three-deckers in Boston. I want the people to think of themselves as stewards. Whenever it’s a vintage home, I’m always trying to convey to the buyers that they have a responsibility to a piece of architectural history.”