Dad was down in the old neighborhood again since he still does tasks for some of the old ladies that live there. They had realtor brochures up for grabs, so dad decided to grab one.

“Handyman Special, Detached Garage, Beautiful Lot!”

I can give you a guess of which one of those is true, and it ain’t the first two.

Our neighbor (who is also my dads cousin) said a few people have stopped by to look at it. Most don’t get out of their car. One was an excavator and said it would cost him at last $40,000 just to tear down everything and haul it away. THEN he could start spending the money to build a house on it. The $180,000 is not worth that. He talked to one of our other neighbors on the other side and they told him that we had offered $150,000 to buy it and the guy responded “And the dumbasses didn’t take it?”.

This is my amused face. Is it wrong that I hope it sits for a couple years?

In addition, the detached garage is not a garage. You might be able to fit a miata in it, but it was built narrow for a buggy, not for automobiles. It has a dirt floor, spaced wooden walls (meaning you can see through them) and a leaky rusty tin roof.

They also have not cleared out -any- of the trash that was left there. It looks a shambles.

The realtor asked our neighbor cousin where the well and septic were. She told them it doesn’t have a septic and the well is buried underneath the sidewalk. She’s sorta right. The septic is supposed to be under the hill with the walnut tree on it, but it hasn’t been checked in over 29 years. I imagine it’s a steel tank, probably leaking heavily, and I’m sure the tree’s roots have pierced through it by now and are the only thing keeping it from collapsing. I wouldn’t want to be the one to dig that up.

They are also advertising it as two bedroom. It’s not two bedroom, it’s one bedroom. My father just happened to sleep in what was supposed to be a 6×9 closet all these years.

Yes, a post not about boring home buying crap Well…sorta.

Dad drove by the old place today. They have a lockbox on the door and a realtor sign in the yard. They are going to try and sell that place for $185,000.

Excuse me while I convulse with laughter.

[Moment of Convulsing]

Anyone who has ever been to my house knows what a craphole it was. How can you try and sell a condemned house with cardboard walls, a dirt basement, no closets, a septic that hasn’t been checked let alone serviced in 29 years, leaks everywhere, that’s ready to crumble to the ground every minute, for $185,000.

I at least thought they’d level it and sell the lot. I suppose a builder still could, but to put a lockbox on the door so you can show the house? That land isn’t worth $185,000. You’ve got to be kidding me.

Dad and I are buying a house for $161,000 that is 100x better shape, bigger, and more than double the land.

I can’t help but be amused I guess. I’m cynical, and I’m not ashamed of it.

In other news, there are coyotes roaming around up here. My uncle who lives 3 houses down spotted them the other day, and when my Aunt took her rottie for a walk out back the other day, he wouldn’t go down to the property line. Our peacock is also dead, but he was in a pen so we think it was stress possibly related to coyote’s being outside the pen. Peacocks tend to run around and go crazy so it’s possible he killed himself.

We still have two females, and will have to pick up another male once we get our place next month. Still, I am not thrilled about the coyotes. Hopefully they don’t get into anything at my uncles farm.

I would kinda like to see em though

Took this while off sick yesterday. Dad and Bastian sleeping under a tree together.

We looked at a house last month that we both ‘liked’ but were going to look around more to see if we found something we loved. Obviously that time hasn’t come yet (or rather, it did and they wouldn’t come down in price), so we’re going back to the house we liked this Saturday to give it another look. After that we will most likely set up a bid for the property. It’s already priced below my price range, so I know I can afford it (and will probably get it slightly cheaper than that, even).

The only issue is whether or not it passes FHA inspection, which we are possibly finding a way to work around.

It’s a fixer-upper old-time house, but livable, and certainly in better shape than the house we had before. I’ve already had so many plans and upgrades swimming through my brain that I could do to it. The two first and foremost things are going to be rain gutters and new paint, cause right now it has no rain gutters, and the walls are in fairly poor condition (you can see the outlines of all the pictures they had hung up, just very dirty and a lot of it is….gray).

So we’ll see, I’ve had this one in the back of my mind for a while, my father has as well. We’ve both had dreams about the house since we visited it too. So it may very well be the one.

The best part is, it’s a lot closer to the Grove, and still the same amount of driving distance to work, while still remaining close enough to family here in Orrtanna. It’s in the ideal location. It also has a barn and enough land to have a garden. It has a big oak tree that I love, and the farmhouse on one side of it apparently stays empty most of the time while the owner is away. The only thing I -didn’t- like about it, is it’s not as private. Still, it’s private enough, and I’m sure I’ll be planting a lot of trees.

Stop coming over to talk to us about how it sucks that we’re leaving, thus taking an hour out of our day each time that we could be using to pack.

Last night you took 2 hours! Today you’re already taking an hour! Shut up and help pack if you’re insisting on coming over, but the more you keep coming over to chit chat the less work we get done to get out of here on time.

Dad has an ulcer on his leg again. No doubt from all the physical labor of having to rush around and move a farm in 30 days due to these bastards. After all that time and money spent in the hyperbaric chamber to get him fully healed, we have to start all over again.

I’m heartbroken. I’ll pay whatever it takes.

I’m going to buy him some new circulation socks, even though he says he’s not going to worry about it until after the move. I mentioned that maybe we should start the hyperbaric treatments again, but he said there’s no point until after we move.

The neighbors want to throw us a going away cookout on Saturday. I don’t think we’ll be able to go, simply because we want to be out of here soon.