Part one of our move in story was quite the tale, and it gets even crazier during the few days that followed our move-in date! The day after we moved in we were faced with several issues with the house that were not disclosed by the seller. Two of the bathrooms' toilets were not working properly-one of them had a crack that poured water on the floor when used, making it totally unusable. We also discovered that water was dripping into the kitchen from a bad spot on the roof, the pellet stove in the living room was almost unusable due to neglect, several outlets did not work, as well as a few of the light fixtures; if you used the sprayer on the kitchen sink it locked into the 'on' position and sprayed water all over and probably the most frustrating issue for me-the oven did not work (discovered this on Monday night when I was trying to make supper). Oh, and we discovered that the seller had removed the lint trap from the dryer, and when I tried to dry clothes socks got sucked into the space where it should have been and Nick had to take the whole dryer apart to fix it. And then the most bizarre thing-we figured out that the seller had actually ripped off the handles to the fridge and freezer (you seriously cannot make this stuff up!).
We knew we were buying a house that was almost 150 years and needed a lot of work, but these were all extras that were either not disclosed in the seller discloser document, or were done maliciously by the seller. To add to all of these little surprises, we started having reactions to something in the house-Violet's eyes started swelling up and we were all coughing/sneezing. Nick figured it was probably due to the air quality in the house; everything was very dirty and musty. So first priority became cleaning and then finding an air duct cleaning company to come out and do a thorough cleaning of the ducts (which probably have never been cleaned).
It was at this time that the seller pulled into the driveway. We sent the kids up to their rooms and we went into the office, which has windows facing the driveway/garage. My father-in-law had our van out on an errand and she showed up a few minutes after he pulled out. We figure she had been driving by waiting for us to leave and thought we weren't home. At first she walked to the mailbox and took whatever mail was in there (hopefully none of it was ours, because the box was empty after she did this), and then she started poking around the pile of stuff we had brought out from the house and had set in front of the garage (per instruction from the deputy the previous day). After doing that for a few minutes she walked up to the back doorway area and started removing items-including a bin of our things (it was my mother-in-laws drop cloths that we had used on the wood floors while we moved in furniture). At this time Nick called the sheriff's department to let them know that she was on the property and was stealing things.
While we waited for them to arrive we watched as she began trashing the driveway with items that we had put in front of the garage. Then she noticed that we had a fire going in the side yard, to burn things she had started burning previously but had left unfinished. I couldn't believe it when she walked over to my kids' basketball and soccer balls that were laying in the yard, picked them up, and threw them into the fire!
Shortly after that happened the deputy arrived. She directed the seller to stay by her car and then approached the house. This is when the seller realized we were home and she went ballistic-screaming and swearing at us. The officer made her get into her car so she could talk to us. We explained what had been happening and the officer hinted that the seller was well known by the deputies in the area. She walked over and talked to the seller, who was at that time yelling at us through her car's rolled down window. The deputy got her calmed down enough that we got a time lined up for the next day, for the seller to come back and get whatever was left of hers from the garage (which we had left totally alone). They both left and we went out to assess the mess that she had made-
Lovely.
More clean-up and more show n' tell for the neighbors!
Stay tuned for the 'exciting' conclusion to our move in story!
We knew we were buying a house that was almost 150 years and needed a lot of work, but these were all extras that were either not disclosed in the seller discloser document, or were done maliciously by the seller. To add to all of these little surprises, we started having reactions to something in the house-Violet's eyes started swelling up and we were all coughing/sneezing. Nick figured it was probably due to the air quality in the house; everything was very dirty and musty. So first priority became cleaning and then finding an air duct cleaning company to come out and do a thorough cleaning of the ducts (which probably have never been cleaned).
It was at this time that the seller pulled into the driveway. We sent the kids up to their rooms and we went into the office, which has windows facing the driveway/garage. My father-in-law had our van out on an errand and she showed up a few minutes after he pulled out. We figure she had been driving by waiting for us to leave and thought we weren't home. At first she walked to the mailbox and took whatever mail was in there (hopefully none of it was ours, because the box was empty after she did this), and then she started poking around the pile of stuff we had brought out from the house and had set in front of the garage (per instruction from the deputy the previous day). After doing that for a few minutes she walked up to the back doorway area and started removing items-including a bin of our things (it was my mother-in-laws drop cloths that we had used on the wood floors while we moved in furniture). At this time Nick called the sheriff's department to let them know that she was on the property and was stealing things.
While we waited for them to arrive we watched as she began trashing the driveway with items that we had put in front of the garage. Then she noticed that we had a fire going in the side yard, to burn things she had started burning previously but had left unfinished. I couldn't believe it when she walked over to my kids' basketball and soccer balls that were laying in the yard, picked them up, and threw them into the fire!
Shortly after that happened the deputy arrived. She directed the seller to stay by her car and then approached the house. This is when the seller realized we were home and she went ballistic-screaming and swearing at us. The officer made her get into her car so she could talk to us. We explained what had been happening and the officer hinted that the seller was well known by the deputies in the area. She walked over and talked to the seller, who was at that time yelling at us through her car's rolled down window. The deputy got her calmed down enough that we got a time lined up for the next day, for the seller to come back and get whatever was left of hers from the garage (which we had left totally alone). They both left and we went out to assess the mess that she had made-
More clean-up and more show n' tell for the neighbors!
Stay tuned for the 'exciting' conclusion to our move in story!