That window box looks beautiful and adds color to the kitchen, but buyers beware!

You have all seen a flower box in a kitchen window that makes the kitchen come alive with color. But, whatyou may not know is that if the flower box wasn’t store bought, below there could be some serious hidden problems.

Recently a client of mine was looking at a home and it had one of these indoor flower boxes that looked custom built for this kitchen window. I have to say it made the kitchen look amazing and really brightened it up. My clients loved the home and wanted to write an offer and even made it subject to the flower box staying.

Now, comes time for the inspection. The inspector sees the flower box and looks at me and gives me that worried look. So, he decided to move the flower box just oh so slightly, just enough to see what was going on underneath. Just as the inspector thought,there was so much dry rot underneath that maybe even keeping the flower pot their with that much weight in it could be a mistake.

You see, they had custom built this flower box for the kitchen, but what they forgot to do is put a liner underneath the soil to keep the water from escaping the flower box. Now, this clearly had been going on for along time. We estimate the repairs that the seller will now have to pay in order for it toclose on time could cost upwards of $8,000 because the dry rot ended up going the length of the wall under the house as well as the counter where the flower box sat.

So, if you are installing a flower box, please make sure you have a way to stop the water if something should happen. This could save you thousands in repairsand keep the going to the closing table on time.