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cornerofmadnessJust to make a stressful experience more stressful, we went house hunting in a monsoon. The agent took mom and I to almost a dozen homes, each more depressing than the next. Okay some weren’t ‘bad’ but nothing I’m in a rush to buy. I AM sorry that a) I didn’t buy a video camera and just tape it all b) at least use the freaking camera I brought with me but was too stressed to use. Follow me if you’re curious:
The house on S. High street was taken off the market and another I wanted to look at was an immediate forget about it. He is a very honest realtor (hopefully always or at least because I’m his granddaughter’s friend) and showed me a photo with the entire house under water up past the porch. Hello flood zone, goodbye flood zone.
299 South St a ‘nice’ location on a very desirable st. It’s a cottage but only 876 sq ft (which is actually smaller I think than this apt). The porch featured bowed sofit and facia, a small kitchen with water damage to most of the rooms, no closets at all and smelled like mildew. The gutters and drains were bad (as the monsoon proved).
Mint Green Abomination 32 Carroll ave Honestly I kinda like the mint green aluminum since it’s unique. At 1092 sq ft it wasn’t too small but almost. I did NOT know you could get this much Jesus stuff into one place. The living room was paneled. The kitchen wasn’t bad until you realized that the fridge was being run off an ancient extension cord since electricity didn’t exist in 1958…okay let’s be fair, they didn’t have all the electronic things we do now. So there was just ONE plug per room and the bedrooms didn’t even have light switches (they were out in the hall). It had the built into the wall tiny stove that ELD’s place in FL had (and I hated). There was a mystery pipe in one tiny bedroom closet and the bedrooms were small. Somehow the inside lip of the toilet was broken and my fears about the flat roof on the garage were justified. Flat roofs (especially where it snows) are notorious for letting water pool and getting water damaged. The whole inside tiled ceiling was coming down and for reasons I don’t want to know the whole garage was carpeted….the yard was nice and the neighborhood quiet but it was going to require too much work (like rewiring) to be worth it.
The leaning Tower of Jackson actually wasn’t really leaning. He called it rough. I call it tear it to the ground. I about WEPT. This house has over 3000 sq ft and the gaslight pipes are still in it. The downstairs was a maze of rooms but it requires a contractor with tons of cash and know how to save it. The whole front porch is collapsing. It was raining in the living room so not only is the roof gone but so is the whole second floor. Entire chunks of walls were gone. This was a rental while I’ve lived here. They must have been one step up from animals with how bad it was. The back door missed the sill by a good three inches and rain was just washing in. I didn’t brave the upstairs. It was pointless. You’d need far more money and knowledge to save it. As is, it should probably be razed and that is very sad. Someone was obviously trying to fix it (since it’s been recently painted and reshuttered), work gloves abandoned on the floor but it’s just a huge project. Dear HGTV, if I buy this can we make it a reality show, you fixing (and paying) for it, me acting alternatively hysterical and bitchy which seems to sell a show?
120 High Street At 1058 sq feet it was an almost. High street is very desirable in Jackson. It’s a cute place with a wrap around porch that has two stress cracks. It’s from 1920 but I think it’s older judging by the adorable woodwork. I’d buy it just for that. The rooms were a bit small but they have been rewired with 4 plugs per room and the hinges were 1800’s with the cast iron with all the floral decorations right in the hinge. The roof had leaked in the bathroom (the roof is new and metal so I’ll be an old woman before it needs replacing). The bathroom needed redone from top to bottom (the tub had glazing that was gone). The kitchen/dining room reminded a little of ELD’s, being two different levels with the fridge in the dining room (spacious) because the kitchen was tiny, too tiny. The utility room next to it was two levels (one being a partial basement for storage) and it was strange. It had a bare toilet in it (1/2 bath my ass, it had no walls). And the ceiling was so low I could touch it and a non-standard back door (that needed replacing) to the back yard/car port). Also the heating/cooling system was old and needed 5K to replace.
