Chris is right about the gray piping (It's polybutylene, IIRC). When I was buying, my Real Estate agent was very very careful to look for any "gray worms" as she called them.
The problem with this kind of piping only affects houses that are on a chlorinated water supply, BTW. The pipe reacts over time with the chlorine in the water, and begins to break down. Eventually this leads to leaks, and (inevitably) these are in inconvenient places. But in houses with well water, these pipes are apparently not a problem.
Jamis,
Find out if any major work on the house was done be a previous owner, if you can. If any was, be careful and check that work out. (I'm not talking about work that the previous owner had done by a hired contractor, I'm talking about work he did on his own). My current place had (owner-installed) wainscoting all around the walls in the lower level when I bought it, because the previous owner's kid apparently had a case of congenital hand dirt, and wood didn't show the smudges as much as painted walls.
So it was ugly grubby nasty wainscoting, and I had to take it out. And when I did, I discovered that the places where there were electrical outlets, he hadn't made neat holes in the drywall behind the wainscoting, he'd just bashed an 8-inch hole with a sledgehammer, and then cut a nice neat hole in the wainscoting. Because after all, no one would ever see that drywall again.
Until I took the wainscoting off and had to patch about 15 bits of Modern Art In Gypsum.
Look out for houses owned by do-it-your-selfers.
-BP
