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October, 2011 - October 04, 2011


April 04, 2009

3:23 p.m.

The First Viewing

Son was delayed so we didn't meet him until 11:00. He'd brought his girlfriend Gina, who is the daughter of Rose's patient, who hooked us up in the first place. So we met him on the front porch and he said, "Gina will give you the tour!" It didn't even register with me until Marc mentioned it later, that Son would not even go inside the house. He seemed nice enough but very uncomfortable being there.

Except for the living room it's a MESS! I mean, it needs renovation top to bottom. Cats peed and sprayed in places, leaving stains and stink. There has been no humidity control for a long time and ceilings have all cracked and plaster fallen in. There was a stove fire in the kitchen which was never cleaned up. One floor in a little room downstairs is rotted in one place, from some kind of water damage (more pee?). In short, it's a fixer-upper deluxe. The windows are in terrible shape -- at the very least they need recaulking, but maybe the wood in between the panes needs replacing too. There are no storm windows. I'd hate to lose the old panes -- they look original, though a few are cracked anyway. The floors were redone at some point -- unfortunate, as they're not the old plank floors any more, but at least they're hardwood. The roof was also redone. He asked us not to go into the basement or attic, as he hadn't had a chance to go through them yet. Hilarie and I went into the attic anyway when no one was looking, of course. It was no big deal. But the attic smelled good and woody, just like an attic should.

The kitchen has a beautiful old porcelain double sink -- as big as a shop sink -- that could be re-enameled. There are no other appliances any more, the cabinets are shit and would need replacing, likewise the floor.

Aside from all the rundown aspects, it has infinite possibilities. There are some original light fixtures. The bedrooms are of good size and the views from the windows are lovely. There seems to be forsythia bordering much of the woods. There is so much to look past, all the anger and hate that lived there.

When I was in college someone told me about a boarded-up house in town, and I sneaked in through a loose board one day. It was in far worse shape than this one. I thought they'd just tear it down eventually. But I left town and when I came back a few years later, someone had bought and renovated the house and it's spectacular now. Loved and lived in.

Anyway we weren't able to make any headway with negotiating over the place because he still has clearing and cleaning to do, which it looks like he'll finish next month. He said he'd call Marc when he was done with that and we could talk about it. We couldn't draw him out any further. He played very close to the chest and we figured he's either "playing the game," not seeming too eager, or else he has a great deal of stuff to process that doesn't involve us.

I was a little overwhelmed by it all, but Rose and Marc assured me this was all good; it's all fixable, they said, but it brings the property value down, which is a plus. Rose thought it could be made liveable in a month -- the work wouldn't all be done, but one could fix up the kitchen and the downstairs bedroom and do basic slash & burn to get the atmosphere clean enough to work in. We guess that Son doesn't know about all the decades of trash his father threw over the embankment into the woods, which would have to be cleaned up if he wants to put it on the market. Or the piles of (environmentally hazardous) asphalt shingles and other garbage he tossed over the property line onto R&M's property when the roof was redone. Marc's saving that for ammo in case he needs leverage later on.

So now we wait. I didn't get many pictures because I didn't want to post pics of just awful, peeling walls and stained ceilings. Plus I was trying to hide the fact that I had a camera. I didn't think I wanted a fixer upper, but of course this fixer upper is different. This is the one next door to my sister's house, that has been waiting for that angry old man to die so someone could come rescue it. I'd take that job.


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