226 N High Still desirable location. Had two Siamese who accompanied us everywhere. I want them to come with the house (but not their bitchy owner). It had a small porch out front and a carport. You enter into the dining room (she had it as a second living room) open to the kitchen which was smallish and the worn out carpets were taped together. It looks like a manufactured home but isn’t. There was bizarre damage in the very narrow hallway. Big utility room. Nice bathroom and two bed rooms, one of which is plaid wallboard! Obvious signs of leaking roofs, had an attic. There was a living room with a tiny storage closet and a sliding glass door to a brick patio. Out the back door was a wood porch (damaged) and a 2 car garage/workshop that’s obviously unused and only accessible up a rutted unpaved alley. Whee. Still this was one of the best houses.
log cabin When mom saw that driveway (dirt, straight up the hill with a gate on it because the people got pissed that people came up there to see the cabin so they locked it off, i.e. shared drive between a house/trailer/cabin and neighbors that paranoid over privacy) and started yanking on my hair. Nononononononono! We’re here mom, get over it. The driveway alone made it a no-go. Other than being shared it was gravel for over a half mile. How would I take care of that? I couldn’t. I’d be trapped. The cabin was cute. It truly was. Kitchen had no cupboards. Yet more ceiling/roof damage. The unibomber who lived there SMOKED. I mean SMOKED. My dad smoked for 40 years and you can’t smell it in the house. It was almost unbearable in the bedroom. It’s like living in an ashtray. It would be nice for a weekend getaway but not to live.
Then we lucked out. Two houses just came on the market yesterday. They weren’t even on the website. One was the duplex on the road to wellston that I had shown mom the night before and said, ‘how ugly.’ It’s a new place, only 2008 and the renters have already knocked the windows out of the frame. I do not want to be a landlord but it would help me afford it. And it’s upstairs downstairs instead of side to side so it wouldn’t even make for one nice big single dwelling.
The other was the double wide on Orpheus Road (I’d buy it just for the address) and it’s right across the highway from me (ELD, it’s where the apple farm is). Okay this was nice. Seriously. But double wides start going to hell in 20 years and this one is 14. It had a nice 2 car carport and a gravel drive. Nice back porch and two side porches. The little old lady living there (her husband just died) had it painted up beautifully. It truly reminds me of my uncle’s lake house. Nice open kitchen, nice utility room. Decent sized living room. Master bed and bath are very large. The second bath is also nice and the two back bedrooms are small but the one she’s using as a computer room has a back door to the porch. There was also a garage and a lean to for the 8 end they had out there. The downside, it’s on a cliff. The back yard is steeper than my parents. Frankly I’d be afraid I’d share my cousin’s fate, dead under a rolled tractor. I’d let that grow in personally. I love trees any how. I’d do the back bank in hostas, day lilies and yuccas and not worry about the mowing. The front is a manageable slope and already has a big garden tilled for me. I’m considering it but in no rush.
Came home, half way between hysterical and depressed. Woke up at 4 AM with a full blown anxiety attack, realizing that I probably can not afford this and if rent goes up again I’m going to have to move out and get a roommate which I do not ever want to do again. (I’ve gotten along with all my roommates but I do not want to have one again).
First thing in the morning Mom said, ‘the best thing we saw was the double wide’ and then frowned and added ‘that’s wrong.’ My reply – mom four words that shouldn’t go together best thing & double wide.
It was not a good time really. Everything I can afford needs so much work I can’t really afford it after all. Best I can hope for is to find a better more expensive home where the owner gets desperate enough to let it go for cheap.
The house on S. High street was taken off the market and another I wanted to look at was an immediate forget about it. He is a very honest realtor (hopefully always or at least because I’m his granddaughter’s friend) and showed me a photo with the entire house under water up past the porch. Hello flood zone, goodbye flood zone.
299 South St a ‘nice’ location on a very desirable st. It’s a cottage but only 876 sq ft (which is actually smaller I think than this apt). The porch featured bowed sofit and facia, a small kitchen with water damage to most of the rooms, no closets at all and smelled like mildew. The gutters and drains were bad (as the monsoon proved).
