Sunday, July 07, 2013

Grandparents house is for sale

My last tenants did  $5000 worth of damage to the house that my husband's grandparents built.  The tenants left without a forwarding address.  They left "bull bags" in the driveway.  It was my assumption that the tenants were in the process of cleaning out as part of the process of leaving the property.  The dumpster bags sat in the driveway for several weeks.  Why were they not picked up? 

I finally called the 800 number on the bags.  The lady on the other end said that I should pay the driver as the bags are picked up.   It is my job to pay for my tenant's trash.

Then there is the entire basement filled with wet furniture , holiday decorations and who knows what.  Some drug paraphernalia was found down there....and a dead mouse.   I arranged for 2 young men with a truck to clear the basement.  The truck was loaded twice and taken to the Orange transfer station.  Every thing is soaking wet because the tenant's turned off the power.  My sump pump ran on battery until the battery went dead.  Then the basement filled with water.  The entire sump pump with battery back up had to be replaced.

Still not clean:  tina and I cleaned the upstairs.  There was still another truck load of trash to load.  I took it to the Milford transfer station.  The twin's bedroom flood was crossed with burn marks from laying a heating iron down on the floor.  The floor had to be refinished.

That little mouse I disposed of, got revenge.  A flea on the mouse bit me.  I got Lymn disease.  ...lost the entire summer feeling awful and weak.   Better now, but it is my understanding that I am not cured.  There is no cure.  I am only in remission.  Thanks tenants.

After that, I get the tenant's utility bills.  I am responsible for paying their water bill because the water line was to my house.  The water company gave me the tenant's forwarding address.  It is time to sue.

I've been back and forth to small claims court.  The result was I won.  Big deal.  Tenants did nothing.  I am now in the process of attaching his wages as a teacher.   I don't think He will change jobs to get away from me.  This entire process has taken more than a year and I have yet to be repaid.

OK.  It is clear that this old house that I dearly love should be owner occupied.  I can't live in 3 houses.  Final solution is to put the house up for sale.  Did that. 

Because no one was living in the house when the weather went before freezing....and the town lost power.....and because the furnace did not come back on when the power came back on...because of that, I had a frozen pipe in the bathroom.   All 3 floors of the house had water damage.   I called Ernesto, my favorite contractor.   

Lots to write about the details, but I will skip all that.  One detail that made me laugh:  When Ernesto pulled down the kitchen ceiling, He was bombarded with pine cones.  It seems that critters had been living in the ceiling before I inherited the house.  The house is now nice and tight so no animal can come in, but the first batch of squirrels left their stash behind.  It fell on Ernesto.  What a mess.  Yes I laughed at him and his predicament.

You can insert the story of the wind storm and a tree falling down here.  It happened that same winter the pipe froze.  The trees were cut down and cut into 8 foot lengths.  They are at the saw mill.  They will be turned into bar tops, counter tops, structural  boards...what ever can be coaxed out of the trunks.  The boards will spend a full year drying out in my garage.  Then the wood will be sold.  I won't make any money on the wood.  I am doing this for love .  Those trees were planted by my husband's grand parents.  It would be a shame to just chip them up. 

Sometimes when something bad happens, there is a blessing connected with it .  Because the walls had to be town down, there was an opportunity to open the kitchen to the living room.  Two doors had to be replaced.  Floors had to be refinished. Walls repainted.     I called in an excavator and had a curtain drain installed outside the east wall.  That should insure the basement stays dry.

it is now summer.  I am using a different real estate agent.  The first one wanted a full commission.  This one took a cut.  She is showing the house .      Who could not want an old house in excellent shape located right next to a golf course on half an acre of property?    Looks promising.






On Gay Marriage

It seems the Supreme Court has changed the definition of marriage.  For centuries, the term was defined as a union of a man and a woman with some kind of permanence and promises to one another. 

The court said that gay people were denied marriage because they are gay.  So they have been denied equal access.  I disagree.  Gay people have the same access to people of the opposite sex.  They can marry if they choose.  They choose not to. They are not attracted to the opposite sex.  No one is stopping them from getting married,  It is their personal choice.

There are other issues:  like inheriting property without estate taxes.  However, those issues can easily be resolved with civil contracts. 
  I have sympathy for my gay neighbors.  They were born with this condition.  It is a birth defect.  Actually it is a before birth defect.

Now people can marry another of the same sex.  The definition of marriage has been changed.  I think this is a further weakening of the family.   There should be another category for our gay friends.  It can be just like a marriage, but in a category of their own, with all the legal benefits as a heterosexual relationship, but please don't call it marriage.  That term is historically reserved for the traditional family.  I accuse the Supreme Court of writing law from the court.  Aren't  new laws supposed to come from the legislature?