Yeah, I'm really hoping it's just the drywall too.
Did the home inspector go up into the ceiling/rafters?
Not that I know of. He got there about an hour before we were supposed to meet him there, so I don't know everything he did before we arrived, but while we were there he stuck his head up into the attic crawlspace and took a bunch of pictures, but didn't actually go up and look around further. He did find some roof damage that the seller then repaired, so it's possible that someone walking up in the crawlspace could have further weakened the ceiling, especially if it was already unstable.
scary, but far less terrifying than if it were water related (I'm assuming it hasn't been raining heavily and there wasn't water dripping from the giant rent in the ceiling).
Water damage was my first guess, since it had been raining pretty heavily on Wednesday night, just before I first saw the crack in the ceiling on Thursday morning. But we haven't seen anything that looks like water damage or stains, no leaks that I've noticed, and the guys who came from the insurance company yesterday didn't say anything about water either.
Crossing fingers for bad drywall installation -- that's the kind of problem that would show up a couple weeks/months after installation.
Oh, good point.
Thanks for all the support and feedback, y'all. I'm feeling slightly more capable of handling all this today. Nothing we can do about it today, anyway, so I'm trying to focus on other things for the moment. (Like, um, packing!)
And in less me-me-me news, Sean, I'm so terribly sorry about your grandmother and your friend. Very much hoping your friend gets some good news soon. edit: Oh shit, I just read Bitches and saw your update. I am so, so sorry. That's just awful.
We won our roller derby bout 229-98. This was against the team that beat us in April by 50 points. It felt AWESOME!
Way to go, Cash!