Mint Green Abomination 32 Carroll ave Honestly I kinda like the mint green aluminum since it’s unique. At 1092 sq ft it wasn’t too small but almost. I did NOT know you could get this much Jesus stuff into one place. The living room was paneled. The kitchen wasn’t bad until you realized that the fridge was being run off an ancient extension cord since electricity didn’t exist in 1958…okay let’s be fair, they didn’t have all the electronic things we do now. So there was just ONE plug per room and the bedrooms didn’t even have light switches (they were out in the hall). It had the built into the wall tiny stove that ELD’s place in FL had (and I hated). There was a mystery pipe in one tiny bedroom closet and the bedrooms were small. Somehow the inside lip of the toilet was broken and my fears about the flat roof on the garage were justified. Flat roofs (especially where it snows) are notorious for letting water pool and getting water damaged. The whole inside tiled ceiling was coming down and for reasons I don’t want to know the whole garage was carpeted….the yard was nice and the neighborhood quiet but it was going to require too much work (like rewiring) to be worth it.
The leaning Tower of Jackson actually wasn’t really leaning. He called it rough. I call it tear it to the ground. I about WEPT. This house has over 3000 sq ft and the gaslight pipes are still in it. The downstairs was a maze of rooms but it requires a contractor with tons of cash and know how to save it. The whole front porch is collapsing. It was raining in the living room so not only is the roof gone but so is the whole second floor. Entire chunks of walls were gone. This was a rental while I’ve lived here. They must have been one step up from animals with how bad it was. The back door missed the sill by a good three inches and rain was just washing in. I didn’t brave the upstairs. It was pointless. You’d need far more money and knowledge to save it. As is, it should probably be razed and that is very sad. Someone was obviously trying to fix it (since it’s been recently painted and reshuttered), work gloves abandoned on the floor but it’s just a huge project. Dear HGTV, if I buy this can we make it a reality show, you fixing (and paying) for it, me acting alternatively hysterical and bitchy which seems to sell a show?
120 High Street At 1058 sq feet it was an almost. High street is very desirable in Jackson. It’s a cute place with a wrap around porch that has two stress cracks. It’s from 1920 but I think it’s older judging by the adorable woodwork. I’d buy it just for that. The rooms were a bit small but they have been rewired with 4 plugs per room and the hinges were 1800’s with the cast iron with all the floral decorations right in the hinge. The roof had leaked in the bathroom (the roof is new and metal so I’ll be an old woman before it needs replacing). The bathroom needed redone from top to bottom (the tub had glazing that was gone). The kitchen/dining room reminded a little of ELD’s, being two different levels with the fridge in the dining room (spacious) because the kitchen was tiny, too tiny. The utility room next to it was two levels (one being a partial basement for storage) and it was strange. It had a bare toilet in it (1/2 bath my ass, it had no walls). And the ceiling was so low I could touch it and a non-standard back door (that needed replacing) to the back yard/car port). Also the heating/cooling system was old and needed 5K to replace.
226 N High Still desirable location. Had two Siamese who accompanied us everywhere. I want them to come with the house (but not their bitchy owner). It had a small porch out front and a carport. You enter into the dining room (she had it as a second living room) open to the kitchen which was smallish and the worn out carpets were taped together. It looks like a manufactured home but isn’t. There was bizarre damage in the very narrow hallway. Big utility room. Nice bathroom and two bed rooms, one of which is plaid wallboard! Obvious signs of leaking roofs, had an attic. There was a living room with a tiny storage closet and a sliding glass door to a brick patio. Out the back door was a wood porch (damaged) and a 2 car garage/workshop that’s obviously unused and only accessible up a rutted unpaved alley. Whee. Still this was one of the best houses.
log cabin When mom saw that driveway (dirt, straight up the hill with a gate on it because the people got pissed that people came up there to see the cabin so they locked it off, i.e. shared drive between a house/trailer/cabin and neighbors that paranoid over privacy) and started yanking on my hair. Nononononononono! We’re here mom, get over it. The driveway alone made it a no-go. Other than being shared it was gravel for over a half mile. How would I take care of that? I couldn’t. I’d be trapped. The cabin was cute. It truly was. Kitchen had no cupboards. Yet more ceiling/roof damage. The unibomber who lived there SMOKED. I mean SMOKED. My dad smoked for 40 years and you can’t smell it in the house. It was almost unbearable in the bedroom. It’s like living in an ashtray. It would be nice for a weekend getaway but not to live.
