Treasure Hunting

That's what I've started calling my trips to the new house to sort thru what's been left.  Problem is, I forget to take the camera, so I end up not sharing here because it'd be nicer with pictures.  This particular post shares the decided 70's decorative touches we uncovered when taking out this wall.

We plied off the strips of smoked mirror and painted wood panels and simply found plywood.  On the other side we took off the bead board that I want to save and found this.

Nice, huh?  At least we have the ability to change it!

When I remember, I'll take pictures of the treasures and share them.  Thanks for stopping by!

Another Surprise @ the New House

It just keeps getting better and better-at least as far as crazy things happening is concerned!  We were there Wednesday late afternoon just to check the water lines for the irrigation system.  We immediately found that we'll need to repair a crack in the PVC near where it goes underground to reach the pastures, so Tony turned off the water and we started looking at available space for expanding.  He got a phone call during that time and was busy on the phone when I turned around to see a man standing in our backyard.  He asked if we were the new owners, then informed us that he's the previous owner!  The one we'd been told was working in the Phillipines.  Well that was a shock-and then a bit of panic as to why he was there.  After assuring us there were no hard feelings he filled us in on the details surrounding the loss.  Basically it's a matter of not being able to find work locally that pays well enough, so he's building a house on the beach in the Phillipines.  He had his Phillipino wife with him and it was very pleasant to chat with them.  We were able to ask questions about the place and give him some of the personal effects that other family members had left behind.  I was glad we got to meet, hear the story and learn some details about the property.  It sounds like we'll be continuing the goal he had for the place, so I think that eased his mind a bit too.

Now, how about some pictures?

As suspected, this room used to be a formal dining room, and the first owner (not who we met) added a wall to make it a bedroom.  We can't decide if this should be taken out or just updated for a fresher look.  Thoughts?

Part of the pantry.  Can you tell the house was built in 1979??  There are 2 small closets side by side that I think I'd prefer to have as 1 larger closet.  The washer and dryer go on the wall to the left & perpendicular to this wall.

Master bath.  Previous owner says the water heater wasn't big enough to fill this for a bath.  Guess we'll need to fix that!  There's a dinky shower to the left that will have to be enlarged, IMO.

The drawing on this wall was done by the previous owner's dad and is among the things we were able to give him.

Pretty good view of the kitchen.

Front entryway.

We bought a house-Part Two

In my last post about this I left off with what I knew the evening of the first day.  At our Realtor's suggestion we put a new lock on the gate that day.  After that it got even more exciting, though maybe not all the good kind of exciting!  With an auction you pay a deposit the day of the bidding and then the remainder has to be paid prior to 5PM the next business day.  The office location was downtown Phoenix and since Tony had a job there that day we went with him.  On our way home we went by to see if the keys I remembered seeing in the RV would unlock either the front or back door.

We pull up to the gate and there's a different lock on the gate!  Our lock is gone.  No signs, no notes, nada.  There's a lockbox also.  A call to our Realtor confirms he didn't do it, he gives us a code to try on the lockbox, and tells us that it's our house-if someone has changed the lock they are in the wrong and we have every right to break the lock off.  Off we go to get tools.  Tony hammered open the lockbox which we assumed contained the key to the lock-we were right. 

Can you imagine the thoughts going through our heads during this time?

• Did we just get scammed?  Our we out $30K now?
• Are we dealing with an upset previous homeowner who will make our lives miserable?

As we approach the house we see that all the gates around it that were previously open are now closed.  There's a lockbox on the gate to the front door, and another on the front door.  Once again, a call to our Realtor and he's able to identify who it is by the colored box on the front door.  He calls us back with info from the guy and suggests we call him.  This picture shows how far from the road the house is and why we couldn't tell all this from the gate.  This picture was taken a couple of days later, but Wednesday night when this was taking place, the sun had set before we were able to get in.  What you see here is our driveway and the road is out by the two evergreens.

Tony called the other Realtor who had put the lockboxes on.  He'd been contacted that morning by FreddieMac to secure the property and prepare it for sale.  Needless to say he was a bit put out by the lack of communication between the bank/trustee/FreddieMac.  He asked if we got a good deal.  Tony simply answered yes, and this other guy says, "So you paid what, about $75,000?"  I think he almost creid when Tony told him what we actually paid.  I feel pretty good about the price, knowing a Realtor felt two and a half times what we paid would still be a good deal!

I had the power turned on last Friday and we went over to check a few things, but haven't been back since.  Tony's eager to test the well and the pipes in place to irrigate the pastures.  He took pictures that day and I'll post those soon.

The books we ordered to learn more about meat preserving have arrived and Tony's thinking it's pig butchering time sooner than he thought.  Our goat buck is in the same pen as the does and our cow.  All 3 are pregnant and need extra food, but Boots (the buck) shoos them away, so he needs his own pen-hence the earlier than expected pig butchering time.  She's over 250 though, so she's plenty big enough.