Then we lucked out. Two houses just came on the market yesterday. They weren’t even on the website. One was the duplex on the road to wellston that I had shown mom the night before and said, ‘how ugly.’ It’s a new place, only 2008 and the renters have already knocked the windows out of the frame. I do not want to be a landlord but it would help me afford it. And it’s upstairs downstairs instead of side to side so it wouldn’t even make for one nice big single dwelling.
The other was the double wide on Orpheus Road (I’d buy it just for the address) and it’s right across the highway from me (ELD, it’s where the apple farm is). Okay this was nice. Seriously. But double wides start going to hell in 20 years and this one is 14. It had a nice 2 car carport and a gravel drive. Nice back porch and two side porches. The little old lady living there (her husband just died) had it painted up beautifully. It truly reminds me of my uncle’s lake house. Nice open kitchen, nice utility room. Decent sized living room. Master bed and bath are very large. The second bath is also nice and the two back bedrooms are small but the one she’s using as a computer room has a back door to the porch. There was also a garage and a lean to for the 8 end they had out there. The downside, it’s on a cliff. The back yard is steeper than my parents. Frankly I’d be afraid I’d share my cousin’s fate, dead under a rolled tractor. I’d let that grow in personally. I love trees any how. I’d do the back bank in hostas, day lilies and yuccas and not worry about the mowing. The front is a manageable slope and already has a big garden tilled for me. I’m considering it but in no rush.
Came home, half way between hysterical and depressed. Woke up at 4 AM with a full blown anxiety attack, realizing that I probably can not afford this and if rent goes up again I’m going to have to move out and get a roommate which I do not ever want to do again. (I’ve gotten along with all my roommates but I do not want to have one again).
First thing in the morning Mom said, ‘the best thing we saw was the double wide’ and then frowned and added ‘that’s wrong.’ My reply – mom four words that shouldn’t go together best thing & double wide.
It was not a good time really. Everything I can afford needs so much work I can’t really afford it after all. Best I can hope for is to find a better more expensive home where the owner gets desperate enough to let it go for cheap.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 07:09 pm (UTC)And I'm SO glad you are getting a heads up on all the flood areas. But sorry it's looking so grim right now. :(
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 07:43 pm (UTC)My apt is a nice apt in many ways (the neighbors less so) so I'm in no rush and yes he was very honest. he wouldn't even show me the house
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 09:24 pm (UTC)it's very frustrating
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 10:15 pm (UTC)I think that process was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've ever been through. (Other than maybe parenthood.)
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 02:09 am (UTC)i can believe it
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 03:59 am (UTC)Heh. Wait til you sign that thirty year mortgage.... something about that puts the fear of god or death or something into you. Even knowing you CAN pay it off faster doesn't mitigate it. Looking at it and thinking, "I'll be .... sixty, seventy, or whatever it is... when this is finally paid off" is a strange kind of rude awakening to life going by.
The good news is: it really is wonderful NOT ever having to deal with landlords again. Our last one was a monster, and I really am happy at the prospect of never having to answer to anyone or be ripped off by anyone in that particular way, ever again. It's worth it. (And the tax write-off is nice, too.)
Edit: I kept meaning to say before - I think you definitely need to pick one of the houses in "Lick County," just so you can tell everyone that's where you live.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 04:12 am (UTC)i hear you. I already have loans i'll be paying off 10 years in the grave.
and yeah I've lived almost everywhere. I wish I could keep that up but alas
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 04:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 11:14 pm (UTC)Well, you have time. And time is a good thing, in theory.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-04 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-04 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-04 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 11:25 pm (UTC)Amazing how no one seems to have kept their damn roofs in order. Which reminds me, mine's getting elderly. I should have the local contractor that put it on for me 20 years ago come and have a look at it.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 01:37 am (UTC)Seriously, it's like people, a house will stand a LONG time if it has a good roof (points to the long abandoned apt complex next to my school) but if the roof goes the whole place does and rapidly.
you probably should have it looked at.
Hang in there
Date: 2012-06-03 10:39 am (UTC)Eventually we ended up here and had a full home inspection. Our guy looked at EVERYTHING including the springs in the dishwasher door--no kidding. But the electric was almost new. SOLD
We've been happy ever since.
Re: Hang in there
Date: 2012-06-03 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-04 08:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-04 03:04 pm (UTC)